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Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li


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Tonight was a big night for Corinne. The Walnut Theater was holding auditions for a new production of The Phantom. This was the kind of thing for theater stars and starlets, but on a whim, she'd decided to give it a try. Heck, even a role as an extra would be big to be able to play at such a famous theater. It was always hard to read reactions from directors at these things, but after her audition, she got the distinct impression that he had actually noticed she was there, always a plus. He'd even given a slight nod to the woman sitting to his left, whatever that meant!

Right now, Corinne was in the women's dressing room, mingling with a few of the other actresses, some of them wannabes but a few of them were the real deal. One of them, a curly haired brunette who Corinne knew had tried out for the role of Christine, was changing into her casual wear next to Corinne when she smiled at her.

"You're trying out for one of those extra roles right? I'm Petra... I've got Christine all but locked up. I wish they'd just get it over with and introduce me to the Phantom already. I hear he's pretty eccentric. Won't come out and talk to anyone or anything! How am I supposed to build chemistry if he won't show?" Petra paused, seeming to size up Corinne for a moment, then moved closer, whispering to her, "Hey you seem like a nice girl. Maybe if you do something for me, I can put in a good word for you..."
 

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Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

Corinne was feeling hopeful. She thought her audition had gone really well, at least for her own part. After getting through the really difficult parts of the song without any major problems, her confidence had picked up and from the looks of the casting director, maybe a bit of that had shone through.

As she dressed back into her street clothes, one of the more likely candidates for Corinne actually bothered to speak to her, which took her by surprise. The girl was really good.

"Yeah, that's right," she said when Petra addressed her. "For an extra part. But it'd be great if I could get a speaking role. You though," Corrine placed a hand over her own collarbone and made a gasping, 'amazed' face before continuing. "I heard you sing. You're really good! I'm sure you'll be our Christine."

She stopped as Petra went on to discuss the mystery of the Phantom. "Eccentric and in hiding? Sounds like he's a real method actor. It sounds like you could use that, maybe? That mystery between the two leads could really --"

Petra stopped her with a whisper. "Do something for you? Uh, sure. What was it you had in mind, Petra?"
 
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Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

Petra smiled but shook her head. "Yeah I get the whole character immersion thing. It has its place and all, especially for the Phantom, but the least he could do is introduce himself. I mean, I don't even know if he's a soprano or a tenor!"

The curly haired brunette drew closer to to Corinne, draping an arm around her shoulders. Corinne noticed that some of the other women were looking at her, but they looked away when Petra shot them a glare. Then she continued in a whisper. "The director has this silly rule that I'm not to disturb the Phantom in his dressing room." She said, sounding offended just by speaking the words. "Well that's where you come in. You're new and don't know the rules, so no one will hold it against you if you go knock on his door... It's down at the far end of the hallway, you can't miss it really. You look like a perfect Meg. I'll be sure to let the director know I think so if you help me. So what do you say hon?"
 

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Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

Hearing Petra's plan, Corrine had a few inner reservations. this could all backfire horribly. But then again, it would be an innocent mistake from a newcomer, just as Petra said. And to be honest, Corinne WAS curious about this mysterious phantom now as well.

She hid her caution with a short giggle.

"I'm not above a little mischief. I'll do it. But if he answers, what should I say? Should I mention you? Or should I just try and get to know him, then tell you about it?"

When Petra told her what she wanted, Corinned nodded. "All right. I'll go and do it. Wait here."

With that, Corinne stole down the hallway, further and further away from the sounds of the stage, back to where this reclusive phantom waited. She held up her fist to knock, but then decided against it and instead pressed her ear to the door, listening for any sort of noise. If it seemed quiet she would rap at the door lightly and try the handle.

"Is this the dressing room?" She asked aloud as she attempted to open the door a crack so that she could peek in.
 
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Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

"Great! Just get to know him... maybe try to get him to sing. Then come back and let me know what you found. Easy right?" Petra grinned widely, giving Corinne a little wink and wiggling her fingers as she waved goodbye.

