Hey! This story was just BEGGING to be written! This is my first fic here, and I love to write, so my bestest friend in the whole wide world, -Nellie-flipping-Lovett, persuaded me to join AND semi-co-wrote the story with me ;D she told me to tell you hi. Enjoy, dear readers! Don't forget to R&R!
Loves,
LittleLotteChosesScorpian
I blinked, letting my eyes adjust to the daylight pouring in from the windows. The canopy bed, although for one person, was massive, and I turned over swiftly, to block out the garish light. As I was alone in bed, no one may have suspected the sharp glint of diamond that shone on my left hand. I was to be Mrs. De Chany in a months time! I hugged myself at the mere thought of being the wife of Raul... My childhood sweetheart... and such a gentlemen! He honored my choice to stay a virgin until our wedding night, and slept in the immense guest room... I felt a twang of guilt... A shard of my heart aching for him... Poor Raul... But he would never know... I got up slowly, and took a peek in the mirror. Thought I was happy to become a De Chany, my distress was evident.
My dark eyes, that did not match my innocent features, that had seen so many things, almost void of life...The dark circles to compliment them, conceived of months of lost sleep. My frail, almost sickly slenderness was fault of skipped meals, and half eaten dinners... I began to comb out my hair, a mere attempt to tame the wild mane of curls. It was then that I realized that this had been my first good sleep, a full, and dreamless sleep, in three months. So much had changed in this short time span... After I left... Him, Raul and I moved to a large home near the country, far from the opera house.
Raul did not allow me to sing.
The cause I was not aware of, and frankly, I missed it. He had changed as well as me, he earned a cold-emptiness that he had not owned before. Raul harbored a constant concern of my whereabouts, he exiled me from friends, even Meg and Madame Giry! He was always worried, always asking questions that never got answers. So you must imagine how my nightmares frightened him. I would wake every night, screaming his name, "ERIK! ERIK, NO!" I would call to him... The images in my mind were so vivid it seemed I could touch him... But in my utter disappointment, I would burst into hysterical sobs, continuing to mutter his name, and Raul would burst into the room, and hold me close, running his shaky fingers through my hair, our tears, mine born of grief and guilt, and his of fear... My heart went out to him, my love...
Raul did so much for me, and to be frank, I did not deserve it. I was not pure... Not... Clean. He loved me, but he didn't know how he'd been cheated. The night when the opera house burned, the night of Don Joun Triumphant, I was Erik's. His and no one else's. After our union, I wore his ring. For one night, I was not the idealistic Mrs. De Chany to be, I was an angel of music, however un-pure. I felt something wet on my folded hands, and I realized that a warm, steady trickle of tears was making it's way down my hollow cheek, and onto my lap, splashes of salty misery covered my dress, and I dried my tears and gazed at myself in the mirror once more.
No more fresh tears branded my face, although my eyes were red, and puffy, some cool water would erase all evidence of ever being upset. I let the water drip down my face, and as soon as I appeared acceptable, I changed into a fresh gown, powdered my face, and shuffled to breakfast.
Raul was waiting for me, smiling brightley as our tall, willowy maid, Cosset handed me a plate of eggs and bacon. "How did you sleep?" he asked, his voice sunny, "Good actually..." I trailed off, attempting to smile back, but guessing it looked like an odd sort of grimace. He nodded thoughtfully. As if I was waking up for the first time in years, I realized how hungry I was! I took a large bite of eggs, and following that with many others, until my plate was empty! Raul looked at me, shocked or curious, I couldn't tell. That was probably the first time I'd eaten a full plate of food in three months... Scratch the probably.
I heard three months echo in my thoughts as I noticed the painful silence between me and my fiancé. "Can I visit Meg?" the words came out of my mouth before I had the power to stop them. Raul made a strange face at me, and then peered off somewhere behind me, thinking. "Christine, you know how I feel about you going out." I sighed, "but I miss her terribly! I haven't seen them for three months! And Madame Giry is like a mother to me! You know I would be safe. You are being unreasonable." he smiled sadly, "Lets not argue... I may be able to call for a carriage to take us to town, but only for a while." I smiled genuinely, "then I shall be getting ready!" and I flounced back to my room, joy in my steps.
As soon as I dragged my skirt out of the carriage, I could hear Meg inside. While the Opera House is being rebuilt, Madame Giry had rented out a hotel with some money from the managers for the chorus girls, who no longer had a place to live. Meg Giry was coincidentally one of them.
I knocked excitedly on the door, it swung open, and Meg's cautious face peered through the doorway, "Christine!!!" she screeched and tackled me, kissing me as I stumbled backwards, "Meg! I've missed you!" she smiled, her face had not changed a bit, her hair was still blonde and buoyant, he cheeks were still full and smooth, and her lips were cherry red against her cream skin that I had often envied as a child. As I stood 5'2, she was still a meek 4'11, but had far more voluptuous curves than I.
Smiling genuinely, she invited me in, and I smiled back, happy again. The hotel was large and roomy. Though not as upper-crust as some, it was fancy enough, and the ballet rats scurried around the hallways of there new home, gossiping about anything that came to anyone's attention. "Oh Christine!" Meg gushed as she led me up the ornate staircase, "You've missed so much!" she went on about various mishaps and relationships of different chorus girls I remembered. As if in a strange sort of dream, I recalled every one of the girls, imagining the fuzzy outline of them hidden in the vaults of my mind. Every one in a while, a name would pop up, "Ah! Madeline, yes! She fell out of a window?" and this continued on, but even though I only spoke two or three words, I felt right at home, and the ever-present feeling of uneasy home-sickness I had felt with Raul evaporated as swift as it had emerged.
When our cozy chat came to an end, I requested to see her mother, she obliged, beaming, and led me away from the fireplace, and into a large, marble room. She rapped on the door and bellowed, "Mother!!!" only Meg could bellow daintily... Madame Giry appeared at the door, and greeted my with a smile that made tears prick up in the back of my eyes, she embraced me, and kissed my cheek delicately. The only thing that had changed about her were the creases on her face had grown a tad more apparent, and the once golden hair had turned a powdery blonde, but still kept it's sharp sheen. "Christine..." she muttered, "You've changed!" she chuckled weakly, in a sad sort if way. Though I did not plan things like this at all, "Were is he?" were the first words out of my mouth. Meg sensed the tension in the room, and backed out slowly, calling a friends name, and then with a wave, bouncing off with her. I turned to face Madame Giry, "Is he ok?" she hung her head, face growing pale," Erik is... Ok." she gave me a grave look, "I check up on him every few hours... Just to make sure he's... Doing Well." I wiped a stray tear away from my cheek with a practiced hand. I tried to say something... I really did... But all that came out were more tears, and choked sobs, Madame Giry held me, and I let out my frustration... My guilt... My sadness... I muttered again, something I hadn't meant to say.
"I miss him."
