Death Awakens
folder
M through R › Phantom of the Opera
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
18
Views:
4,195
Reviews:
14
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
M through R › Phantom of the Opera
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
18
Views:
4,195
Reviews:
14
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own The Phantom of the Opera movie(s), nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Death's Grip
Disclaimer: I don't own PoTO
Chapter 3:
“Please, Mrs. Bouvet, you have to understand it was a very serious accident.”
“I know it was a serious accident. That’s why I’m here. You have to help her. You have to help my daughter!” The woman was hysterical, pacing and tugging at her already mussed hair. She had arrived three days ago and had refused to leave her daughter’s side, only leaving to use the restroom and to eat when the nurses forced her to. She slept in the chair next to the bed and dared anyone to move her.
Mrs. Bouvet was a formidable woman in the office. She was a stern businesswoman – her success based on a fierce intuition when it came to making decisions. She was cold perhaps because she never quite knew how to relate to people. Her husband had left her many years ago when Lila was just a toddler. The strained relationship between the frequently absent mother and the handicapped daughter was evident to anyone who watched their interactions, but a mother’s love was a mother’s love no matter what form it took.
Here she found herself facing the biggest decision of her life, and she felt her infamous intuition shrivel inside of her, shrinking away.
“The latest tests have just been completed regarding your daughter’s cranial injuries,” the doctor said. He paused to make sure the woman in the room was listening. “While it has only been three days since the accident, the results are very clear.”
Mrs. Bouvet looked at him coldly, steeling herself for whatever news he would give her.
“The impact severed her spinal cord at the base of her neck. And while most of the force of the collision was absorbed by the car structure itself, she has severe swelling around her brain, already scar tissue is forming, and there is no guarantee that she will be able to function independently even after her body has recovered.” Another pause. “Do you understand what I am saying, Mrs. Bouvet?”
But the woman seemed not to listen at all as she stared at the bruised and bloodied form of her daughter laying before her.
Lila could feel herself thrumming in desperation. “I’m here, Mom!” she cried out. But no one could hear her. It was the strangest sensation to be looking down at herself, like there was a mirror on the floor. She had spent some time trying to get her mother’s attention, poking and prodding, crying invisible tears and sobbing on her mother’s shoulder, but to no avail.
She had listened with growing trepidation as the doctor described her condition. “I’m okay, Mom! Please believe me! I’m sitting right here… I’m sitting right next to you. It can’t be all that bad if I’m sitting here… Mom!! Please!”
“What choices will she have?” Mrs. Bouvet finally asked. Her voice was broken, and her shoulders slumped forward in defeat.
The doctor softened, wishing he could give her different news, “Even if she recovers completely, the impact to her skull would guarantee severe brain damage. At this point, she is only breathing because of the lifesupport system she is attached to. It is your choice. She can remain here, until completely recovered from the minor damages, but she will basically stay in this coma indefinitely.”
Mrs. Bouvet looked up at the doctor, her normal cool composure crumbling, barely keeping back tears, “And if I don’t?”
With a sigh, the doctor said, “We can take her off life support, and you can have your last moments with your daughter in private.”
She looked at the floor and didn’t move.
“Momma, no! Please don’t kill me, please don’t leave me! I’ll wake up I promise. Please!” Lila desperately cried, throwing herself against her mother’s body, but only succeeding in passing right through. Her spirit seemed to quake violently and it felt like she was being torn in two from the strength of her emotion.
“Listen to me… Please hear me…” Lila sobbed.
“I don’t want my daughter to suffer, doctor…” Mrs. Bouvet began. She put one hand against the small one atop the bed covers. “She’d be happier in heaven, then being kept down here… like this.”
The doctor nodded, and left, calling a nurse team to enter the room. They began disconnecting the cords that monitored her heart, that helped her lungs fill with oxygen, that nourished her body. They were killing her.
“I love you, Lila,” Mrs. Bouvet said softly. She sobbed into the covers, clutching desperately at her daughter’s hands. “I love you with all my heart, my darling. Be happy.”
The beep of the heart monitor began to slow. Mrs. Bouvet held her head to her daughter’s chest, listening for the last few beats. And then the room was silent.
The hospital room blurred in front of Lila’s eyes and she felt a tug from her stomach. Looking towards the direction of the pull, she saw a white, warm light growing, stretching towards her.
“No!” she screamed, tugging and clutching at everything around her in the hazy blackness that was enveloping her mind. She could hear voices, a million voices of everything that ever was, that was ever dreamed, that ever had the possibility to be, of everything that had not yet been. And that light, that light kept following her, calling her pulling her.
“No! I’m not going to die! You can’t take me!” she screamed. Just as the light seemed to overtake her, Lila heard a song amidst the myriad tangle of voices around her. It beckoned, warm and soothing, sensual and mysterious.
“Please help me… don’t let me die!” she sobbed desperately pulling herself towards that voice.
Nighttime sharpens, heightens each sensation; darkness stirs and wakes imagination…
Silently the senses abandon their defenses…
The light grabbed a hold of Lila’s feet, clutching and pulling, gently lulling her away, and at the moment when Lila thought all was lost, that voice rang out again
“Let your soul take you where you long to be!”