The hallway stretched a lot longer than Corinne expected. Once she'd gotten away from the main dressing areas, the costume rooms, and the stage, the walls were just white plaster with black and white squares of tile lining the floor, stretching off into the distance, so far that she might have wondered if she was even moving at all or if it was one of those trick hallways from the movies. Eventually, she did find a wooden door at the end of the hallway. There was a gold star and a bright red sign hanging beneath it, tilted to the side, saying, "Phantom's Room: Do Not Disturb!!!"

That was strange, but then again, Petra did say the guy was a bit eccentric. Maybe it was just another character immersion technique? Pressing her ear to the door, Corinne couldn't hear anything going on inside. The knock didn't produce any response either, but luckily the door opened easily, sliding ajar so Corinne could peek inside.

The room looked mostly like the usual dressing room, but it did have an old fashioned style with oak tables and leather furniture. There was a main desk with papers strewn about over it as well as a cosmetic table with a mirror and a phantom mask laying on the table. There was also two bookcases on either side of the room. One of the bookcases looked strange.. in fact upon closer examination, it was pushed further to the side with what looked like an opening behind it! Strangely, there seemed to be a faint sound of music coming from behind the bookcase as well...
 

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Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

"Hmmm... A sound proof door?" Corinne murmured to herself before pushing the door open. The room's archaic, period piece decor tickled her funny bone, yet at the same time intrigued her. "Cool. Method actor, just as I thou--!"

Her eyes set on the oddly shifted bookcase.

"No way. A real secret passage? Behind a bookcase?" Corinne gasped. "Since when did people build secret passages in Philly?"

Biting her lip, Corinne looked behind her to the sounds of the stage down the hallway. Wouldn't the phantom be really angry if he caught her snooping around in his secret 'lair?' Then again, this was almost impossible to ignore. A Phantom with his own secret passage!

She tilted her head and pricked up an ear to listen to the distant sounds of music coming from behind the bookcase.

"Oh Corinne... you only live once," she said. "Let's go find him."

The young actress closed the sound proof door to the dressing room and then slipped her slim frame behind the furniture and into the passageway beyond. To keep up her courage up, she decided to put herself inside the play itself... singing the title song's verses.

"In sleep he sang to me~ In dreams he came~ That voice which calls to me~ And speaks my name~ And do I dream again? For now I find~ The Phantom of the Opera is there, inside my mind.~"

Creeping ever forward, she made her way to the source of the music.
 
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Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

After taking her metaphorical leap of faith, Corinne found herself heading down a long spiraling staircase heading towards the sound of the music and perhaps the Phantom and who knows what other surprises! The passage and the stairwell were old, made of stone and cramped, just big enough for a person to go up and down. It must have been at least 250 years old. Luckily for Corinne the stairwell was lit by the occasional flickering torchlight, giving the passage a luminescent light orange hue. Her shadow danced along the walls as she walked down the stairs, and sometimes it seemed like others did as well, but surely that was just her imagination or the result of flickering flames. There was no one else in sight, that was for sure.

slowly grew louder as Corinne continued down the stairs. It took a long time to get all the way down the stairs. Indeed, if it wasn't for the increasing tenor of the music, she might have thought she wasn't moving at all. By the time she got to the mouth of the stairwell though, the sounds of the eccentric organ filled not only the stairwell but the whole lair below. The acoustics were quite magnificent!

Entering the mouth of the lair, Corinne found that it seemed to be some kind of old reservoir. Most of the area in front of her was filled with midnight blue water, flames from torches along the walls dancing along the surface of the abyss. There was a stone bridge before her, stretching along to the middle of the room where it branched off at right angles toward passages to other hidden rooms in the mysterious reservoir.

Most strangely of all was the great big stone island at the far side of the chamber. The bridge didn't go there, but there was a boat docked at the end of the bridge. On the island stood a great big old-fashioned pipe organ, clearly the source of the music Corinne was hearing. Although there was obviously no one there that Corinne could see, she swore she could see the keys and pedals of the organ pressing down to the music. Perhaps it was one of those preprogrammed pianos that play music on its own? The boat, however, was docked at the bridge and not the island...
 

