Without You

By GoldenLyre

-

I'm here without you baby

But you're still on my lonely mind

I think about you baby

And I dream about you all the time

I'm here without you baby

But you're still with me in my dreams

And tonight… It's only you and me

-

He emerged from the dark passage behind his mirror, tears fogging his eyes at the sight of his home. His beloved golden organ was strewn over the cold, stone ground. His precious knick-knacks that he has collected from his travels joined the dented, broken pipes of his organ on the cavern floor.

Erik saw a pile of his unfinished music and sketches being reduced to ashes in a small pile at the corner of the room. He dragged his feet to the bedroom, where he saw the black swan bed broken and disfigured.

Just like me, Erik thought bitterly as he assessed the damage.

The damage done was a mockery in his honor – The right side of the swan's previously intricately carved head was scratched and chipped aggressively, splinters protruding from its once-graceful crown. On instinct, his hand crept towards his own exposed disfigurement, feeling the inconsistent bumps and ridges.

Come see… The Devil's Child!

Erik shut his eyes tightly against the mocking voice of the gypsy that haunted his memory. But then, he saw something else. Someone different.

He heard a different voice.

Behind his closed eyelids, he saw none other than his Christine. She sang to him with the voice of an angel, tears clinging to her long, thick eyelashes, sympathy and longing stirring within her deep brown eyes. The sight, be it a hallucination or a dream it did not matter to him, brought another bout of tears to his own eyes as his heart clenched in his chest.

Without looking where he was going, his knees buckled and he landed on the shredded mattress and ripped velvet sheets of the round bed. Holding his head in his hands, he sobbed for the second time that night as her words rang about in his mind, in his heart.

Pitiful creature of darkness… What kind of life have you known?

God gave me courage to show you… You are not… Alone!

Erik opened his eyes and starred at the ground, his vision blurred with bitter tears. As his previous identity as the Phantom, the Opera Ghost, he refused to show weakness. He made himself believe he did not have one. Then Christine came and made him human. He still did not know if he should hate her for it, as he had gotten along fine without being attached to anything. Or anyone, for that matter.

He does not remember the exact moment he realized he was in love with her, but he knew that no matter where life led him from then on, he would never forget her.

He would never stop loving her.

-

Everything I know, and anywhere I go

It gets hard but it won't take away my love

And when the last one falls

When it's all said and done

It gets hard but it won't take away my love

-

Erik then wiped his tears out of his eyes with the palm of his pale hands. When he looked up, he saw her standing there. Soaked from head to toe, her smooth alabaster skin stained with tears, she still looked as beautiful as she ever in his eyes.

He reached out his hand hesitantly, if only to see if she were real. His hand came up halfway, and dropped back down. He was left with dreams and memories – of this he was certain. He bent his head onto his bent knees and murmured silently, barely above a whisper, "You're only a dream… You're not real. You're not here!"

He continued to whisper to himself distressfully, rocking back and forth. He took some time to register a gentle touch upon his hands that clung tightly to his curled knees. He looked up into his angel's eyes, looking very lost and vulnerable.

Christine's hands came to rest on the junction where his jaw met his neck, her thumbs tentatively brushing the skin of his cheeks. She began to sing with the voice that he taught her to use.

"I hear your fears…

Your torment and your tears!

I feel your loneliness

Share in your emptiness

I'm here to listen

I'm there to hear

To hear as this outcast hears…"

Erik's teary azure-green gaze never left her chocolate one. He lifted a hesitant hand to lay atop hers on his face, expecting her to dissolve into darkness; but he only felt cold, quivering skin.

Almost fearfully, he choked out, "Christine?"

Just as softly his beloved replied. "I'm here, and you're not alone anymore!" As soon as those words left her lips, she was tugged into his tight, desperate embrace. Her name was murmured repeatedly, as if to seek confirmation to her presence. Erik's eyes had clenched shut, refusing to let his mind believe that it was all a dream that she had returned. Returned to him.

Erik rained small, frantic kisses into her tangled russet curls, on her swanlike neck, her bared shoulder. Anything to make him believe that she was truly there.

Christine pulled back to reveal that her eyes were misted over with relief, mirroring the emotion in his. She gently ran the pads of her fingertips over the uneven ridges of Erik's ruined face. She whispered the exact words he had dreamed of hearing from her for too long…

"I love you…"

He choked, just barely able to get his words out. His hand placed at the nape of her neck, touching her forehead with his own, he met her gaze, refusing to back down from making his reply. "I love you too… More than you could ever know…"

Her lips brushed his, then he responded in kind by pulling her closer to him, refusing to let her go from his embrace ever again. And she did not want to leave him again either.

-

And tonight

It's only you and me

-

END

A/n: Back from the dead… XD