Take a Chance and Be Strong
By: Muse
Description: A song phic describing a NadirxErik scene after everything has happened.
Song used: 'Go' by Boys Like Girls
Disclaimer: I do NOT own the song I used or the characters. I am simply writing this for fun, not profit. I also do not own the long, long, extremely long monologue Erik uses right after Nadir comes. That is straight from the novel by Gaston Leroux!
Side Note: Yes, there were telephones in France in Erik's time. Old ones, but telephones. I looked it up. So, yes, the lyric 'Don't wanna wake up to the telephone ring' works.
'Why are you even doing this? What do you have to do with the mess Erik is in?'
"I have everything to do with this." The Persian, Nadir Khan, thought sullenly as he descended the stairs that led to the fifth cellar. "I am his friend…he needs me."
'But why would Erik need you, of all people?'
"Because if I do not step in, no one will!" Nadir snapped, unaware that he was no longer keeping his one-sided conversation silent.
'Why do you even CARE? He's a killer! He even killed your SON!'
"Erik spared my son. He saved him from a horrible death. I…I hated to do it…but…it had to be done! I owe Erik for helping Reza and I…"
'You have owed Erik for years now! You have repaid him ten times over for his assistance all those years ago, it is time for leave him!'
"No! I must help him!" Nadir hissed as he took a left, knowing from past experience that the right led to a Burmese tiger pit. He almost had not survived that encounter…only quick thinking on both he and Erik's part saved him.
'Turn back now. Do it, man!'
Nadir shook his head fiercely and kept walking. In all honesty, he did not want to do this, either. His hands were shaking and, as previously stated, his conscience was begging him to flee. But…but he would not allow himself to become scared. He was the daroga, for Allah's sake! He was supposed to be valiant and strong, not trembling like a lost puppy! Nadir knew Erik would certainly die if left alone to suffer…Nadir had to intervene.
Finally, the chief of police reached the deepest part of the cellar, Erik's home. It only took him a short time and little energy to find the poor, unfortunate Erik sitting at his organ, hunched over the keys. His head was down and probably in pain from pressing on the beautiful instrument for so long, but Nadir couldn't worry about trivial things like that. It was Erik's face…if it hurt, he either would do something about it or…in the state he was in, ignore it.
Nadir could easily describe Erik's looks in one word; awful. His wig was off, and obviously, his mask was, too. Both items were probably lying around Erik's dwelling someplace, hidden beneath the rubble and rock that the deformed man's home had been reduced to.
The Persian took a few steps towards Erik, planning to lay a hand on the emotionally destroyed man's shoulder, but all subtlety was lost as he stepped on a shard of glass. A resounding 'crack' broke the almost deadly silence, and Nadir cringed involuntarily.
Erik's body suddenly sprung into action. He whirled around to meet his intruder, absolutely livid at first…but his eyes softened a fraction as he recognized the man.
"Daroga! How dare you sneak up on me in a time such as this!" He clutched his chest. "Have you lost your mind? I could have had a heart attack!"
At those words, his mood dropped abruptly. "But what does it matter? I'm dying, anyway, daroga…my life is meaningless without her…"
Nadir's body relaxed. "Erik, please…you are not dying! Never! I will not let you!" He said almost playfully, trying to console his friend. Even after everything that had happened, Erik was still…something to him. Friend, as stated before? Maybe not in the normal sense of the word…but friend in their own way.
Erik sighed. "I am dying...of love...That is how it is... I loved her so!...And I love her still...daroga...and I am dying of love for her, I...I tell you!...If you knew how beautiful she was... when she let me kiss her...alive...It was the first...time, daroga, the first...time I ever kissed a woman... Yes, alive...I kissed her alive ...and she looked as beautiful as if she had been dead! I kissed her just like that, on her forehead... and she did not draw back her forehead from my lips!...Oh, she is a good girl!...She is a good, honest girl, and she saved your life, daroga, at a moment when I would not have given two pence for your Persian skin. As a matter of fact, nobody bothered about you. Why were you there with that little chap? You would have died as well as he! My word, how she entreated me for her little chap! But I told her that, as she had turned the scorpion, she had, through that very fact, and of her own free will, become engaged to me and that she did not need to have two men engaged to her, which was true enough. As for you, you did not exist, you had ceased to exist, I tell you, and you were going to die with the other!...Only, mark me, daroga, when you were yelling like the devil, because of the water, Christine came to me with her beautiful blue eyes wide open, and swore to me, as she hoped to be saved, that she consented to be MY LIVING WIFE!... Until then, in the depths of her eyes, daroga, I had always seen my dead wife; it was the first time I saw MY LIVING WIFE there. She was sincere, as she hoped to be saved. She would not kill herself. It was a bargain... It was understood that I was to take you both up to the surface of the earth. When, at last, I cleared the Louis-Philippe room of you, I came back alone... Ah, you see, daroga, I couldn't carry HIM up like that, at once. ...He was a hostage...But I could not keep him in the house on the lake, either, because of Christine; so I locked him up comfortably, I chained him up nicely-a whiff of the Mazenderan scent had left him as limp as a rag-in the Communists' dungeon, which is in the most deserted and remote part of the Opera, below the fifth cellar, where no one ever comes, and where no one ever hears you. Then I came back to Christine, she was waiting for me. Yes, she was waiting for me...waiting for me erect and alive, a real, living bride...as she hoped to be saved...And, when I...came forward, more timid than...a little child, she did not run away...no, no...she stayed...she waited for me...I even believe...daroga...that she put out her forehead...a little...oh, not much...just a little... like a living bride...And...and...I...kissed her!... I!...I!...I!...And she did not die!...Oh, how good it is, daroga, to kiss somebody on the forehead!...You can't tell!... But I! I!...My mother, daroga, my poor, unhappy mother would never ...let me kiss her...She used to run away...and throw me my mask! ...Nor any other woman...ever, ever!...Ah, you can understand, my happiness was so great, I cried. And I fell at her feet, crying ...and I kissed her feet...her little feet...crying. You're crying, too, daroga…"
It was true; tears were streaming down Nadir's face as he listened to Erik.
