The Man Clad in Black (Phantom of the Opera)

Learning to Swim - Chapter 8

You had finally managed to find your way to the boat. It was there as he said; parked perfectly with an oar for you to row with.

You were lucky that you had still taken fencing. You managed to balance yourself in the boat and, as you carefully picked up the oar and placed it into the water, you began to row.

It was still hard work.

The way that this man - or ghost, per se - had gone right through the water was truly remarkable. While you had some arm strength from your multiple fencing classes, you still had the balance of a half-blind mouse, and you nearly toppled over multiple times. Your skirt began to fall into the water and nearly took you with it. It was a frustrating task... once you saw his lair inching nearer to you in sight, you decided that the water seemed shallow enough to simply walk to the shore.

You let the oar clatter into the boat as you hopped off, and almost immediately, you regretted it. You fell entirely into the ice-cold water.

Once you resurfaced, you gasped for air, and you immediately began to swim back over to the shore.

"Why did I do this?" you continuously squealed to yourself as you doggy paddled and tried to keep yourself above water.

Once your feet finally reached the ground, you ran as fast as you could and thrusted yourself upon the shore, and you simply laid there for a few moments. You were too exhausted to try and move at all. You panted and groaned, then rolled to your stomach. Due to the fact that your dress was twice as heavy as it normally was, getting up was a pain, and you procrastinated and had an excuse every time that you wanted to stumble to your feet. The gravel hurt your hands. Your dress was too heavy. You were already too tired.

However, when you remembered who wanted to see you, you finally decided try to get to your feet.

The first time you tried to get up, you gave up halfway and fell right back down, only to eat a mouthful of dirt. The exact same happened the second time. However, after one final push, you managed to stumble to your feet, and you were finally able to get a good look around.

He did say that he would be here... Didn't he?

"Enjoying yourself, Mademoiselle?"

You let out a gasp (more like a startled shriek) and jumped. The voice had startled you severely... However, the voice registered in your head, knew exactly who it was.

"You scared me, Monsieur!" you gasped, placing a hand on your chest to get your breathing under control. You were panting - both from the amount of work you had done just to stand up and from your fright - and even after a few moments, you still couldn't manage to catch your breath completely.

"My apologies," he said (though probably insincerely). You turned yourself to face him, and immediately, you noticed the smile that he wore on his face. He was beyond amused. "I just... Couldn't help but wonder why we always meet under these circumstances."

You let out a breathy chuckle, although you were quick to try and hide it with an overly-exaggerated sigh.

He was technically right... the last time you spoken with him here, you were sopping wet and freezing cold.

"You planned this, didn't you Monsieur?" you asked, stifling a smile as you grabbed a section of your skirt and began to ring it out. "You just wanted me to fall in so that you could say that!"

"Perhaps..." he said. He was making the same amount of effort to keep from smiling. "Although I saw that our conversation earlier was cut short, so I brought you here."