Hello everybody!

I'm french and I'm a great fan of Phantom of Opera. I have already written french fics and I wanted to translate them in english. So I would like to thank my beta reader IamAmeliaJessicaPond who helped me a lot for the translation.

The story follows the events of ''Phantom of the Opera''. It's only based on Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical and movie. It's not like ''Love Never Dies'' . I have imagined what happened between 1871, when the opera was burning and 1919 when Raoul was on Christine's grave...

I hope you'll like it. Don't hesitate to review. I will be very pleased to read your comments...

Chapter 1: The start of a new life

Christine was in the gondola, which led her towards her freedom. Despite being snuggled up to Raoul, she couldn't turn her eyes away from the man who had meant everything to her for these ten last years. Since her father was dead in fact. Her Angel of Music...

Why had he expected too much from her?

Why had he ordered her to make a choice?

If she stayed on her own accord, it would be a life with him knowing that Raoul was alive. Or Raoul would die... He had been so selfish, since Raoul had reappeared in her life three months earlier. It was this selfishness, united with a dark and murderous madness, which had pushed her into taking refuge in Raoul's arms. Her first love, her childhood love. With him, like always and now in this gondola, she felt safe. Nothing could happen to her. With her Angel, it was different. He was the father that she had not had the chance to know well. He had been her confidant of darkness, her mentor. He had led her towards the outcomes of her most secret dreams: becoming a great opera singer. But the price to pay had become too heavy. The Phantom had a love for her too overwhelming, too inflexible. That fascinated her and, above all frightened her.

When he had caught Raoul around the neck with his Punjab lasso and had presented her with an ultimatum, she had stayed there, petrified. What kind of choice would she make? She would lose one of them forever. Then she had acted and she didn't know why she had done that. She came to her Angel of Music, who had turned into a mad devil, thirsty for murder and full of a destructive passion. It was her true wish that he would change from this man with melancholic eyes into a sweet and protective man with her. The one that she had always wanted... so she had kissed him.

At the time, she hadn't thought about the consequences of her gesture. The Phantom didn't turn into a harmless Angel, as she would have hoped. He received the kiss with surprise. First, he had frozen but then, he had become tender and had returned the kiss, with a new passion. When Christine kissed him, at first she had only thought of the monster she was touching, her hands on his wrinkled face. But on contact with it, she had a sudden wave of loathing. He had begun to give into her touch, and the shiver had suddenly turned into something more powerful and different. The disgust had disappeared. Instead of disgust, she shivered with desire. A heat flooded her body.

It wasn't the first time she discovered this feeling. When he had brought her into his Kingdom of Music, the night of her triumph in ''Hannibal''. He had sung for her the ''Music of the Night''. His voice had seduced her, he had held her tightly to him during his wonderful and hypnotising song. There, unknown feelings had taken hold on her. But tonight, these feelings had been increased tenfold. She had no longer remained self-possessed. She melted into his embrace, giving into his kisses. She wouldn't have known how many seconds Raoul had been obliged to stay imprisoned and forced watch them.

At that moment, she had lost the notion of time and space. She had could no longer tell if she had acted this way, just to save Raoul. She was ashamed of what she had done and she turned her eyes away from the Phantom, who had stayed frozen upon the shore. She snuggled her head against the Viscount's torso and couldn't suppress a sob. Raoul held her tightly to him and continued to steer the gondola through the undergrounds waterways.

Raoul was worried about which pathway to follow and he chose it at random. Christine cried in silence. He thought her tears were because she was still in shock about what she had been obliged to endure this night. He felt guilty to bring this hardship on her. When she had sung with the Phantom, in his atrocious opera ''Don Juan Triumphant'', he had feared that she had lost the fight for them. He had seen her giving in to their duet. At that moment, he had regretted the decision to give to the vile man as prey. But it was the price to pay, in order to arrest the Phantom so that they could finally live their love without hindrance.

He had been relieved when Christine removed the mask.

How could this monster sing the song that he had sung to Christine on the rooftops? The song that he had sung on the day they promised themselves to each other.

He despised him for that. He hated him more now, because Christine had had no option but to kiss him in exchange for their lives and their freedoms. He would rather put these images in the deepest recesses of his memory, where they would never plague him again.

What strength and courage Christine had had to kiss that disfigured and mad murderer! Thanks to her, they had got their freedom. He didn't know why the Phantom had let them go. Perhaps he had gotten what he wanted, since the beginning: a part of Christine?

It was t Raoul, the Vicomte de Chagny who had gone down into the bowels of the opera to save the woman he loved and in spite of that it was Christine who had given everything to save him.

The victory over the Phantom left him with a bitter taste. The bitterest taste was the fact that the Phantom was free. Who could say that he wouldn't appear one day? Wouldn't he continue to haunt their lives until the end? Victory was bitterer than he had thought and it would always be an everlasting and incomprehensible link that united Christine and the Phantom.

He had seen his sweet love give her engagement ring, which they had chosen together, to him. This ring, synonymous with their undying love. This symbol of their union, Christine had given it to this impostor, who had told her that he was the Angel of Music sent to her by her father. He had taken advantage of her innocence, her naivety and manipulated her. She was too sympathetic towards him. This man had a hold over her that he had never imagined before.

Christine looked at him, with eyes full of gloom and relief. For that moment, they were at last together. All Raoul's negative thoughts disappeared and he kissed her on her forehead.

He stopped the gondola at the coast before them. There was a flight of stairs upon the shore, which he hoped, could lead them above ground..

Raoul took Christine's hands in his own.

''Now, I want you to smile again. I'm here for you, Christine. Don't forget that. Nothing and no one can harm us. Come what may, we'll always be together.''

He wiped away her tears.

''I want you to forget everything that happened tonight. Be completely happy now.''

Forgetting this night? Christine, her lips still burning, wondered if one day it would be possible...