And Lila grabbed onto the powerful notes, combined her very essence into them, and she plunged out of the warmth that was engulfing her, drowning her, and tumbled forward into inky blackness.
Chapter 3:
“Please, Mrs. Bouvet, you have to understand it was a very serious accident.”
“I know it was a serious accident. That’s why I’m here. You have to help her. You have to help my daughter!” The woman was hysterical, pacing and tugging at her already mussed hair. She had arrived three days ago and had refused to leave her daughter’s side, only leaving to use the restroom and to eat when the nurses forced her to. She slept in the chair next to the bed and dared anyone to move her.
Mrs. Bouvet was a formidable woman in the office. She was a stern businesswoman – her success based on a fierce intuition when it came to making decisions. She was cold perhaps because she never quite knew how to relate to people. Her husband had left her many years ago when Lila was just a toddler. The strained relationship between the frequently absent mother and the handicapped daughter was evident to anyone who watched their interactions, but a mother’s love was a mother’s love no matter what form it took.
Here she found herself facing the biggest decision of her life, and she felt her infamous intuition shrivel inside of her, shrinking away.
“The latest tests have just been completed regarding your daughter’s cranial injuries,” the doctor said. He paused to make sure the woman in the room was listening. “While it has only been three days since the accident, the results are very clear.”
Mrs. Bouvet looked at him coldly, steeling herself for whatever news he would give her.
“The impact severed her spinal cord at the base of her neck. And while most of the force of the collision was absorbed by the car structure itself, she has severe swelling around her brain, already scar tissue is forming, and there is no guarantee that she will be able to function independently even after her body has recovered.” Another pause. “Do you understand what I am saying, Mrs. Bouvet?”
But the woman seemed not to listen at all as she stared at the bruised and bloodied form of her daughter laying before her.
Lila could feel herself thrumming in desperation. “I’m here, Mom!” she cried out. But no one could hear her. It was the strangest sensation to be looking down at herself, like there was a mirror on the floor. She had spent some time trying to get her mother’s attention, poking and prodding, crying invisible tears and sobbing on her mother’s shoulder, but to no avail.
She had listened with growing trepidation as the doctor described her condition. “I’m okay, Mom! Please believe me! I’m sitting right here… I’m sitting right next to you. It can’t be all that bad if I’m sitting here… Mom!! Please!”
“What choices will she have?” Mrs. Bouvet finally asked. Her voice was broken, and her shoulders slumped forward in defeat.
The doctor softened, wishing he could give her different news, “Even if she recovers completely, the impact to her skull would guarantee severe brain damage. At this point, she is only breathing because of the lifesupport system she is attached to. It is your choice. She can remain here, until completely recovered from the minor damages, but she will basically stay in this coma indefinitely.”
Mrs. Bouvet looked up at the doctor, her normal cool composure crumbling, barely keeping back tears, “And if I don’t?”
With a sigh, the doctor said, “We can take her off life support, and you can have your last moments with your daughter in private.”
She looked at the floor and didn’t move.
“Momma, no! Please don’t kill me, please don’t leave me! I’ll wake up I promise. Please!” Lila desperately cried, throwing herself against her mother’s body, but only succeeding in passing right through. Her spirit seemed to quake violently and it felt like she was being torn in two from the strength of her emotion.
“Listen to me… Please hear me…” Lila sobbed.
“I don’t want my daughter to suffer, doctor…” Mrs. Bouvet began. She put one hand against the small one atop the bed covers. “She’d be happier in heaven, then being kept down here… like this.”
The doctor nodded, and left, calling a nurse team to enter the room. They began disconnecting the cords that monitored her heart, that helped her lungs fill with oxygen, that nourished her body. They were killing her.
“I love you, Lila,” Mrs. Bouvet said softly. She sobbed into the covers, clutching desperately at her daughter’s hands. “I love you with all my heart, my darling. Be happy.”
The beep of the heart monitor began to slow. Mrs. Bouvet held her head to her daughter’s chest, listening for the last few beats. And then the room was silent.
The hospital room blurred in front of Lila’s eyes and she felt a tug from her stomach. Looking towards the direction of the pull, she saw a white, warm light growing, stretching towards her.
“No!” she screamed, tugging and clutching at everything around her in the hazy blackness that was enveloping her mind. She could hear voices, a million voices of everything that ever was, that was ever dreamed, that ever had the possibility to be, of everything that had not yet been. And that light, that light kept following her, calling her pulling her.
“No! I’m not going to die! You can’t take me!” she screamed. Just as the light seemed to overtake her, Lila heard a song amidst the myriad tangle of voices around her. It beckoned, warm and soothing, sensual and mysterious.
“Please help me… don’t let me die!” she sobbed desperately pulling herself towards that voice.
Nighttime sharpens, heightens each sensation; darkness stirs and wakes imagination…
Silently the senses abandon their defenses…
The light grabbed a hold of Lila’s feet, clutching and pulling, gently lulling her away, and at the moment when Lila thought all was lost, that voice rang out again
“Let your soul take you where you long to be!”
And Lila grabbed onto the powerful notes, combined her very essence into them, and she plunged out of the warmth that was engulfing her, drowning her, and tumbled forward into inky blackness.