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Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

These stairs go on forever, Corinne thought as she ventured further and further downward. And so old as well, creaking and dusty and worn with age, they looked as if the founding fathers of America might have used them when planning the revolution. Amazing that something like this could exist here... and all the same, that a real life Phantom might exist, waiting for her at the bottom. The organ music played on, filling Corinne with dread and excitement both. This was out of a movie, no, the play itself. A fantasy coming to life.

Her legs ached by the time she reached the last step, yet having come this far, she knew there was no going back. After all of this, she must find the source of this music. She had to know who this phantom was, and how he had come to find such a treasure trove of history. This lair... this underground lake!

Corinne's jaw hung low in awe, her dark eyes reflecting the candlelight in waves off the surface of the lake.

"And in this labyrinth, where night is blind..." she whispered as she crossed the stone bridge and arrived at the boat. She peered hard at the island across the water. As if in a dream, she was guided by an inexorable desire to enter the vessel and push it out into the lake. She knew that she must reach that island. This place was magic, and she must know all of it. She dare not call out anymore, to break the spell that hung over this place.

If she managed to row or push herself across the water without being disturbed, she would hastily tether the boat and then approach the organ itself, reaching out with her hand to run her fingers over it.
 
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Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

Once Corinne stepped into the boat, she was past the point of no return. The boat quietly slid through the shimmering midnight blue water, Corinne using the oars to paddle her way to the mysterious island with the great pipe organ. It continued to play as she approached, ending a majestic crescendo only to begin a soft, eerie rendition as she docked at the island.

As she approached the organ, perhaps to her surprise, the music suddenly stopped, the whole underground chamber going chillingly quiet as if aware of her presence upon the strange stone island.

"You there!" a dark tenor voice suddenly filled Corinne's mind. "Who is this sweet angel vigilante that dares to trespass upon by domain?"

Corinne had been sure she'd been alone in this chamber even when the voice seemed to fill up her mind, but she now felt the definite presence of a man standing behind her, his strong but cold hands grasping her sides in a non threatening but firm manner as he awaited her reply.

 

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Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

The sudden silence swept across the mystical dream state in Corinne's mind, like a gust of wind snuffing out the last illuminating candle. Acutely, she felt the reality of the situation - that she was alone in a very strange, very bizarre, and very isolated lair, deep beneath the theater.

A voice broke the stillness. Dark, strong, and passionate, the mysterious man's words struck Corrine dumb for a brief moment as he stepped from the shadows to confront her. She gasped, and took a stutter step backwards, to the edge of the island. One of her hands when to her breastbone, to still the pounding of her heart, while her other hand stretched out to the side, to keep her balance and search for something to hold onto. When she found nothing, she fell to the side, landing on her hip. She lay there, like a lamb before a wolf, but unable to turn her eyes away from him.

It occurred to her that he was beautiful. Most guys, if they worked at it, could be handsome. Many more could be cute. But this man, the word beautiful was the only adjective that did him justice.

His words still echoed in her mind. Had he even spoke at all? Was he really the Phantom? Inside her mind?

"Corinne. My name is Corinne," she said, unable to think up anything else to say but the truth. "I'm not a vigilante... I just, I found you here... this place is amazing. Wondrous. And the music was playing and... I just couldn't help myself from walking down here. It's like a dream! Are you... are you the phantom? You sound just like him... but it's clear you don't need a mask..."

She tried to smile, but she was nervous. Something she couldn't place her finger on was trying to warn her. Something was wrong. The hairs on the back of her neck were rising. She should be afraid, and she was, but she wasn't scared enough.

She shook her head and brought a hand to her temple as she tried to sit upright. The adrenaline of having been discovered here was disorienting her. Still she gazed at him again and this time couldn't take her eyes off of his. Who was this man?
 
