"It is the eleventh hour of the clock that is to decide life or death!"
Erik's maniac laughter rang through the chamber, making Christine shiver fearfully. He had once and for all gone quite mad! And all out of love for her!
"I will leave you now, for you have the decision of a lifetime before you, my dear! I leave you two keys, one for the box on your left, the other for the one on your right! Here, here, such little keys, do be careful not to drop them for they have come from the bag of life and death, and nothing from that bag must be lost! Here, here take them in your pretty hands and choose...open the boxes and you will see in one a scorpion and in the other a grasshopper, and from there you must turn one! And by which one you turn, dearest Christine, I shall know your choice! I will understand, that by your turning the grasshopper, your answer to my proposal is no, but if you turn the scorpion, you are saying yes. And now I shall leave you so that I do not have to witness your tears. Goodbye, Mademoiselle, for the next five minutes will determine if I see you again or not...and do, do mind the grasshopper...for it jumps..." He exited the chamber, his last warning echoing behind him. "And it jumps jolly high!"
Christine stared down at the two little keys in her hand, then cast them from her in absolute disgust. "Erik, Erik please, the only key I want is the one to the torture chamber! Please, darling, just give me that one key and I shall ask no more of you, indeed, I shall not! I will do all that you ask if you only give me that one key!"
Erik laughed his drunken demon laugh from behind the door. "Oh, yes indeed, shall I give you that key, so that I must look on while you kiss your fine fiancé? I think not! I think, perhaps, that the siren in the lake would like that particular key to play with, as I shall never have need of it again!" He laughed wildly again, but Christine thought she heard him choke and gulp, like a child in hysterics, trying to laugh through his own tears.
"For god's sake, Erik!" The Persian's voice rang out, reminding all of his presence.
"Oh ho!" Erik cried. "So you are still alive in there? Well, do be quiet then, the Mademoiselle has much thinking to do, and very little time to do it!" He then directed his speech at poor Christine. "Ah, I see you have lost the keys, and so soon too! Careless child! Well, as I am a trap door lover, I can open what I please when I please! So there, and there! I have opened the little boxes, so that you may rest your mind at the loss of the keys! You see, I told you of the scorpion and the grasshopper, are they not pretty? But pretty is as pretty does...if you turn the scorpion we will live and merrily, merrily we shall be married! But if you turn the grasshopper, woe on all of us! For it hops, jolly jolly high, so as to get away from the explosion!"
At this, M. de Chagny, whom all had thought to be quite without consciousness, cried out passionately, "Christine, Christine! Turn the scorpion at once! We will find away to get you away from this creature, but do not yet despair!'But the Persian, knowing Erik very well indeed, cried out at the same time, "Do not touch either Christine! For he may be tricking you!"
Erik let out a yell of fury. "Sir! I have expressed the wish for silence! Daroga, tell your little friend to hush, for Erik has no patience for his begging!" Then he chuckled. "It is eleven o clock, Christine...Oh, dear dear Christine, your time is up. I see you have chosen neither choice, but it must be done, I am afraid, so I will have to activate the grasshopper to hop, for you see, I was not lying, I would never trick you, dear, or perhaps I already have, and many times too! But at any rate, I do love you, indeed I do, but if you do not love me then, you shall love no one. So the grasshopper it shall be."
"Wait!" Christine cried out, terrified. "Do you swear to me, the one you say you love, do you swear, disgusting creature, monster, that the scorpion is the one to choose if I wish for all to live?"
At her cry, all heard a Erik violently rip open the door to the room where Christine was with a shriek of fury. "Disgusting creature? Monster? How is it, my dear, that when we were alone, and I sang so sweetly to you, you were not saying these awful things to me? Dear, dear Erik, you called me! Your poor angel! My, how your tune has changed, you scheming vixen, now that your precious Vicomte is here! So it was an act all along, I should have known, for no one could care for me the way you pretended to! Oh, Christine, you made me love you, you did, so you could kill me with your rejection! You are the same, the same as everyone else, you only want to rid the world of poor, lonely Erik, who only wanted to be loved for himself." He sobbed at this. "Only want to be loved...only want to love." But then his voice brightened. "But, I suppose, this makes my decision all that easier. I no longer have a reason to live, so the grasshopper will make sure I do not. Goodbye, Mademoiselle, and remember that I do indeed love you..."
At this, Christine sank to the floor, hand on her brow, and Erik paused, hand over the grasshopper. "Christine, do not swoon so!" He cried. "I assure you it will be painless, very very quick and all, you won't hurt, you know I would never cause you pain! And surely you will go to heaven, for it is where all angels such as yourself go! And then you will have the pleasure of refusing me comfort in hell, you know."
There was a short silence.
"Please, do stop looking at me like that!" He cried, and dropped to his knees next to her, in tears.
"What is there to do now?" He whispered though his crying. "You want to live, with those two in the torture chamber, and everyone else above us, and I want, all I want is to make you happy, but with me! But you shall never be happy with me..." He buried his face in his hands. "Very well, Christine. I will give you the key you so badly wanted earlier, and you shall leave." He reached out for her quickly, as if he would embrace her, but then stopped and rose to his feet. "Get up, girl, for I have given you your freedom."
Christine slowly rose. "You swear that you will blow nothing up?"
Erik laughed, and the Persian and Vicomte in the other chamber listened carefully, hardly believing that they might have a chance at freedom.
