This is my first POTO fanfic, so any and all feedback is welcome. It is not meant to be a long, length (almost novel-like) fanfic. It is almost medium-level, I feel.
Please know that these are my works and any redistribution or reusing of them is not allowed under any circumstances.
(c) ~PersonFromMemoryLane, 2013
Throughout the entire fanfic (both the poems and the prose,) the perspective shifts from Erik to Christine, so if you are lost for a moment, I apologize. I tried to make it obvious whose perspective it was during whichever given vignette.
The order of the types of poems are: elegy, sonnet, free verse, free verse, sestina. Any questions, please contact me via private messaging or through your comments. Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoy! :)
These first two poems are elegys.
The Lamentations of a Poor, Unhappy Erik
The Grievances of Wishful, Little Lotte
The Death of My Angel of Music
Never in my years have I known such sorrow!
This curséd fate is one worse than death
This demon, this creature of desire,
She has rendered me broken and undone.
My existence, the air I breathe, they bear no purpose
Who am I, when not even the ivories can soothe my soul?
The beauty that struck and harnessed my being,
Purity unnoticed, that I had suddenly brought to light,
Bewitched me in a surreal, love sick insanity.
Innocence was embodied in ever curve of her lip,
And iridescence kindled, lively in her eyes—
Her angelic majesty forever goes unrivaled.
Music unparalleled in the course of time,
Brought my angel to me, and then took her from me.
She was never once mine, not even in song,
When our voices merged into melody.
How could not have existed to love me?
Me, a monster, horrid in my ugliness.
My dreams crushed, unrealized, forgotten,
Their weight consumed me all at once.
Demonic in their intentions, they took me.
She graced the stairs with her light feet,
Biting back her true resolve, her instinct.
Though gone, her music still graces my forlorn senses.
Angels and Demons
Cruelty is certainly my foulest of fortes,
For I'm nothing more than a vicious vixen
I drove him away! He is gone now—forever more!
I have forced him into darkness, his only solace,
The one place he can curse and cry out my name,
In a hellish haven where no angel would dare intrude
I have abandoned my sense of propriety, it is dead.
I could care less for it, now that he's gone.
Why should I, being the soul saving star I am,
Leave a corner of this vast sky black?
Why, angel I am, should I leave my demon alone
Left to wallow in the depths of his Hell?
Unadulterated passion, cultivated in the dark
Again, the only place he felt safe, and now
He uses it as a cape. Billowing, velvet, black,
The shadows are his true companions as he hides,
Blocking the sun, hating light, damning all of it
But to where are they damned? Surely,
Somewhere far worse than the dark in which he lies.
Blame that I alone can claim, it is all mine
I surrender, I admit—I am at fault. This angel
She is not what she seems. Unearthly, beauteous,
And redeeming though she appears, it is not true.
At morn I wake, a silver dagger to my chest with this:
In darkness, a demon thrives, yet in light, his angel suffers
The white dress, befit of my bride, disappeared up a winding staircase. It was hesitant, though, as if each action was confused, unsure. Of course, of course, poor Erik, it seems that way. She had certainly been sure only a moment ago—when I at last allowed her—that she wanted to flee with her young suitor.
That boy, with his perfect face and boyish charm! He stole my angel away, and now I am left with only the demons of the dark and the monsters of the night to comfort me. Tears, such human things! They fill my eyes, they burn my accurséd face!
Cruel, she is. Leaving me to my demise upon this cold, stone floor. I am reduced to the state of a beaten child, of an abandoned pup!
Strange little noises come from my throat. Were those pleading, little heartbroken moans? There shall be none of this! Yet how am I to defy nature? I could not escape it all these years… Why should I run now?
"Christine," I begged, though it was futile, "Christine."
My body quivered with sadness as I stole a glance at the staircase. There she was! Still standing upon the stairs that led to her freedom. Was she plagued by indecision?
"Christine," I whispered inaudibly as the boy, meeting my eyes for a split second, took hold of Christine's hand.
No, please, my angel, I begged internally, to no avail. My dear, stay with me! Could she possibly hear my silent pleas? I wondered as she took the smallest of seconds to wait, until she finally grasped her fiancé's hand in her own.
Agape with heartbroken despair, and an empty pain that has no name, I laid my face upon the floor, wishing I had never been bestowed of it.
I pray this is a dream! I shut my eyes tight, as if to eliminate what had just happened.
All the prayers in the world were not enough, when I glanced up to find her gone. And no comprehensible words were suitable for the scream I let loose when at last—at long last!—I lost my angel.
As I ascended the stone stairs, I could hear his broken sobs above my own. I bit my lip, for I could not look back! My decision was made: Raoul was my light. I had chosen him.
"Christine," I heard my fallen angel whimper piteously, "Christine…"
My eyes burned, but nothing could compare to the inferno within my heart. Raoul's frosty blue eyes met mine, filled with worry, as he extended his hand.
"Come, Christine. We must leave."
For one minuscule moment, I stared at Raoul's hand.
Do I dare leave him to comfort this… creature of darkness? Could I break his heart, after all he has done for me? But am I any better of a person if I leave this Phantom to die of despair, and leave my heart to crumble slowly?
I cannot recall my reasoning, but my trembling hand soon grasped Raoul's, and, lifting the skirts of my tainted white dress, he and I scaled the remaining stairs in quick haste.
His strong hand tightened its hold on mine as a bloodcurdling, ghoulish scream echoed from the depths of my angel's labyrinth.