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Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

The Phantom smiled, watching as Corrine stepped back to the edge of the island. He followed her but let her fall to the ground, instead following to kneel above her. "Just found me you say, Corrine?" He stretched out his hand and stroked her cheek with cold fingers. "Just.. found me..," he said more skeptically this time. "No... an angel of music led you to me.. or perhaps you are the angel yourself? An angel wandering into my dark labyrinth, led astray by some foul devil. Is that it Corrine?"

Taking Corrine by the hand, the Phantom pulled her upright once again, guiding her with a hand at her lower back to sit on the bench before the organ.

"Well regardless Corrine... it seems that you are... Past the point of no return!" He broke into song of course, sitting down next to Corrine on the bench, guiding her face to look at him and then back toward the entrance. His voice started dark and low, but as he slowly built the intensity of the song, his smirk grew ever wider. It was as if he was enjoying playing with Corrine's combination of emotions, awe, dread, anticipation. When he finished, he trailed off, holding Corrine by the chin and looking deeply into her eyes with a curious gaze.

No backward glances; Our games of make believe are at an end

Past the thought of if or when, no use resisting
Abandon thought, and let the dream descend

What raging fire shall flood the soul?
What rich desire unlocks its door?
What sweet seduction lies before us?

Past the point of no return, the final threshold
What warm unspoken secrets will we learn?

Beyond the point of no return....
 

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Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

Something about the way the handsome phantom spoke, his eyes drawing her into the dream world he occupied, urged Corrine to join with him in this mad duet. Awestruck, she could only play the part he now invited her to become.

"If I am some lost angel, it is for you to decide," she told him as he knelt down beside her, like some imposing knight out of a storybook. And yet he was a haunted creature - she need only continue to look into those dazzling eyes. Her thoughts ran headlong down a sloping gamut of emotional terrain. She was scared. She was enchanted. She was in love. She was revolted.

This man's charisma was an intoxicating poison, she was sure, but unable to resist. As he drew her up next to him and sang to her, she knew without a doubt that she must answer appropriately, or face a chilling consequence. Her only way out, the ONLY WAY, was to play his game as good or better than he. She would be this angel of music.

And so she sang, the words coming naturally to her:

You have brought me, to that moment when words run dry
To that moment when speech disappears into silence.

Silence...


Her heart raced as she realized the power of the music's emotion overcoming her. She looked at this man, this phantom, and felt her own urges melding into that of the song. Her thoughts were the thoughts of Christine now.

I have come here,
Hardly knowing the reason why.
In my mind I have already imagined
Our bodies entwining,
Defenseless and silent.

Now I am here with you,
No second thoughts.
I've decided.
Decided.


Her voice in song was soft now, as close to a whisper as song could be, and she sung now for and to only the phantom. Her eyes focused solely on him, her lips inches from his face, so that her breath fell across his mouth. Funny wasn't it, but did he not breath? No matter.

Past the point of no return,
No going back now,
Our passion play-play has now at last begun.

Past all thought of right or wrong,
One final question -
How long should we two wait before we're one?

When will the blood begin to race?
The sleeping bud burst into bloom?
When will the flames at last *consume* us?
 
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Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

Sitting next to the mysterious Phantom, Corrine felt the rush of emotions swirling through her. Sometimes it felt like they were being tampered with somehow, amplified as they swirled through her chest like a whirlpool of emotions from awe to fear, love, and horror.

The man smiled while Corrine sang, first holding his chest as if struck by the beauty of her voice like Cupid's arrow. His smile grew when she continued. He took her hand in his own and brought it to his lips for a cold kiss. His lips cascaded slowly up her arm all the way to her shoulder, sending shivers down Corrine's spine. As Corrine drew closer, he looked into her eyes, a hand sliding up the back of her neck and into her dark hair.

As she sang, Corrine felt as if someone was helping her, ever so slightly boosting her to the crescendo. The feeling swelled, growing until Corrine realized that it wasn't just her imagination but an actual harmony singing along with her just when Petra stepped from the stairway and into the cavern, wearing a long red dress. She walked forward confidently as she continued the song, the Phantom taking Corrine into his arms and joined the final duet with the sudden appearance of Petra.

