Angels of Music (52 page)

Paris should be safe without her. Enough worthy candidates were ready to move into Dressing Room 313.

Thi Minh, survivor of the last trio, was a shoo-in…

Mrs Eynsford Hill was willing to return to the lists.

Maybe Irma Vep was inclined to transfer from
Les Vampires
…

If that was how the Agency was configured, Kate had confidence in it.

Irene was interested in the selection, but eager to get away. What was it she had to get away from… or get away to? It couldn’t just be a song. Even as it wasn’t just a cigar-cutter that recalled Kate to London.

The gondola reached the dock. The Phantom stepped out.

‘Ladies,’ she began…

R
ANDY AND
J
EAN
-M
ARC
Lofficier commissioned an earlier draft of the first ‘Angels of Music’ novella for their anthology series
Tales of the Shadowmen
; Mike Chinn reprinted it in
The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes 2
. Stephen Jones took ‘Guignol’ for his
Horrorology
collection. Thanks to them for the support and encouragement – and, of course, to Cath Trechman, Angel of Editing, at Titan. Thanks especially to Pierre Bouvet, for pointers on French language and Paris landmarks.

I first read an abridged translation of Gaston Leroux’s novel
The Phantom of the Opera
in an anthology called
The Ghouls
, and the full book as Volume 34 of The Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult (Sphere) in 1975. For
Angels of Music
, I’ve relied on
The Essential Phantom of the Opera
, annotated by Leonard Wolf, and a 2004 variant translation of the novel by Randy and Jean-Marc Lofficier from Black Coat Press. During work on this novel, I watched all the available film versions of
The Phantom of the Opera
– none perfect, all interesting. It’s a property that has evolved since Leroux published it, with each adaptor adding something new or emphasising something different. I still see Lon Chaney’s face behind every Phantom mask – but there’s a real Scenes We’d Like to See moment at the end of the 1943 Claude Rains film where Christine (Susanna Foster) walks out on both her smothering suitors and decides being an opera star is better than a stifling marriage, even to someone who doesn’t have to wear a mask.

Naturally, I recommend George du Maurier’s
Trilby
; Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’, ‘The Greek Interpreter’ and ‘The Sussex Vampire’; F. Marion Crawford’s
The Witch of Prague
(another Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult volume); Albert W. Aiken’s ‘La Marmoset, the Detective Queen; or: The Lost Heir of Morel’; Fergus Hume’s
Hagar of the Pawn-Shop
; Bram Stoker’s
Dracula
; Octave Mirbeau’s
Torture Garden
(and Oscar Méténier’s stage adaptation); the
Lady Snowblood
films; Guy de Maupassant’s
Bel-Ami
; Colette’s
Gigi
; George Bernard Shaw’s
Pygmalion
(especially with Shaw’s Preface and Notes); W. H. Hudson’s
Green Mansions
(and Epstein’s Riolama statue – still in Hyde Park); H. H. Ewers’
Alraune
; E.T.A. Hoffmann’s ‘The Sandman’ and Offenbach’s
Tales of Hoffmann
(and the Powell and Pressburger film, with Moira Shearer’s definitive Olympia) and Louis Feuillade’s
Fantômas, Les Vampires
and
Tih Minh
(thanks to Yung Kha for putting me right on how that should be spelled).

Among many books consulted (not to mention the Internet), I found especially useful stuff in Richard J. Hand and Michael Wilson’s
Grand-Guignol: The French Theatre of Horror
, Jeffrey H. Jackson’s
Paris Under Water: How the City of Light Survived the Great Flood of 1910
, Susan Kay’s
Phantom
, Randy and Jean-Marc Lofficier’s
Shadowmen
and
Shadowmen 2
, Jess Nevins’
Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana
, Piers Paul Read’s
The Dreyfus Affair
and Graham Robb’s
Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris
.