"...and she cried also...the angel cried!... Yes, daroga...I felt her tears flow on my forehead...on mine, mine!...They were soft...they were sweet!...They trickled under my mask...they mingled with my tears in my eyes...yes ...they flowed between my lips...Listen, daroga, listen to what I did...I tore off my mask so as not to lose one of her tears...and she did not run away!...And she did not die!... She remained alive, weeping over me, with me. We cried together! I have tasted all the happiness the world can offer! Listen, daroga...listen to this...While I was at her feet...I heard her say, `Poor, unhappy Erik!' ... AND SHE TOOK MY HAND!...I had become no more, you know, than a poor dog ready to die for her...I mean it, daroga!... I held in my hand a ring, a plain gold ring which I had given her ...which she had lost...and which I had found again... a wedding-ring, you know...I slipped it into her little hand and said, `There!...Take it!...Take it for you...and him! ...It shall be my wedding-present a present from your poor, unhappy Erik...I know you love the boy...don't cry any more!' ...She asked me, in a very soft voice, what I meant... Then I made her understand that, where she was concerned, I was only a poor dog, ready to die for her...but that she could marry the young man when she pleased, because she had cried with me and mingled her tears with mine!..."
Erik's voice faded, and Nadir wiped the remaining tears from his face.
"Erik…this is not the end. Mademoiselle Daae may be gone, but…but there's still a lot to live for!"
Erik's anger came out again. "Don't. You. Patronize. Me." He stressed each syllable like his like depended on it, which it probably did, more or less.
"No, Erik, no….I mean…there's so much out there to see. You have to open your eyes…and take a chance."
"My chances have all died out long ago, daroga." Erik spat, putting his face in his hands.
Nadir finally had the nerve to place his tanned hand on Erik's shoulder. Erik flinched slightly, but he did not try and move away.
"Little change of the heart…
Little light in the dark…
Little hope that you just mind find your way up 'outta here!"
Nadir sat down beside Erik on the bench, moving his arm so that it was around the now weeping man's shoulders.
"'Cause you've been hiding for days...
Wasted and wasting away…
But I got a little hope; today you'll face your fears!
Oh yeah, I know it's not easy!
I know that it's hard!
Follow the lights to the city…"
Erik looked up at the Persian, his eyes red and puffy.
"Get up and go…
Take a chance and be strong!
Or you could spend your whole life holding on…
Don't look back, just go!
Take a breath, move along!
Or you could spend your whole life holding on!
You could spend your whole life holding on…"
Nadir took Erik's hand in his and helped him stand. He then put his free hand to his face in a simple gesture that would hopefully make sense to Erik. Erik nodded and pointed over to the remains of his desk. Sure enough, his wig and mask were there, Christine having picked them up before Erik returned to her the final time. Nadir helped Erik put these articles on, and, strangely enough…Erik let him. "He is more broken then I thought…" Nadir thought sadly.
Nadir then started to take Erik out of the cellar with him. Erik looked very worried at first, so Nadir tried to console him.
"Believe the tunnel can end…
Believe your body can mend!
Yeah, I know you can make it through, 'cause I believe in you!
So, let's go put up a fight!
Let's go make everything all right!
Come on and take a shot, go give it all you got!"
Erik was beginning to calm down, it seemed, and Nadir smiled softly. His friend would need time, yes…but for now, getting outside and away from Paris was the most important thing.
"Oh yeah, I know it's not easy!
I know that it's hard!
I know it's not always pretty…
Get up and go…
Take a chance and be strong!
Or you could spend your whole life holding on…
Don't look back, just go!
Take a breath, move along!
Or you could spend your whole life holding on!
You could spend your whole life holding on…!"
Nadir's expression became slightly serious as he started up the stairs with Erik.
"Don't wanna wake up to the telephone ring;
'Are you sitting down?
I need to tell you something…
Enough is enough; you can stop waiting to breath…!
And don't wait up for me…'
Get up and go…
Take a chance and be strong…
You could spend your whole life holding on…!
Don't look back, just go!
Take a breath, move along!
Or you could spend your whole life holding on!
Get up and go…
Take a chance and be strong…
You could spend your whole life holding on…!
Don't look back, just go!
Take a breath, move along!
Or you could spend your whole life holding on!
You could spend your whole life holding on…!"
The duo arrived at a special side door that led into the alleyway beside the Opera House.
Nadir looked over at Erik, his expression pleading.
"Don't spend your whole life holding on…
Yeah…"