The Phantom of the Digiworld von Semiramis-Audron (a tragic story of three lovers) ================================================================================ Kapitel 3: Poor fools they make him laugh ----------------------------------------- Chapter three: Poor fools they make him laugh It was afternoon when Agumon walked into the theatre with a print copy of "Shellmon's board" in his claws. He looked at it in and shook his head, looked at it again and nodded. "Mystery after gala night… It says mystery! A soprano's flight!" He shook his head again and paced up and down the hallway. "Mystified, all the papers say. We are mystified, we suspect foul play!" He crumpled the paper and burned it with a little flame. "Bad news on soprano's seat. First Arukenimon, now Angewomon, what a treat!" He looked up and down the hallway, but there was no one yet. "Still… at least the seats get sold… Gossip's worth its weight in gold!" He sighed and leaned against the marble decorated wall. "What a way to run a business! Spare me these unending trials! Half your cast disappears but the Digiworld still cheers… Theatre! To hell with cluck and handle, have a scandal in your show to have a hit!" Suddenly Gomamon rushed over to him with a crimson letter in his claws. "Damnable! Will they all walk out? Damnable!" Agumon hopped to him dragging him away from the entrance. "Gomamon please don't shout! It's publicity and the take is vast! Free publicity!" Gomamon shook his head, pushed him away and shouted at him. "But we have no CAST!" Agumon still tried to calm his colleague down and led him to a window. "Gomamon have you seen the queue?… Ahem… It seems you've got one too?" He pointed at the crimson letter he had just noticed. The white digimon unfolded it and started to read aloud. "Dear Gomamon, what a charming gala…Angewomon enjoyed a great success! We were hardly bereft when Arukenimon left! Otherwise the chorus was entrancing, but the dancing was a lamentable mess!" Agumon showed him his own crimson letter and began reading it for Gomamon. "Dear Agumon just a brief reminder! My salary has not been paid! Send it 'care of the ghost' by return of post… p.t.o. …" He turned the letter and read on with discomfort. "No-one likes a debtor, so it's better, if my orders are obeyed!" He looked at Gomamon who just could shake his head. "Who will have the gall to send this? Someone with a puerile brain?" Agumon compared the two letters and told him. "These are both signed D.G.!" Gomamon was not surprised about that but he wondered. "Who the hell is he!" And then both came to the conclusion. "DIGIWORLD'S GHOST!" Agumon shook his head in disbelief. "It's really not amusing!" Gomamon took the letters and destroyed them. "He's abusing our position!" And Agumon rolled his eyes distressed. "In addition he wants money!" Gomamon agreed with him. "He's a funny sort of specter to expect a large retainer, nothing plainer!" They both came to a solution about this phantom. "He is clearly quite insane!" Suddenly they heard a voice and turned around. "Where is she!" It was Angemon who faced them. "You mean Arukenimon?" He denied fast. "I mean Angewomon! Where is she?" Agumon just shrugged. "Well, how should we know!" That was not was Angemon expected. "I want an answer! I take it that you sent me this note?" He pointed at them with a letter… "What's all this nonsense?" Agumon replied looking confused. "Of course not!" Gomamon told him, while Agumon tried to express. "Don't look at us!" Angemon walked closer to them, puzzled. "She's not with you then?" They shook their heads. "Of course not! We're in the dark!" They shouted and Angemon tried to calm everyone including himself. "Dear digimon, don't argue! Isn't this the letter you wrote?" Agumon looked at him bewildered. "And what is it that we're meant to have wrote… nghn.. written?" Gomamon took the crimson letter from Angemon and started reading it aloud. "Do not fear for Angewomon. The Angel of Music has her under his wing! Make no attempt to see her again!" The three looked at each other in uncertainty. "If you didn't write it… Then who did!" Angemon slowly said when suddenly from behind them a shrill voice resounded. "Where is he?" It was Arukenimon, Gomamon cheered. "Oh welcome back!" But she was in no good mood. "Your precious patron! Where is he!" A crowd of fans followed her, including some Gotsumon and a Pumkinmon with a bunch of roses in its arms. "What is it now?" Angemon asked, walking over to her. "I have your letter! A letter, which I rather resent!" She shrieked. Agumon looked up to Angemon. "And did you send it?" But the vaccine shook his head. "Of course not!" Gomamon nodded viewing the letter from far. "As if he would!" Arukenimon did not want to believe him. "You didn't send it!" She asked him, using her pitched voice. "Of course not!" He replied and Gomamon still wanted to know: "What's going on!" Arukenimon did not notice him; she was still occupied with Angemon. "You dare to tell me, that this is not the letter you sent?" Angemon took the crimson letter from her. "And what is it that I'm meant to have sent?" He opened it and as for the other three, started to read it aloud. "Your days at the digimon theatre are