Past the point of no return
The final threshold!
The bridge is crossed, so stand and watch it burn
We're past the point of no... return...


In the silence that ensued after the end of the verse, Petra jumped across the water, landing on the island before Corrine and the Phantom, quite a feat for a woman of her stature wearing a long dress - or anyone for that matter.

"That is quite a voice you have Corrine," Petra said with a crooked smile, brushing a finger through her curly hair.

"Yes, quite angelic..." The Phantom added with a smile equally crooked, brushing his lips against Corrine's ear.

 

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Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

The crescendo of the song was entrancing, a dream and a nightmare co-mingled in one surreal experience. Corrine sang on as if nothing else made sense, her mind and emotions tossed upon a tempestuous sea of mystery and desire. The Phantom's cold kisses on her skin made her shiver, yet her voice did not tremble, somehow.

She turned with shock as her voice harmonized with that of another, and Petra appeared from the shadows. She had followed her, and the knowing look in her eyes spoke volumes.

Still the song must finish. And at last it did, the silent pause afterwards punctuated by Petra's leap. Corrine had been in track during her high school years, she had seen girls in proper athletic gear with years of training be unable to make a standing leap like that. It was impossible.

"Petra?" Corrine shook her head, as if to shake away the dreamlike qualities that pervaded this lair. Had she breathed something in? Perhaps she had been drugged and she was hallucinating. That had to be it. None of this made sense otherwise.

"What's going on? What's happened to me? Do you... do you two know each other?" Corrine clutched her temple with one hand. "I must be seeing things."
 
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Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

"The poor thing looks like a deer in headlights," Petra cooed in bemusement as she sat on the opposite side of Corrine on the bench. Two of her fingers slid beneath Corrine's chin and push up to look into her eyes. "Don't worry it's only natural to have a bit of stagefright on your first time. There is a little difference in our production of the Phantom you see..."

Petra arched her head back and bared her fangs with a hiss before immediately smiling with a giggle. "They look so real don't they?" She touched one with her finger tip. "Costume design is so intricate these days. Thank Maggie for that. Isn't that right Lionel?"

Lionel, the Phantom, pulled Corrine out of Petra's grasp. Instead of replying, he stroked her hair and her cheek with a finger, smiling with those beautiful eyes of his. "Christine... say you'll share with me, one love... one life time. Will you save me from my solitude? Say you'll want me with you right here beside you. Anywhere you go let me go too... Christine... that's all I ask of-"

Petra immediately pulled Corrine away from the Phantom, scowling jealously. "What the hell Lionel. She isn't Christine. I'm Christine, and you agreed that she would be mine! Give her to me!"

"No, get your hands off Christine!" Lionel demanded, pulling Corrine back again, the two pulling Corrine back and forth, not wanting to give her up to their partner!
 

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Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

Corrine jumped back timidly at the sight of Petra baring her fangs, her heart beating quickly from all that she had seen so far. She managed to stifle the squeak that had gathered in her throat long enough for Petra to laugh and suggest that the fangs were a fake prop.

"Fake? Oh, uh, of course. You're just scaring me. haha ha..." She laughed nervously, trying to calm down. "That's very clever of you. Uh, so does this mean that I'll have a part in the pl--"

Lionel turned her towards him and serenaded her again, though by now Petra's entrance had broken the temporary spell over her. Even so, those eyes of seemed to be capable of entrancing her. It was so very strange.

"That song is sung by Raoul..." she murmered, before suddenly being tugged back towards Petra. "Ah, oof, ouch... please be -- ow!"

Lionel had grabbed her back, and now she was the rope in a human tug of war between these two. Alarmingly, Corinne noticed how strong and how cold they both were.

"Easy! What are you two doing? Please stop! You're hurting me!" Corinne attempted to fling herself free of the two, but found that their grip on her was too powerful, she could only hope to appeal to them.

