"Christine, I love you," he sang sorrowfully.
Tears spilled from Christine's eyes. He kidnapped her, haunted her mind and was going to force her to be his bride but yet she still pitied him. His life had been far from easy. "This face which earned a mother's fear and loathing," he had sang.
Christine loved him and she loved Raoul but, her love for Raoul was more like the love you have for a close friend or a brother. Her love for the Phantom though was deep and passionate. He made her soul come alive with a vibrancy no other did.
She wondered what his real name was. Surely it couldn't be Phantom or Angel.
'How could I do this to him? He was my angel - my angel of music,' she thought.
He was looking at her with a broken expression. "What do you want?" he asked, "Isn't your lover waiting for you?"
"I--What's your name? I can't call you Phantom or Angel forever."
"Lucky for you, you won't be here forever," he spat.
The mob was getting closer. "Leave before the mob comes," Phantom commanded. He would not face her, trying to hide the disfigured half of his otherwise handsome face. The mask lay in the other room on the piano.
"Just tell me your name," she persisted.
"I was never given one but I named myself Erik," he said flatly.
"Erik," she repeated, liking the way it rolled off her tongue. She walked over and sat on the swan bed that not too long ago she awoke on after her first show.
Erik looked at her begging her with his eyes to leave him to his misery. Christine felt all his sadness wash over her. She knew in an instant she wouldn't be leaving with Raoul. She wanted to know more about him. The angel who taught her all these years.
"Do you have a last name?"
Erik sighed. "If I had one, I never knew it. I gave myself the last name of Rousseau some years ago when it become necessary."
"You have a beautiful name, Angel…I mean Erik," she said kindly.
He waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. "Christine, why are you still here? I let you go. You're free to be with the Vicomte ," he said sounding deeply confused. Christine sat on the bed twirling the enjambment ring Erik gave her. It was really Raoul's ring that Erik had taken. It was only then Erik noticed she still had it on.
"Christine?" he said when she didn't acknowledge his question.
"Hmm?" she said looking up from her hand.
"I asked you what you were still doing here," he said.
Christine lowered her gaze to her hand again and answered the only way she knew how.
"Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime. Say the word and I will follow you. Share each day with me, each night, each morning. Say you love me...I know you do. Love me, that's all I ask of you," she sang minimally tweaking the words.
Erik surprised her by continuing the song. So he had been there the whole time, when she and Raoul confessed their love for each other. 'What a fool I was,' she thought.
"Anywhere you go let me go too. Love me. That's all I ask of you," he sang in answer ending the song.
More tears coursed down Christine's face. How she must have hurt him- the man she truly loved. She repeated the words he sang to her not long ago on the stage, showing him her love.
"Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime. Lead me, save me from my solitude. Say you want me with you, here beside you. Anywhere you go let me go too. Erik, that's all I ask of you."
Erik was half smiling, still unmasked tears not of sorrow slipping from his eyes. "Oh, Christine."
He moved to sit next to her when they heard Raoul say, "He's in there."
Christine looked panicked. "Erik, get out of here. They'll kill you if you're found. Is there an exit you can get to without being seen?"
He pulled the red velvet curtain away from the wall of the catacombs revealing a broken mirror doubling as a barrier to a passage way. He let go of the curtain concealing the passageway once more.
Christine sobbed. "Goodbye Erik."
"Goodbye Christine. I will come back for you."
He pulled back the curtain and stepped through the fractured mirror, covering it again once he was through.
The mob stormed in to see Christine crying on the bed.
"Where'd he go?" one of them asked.
She lied and pointed to one of the many exits she knew of. They all rushed to where she pointed leaving her alone in the room. She walked to where the piano was and picked up his mask. Next to it lied a rose as always tied with black ribbon on the stem. She picked it up and brought it to her nose, inhaling it's scent. His last rose until they met again. She'd hold onto them for him, the mask and rose. When he came back he could have the mask again. She smiled. She could wait a forever if she had to but she knew it wouldn't be that long.
"It's over now, the music of the night."