numbered… Angewomon will be singing on your behalf tomorrow night…!" Arukenimon pointed at her rookie directors with disgust. "Angewomon!" But she was shushed out for the others wanted to know the rest of the letter. "Be prepared for a great misfortune, should you attempt to take her place!" A silence followed, then Agumon spoke out what everyone was thinking. "Far too many notes for my taste! And most of them about Angewomon!" He took Arukenimon's hand and Gomamon followed. "All we've heard since we came is Angewomon's name!" Suddenly LadyDevimon walked over to the group together with Lillymon. "Angewomon has returned." Agumon turned around to her slightly dryly. "I trust her midnight oil is well and truly burned!" Gomamon looked at her with curiosity. "Where precisely is she now?" LadyDevimon bowed and replied. "I thought it best, that she went home!" There was a strange look in her eyes. "She needed rest." Lillymon added and Angemon rushed over to them. "May I see her?" But LadyDevimon refused. "No digimon. She will see no one!" Arukenimon furiously asked: "Will she sing? Will she sing!" LadyDevimon smiled jovial but it looked kind of spiteful. "Here, I have a note." She said handing a crimson letter over to someone who would take it. Everyone rushed to her, in unison they shouted. "LET ME SEE IT!" But Agumon took it from her. "Please?" He unfolded one more letter this afternoon and again everyone listened tensed. "Gentlemon! I have now sent you several notes of the most amiable nature, detailing how MY theatre is to be run!" He looked up from the letter at the crowd around him and showed his disgruntled disbelief. - -Flashback - After Myotismon had send Angewomon back to the theatre he returned to his desk and drafted a certain note. He caused every communication system to collapse, so he could not utilize e-mails. As he was alone he let his mind wander and spoke while his quill was flying over the paper, drawing ink as red as blood. "You have not followed my instructions! I shall give you one last chance!" He dunked the raven's quill into the inkstand and continued. "Angewomon has returned to you and I am anxious her career should progress. In the new production of 'Il Muto' you will therefore cast Arukenimon as the pageboy!" Myotismon grinned as he imagined the directors' faces on this order. "And put Angewomon in the role of countess…" -A countess…- He thought. – Will be the perfect role for her… A count's bride…- He was alluding to the fact that many of the famous vampires he knew had been counts. "The role which Angewomon plays calls for charm and appeal. The role of the pageboy is silent, which makes my casting, in a word: …" He leaned back and smiled derisory. "Ideal!" He dunked the quill again and wrote on. "I shall watch the performance from my normal seat in box five, which will be kept empty for me." He licked over his lips and mused about; what would be a polite ending for this letter. "Should these commands be ignored, a disaster beyond your imagination will occur! I remain, gentlemon, your obedient servant. D.G." He was pleased and carefully he folded the letter, he took one of the crimson envelopes and inserted his note. The blood red wax was hot enough and he sealed the letter with his hallmark. A bat whose head was a skull. Afterwards he went to the digiport and took care of the note being found by someone reliable… - Back in the theatre. - Arukenimon was furious, she yelled. "ANGEWOMON! It's all a ploy to help Angewomon!" Her directors tried to calm her. "This is insane!" But she was in a rage that could not be stopped so easily, she was a diva! "I know who sent this! Angemon, her lover!" She pointed at him malicious. "Indeed! Can you believe this!" He replied not caring for her accusing face. Arukenimon rushed away followed by her fans and the pleading Agumon and Gomamon. "Arukenimon let us not listen from afar! You are our star! And always will be!" She just pushed them away not listening to them. "My dear, the man is mad! We don't take orders!" Agumon stood there telling everyone the decision. "Angewomon will be playing the pageboy! The silent role!" The crowd listened up, and Gomamon announced. "Arukenimon will be playing the lead!" She heard him but she was still sulky and waxing melodramatic. "It's useless trying to appease me! You're only saying this to please me!" No one was able to convince her, her voice just drowned the others out. LadyDevimon shook her head onto such foolishness. "Who scorn his word, beware to those, the angel sees the angel knows!" She told Lillymon, while Arukenimon was still relishing her diva-fit. "You have reviled me! You have rebuked me!" Angemon did not listen to them he was worried. "Why did Angewomon fly from my arms?" But the rest of them cared about their star and everyone groveled for her. "Arukenimon pardon us!" She shouted at them "You have replaced me!" And everyone, especially Mummymon bootlicked. "Please Arukenimon we beseech you!" She rushed down the stairs to the entrance. While LadyDevimon was prophesying "This hour shall see your darkest fears, the angel knows the angel hears!" Angemon asked himself where Angewomon went to. And the others followed the spider digimon. "Please