"Please, Lionel, stop it. I'm Corinne. Really I am. I'm just an actress. I can't be Christine all the time... I'm more than her. Okay?"

She tried to look at him apologetically. He obviously was borderline obsessive about his role. Very method. Even more than she could hope to be.

She turned to Petra. "And you. What are you talking about, me being yours?" Somewhere in jumble of being tugged back and forth, Corrine had found what her mother liked to call her inner tiger - the prank was over, they had had their fun, and now she wanted the joke to stop.

"I'm not anyone's!"
 
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Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

As Corrine pleaded with him that she was just but an actress, Lionel softened at first. He reached out to stroke her cheek with his cold but gentle finger, nodding with a smile. "Oh Chri.... What?" Suddenly Lionel looked at Corrine in horror, as if she was a ghost!

He jumped back, baring his fangs with a hiss. "You... you little lying delilah! You little viper! Argh~!"

As Lionel ranted, flailing his arms around in disgust, the room began to fill with soft female singing voices. Petra, however, was just sitting next to Corrine, holding her tightly with a coy smile on her face. There were at least 10 voices flowing through the chamber, each harmonizing with the next. Each tone toyed with a different emotion, but all of them together were a combination of soothing, exciting, haunting, and horrifying. Together, the voices sang:

In sleep, you sang to me.
In dreams, he came.
That voice which calls to me, and speaks my name.
And do I dream again, for now I find...
The phantom of the opera is there.
Inside my mind.


Lionel spun around in confusion, looking around the room, staring at each crevice from which the singing voices sprang in their beautiful, haunting splendor. "Christine?" Lionel shouted around the chamber. "I hear you. Where are you Christine?! Argh..." As if by compulsion or hope, Lionel broke out into song. It was his part after all. His baritone voice lashed out into the chamber to join the harmonizing voices of Christine.

"Sing once again with me! Our strange duet. My power over you, grows stronger yet. And though you turn from me, to glance behind. The phantom of the opera is there. Inside your mind!"

The song continued, but the next thing Corrine felt was a sharp pain in the side of her neck as a soft, cold hand slid over her mouth to muffle her sounds. Petra had bitten her while she was distracted by the entrancing song! As those long ivory fangs slid into the fleshy sheath of her neck, the horrible pain was almost instantly replaced by pleasure. Otherworldly pleasure that felt as if it rushed into her veins even as her blood rushed out of them.

As Petra sucked the blood from Corrine's body, she slid an arm beneath Corrine, scooping her up into her arms, the sneaky vampire carrying Corrine in her arms even as she sucked the thick red wine from her body, mischievous eyes darting back and forth as she quickly slunk out of the mystical cavern of acoustics.

In Corrine's lusty stupor, she heard the voices continuing to sing in her mind. She became ever more woosy as the title song reached its fever pitch. Petra, in lust or perhaps fear, was sucking Corrine's blood like mad. It was like a wave of blood rushed through Corrine's body to Petra's awaiting fangs. It flowed faster and faster as Corrine heard the Phantom demanding Christine, his angel of music, to sing, louder... faster... higher... filling her entire mind until finally she passed out.

~~~~​

Christine... Christine...

The next thing Corrine knew, she was floating in a strange dream world. It was black all around. She felt, cold, deathly, but also strangely alive. There was a delicious red liquid on her lips that she licked up, feeling a rush of relief as it slid down her tongue and into her throat. As soon as she did so, she looked up to see Lionel looming over her. He wasn't looking at her, and didn't seem as if he could see her at all. Instead he shook with grief, quaking from his sadness and anger. He was cloaked in the attire of the phantom, including the mask and the hat, still just as beautiful as ever, but now there also seemed something very wrong about him. Blood dripped from his lips as he looked up to the sky. ( )

"I gave you my music..." Lionel sang softly, looking around in the darkness, clutching his face with his hands. "Made your song take wind... and now, how you've repaid me? Denied me and betrayed me." The Phantom sighed as he continued "She was bound to love you when she heard you sing... Oh Christine."

As he quivered in grief, Corrine heard Petra's voice, along with her own singing in the darkness, floating beautifully mingled in the air. It sounded perfect, as if they were meant to be together, but the Phantom shrunk back in agony. He covered his ears to try to get away, looking around in horror, but never exactly at Corrine, but the tauntingly beautiful voices continued. "Say you'll share with me one love, one life time. Say the word, and I will follow you. Share each day with me, each night, each morning..."

Finally Lionel couldn't take it anymore. He screamed, ran to a floating balcony in the darkness and screamed his rage into the darkness.

YOU WILL CURSE THE DAY YOU DID NOT DO... ALL THAT THE PHANTOM ASKED OF YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Suddenly Corrine was on stage. Everyone was cheering. She smiled and bowed to the crowd when everything went quiet. One woman in the front pointed in horror, and there was a scream and a loud explosion. Corrine looked up, and a chandelier was falling right toward her! Followed by darkness.

