Suddenly

🌸Unexpected Experiences🌸

I lifted the train of my dressing gown to step through the rectangular opening. I stepped in and fixed my dressing gown, I turned to thank him for helping me but he wasn't there. I was faced with my reflection. "Of course it was the mirror." I said looking at it intently. I felt like there could almost be someone still behind the mirror but I couldn't make anything out like before. I looked down at my dress that was an odd color of green and brown and sat down on the vanity chair rubbing my forehead. My head was throbbing and my throat hurt. "Mistress." A voice came from the door followed by a knock. "Co-come in." I said placing my hand on my throat. "Mistress, I've been sent to take you to the showers." Madame giry said opening the door. "Oh darling...follow me." She said looking at me and dragging me out the door. "Wa-wait who told you?" I said with a hoarse voice. "A very important person mademoiselle." I was still confused but my throat hurt too much to keep questioning. Madame giry showed me the shower and stepped away so I could undress and close the satin curtains. Madame giry took my dressing gown to be washed and let me have some time to relax. It felt good to be clean, from the sweat and slimy water off of my skin and out of my hair. Tomorrow was the big performance and I didn't even have a voice, more important than that I nearly died. If I were to explain anything that has happened to me in the last few days I'd be thrown in a mental asylum so fast my head would spin. It was almost comical the things I've experienced I nearly felt I was going mad, and yet I couldn't get those blue eyes out of my thoughts. It's as if they were still peering into my mind reading my every thought. I'd finished washing myself and put a freshly cleaned shift on. Madame giry came in to get me dressed and helped me back to my room, "thank you for everything." I said quietly before I walked through the door to my dressing room. "It is merely my job Madame, now go rest your voice I want to hear no speaking, no singing, no practicing, and no humming, I will send a maid to bring you some hot tea." She said closing the door behind her. I nodded and turned towards my bed, the best thing I could do was sleep but I wasn't as tired as I should have been. Everything I'd been through the least my body could allow me to do was sleep, but not with how fast my mind was racing. Trying to make sense of it all, night after night a new experience to shake the world around me. A new life and identity in a new period, a promising career, an obsessive masked man. My how the tables have turned, I used to spend hours researching this man and yet none of what I'd learned was anything like him. He was no ghost, he was merely a man. A man I could pass on the street and not bat an eye towards other than that striking white mask. I'd never expected to meet him let alone take part in one of his operas. I looked at the dying rose that had been so red the night before that rested on my vanity. The mask was next to it, why would he return it to me. While I might have bought it, it's still his. And why does he not ask how I have it in my possession, why does he not wonder where the cracks and ashy gray smoke marks came from. Just as I thought my brain might explode from the whirring thoughts that never seemed to end a knock came from the door, "Come in." I said quietly as I sat at the vanity hiding the mask in one of the drawers. The maid smiled at me as she placed the tray next to me pouring me a cup. "Will this be all mistress." She said standing up straight after setting down the teapot. I nodded my head with a smile and she returned one as she left the room. Returning to my thoughts I pulled the mask back out sipping on the piping hot tea. As bad as it burned my tongue, the warming sensation of the liquid on my throat was the price I was willing to pay. I picked up a quill and paper I'd found and sketched whatever I could to take my mind off of what was happening. It wasn't till I'd finished that I'd noticed the man I'd drawn was the masked man I'd been encountering. I snickered at the fact that even without thinking he was the first thing my brain had gone to. I set the quill down and walked over to my bed, no matter how much I'd have to force myself I was in dire need of sleep and if I wanted to impress this man as much as I thought I did. I was going to need every ounce of sleep this world could offer me.