Arukenimon sing for us! Don't be a martyr! What new surprise lies in store!" She opened the door and saw the cheering masses. It pleased her, especially as a little Patamon handed her a single red rose. "Could you please give this to Angewomon?" And she stared at him with big eyes. Agumon and Gomamon drew her back into the theatre closing the door. "Your public needs you!" Gomamon said to her with his most adoring look. "We need you, too!" Agumon added with a heartening voice. "Would you not rather have your precious little ingénue? She hissed at them but they replied lenient. "Arukenimon, no! The world wants you!" They took her hands and walked with her up the stairs again, when some of the watching chorus girls mocked. "Anyway… who had the idea to perform operas! If we wouldn't we wouldn't need a bitch like her!" The Floramon said to her friends. "I think after Etemon they wanted to have a little bit of posh culture in here…" They continued chatting while Agumon and Gomamon were still occupied with Arukenimon. "Primadonna, first lady of the stage! Your devotees are on their knees to implore you!" Gomamon actually always was on his knees. "Can you bow out, when they're shouting your name?" Agumon petted her hand and twinkled up to her. "Think of how they all adore you!" The whole crowd of her fans begged her. "Arukenimon enchant us once again!" She looked at them far more pleased. "Think of your muse!" Even Mummymon had joined them now. "And of the queues round the theatre!" Agumon reminded her. "Can you deny us the triumph in store? Sing! Primadonna, once more!" Added Gomamon appellative. Meanwhile Angemon stood slightly away from this hubbub. "Angewomon spoke of an angel… Is this her Angel of Music?" After all Arukenimon was pleased with them, finally she decided to stay. Gomamon whispered to Agumon: "We'll get our opera!" And Agumon whispered a reply. "She gets her limelight! Leading ladies are a trial!" Arukenimon lamented to herself. "Follow where the limelight leads you! You'll sing again, and to unending ovation! Think how you'll shine in that final encore! Sing, Primadonna, once more!" Agumon and Gomamon cheered to her and encouraged her. " Tears . . . oaths . . Lunatic demands are regular occurrences! Surely there'll be further scenes -worse than this!" Lillymon stood close to LadyDevimon and they both pondered deeply. "Is this ghost an angel or a madman… Bliss or damnation? Which has claimed her…?" LadyDevimon shook her head in appraise. "Heaven help you, those who doubt…this miscasting will invite damnation…" Angemon mused about the letters of what seemed to be Angewomon's angel. "Angel or madman? Orders, warnings, lunatic demands!" LadyDevimon heard the directors talking and did not agree with them. "Oh fools, to have flouted his warnings! Think, before these demands are rejected!" She made Angemon nervous with her foreshadowing. "Surely, for her sake..." But Lillymon interrupted him. "Surely he'll strike back!" But he was not a sissy that could be scared so easily. "I must see these demands are rejected!" Lillymon however was more than worried. "…If his threats and demands are rejected! Angewomon must be protected!" Meanwhile Agumon and Gomamon were more then relived about Arukenimon coming back. "Who'd believe a diva happy to relieve a chorus girl, who's gone and slept with the patron? Angemon and the soubrette, entwined in love's duet! Although he may demur, he must have been with her!" Agumon said and Gomamon joked happily. "You'd never get away with all this in a play, but if it's loudly sung and in a foreign tongue it's just the sort of story audiences adore, in fact a perfect opera!" Angemon grew more and more confident. "His game is over! And in Box Five a new game will begin... Angewomon plays the pageboy, Arukenimon plays the countess!" Indeed he was very optimistic unlike LadyDevimon who had a negative presentiment. "This is a game you cannot hope to win! For, if his curse is on this theatre... then I fear the outcome… should you dare to…"She knew it was perilous to pick a quarrel with the phantom of the Digiworld… As Lillymon knew, too. "But if his curse is on this theatre... then I fear the outcome... when you once again..." But the theatre's directors did not care very much about this superstitious phantasm. "Primadonna the world is at your feet! A nation waits, and how it hates to be cheated!" And the less believed Arukenimon in it, she had enough problems. "The stress that falls upon a famous Primadonna! Terrible diseases, coughs and colds and sneezes! Still, the driest throat will reach the highest note, in search of perfect opera!" So all but three digimon hailed to Arukenimon and to the new opera. "Light up the stage with that age old rapport! Sing, Primadonna, once more!" And no one noticed the flock of bats drooping high under the stage's roof listening conscientiously and no one noticed their master's voice... "So, it is to be war between us! If these demands are not met, a disaster beyond your imagination will occur!" Maybe three of them heard it, but if, they displaced it... The next day came, the day of the digimon-theatre's first opera. Everyone was nervous, especially Angewomon. No one had informed her about the letters as the casting remained as it was originally planned. But still she was nervous as it was a very important play for the Digiworld, because it was so full of the thing ruling this world… music… "I wonder… what he thinks of me being mute this time…" She said to herself pacing through her dressing room in the late morning. "I'm so excited, the tension is killing me…" She sighed and thought of so many things she could do now to calm herself… But nothing that came to her mind would really help, nothing but one thing… Myotismon was just searching for a special book in his library when he heard something… strayed steps slightly away from this room. –A suicidal intruder!