Author's Notes: This is a rather belated E/M Christmas fic.. but hey, better late than never. I was originally going to enter this into a contest on LJ, but the contest was not made official (as of yet). But I decided to write this anyway. Also, I do not own The Phantom of the Opera or any of its characters. They all belong to the magnificient Gaston Leroux. However, I DO own the poem below, but other than that, everything else is totally not mine.
To thy wondrous, wounded promise,
Die not to thy redemption yet eternal splendor,
Fade in gruesome delight, shed tears so cold yet unbidden,
A kiss, to quench and capture such ghostly remorse
To save thee and die no more.
- By Sarela Jade
Of Thy Silent Wish
A word unspoken on his thin lips, his promise silently captured by her coarse, unlovely kiss... a whisper of breath brushed against his gruesome cheek so delicately. Horrified yet amazed, he glanced up, tiny, unbidden tears stinging his eyes. Erik gazed at her with such shock and wonder, quite alarmed. Yet Meg only smiled faintly, her pale, bony hands clasping his own. Slowly, gently, he raised his trembling hand and nervously touched her cheek, his dry, wrinkled fingertips tracing the low sweep of her jaw, her chin and lips. His sickly yellow eyes widened in horror and he gasped, utterly amazed. Such strength, unending tolerance... how could it be that she did not grimace nor cry nor scream at his touch?
Meg studied him intently from the floor where she knelt near, in front of his crimson armchair, her hands tenderly clutching his. Scarlet candles blazed, tremulous music silently echoed… nestled within the mists of the home, she had become numb to the cold of Lake Averne, entombed safely in his magnificent house…
His lips quivered as his skeletal fingers slid over her temples, tucking a stray, ebony lock behind her ear. She smiled and closed her eyes, astray in such illicit contentment.
"Why did you come back?" he asked brokenly.
Her smile slightly faded yet the peace and empathy did not vanish from her dark eyes. "Because I could not imagine a Christmas without you."
FIN