A Rose and A Phantom (Descendants of Classics Book 1)

Chapter 4: Every Phantom Needs a Muse

Chapter 4:
Every Phantom Needs a Muse

Derik had been watching the girl when she had been exploring earlier. He was a perfect gentleman and looked away while she had been changing and kept a safe distance from her. He found that he was addicted to her presence and yearned for her to visit. When she had tried to find him after she had felt his presence, he was surprised to find that she had discovered the location of his bedroom. When she had sat at his piano, he felt a chill go down his spine. He never thought he would see a woman in his room, let alone sitting at his piano. He felt an even more haunting chill when she began to play Für Elise. She played it with such passion and precision that he was spellbound. It was a sensation like none other that he had felt before.
He was saddened when she left and knew he had to see her again. He went to Frau Garrett and requested that she somehow get the beautiful girl to return. The good Frau knew that her employer was smitten with the girl. She also knew that Jeanette was like a mother to the girl so she could ask her about it. Jeanette would know how to get the girl to go there more frequently. Gretchen Garrett would do anything to make sure that Derik's pain could be lessened. He would be very happy to see her. Gretchen went over to the theatre and spoke with Jeanette about it. They agreed that their story would be that Gretchen was the caretaker of the home and needed Rosabella's help with restoring the house. Gretchen then proceeded with the plan.
Derik waited in anticipation for the Frau's return. It had been an hour since she left when he heard the front door open. He rushed to the parlor just to be frozen by the sight of the girl standing with the woman. He smiled as he took in the sight of her. She was freshly showered and her beauty shone naturally. He felt his heart swell at the sight of her pure beauty. She seemed to be angel sent by heaven to show him innocence in human form. Maybe she would be his saving grace. Or maybe even his savior, the person to save him from the Hell he was burning in. In that moment, he knew that she would play an important part in his life. What he didn't know was that she would be the one to make a change to his daily routine, the one to change his views of himself, the one that would teach him what love is.
He watched and listened as the Frau led Rosabella-Luna into the dining room. She told Rosabella-Luna that she needed her assistance in restoring the place. He also overheard the Frau call herself the caretaker of the home. He chuckled to himself at the Frau's clever lie. She was a very crafty woman and well earned her pay. Derik payed her handsomely for her cleverness. He followed after them and hid in the shadows like he always did. He watched as the Frau left the girl to clean up the room. He wanted to talk to her, to let her know that he was there, that he existed. He was however too afraid to do so.
Rosabella-Luna was dusting down the room and humming to herself. This brought a smile to his face. She also danced to the song she seemed to be humming. This filled Derik with so much joy that he almost couldn't contain his laughter of such joy. He knew that he wouldn't be able to contain himself for much longer. He had to leave the room before anything could happen for her to leave screaming. He left the room and hid in the shadows of the balcony above the room. He knew he would have ruined everything if he had stayed that close to her.
Gretchen saw this and thought she would help her employer by sending the girl away after she had finished with the room. She knew her employer's fears of scaring the poor girl away. After meeting the aforementioned girl, Gretchen knew the girl was a pure innocent. The girl was so naïve to the dangers around her. Gretchen knew she needed more than two parental figures in her life. She would be more than happy to be one to her. She would help guide the girl away from any horrors that the world would try to send her way. She would not allow it. She would fight for the innocence of the girl if it was the last thing she did.
She had tried to protect Derik from the cruelty of the world when she was employed by his parents but failed. His parents showed him every single horror the world had. She would not let that happen again. She was more of a mother to Derik than his own biological one. Whenever he had cried as a child, she was the one to comfort him and chase the tears away. She was also the one that took charge in his education. While the two thought him insane, she saw his genius for what it was: beautiful. Of all the names he had been called, beautiful was not one. She always wanted to tell him that she thought his inner beauty out shone his outer appearance but was never afforded the time to do so.
Derik knew that he would have to compose himself the next time Rosabella-Luna came otherwise he will have failed himself. After she had left for the second time that day, he was in shambles within himself. He cursed himself for not being able to handle himself when near her. How could he accomplish so many things but when a beautiful girl was willingly in his home, he became a coward and sent her away? This question baffled him to no end. He asked himself this for the rest of the night. He rarely slept and when he did sleep, his dreams would be filled with nightmares of terrible things happening to him. He hated the nightmares and wished that he could at least be rid of the torture of his miserable existence when unconscious. It was as if he could never rid himself of the burden of his appearance.
He wished he could have a normal face, a normal mind, a normal life even, but he could never have what he wanted most: a wife. He would sell his soul if it meant he would have a wife that loved him for all that he was. This was the one desire he had wished for since he could remember. He wanted love that was unjudging, unrestricted, and unconditional. He feared that if he attempted to achieve this with his precious moon rose, he will have scared away any chance he had of achieving that one dream. Rosabella-Luna was the one rose whose thorns could not be cut off and would forever keep her out of his reach.
Everything he wanted or loved was always out of reach. The love of his parents was unattainable, the kindness of another was, and the love of a beautiful girl was the most unattainable of them all. He shook his head of that thought process and turned to his piano. He had retreated to his chambers after that and decided to compose. He sat at the bench and let his fingers trail over the keys as if waiting for some unseeable force to tell him what key to press. Just as he closed his eyes, the music began to play in his mind and he began playing it so that he might hear it externally as well. The notes he played flowed smoothly into each other as they died and the others began.