~~~~​

The next time Corrine opened her eyes, it was dark yet again, but this time she was hungry, an all consuming hunger that would bow to no master, and there didn't seem to be anything there to sate it!
 
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Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

As Lionel reared back in sudden repulsion and anger, his release of her arm allowed Petra to quickly pull Corrine into her arms, keeping the young, warm-blooded girl pressed tightly against her alarmingly cold body. Though she was now no longer in danger of having her shoulder dislocated from being tugged by two incredibly strong actors, she did not feel any safer.

Lionel had bared his teeth, showing a pair of prop fangs similar to Petra's. Since when did the Phantom have fangs? Was this to be some cheesy Dracula-Phantom crossover? Hadn't Twilight and True Blood killed the vampire craze? This would be ridiculous if she wasn't so damned scared by these two. Even her sudden anger at Petra "claiming" her had wilted under Lionel's shouting.

Then the voices appeared in her mind, singing the titular song that she had hummed on her descent into this lair of madness. Female voices, harmonizing perfectly, eerily, and scattering her emotions once again upon a roiling sea. Fear mingled with confusion, anger, regret, sadness, and morbid curiosity. Despite all this, she was spellbound, unable to stop listening to the lyrics that had taken on a darker meaning.

Lionel heard them too it seemed. As if tugged back to Corrine by a string, he implored her with his next verse to come back to his strange, obsessive alternate reality, and looking into his beautiful eyes, she just might have were it not for those monstrous fangs.

They looked so real.

Then there was pain in the side of her neck. Two sharp pinches, one next to the other. The pinches became more intense as Petra's ivory canines sunk deeper into her, tearing her skin and drawing blood. She opened her mouth to cry out, but her scream was cut short. The rush of blood been drawn from her had suddenly ceased to hurt, her dismay replaced by euphoria. Crazed, unadulterated pleasure overcame her as her life leaked away, pouring over the lovely Petra's lips and down the woman's throat. The feeling was like sex. Not just sex, but the best kind of sex - that silky, warm fulfilling kind where your body was alive in every tactile sense, even unto the point of exhaustion. How was this so good?

A soft moan, bordering upon lewdness, escaped Corrine as she sunk down and curled her body against Petra.

~~~~​

Consciousness returned to her, and as it always did, left her with the feeling of not knowing when exactly it had left her. But it wasn't reality where she found herself. She was in a dream world, floating in darkness, the masked face of Lionel hovering above her, singing to her as the Phantom, lamenting all that he had supposedly done for her, and all that he might have done to her in the future.

She was cold, but oddly serene, watching this all as if she were a member of the audience, watching the play's drama unfold from the safety of her seat. This wasn't real. Just some dream or nightmare. Lionel was such a good actor.

Then she heard her voice and Petra's together. She didn't realize she was even singing. Were her lips moving? The harmony was beautiful, so much so she thought she might cry. Oh Petra, she thought, who or what are you? Can a voice as amazing as yours be bad? What did you do to me?

Applause, joy, happiness, the emotions of life and daylight. Her dream of life on the stage fulfilled. Adoration, a sense of self-worth, vindication of her honed talents. She had it all.

The chandelier fell. And then she had nothing.

