The words reverberated throughout the entire cavern, echoing and re-echoing until she felt it must surely drive her mad.
"Make your choice…"
The choice was hers, of that much she was certain. That decision lay solely within her trembling power. One or the other. It was both that simple and that complicated.
The two before her blurred as tears clouded her eyes, falling at last and leaving odd clarity in their wake. For as the liquid gems left her sight, she was able to see what few mortals are ever granted the ability to see.
The future lay bare before her, myriad possibilities coalescing into two distinct paths. One path, brightly lit and joyful, led towards Raoul. The other, darkly compelling, terminated at the Phantom. Time itself seemed to freeze as she looked down one path, then the other.
She looked first to the Phantom, her mentor and one-time angel. The path, though laced with darkness, resounded with the music of a love deep and profound. He would cherish her forever, never hesitating to place her needs above his own. Her spirit could not help but quail slightly before the power of that love, tinged with the darkness of his earlier deceit. What of Raoul? she wondered suddenly. In answer to unspoken question, the image of her mentor faded to be replaced with that of her childhood compainion.
He was sorrowful at first, to be sure. As time passed before her, she saw him fall in love with another, martial bliss replacing loss. This path was now bathed in the light of joy, nowhere near the dark road it had once appeared. A happy ending, even?
Curious now, she returned to the forking of ways, retreating through the shadows once more. This time, she walked the lighted way leading to Raoul. Safe, dear Raoul; surely their life together would be bliss!
As she traversed the path, drawing farther from its beginnings, the surroundings grew darker. She saw two friends grow apart, driven further still by the memory of an Angel's song. Slowly, their love cooled, leaving them alone and bitter, without love, without joy. Her mind recoiled at the thought: surely Raoul loved her more than that and she, him!
The scene before her began to fade, to change once again. Heartsick now, she stood in dread of her angel's fate, knowing what she must see, yet praying for it to be otherwise.
A devastated man met her aching gaze. Here, the future was branched, splintered shards showing her the possibilities spawned by her absence. Despair and grief colored the bleak scene…her mentor dead by his own hand…
No!
The single mental cry tore her mind to the present, time resuming its merciless march. To the observer, nothing had changed: a young girl-turned-woman still faced an impossible choice.
To her, everything had changed.
Her heart had not the capacity to allow the cruelty of her departure. Such an act would destroy the gentle, lonely man before her. She could not betray her angel.
Suddenly, the impossible had become simple.
One or the other...
An angel needed her.