Derik was reminded of a man in a similar position as himself; correction, two men. The first was cursed into ugliness by an enchantress and the second was born into it. Only of the two had a happy ending and it was the one that had been cursed. That story was a fairytale and Derik knew that any sort of outcome like that would be impossible for him. Now the second's story was more realistic in its ending. He related to that story more than the other. He found so many similarities between himself and the man of whom he viewed as an idol when it came to musical intellect. They were both musical prodigies that would never be loved by another.
The man he thought of had tried to win the love of someone beautiful but failed miserably. He would not go through that kind of heartbreak. He was then reminded of the girl and her beauty. It was then that he realized that he might already be attempting to win the love of such a person. He scoffed at himself and slammed his fingers down onto the keys he had been playing. How could he be such a fool as to hope for a better outcome with this girl than that of his fictional idol? He stood from the bench angrily and stormed over to his torn apart bed. He laid in its comforting grasp and stared at the ceiling above him.
He sometimes wondered why he had been cursed with a face as abhorrent as his own. This was one of those times. He often wondered this when he was at his most emotionally painful points. He had many of these moments but none as bad as the one he was currently having. He felt more helpless now than he ever had before. It felt like he had been stabbed in the gut to the hilt of the knife and it twisted while still there. The tears that poured down his cheeks were accompanied by sobs, sobs of anguish, pain, hopelessness, and pity. He pitied himself for everything he had to deal with. He disgusted even himself. He felt that it was too late for him to be saved.
It was at this moment that he actually considered something he promised himself he would never do. The emotional pain had never been this severe and he had no notion of what he could do to end his pain. This thing he promised himself never to do was what he considered cowardly and something he never wished for anyone to do. He instantly shook this thought from his head. He would never cave into the temptation that this thought provided. He refused to give into it. It was the worst things to get addicted to when trying to evade pain. It was something that led to so many teen deaths. He would never self harm.
Derik got up from the bed at that moment and wandered the hallways in hopes of distracting himself from those horrible thoughts. He wandered into the ballroom and imagined what it would be like if he hosted a ball and the room was filled with guests. He would invite his moon rose and invite her onto the dancefloor. He would hold her hand in his and place the other in her waist. He would lead her in the dance as he stared down at her. He would stare into her eyes as she stared back at him and she would blush at him returning her stare. Yes, that would be a most glorious evening had he not been deformed.
That one simple fact always ruined any and all fantasies he dared to have. It was as if his mind was preventing him from getting too hopeful. He was glad for this and angry at the same time; glad because it kept him from getting his hopes up and angry because he would like to have just one fantasy to keep him from falling completely over the edge into madness. The madness was always there waiting for him to fall so that it might catch him in its clutches. It was the one thing that always be his greatest fear. He knew his genius might lead him to insanity and tried as much as he could to prevent that from happening. It was one of his greatest adversaries.
His thoughts were interrupted by a grandfather clock chiming in at midnight. He had made it to the next day. His eyes drooped slightly and he knew it would be one of those nights that he had to give into the need for sleep. He didn't feel like going to his room and just headed to the living room. He laid himself down on one of the couches and curled up in a ball. He closed his eyes and let himself be encompassed in the abyss that would lead to nightmares.
In his dream, he was dancing with his moon rose in the ballroom as they were doing so in his daydream earlier. She was the epitome of beauty. She wore a lovely faded emerald ballgown that hugged every curve of her body. She was smiling at him with those innocent looking turquoise eyes. They held a sense of curiosity in them. He smiled at that and led her in their dance around the ballroom. Suddenly the ball was interrupted by the slamming open of the front doors. Everyone in the ballroom turned their attentions to the doors that connected the ballroom to the hallway. A man of a dark nature appeared in the doorway and stalked over to Derik's dreamself and the dream version of his moon rose.
The man tore his moon rose away from him and carried the girl out of the room. She was kicking and screaming in his arms as she was dragged away. She screamed for Derik which snapped his dreamself into a murderous like daze. He charged at the man and engaged him in hand-to-hand combat. He pounded the man with all the anger he had boiling within him. When the battle was over, he stared at his hands in disbelief; they were covered in blood, the blood of the man he had just fought. The dream version of him looked to his moon rose and found her staring at him terrified. She ran from him screaming. It was that screaming that woke him from his dream.
He jerked up awake and sitting up straight. He had been screaming in his sleep, he realized, and was scared beyond imagination. He had killed a person in cold blood in his dream. He had never done that before. This dream scared him to no end. He would never want to kill anyone; that would mean giving into the madness. He breathed in heavily and looked around the room on edge. He was paranoid. He stood up from the couch and retreated into the shadows where he felt most comfortable. He listened as he heard the grandfather clock ring out at one o'clock in the morning.
It was then that he noticed frantic footsteps in the hallway. He kept himself stockstill against the wall in the case it was an intruder. He listened as the person neared the room. He looked at the entrance and saw the silhouette of a girl. He relaxed a little and snuck out of the room just as the girl entered. He peered over at her and saw it was his moon rose.
"Hello, is anyone here? I heard screaming and came to help," came her melodic voice to his ears. He closed his eyes and savored the sound. He knew that he couldn't contain himself any longer. The urge to make his presence known and to speak to her was too great. He knew he was only minutes or seconds away from saying something.
"I know you're there. I promise not to tell that you are here or hurt you. All I want is to help," she pleaded. And that was all he needed to give into the urge.
"You need only grant me your presence, and I will be eternally in debt to you."