~~~~​

Corrine awoke to hunger unlike any she'd ever known. The events of the past night - or however long she had been out of commission - were a muddled blur at the moment. She couldn't think straight until she got something inside of her. Something to sate her.

She looked around the room. Nothing.

She hissed. It was like a reflex. She knew she'd never had reason to hiss before in her life. This was bestial, animalistic, and primal. Something new and entirely *other* was inside her, demanding food. No. Not food. Drink. Warm, red drink.

She sniffed in the air like a hound, growls and hisses escaping from her mouth as she whirled in a circle, looking for something warm and living to tackle and tear into. If there was nothing, then she needed a way out of this room. She needed to find someone. Anyone.
 
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Ranger Princess

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Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

As Corrine pounced up into her crouch, the darkness began to come into focus around her. She found herself in a dark, abandoned ballroom, with dusty old instruments like a grand piano and an acoustic harp in the corner. Feeling her senses returning to her after the rush from waking up, Corrine noticed music playing all around her, strong vibrant music. No one played the instruments, not even a solitary pluck of the strings or press of a key, but then again no one had played the organ in Lionel's lair either. The music continued anyway, perhaps coming from a stereo system or another room. Not much of this mattered until Corrine could feed, and she knew it from the horrible pangs deep within her core, the rising of her primal instincts.

Deciding she wasn't going to find what she needed in this room, Corrine stalked toward the nearest door. Unlike the dark, old ballroom, the next room was lit up with nice and bright with a luminescent chandelier. Even better, there was a pretty young woman sitting at a chair in the middle of the room. Her hair was soft brown like almonds, and she held a bouquet of yellow flowers to her chest.

The woman was alone, seemingly waiting for someone or something, but her face lit up when she saw Corrine. She bounced up from her seat, smiling and waved to Corrine. The woman held out the flowers, smiling hopefully. Her lips moved, saying something, but Corrine had trouble hearing her. The music was too loud. She could, however, hear the soft thumping of her heart, as well as smell the flowers and the fruity fragrance in her hair.

 

BlueSlime

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Re: Final Curtain Call: Corinne Li

Had she not been so hungry, a hundred and one questions would have popped into Corrine's ever-curious mind, but at that moment, her all-consuming hunger drove away such thoughts as "how did I get here?" or "where's that music coming from?"

Without anything to stave away the pangs within her stomach - if indeed that was where her pangs were coming from -- Corrine lurched across the grand ballroom, searching for an exit from the dark room. She opened the door and crossed the threshold into the light.

A young woman waited there. A pretty thing, dressed up like a summer day, with a bouquet of yellow tulips in her hand. She shone with life and warmth. Most lovely of all was that happy beat of her heart.

The way the young woman waved and lit up at seeing her, she might have been a friend perhaps. Maybe a roommate or a cousin or something. Corrine really didn't have time to consider that though. She was far too hungry.

The starving singer smiled and moved toward the girl, her arms raising instinctively, looking to hold the girl close to her. She wanted to smell the flowers, the perfume, the pulsing warmth of her neck. She could smell the lovely, liquid warmth inside of her. That primal force within her left no doubt that this was her meal. This was what would sate her horrible hunger.

It made Corrine happy just thinking of it.

She couldn't hear the girl speak. The music was too loud. It didn't matter. Whatever she said wasn't important. Corrine drew her close, managing perhaps to be delicate. There was no need to make the girl startled and struggle. Her meal was willing, was coming right to her. That lovely neck, she could pick out the vein there.

Corinne opened her mouth and with a quick motion, sunk her teeth into the girl's exposed neck. She felt the skin give way and a sudden flood of delicious, ruby liquid pore over lips and tongue, coating her ivory teeth a deep crimson. She sucked and swallowed and sucked more, drawing more and more blood from the girl, holding her body tightly with her clasping arms.

She wanted to drink her fill, and if no one were there to stop her, then this pretty flower of summer would never bloom again.
 
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