"I never said that, dear, but rest easy, you shall go free."
Christine came close to him, peering closely into his fiery golden eyes. "Free to die?" She asked him. "With hundreds of others that you will murder?"
Erik looked away. "No, you shall be free to live, live with your happy marriage, and even come back to the Opera if you wish, knowing that it is only my little home on the lake that is gone, only me who shall die." And then he pushed her away, and threw open the torture chamber door.
"What are you waiting for, I have given you what you wanted! Now go, the siren shall not bother you, row away, and away forever!" He turned back to Christine, and clasped her hands in his, placing a little golden band on her ring finger. "Only remember me, by this ring, remember that I was not all bad, that I let everyone live but me, and that I did love you. Just remember me as a man, try to forget the monster." He begged her, placing a kiss on her hand. "Now go." He shoved them out the door towards the waiting boat.
He was still standing there as the Persian rowed the couple away, staring after them as they shrank in the distance.
Raoul and Christine sat huddled in the boat as the Persian rowed, Christine shaking, and Raoul whispering comforting things in here ear, the daroga silent. "We shall be married, Christine, in a fortnight. And you shall never worry about this place again."
"Yes...yes." Christine whispered sadly, and the Daroga stiffened at what she said next. "Only I shall return here every night as I dream."
Raoul wrapped his arms around her. "Nightmares shall fade in time, my love." They sat in silence for awhile, only hearing the lapping of the water against the boat. As they approached the opposite shore, a faint wail carried across the lake, the haunting cry of a mournful ghost. Christine answered it with a wail of her own, and the Persian stopped rowing, something deep down telling him what would come next.
"Raoul..." Christine whispered, and the Vicomte stared at her, then let out a soft moan.
"Oh Christine...please, no. You can't."
She touched his cheek sadly. "I can't leave him."
Raoul let out a shaky breath. "Oh, Christine. I knew you loved him, the second I heard you speak of him, only I thought...I hoped you loved me too."
Christine sighed. "Your Little Lottie shall always love you. But I am Little Lottie no more, I am afraid." She placed a soft kiss on his cheek, and he leaned into her. "Go." She whispered. "I have to do this alone."
She watched them as they climbed out of the boat, towards the passage that would take them back aboveground. "I thank you with all my heart." She said to the Persian, and he bowed to her.
"No, my dear," He said softly. "I thank you. Long have I prayed for Erik to find what he was looking for. You are truly a wonderful woman, to look so deeply into his soul, to love him when all is said and done. Now go." And he gave the little boat a mighty shove. "And beg the siren to lend you her tides!"
The siren must have heard and felt for her cause, marveled Christine, for she barely had to row to make it back across. She jumped out of the boat, and tilted her head at the lake, offering silent thanks to the goddess of the dark water before she dashed away to find Erik.
She heard him, in the room where the scorpion and grasshopper had been, heard his sobs and pleas to gods she didn't know he believed in. She pounded at the door. "Erik, Erik, let me in!"
He went quiet in the other room, and she knocked louder. "Erik, do not turn the grasshopper! Oh Erik, live! Live! I am returned, dear angel, I shall stay with you if you only come out!"
His voice was thick with tears when he answered. "Go away, sweet apparition! I know that Christine herself would never return to this place! Leave me in peace!"
"Erik! No apparition would ever knock so solidly at your door, would it?" She gave the wood one last bang, using her entire strength. "Please, Erik?"
"So you are someone else then, come to rid the Opera of it's ghost! Do not worry, it is done! The grasshopper will hop only for me now, and no one shall ever need think of me again..." He paused. "Did Christine tell you my name? No, no it must have been the Daroga, Christine is too kind..."
"I am Christine, I am, Erik, I swear it!"
There was another stretch of silence, then:
"Sing to me, then." Erik commanded, his voice whispering in her ear, softly. "Sing so that I will know your voice."
So Christine sang to him, a sweet lullaby her father had sung to her mother while she listened from her bedroom as a child. Erik was silent as her voice came through the door, and Christine worried for a moment that he had gone away. But then the door was flung open, and he was standing there, staring at her as if heaven itself had opened it's arms to him. "Christine?" He whispered.
She threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Erik, Erik, I am so sorry! I do not think you a monster, I swear it! I think you the most beautiful soul I have ever known, and I love you, I do!" She turned her face towards his. "Please, won't you say you will live, for me?"
Erik pushed her away. "No, no it cannot be! I saw you with your fiancé! You love him, you do, you said so yourself. You accepted his ring and his kisses."
Christine reached for him desperately. "Erik, please forget all you saw! Forget everything but that I love you, and shall tomorrow still! What must I do to prove to you that I will never leave you again?"
Erik grasped the little bronze grasshopper. "How many times have I allowed myself to hope? And how many times has my heart been broken? I may look quite the monster, and people may think me a demon, but I assure you my heart is just as surely broken as any mortal man's, for in the end, that is all I am! So you must go now, my love, or you shall die along with me."
Christine closed her eyes, briefly, steadying her ragged breaths. "Very well, Erik. If death is the only way we two can be together, then so be it." She put her small hand over his long one, and time seemed to hold still as both their hands rested on the little insect. She took a deep breath, and with her other hand, grasped his mask and tossed it across the room, then lifted her face to his and whispered against his lips:
"Hop, grasshopper."
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