I'm an awful human being and haven't finished my other fics but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ sorry, here it is. Another fic. EC, Leroux ish...

I reread the book for the first time in like years and completely forgot about like everything and got super inspired when I read that Christine picked up on Erik not being an angel before he actually revealed himself.

This picks up when Christine and Raoul are at the beach where they had met as children and he calls her out on her gentleman caller.

"Tell me everything you heard." My body was trembling but my focus was held fast. I cornered him without knowing it as the tears began to peak in my eyes.

"He said "And I thank you. No emperor ever received so fair a gift. The angels wept tonight."

There was a deafening quiet in my body. Raoul had heard the angel. My angel. My imposter.

I should have been the only one who was able to hear the voice. He assured me. When he first appeared to me he would whisper into my ear while I would walk down hallways or be enjoying a small meal with the rest of the choir. No one heard him. Raoul heard him.

I was so entranced in the chaos in my mind that I ran out of the room to my own at once. The innkeeper had seen my hysterics and knocked at the door. She walked in to find me on my fifth complete recitation of the rosary that I had gripped in my hands. I heard the rustling of Raoul in the room next to mine as he heard the door open to my room.

"I thought I would give you some time, dear, but I wanted to make sure you were alright."

"I'm so sorry but I must leave this instant."

I needed to find the voice. I needed to know who this being was that thought me a child to play tricks on. Cruel tricks. To mimic my fathers promises and sweet tales… I teared up again in the woman's presence as my mind traveled down the path it had been traveling on a loop.

"I'll go wake the stable boy." The woman did not question me and rushed out of the room. I could hear Raoul's door open as the woman left and rushed to the door to lock it as she left so that he would not enter unannounced as I was sure he would do at the moment.

I hurried to pack my small bag that I had brought with me to the beach and wrapped myself in two shawls as I started to realize that my body shook as I prepared to face this being.

A gently knock at the door was all I needed to run out of the room and follow the woman out to the stable.

I swiftly jumped into a cabbie and attempted to calm my mind as the several hour journey ahead would be best if I did not brood.

The attempt was moot.

The hours felt like years but until the cabbie pulled into the quiet early morning stable of the opera house I jumped out as quickly as possible. The sun was not yet close to brightening the sky but the morning doves were beginning to sing softly in the alley.

I ran into the halls and forced myself as my breath ran out. I could not bring air in as I had tied my corset too tightly in my aggression earlier.

I reached my dressing room and dropped the keys as I fiddled with the lock. Again I tried to unlock the door and successfully swung the door open.

I didn't know what I expected to find, or who I expected to find. I found my room entirely empty in darkness. I stepped in and shut the door behind me, locking it.

There was not a sound. I stood by the door as still as I could and listened intently to the empty air filled with only my pained breaths that blew my hair back and forth.

"Ange?" A whisper breathed out from my lips.

Silence.

"Ange?" A roar burst out from my mouth as I threw my shawls off of my body onto the armchair.

The room was completely dark now with the door shut. I ran to my vanity and felt for a match. The snare of the match blended in with my struggled breath.

I ignited the gas lamps in my room to a dim setting and paced trying to figure out where to start. I had not thought through my plans. Surely if the angel were an angel he should be able to come when sensing distress. But if the voice were a man or creature of some other form then if they were not present they would not know to come.

I began with a small bookcase, which was laid flush against my wall since I was assigned the room. I knew that I should not move it due to its immense size but my state gave me strength I did not know I had. It moved with effort applied to show an intact wall. Next I tore at an old poster that had been placed only a month before the voice appeared. Again nothing. I knocked along the walls against it to see if it should sound different. I wasn't sure what I was looking for but I knew that when the wall was empty behind a wall that it would sound different.

Every inch I crept along the wall sounded the same as I rapped against the paneling.

Until.

I knocked on the wall just in between my divider and my mirror. I heard it. The hallow sound. I knocked again and cried out.

My fingers fought to squeeze into some crook that would allow my to pull the panel from the wall but alas the panel would not budge. I knocked along the wall listening to the hallow knocks and continued on the other side of my mirror for another foot until it ceased.

