The Phantom's Daughter

Chapter Nine

I was walking on solid ground one moment, and then the next I was falling through the air. As soon as I hit the water I knew I was in trouble.

I didn’t swim.

I hated the water….the cold, heavy weight of it that could overpower you, shove its way into your lungs, and no matter how much you thrashed about, it only gave in around you as if taunting you before it took over. I remember the boys of the orphanage dragging me out to the river to go “swimming”. How I struggled and screamed and begged, yelling that I couldn’t swim. But I was their plaything, they didn’t care what happened to me. They threw me in and I had almost drowned, grabbing onto the long grass along the bank and dragging myself upwards. They had long gone by then, and I had made my first plan to run away. I had planned to run to the docks, and travel to England and find my parents. Except I never got on the boat at the docks as Ms. Eleanor—a friend of my parents—had met me there instead.

Those old memories had come flooding back to me, the water bringing me back to the present, trying to figure out where I was and how to get out.

Perhaps I had gotten to the underground lake? Perhaps this was another trap? I didn’t know what kind of horrid business this was, only knew how the biting cold stung my other wounds from the traps I had encountered. My one leg could hardly move, but I supposed I should be lucky it wasn't gone all together—that looked like a bear trap I had just missed.

Instantly my lungs fired with pain and the shoulder strap of my bag choked me. I was reluctant to let it go; it was a gift from a friend but it would seal my doom if I didn’t surrender it to the water so I thrashed out of it, struggling to stay afloat.

A loud crank sounded like metal being fed through gears and I looked up in horror to see a square gate was coming down on me…WHAT THE HELL WAS THIS????

Now I screamed. I screamed for help, for mercy, I screamed until my face pulled from the strain and I had to hang on the rusty slimy ladder for support as I tried to catch my breath. There was no way out. Stupidly I started crying and begging God for mercy. The Bible says that He has a special love and care for orphans doesn’t it? Please God, let me die painless, oh please God.

The gate steadily kept falling down. No doubt this was another old trap of the Phantom’s that once haunted this theatre. I suppose this Phantom was a psycho path that indulged in torture, including little orphan girls. I cried and begged this phantom to please spare me, I screamed for God’s help…

….but the gate just kept pressing down.

I was on the edge of the wall and forgot to take one more desperate breath before the metal pressed down on me. Water filled my lungs and suffocated me.

I was pressed down…

Down…

Down…

My back scraped against the wall, the skin of my hand and wrist cutting as it scrapped the wall.

And then I was sucked back.

I thrust my hand up to find air…and then my head found air.

I took a deep, painful breath and then violently coughed the water out. I was in some sort of tunnel that had lead from the trap. Somehow there was a pocket of air in here too….I didn’t understand it….I heard you could do the same with boats if you flipped them upside down, but this tunnel led straight into the trap so I couldn't understand how it could afford one, but it must have been built in such a way that I could swim up for air.

“Thank you God!” I called out. I still needed help getting out of here, but right now that was the least of my worries. Thrashing my exhausted limbs, I moved slowly and painfully out into the tunnel.

My entire body screamed in pain from the swimming and injuries from the traps…

…..I started to fade in and out, my body forcing me to sleep….

….Somehow I had gotten out though….

….another large gate with the tunnel through….

….I swam under the gate, held high and proud as the space beyond welcomed me….

….too tired to think or care where I was at….warm light from the candles beyond greeted me…..

….I hit the shore and found the last of my strength to half pull me up….

….water was warmer….

….pressing my cheek against the stone….

…..I slept….