Chapter One
"You try my patience. Make your choice!"
I bolted up, sweat streaming down my forehead my heartbeat thrumming in my ears. Always the same nightmare, always haunting me. Running my fingers through my hair I looked over to Raoul lying in a drunken sleep next to me. Little he knew of the thoughts that had stayed with me for six long years now, not that he would care for my thoughts much. Not anymore.
Silently I swung my legs over the bed and tiptoed out of the room and onto the balcony needing some air to hopefully clear my thoughts. The cold wind hit me straight away as I prised open the doors, a satisfying chill running down my spine. My hands clutching the railing I gazed at the beauty of the night, the twinkling lights of the homes and shops below. Yet my thoughts still always went to him. My angel in hell.
Ever since I made the decision to go with Raoul, to take his once trusting and loving hands and let him lead me away from…him. That from then on and forever my soul would always be with the phantom. In his music and in his heart. The life that followed me was far from what I dreamt. After his businesses crashed and we lost money, Raoul…changed. His once tender words ceased and instead snide and cruel remarks hissed from his lips. Those gentle arms turned into a suffocating cage around me that I could not escape. Not to mention his now heavy reliance upon alcohol. All that time I had mistaken who was the real monster.
"I can't go on like this" I thought as a sharp gust of wind slapped me across the face. Every day wondering where my angel is yet not returning, instead enduring this lonely unloved life. My once greatest wish to stay with Raoul was now replaced with the wish to leave. A tear ran down my cheek as I thought about how lonely the phantom was. How I gave him hope and left him. It was in that moment I decided. My mind was past the point of no return. I would return to my angel. The question was would he accept me after all these years?
My mind was set and with a deep breath I creeped back inside of the room. Raoul didn't stir and the bear like sounds coming from his mouth indicated he wouldn't wake any time soon. Silently I hastily grabbed a large bag filling it with clothes and undergarments and essentials, piling them on top of one other in a frenzied fashion. Was I mad for doing this? Maybe, but a smile crept on my face at my recklessness, and the thought of the phantom. Having lightly packed I walked to the door before turning to gaze once more upon Raoul.
"Goodbye darling" I whispered before exiting quickly and descending down the winding staircase, pulling my coat over my nightgown as I reached the bottom. How indecent I was, luckily it was the dead of night and the opera house was an hours ride away.
Butterflies flew around inside as I thought about returning to the opera house, a place I had avoided and not been to since that night. All this time I had denied myself the greatest pleasure in my life of performing and singing at the Opera Populaire, a pleasure bestowed on me by the angel of music.
With a pair of reliable shoes upon my trembling toes I found my way outside to the stable where I wasted no time in saddling up my horse and riding away from my cage and into the blackened night. Breaking into a canter my hair blew in the wind as an almost urgency came upon me to reach the Phantom. To beg for his forgiveness. Perhaps if he did not love me anymore, he would learn to trust me once more. Oh how the tables had now turned. My mind replayed that last night again and again, each time those last words he said to me played in my mind.
"Christine…I love you"
Racing through the night I began to slow as the pavements and streets around me indicated I was near. My heart began to beat faster the closer I got, my stomach balled up into a fist as the realisation of what I was doing kicked in. With a slow turn of a corner I had arrived.
"Welcome home Christine" I whispered.