- He thought malicious. –Surely one of these nosy chorus girls… I have to belay the mirror's lock more thorough…- He readied his Crimson Lightning and plunged into the blackness of his castle's corridors. No one could see a hand before one's eyes in this darkness, beside of him. It was his element and his azure eyes got used to it in all those years. It was indeed a young woman, with light steps, obviously a chorus girl, feeling the walls to find a way. He saw the vague shape of her back, about fifty feet in front of him. Little crimson sparks imperceptible began to flash under his gloves. He was ready to jump, to sling his Crimson Lightning around her neck and throttle her, or break this feeble shaft… He felt the energy floating out of each fingertip binding to a crimson rope of lightning. He shoot out of the dark towards her. And suddenly she turned around with a little lantern in her hands. She screamed in shock and fear it was her luck that he was blinded by the sudden light, if not she would have been dead immediately. He tripped backwards taken by surprise and brightness, covering his eyes and then he heard her screaming in the dimness through which she could not see what had attacked her. And he realized how close he had been to the most disastrous mistake he ever could have made. "Angewomon!" She gasped and listened up, then she blew out the candle in her lantern. "Myotismon where are you?" She felt a hand taking hers and instantly breathed a sigh of relief. He led her through the darkness. There was a slight reproof in his voice. "What are you doing here, girl? You should be rehearsing!" She did not answer she feared the darkness too much, she was scared if she would open her mouth it would creep into her body. She sighed again when they came into the candle enlightened study room. She sat down onto his chair while he watched her his arms crossed in front of his chest. "I don't like you to be ambitionless!" She looked at him like a sulky child and his annoyance vanished. "I'm just so nervous… I needed to hear your voice, angel of… Myotismon…" He could not withhold a kind smile for her. "Angewomon…" He said gently. "You have to return at once, they'll be missing their star." She smiled her most angelic smile. "It is nice of you to say that, even though my role is completely mute and no one will hear my voice tonight." He gasped slightly. –They dare to disobey?- He was consternated for a second. They had outraged him. "Is it so, indeed?" She did not like the way his gaze darkened. "Anyway you must leave me now, for I am engaged, my dear." She was disenchanted, why did he send her away. "And next time you come here, call out my name. Be assured I will hear you." He said before she parted. When she was gone, he embarked on taking certain measures for the evening, of which he thought he would not have to bring them into play. "But as it seems, you are quite refractory gentlemon. You compel me to set an example…" He said with a vicious smile. When Angewomon sat in her dressing room again, thinking about this short visit, an ominous notion crept into her mind. She was thinking of that incident in the dark corridor… "…Oh my God! He… he would have… he would have killed me!" And she remembered his outburst when she had taken his mask… How she had feared he would harm her in his raging madness… She shivered at that memory… And then she saw it in front of her… his face… And all of a sudden she felt bereft of all warmth and light inside her… But then again she remembered his eyes… those eyes of pure, deep sapphire blue… And she felt life returning to her veins… -But he sent you away, earlier on!- A little voice inside her head told her. "Yes… So you don't want me with you Myotismon? Well… I know a six winged vaccine who will take me out for supper tonight!" She said sullen, somehow hoping he would hear it, somehow hoping he would be… jealous… It was evening and masses of digimon streamed to the digimon-theatre. All of them were full of curious expectancy. This would be their first opera! Although some of them stayed at home, as they thought this kind of amusement to be in a word: Boring! A Vademon rushed over to his friend Datamon, he had just gotten the last three tickets. "Here's yours… I think I should call Gazimon and convince him to come. He will miss a lot…huh? What's with you Datamon?" The machine-digimon looked sick, as far as this was possible. "Ah… my head… I have a ringing in it all the time… it hurts." Vademon searched for his cell phone and dialed. "Well we won't go home! I want to see that opera-thingy!