All right, it's a new one! Kind of a songfic. Only a little. I own no characters or words or anything, all copyright belongs to the Really Useful Group, Inc. (or whatever). Fun stuff. I want Gerry... Hmm...

Decisions

In the oppressive silence, a soft melody played through the darkness. Loving and plaintive, the words were barely definable through the gloom: Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime... And a higher voice, obviously female, answered uncertainly. The two voices blended as they faded out of hearing, echoing softly for a few moments against the sleek cavern walls.

Another voice cried out, so softly that the sound barely carried past trembling lips. You alone can make my song take flight... A figure knelt in a pool of candlelight, clutching a rose, his features distorted, tears falling freely across his cheeks; one, perfectly smooth, trim and healthy; the other, scarred and ruined beyond all hope, a horrific parody of the human feature it should be. He stood sharply, dropped the bloom, and called into oblivion: It's over now, the music of the night!

Far off, on a gondola gliding silently away from the scene of anguish, a young girl clutched onto the arm of a tall blond man. She gazed, intently and silently, back through the darkness which they had just left, listening for any sound that might echo through the caverns. The sound of the voice carried across the distance, and her eyes filled with tears to hear the agony of the cry. She buried her face into the man's sleeve, sobbing softly. He smiled grimly down at her, misinterpreting her pain for fear.

"Christine..." he said softly. "Nothing can harm you now. We have escaped that monster, and as soon as we are gone, I will have him hunted down. He can never harm you again."

"Oh, no Raoul! You can't! Don't harm him!"

"Why ever not? There is no reason for you to protect him! He is a murderer, no better than a vicious animal! I will not have him kept alive so he finds you, Christine! I will not have him take you again!"

"He never took me," she replied softly. "There was never a time that I did not go freely."

"Christine, all the things you've told me... Everything he's done to you, everything he's put you through... You spoke to me on several occasions of fear for your very life. How can you tell me now that you went to him voluntarily? What of just now, a few hours ago, when he stole you, in front of an entire audience, as he burned the Opera Populaire to the ground! How can you protect him, Christine? Why do you protect him?"

"I can't help it... He taught me to sing, he was my companion for years when all I knew was heartache and loss. He became a constant in my life, and despite everything that's happened, I believe he is a good man. And despite myself, I began to..." She trailed off miserably, refusing to meet Raoul's gaze.

"To love him," Raoul said softly. "You still love him. Don't you? I should have known. Don't you love me also? Do I not also hold any piece of your heart?"

"Of course, Raoul. You were my first love, and I do still love you, and I believe I always will."

Raoul had stopped poling, and the boat slid to a silent halt. "But?" he prompted.

"But," she sighed, "I will always love him more than anything else this world can offer. You, Raoul, you mean so much to me. As much as I loved you when we were young, you were like a brother to me; you offer kind, strong, dependable love, a steady devotion that I admire. But I could never return it when my heart, my true desire, would lie with Erik. I do love you; I wish you to know that. But Erik is everything that you are not; fiery, passionate, unpredictable, unstable. He loves me with an intensity that almost burns. And I cannot be asked to ignore that, to ignore the way I respond to him, for you. If it were any other way, if I had never met him, it would not be this way. I could give myself to you wholeheartedly. God, how I wish I could! But, Raoul, if you love me, you will let me go to him. He acts the way he does because I denied him. I think... I can change him. I need to try, at least. Please tell me you understand," she whispered, taking both his hands in her own.

He gazed at her silently for a second, then bent down and kissed her sweetly, with longing and desperation. He pulled away and sighed. "I do."

"Come," he said sadly, turning the boat around, "we must return. I will accompany you back to his... lair, to assure him that this is no deception."

Christine kissed his cheek, and whispered, "Thank you, Raoul. For everything you have given me. Especially my freedom." She sat down on the seat in the gondola, and the two traveled in uneasy silence back into the oppressive darkness from which they had so recently fled.