Other Angels – Claire Amias, Chiara Barbo, Saskia Baron, Liz Beardsworth, Lauren Beukes, Anne Billson, Jamie Birkett, Prano Bailey-Bond, Susan Byrne, Pat Cadigan, Cat Camacho, Hayley Campbell, Katharine Carroll, Simret Cheema-Innis, Sarah Cleary, Ellen Datlow, Meg Davis, Sarah Douglas, Val Edwards, Jennifer Eiss, Angela Errigo, Manon Fargetton, Mélanie Fazi, Jo Fletcher, Amanda Foubister, Kathy Gale, Ellen Gallagher, Lisa Gaye, Jane Giles, Lydia Gittins, Georgina Hawtrey-Woore, Jen Handorf, Nicole Helfrich, Susannah Hickling, Roz Kaveney, Leigh Kennedy, Grace Ker, Roz Kidd, Vivian Landau, Amanda Lipman, Maitland McDonagh, Maura McHugh, Cindy Moul, Silja Mueller, Helen Mullane, Julia Newman, Sasha Newman, Violet Newman, Helen O’Hara, Katya Pendill, Marcelle Perks, Sarah Pinborough, Rhianna Pratchett, Jenny Runacre, Deborah Salter, Alice Scarling, Hayley Shepherd, Lynda Rucker, Martina Seesto, Mandy Slater, Sylvia Starshine, Catriona Toplis, Sara Tracy, Lisa Tuttle, Kat Wearne, Miranda Wood, Ally Wybrew.

K
IM
N
EWMAN IS
a novelist, critic and broadcaster. His fiction includes
The Night Mayor, Bad Dreams, Jago
, the Anno Dracula novels and stories,
The Quorum
and
Life’s Lottery
, all currently being reissued by Titan Books,
Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D’Urbervilles
published by Titan Books and
The Vampire Genevieve
and
Orgy of the Blood Parasites
as Jack Yeovil. The critically acclaimed
An English Ghost Story
, which was nominated for the inaugural James Herbert Award, and most recently,
The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School
are also published by Titan Books. His non-fiction titles include the influential
Nightmare Movies
(recently reissued by Bloomsbury in an updated edition),
Ghastly Beyond Belief
(with Neil Gaiman),
Horror: 100 Best Books
(with Stephen Jones),
Wild West Movies, The BFI Companion to Horror, Millennium Movies, BFI Classics
studies of
Cat People
and
Doctor Who
, and the forthcoming
Video Dungeon
, a collection of his popular
Empire
magazine columns of the same name.

He is a contributing editor to
Sight & Sound
and
Empire
magazines, has written and broadcast widely on a range of topics, and scripted radio and television documentaries. His stories ‘Week Woman’ and ‘Ubermensch’ have been adapted into an episode of the TV series
The Hunger
and an Australian short film; he has directed and written a tiny film
Missing Girl
. Following his Radio 4 play ‘Cry Babies’, he wrote an episode (‘Phish Phood’) for Radio 7’s series
The Man in Black
.

Follow him on Twitter
@annodracula
. His official website can be found at

WWW.JOHNNYALUCARD.COM

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H
IS CELL WAS
(ironically) called Box 5.

It was literally a box – with a corrugated iron lid, instead of a door. Tropic rain fell in through an open grille in the lid. Or else burning sun made his wet rags steam. They let him keep his mask so they wouldn’t have to look at him. If it ever occurred to them how susceptible his pale skin was to sunburn, it would be taken away.

The Governor would occasionally sit by Box 5, reading aloud from the Paris papers, which arrived in this harsh corner of the world six weeks after publication. Many shows had closed by the time he heard what the critics thought of them.

On this island, France kept its monsters.

Balaoo, the trusty who helped keep inmates in line, was a shambling ape with the rudimentary power of speech. He was crueller than the guards. To show he was a man, he had to be worse than any beast.

On his first escape attempt, he merely scouted out the compound, peeking into cells. He was curious about his fellow prisoners.

Some of the finest families in France packed their disgraces off to
l’Île des Monstres
. The Marquis de Coulteray, who drank blood, as if that were anything special… Reginald de Malveneur, who tore at the bars and howled when the full moon shone down.

One cell bore the name Maximus Leo. Inside was a severed hand, nailed to a board but still wriggling. Even he was minded to stay away from that.

Up to her neck in swamp-water, he found a claimant to the Throne of Atlantis.

He took no pleasure in that.

They caught him before dawn, as he expected.

Balaoo whipped him, but he was used to pain. He had lived with pain all his life.

Back in Box 5, he closed his eyes and willed the rattle of rain to sound like
Idomeneo
. Electra – Christine Daaé – singing ‘
Tutte nel Cor vi Sento Furie del Cupo Averno
’. ‘I Can Feel you All in My Heart, Furies of the Dark Hell’. In his mind, he explored the building he had made his home – had rarely left for forty years – summoning up the tiniest detail.

He heard the rustle of dresses. Smelled powder and rosin. Sensed the anticipation of an audience. The thunder of applause. His heart swelled. His skull rang with music.

A bucket of filth was tipped in on him. Gibbering laughter interrupted his reverie.

Still, he hoped for a deliverance. He trusted in Angels.

The occupant of Box 5 smiled. Without lips, he had no choice.