Introduction

Fantom of the Operetta

  Ruth could not run far.  Climbing up the steep path to the castle had been too much for her.  Patrick was still sitting gasping on a block of stone.  He reached out towards Ruth as she passed him.
   “What are you doing?” he gasped.
   “What I can to put right what we’ve done,” she said, evading him and scrambling up the wall where it was broken down.  
  “No!” he cried, suddenly realising what she was going to do.  He stood up and reached out towards her, but was pushed out of the way by the evil woman.
  Ruth was standing on the top of the wall, holding on to the branches of a thin tree that clung to the top of the slope for balance.  She looked down.  The valley was a long way below.  Behind her, the monster was pulling itself up after her, too intent in it’s pursuit of her to notice any danger.
  Looking over her shoulder, she saw the evil woman watching, a striking figure, her dress and scarf flowing in the wind.
  “Come down from there,” the woman said, aiming her gun at Ruth.  Ruth looked at her, her limbs shaking in fear.  
  “No,” she said.  The creature was close now.  Too close.  With a sudden movement she swung herself off the wall, clinging to the tree branch as she dangled out over the steep drop.  The clumsy form of the creature, thrown off balance by her move, toppled from the wall and fell like a stone to the valley below.  Scarcely daring to look down, Ruth heard a sound like a thousand nutshells cracking as it shattered.  
  “No!” screamed their enemy.
  Ruth clung onto the tree.  She could feel the wood creaking and beginning to give way.  If she couldn’t climb back onto the wall she would soon fall after the creature- the tree was a spindly thing and could not bear her weight for long.  
  But their enemy was still aiming at her.  Ruth tried to move towards the wall.  The branch creaked alarmingly.  “If you move, I’ll kill you,” the woman said.  Ruth looked shakily at her.
  “If I don’t get back on the wall I’ll fall and die anyway,” she said.  “So what do I have to loose?”
  “You killed my servant,” the woman said.  “And now the others have escaped.”  It was true.  Ruth could see them making their way down the path as fast as possible, now that the creature was no longer keeping them trapped in their corner.
  “Good,” Ruth said.  “That was what I wanted to do.  If I die doing it, so be it.  My life’s worth little enough anyway.”
  “Spare me the self pity,” the woman said.  “Fall, or be shot.  I don’t care which.”  The branch creaked again.  Instinctively Ruth reached out for the wall with her feet.  The woman raised the gun.
  “Don’t shoot!”  Patrick cried, pushing her out of the way.  He scrambled up onto the wall and reached out towards Ruth.  “Take my hand!”
  But it was no good.  Even as the woman turned on him, the branch broke with a snap.  Ruth, reaching in vain towards the wall, fell.  Patrick reached out towards her and almost overbalanced himself, and the last thing he saw before the woman pulled him backwards was Ruth’s terrified face staring up at him as she plummeted towards the remains of the creature.  

The story begins...