… Ouch!…" He held the phone away from his head. "There's a nasty sound in it too. And I can't get a communication, I think the network has crashed…" Datamon pushed against his head several times it sounded as if some sort of wire was uncombined. "Anyway, let's go in now. This mist coming up won't be good for my components, I can nearly feel how I'm rusting already!" They walked pass Angewomon into the theatre, like many others. She looked around, she was waiting for someone. "Angewomon, I'm here! Oh Azulongmon in the skies, where is all this fog coming from?" She cheerful welcomed Angemon and took his hand. He was slightly surprised after she had not come with him that evening. "I wonder, too. It had been so sunny all the days…" They sauntered into the entrance hall holding each other's hand. "I'm sorry that I'm late. There must be hardly a standing-place left for me in there." Angemon said sighing and she smiled. "Yes we have a full house, but… I know a perfect place for you to follow the show. You'll see." She drew him with her up the stairs onto the higher story. She pushed a door open, made him sit down in one of the velvet seats and pulled the crimson curtains open. "Angewomon isn't this…?" She grinned and looked down onto the stage. "The most perfect place to see me? Yes you're right. By the way… Would you like to take me out for supper afterwards? Yes, fantastic!" She said and rushed out of the box. Angemon looked after her a bit baffled. "She seems to be really nervous about this show… But good for me. Looks as if this evening would be getting better and better." Angemon rejoiced while he closed the door, with the silver plate on its outside, which said: Nr.5. Slowly the lights in the auditorium faded and finally went out. The audience was staring onto the closed curtain in excitement. Meanwhile Myotismon squatted in the shadows of the stage's roof. He surveyed the audience and found a lot of vaccines amongst them. "This will make it an even greater triumph for me…" He whispered to himself. He looked to box five; already sure they had given it to a guest, as they had dared to disobey his other orders too. Suddenly his eyes narrowed to slits and he stooped to have a better look. "This is the most audacious impertinence, I have ever… Well, dear boy, you'll find that you have chosen yourself a rather uncomfortable seat! You shall not take my place, in any way!" He hissed and skipped down from the walkway as Wizardmon was coming into his direction. In the systematic fall he seized one of the stage's ropes and descended on it, gracefully he touched the floor behind the sets. "But foremost, to the accomplishment of our little show!" He said grinning smugly and fetched a dark green phial from under his cape. He pussyfooted to a small table with make-up, combs and different kinds of bottles. There was a silver white flacon on it, he winded it open, then uncorked the phial and poured a few drops into the flacon. He left the table as he had come upon it... Finally the music started and the curtain rose. The set was enormous and colorful; it imitated a sort of aristocratic bedroom. Lillymon was standing at the center of the stage with Kiwimon and Mushroomon. "They say that this youth has set my lady's heart aflame!" Lillymon whispered aloud for the audience to hear it into Mushroomon's ear. "His lordship sure would die of shock!" He answered and Kiwimon added: "His lordship is a laughing-stock!" They all nodded and Lillymon continued. "Should he suspect her, God protect her!" And all agreed with her. "SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! This faithless lady's bound for Hades! Shame! Shame! Shame!" They walked backwards and sat down around a large four poster, which's curtains withdrew and revealed Arukenimon sitting in the bed together with Angewomon, who was covered like a male in a woman's dress. Agumon and Gomamon watched the scene pleased. "Nothing like the old operas! The old singers...And every seat sold!" Mentioned Gomamon looking down into the crowd. "Or the old scenery. The old audience. Hardly a disaster beyond all imagination!" Agumon admitted and both chuckled, then nodded to Angemon in the opposite box who acknowledges them. On the stage the scene went on. "Seraphimon, your disguise is perfect!" Arukenimon said to her in an amorous way, then she listened up for someone was knocking onto the door. "Why! Who can this be!" Lillymon hobbled to the door and opened it. "Gentle wife, admit your loving husband!" Mummymon said walking into the set. He slapped Lillymon on the rear and the audience laughed. "My love I'm called to File Island on affairs of state! And must leave you with your new maid!" He said while slapping Seraphimon/Angewomon onto the rear, too. "Though I would happily take the maid with me!" And the audience cheered with laughter. "The old fool is leaving!" Arukenimon whispered to them with a joyful look. When he left Mummymon mumbled to the audience. "I suspect my young bride is untrue to me. I shall not leave, but shall hide over there to observe her!" With high voices the two actors gave each other a long adieu. Hosted by Animexx e.V. (http://www.animexx.de)