I did not want to move the mirror as it was large and I was aware that it was quite old an had potential to break should I push it incorrectly. My determination was greater than this desire though.

I gently placed my hands on the side of the mirror and attempted to push it, however it would not budge. I pushed my full weight against it yet again it did not move.

I repositioned myself so that I could pull it across. A sweat broke out on my upper lip.

I pulled until my hands slipped from the grip and I stumbled to the floor, foolishly splaying my hand against the glass of the mirror for balance. My sweaty, sticky hand had enough grip on the glass to slide it open. Open.

I felt a cool gust of wind blow onto my heated face. I stumbled to my feat and inspected my discovery.

The mirror slid sideways into the wall itself. The frame of the mirror was built into the wall. I slid the mirror open more to reveal blackness and a stale cold.

An echo of nothingness hit my ears.

Fear rose into my heart as a much more sinister thought reached my mind than the voice being a human imposter.

What else could the imposter of an angel be but a demon? I imagined a monster crawling out of the darkness to snatch me from my dressing room and quickly shut the mirror.

I didn't notice my tears until the mirror was back in its place and showing me my reflection. Red eyes and a red nose were barely visible in the dim light. I turned my vanity away knowing that the path to hell lay on the other side of the vision I was staring at.

I collapsed into the armchair which I had thrown my shawls onto. My tears began to fall out in grotesque sobs as I thought of myself falling fool to a devils game. What was the demons wish with my voice? I couldn't bring myself to understand.

Eventually my exhaustion caught up with me somewhere in the middle of my crying and I fell asleep.

The next I could remember was waking to the light airy melody of the angel. I smiled as I came to. A distant dream of my father and I at the beach had passed through my mind just as I grew aware of the dimly lit dressing room. I gasped and jumped to my feet as the gentle voice embraced me as it had everyday for the past three months.

My tears came back; gentle this time. I loathed myself for the frailness of my emotions.

The voice grew even gentler; I could tell it was trying to comfort me. I wanted none of it. The childlike anger welled up once more in me and I was no longer afraid to face the devil.

"Cease this unholy lie." I sniveled at the ground, balling my hands into fists with my head downturned.

The voice stopped as if it had run full force into a wall. I took my handkerchief and rosary from my pocket and dabbed my eyes. I held tight to the corded beads gifted to me at my first communion.

"Show yourself," I looked right at myself in the mirror.

There was silence.

I squeezed one last time in the silence before I huffed and acted on the impulse of bravery I felt.

I ran to the mirror and slid it open with more speed than I knew I had.

Instead of just the gust of wind meeting me, the lights in the room illuminated so bright that it nearly took away my vision. When the flash finished they extinguished themselves and I found myself in darkness. In cold.

The fear that instilled me sent me backwards but I could not for a thin cool hand snaked around my wrist and held me in place. I pulled back but my strength was dull next to the one pulling me. I tripped a little as I passed through where I believe the barrier between my mirror and the black darkness was. Another firm hand grabbed my waist and steadied me. I began to cry again as I realized I was at the mercy of Lucifer.

"Who are you," I sobbed out, but there was no answer. We moved forward more and began to pick up pace. In the distance a red illumination offered some light. I gasped as I thought I was certainly being led to hell by a demon. Why had I been so stubborn? So stupid? Surely I could have let one of the groundskeepers know about the passageway and had my room changed.

"Hail Mary, full of grace," my fingers found one of the beads. I murmured as low as I could, "the lord is thee." We neared closer to the red light and I could see the stone of the wall next to it. "Blessed art thou among women," I could now see the light was not the fire of hell but the fire of a dim lamp. "And blessed is the fruit of thy womb," another few steps and I could see the pale color of fingers wrapped around the skin of my shaking wrist. "Jesus."

I looked up an could see only two shining eyes staring back into mine and the outline of a black mask. The opera ghost.

The bit of red light disappeared as I lost the ability to hold my weight. I was aware of floating and nothing more after that.