Chapter 2: The Limelight & Raoul…

…"Now, go along and make the music come to life once more." Christine nodded her head and started for the backstage area, humming a few scales to warm her voice up with before she faced the world.

As Christine waited backstage for her que, she saw Meg coming back offstage from her first ballet solo her mother, Madame Giry, has allowed her to do and Christine believed that Meg deserved a solo a long time ago. Compared to everyone else Meg has a right to be Prima Ballerina but then again Christine understood that Madame Giry was not allowed to show any favoritism to her only daughter.

Christine watched as Meg headed back towards the group of ballerinas and chatted with them about how her dance went. Christine smiled and thought back to the memories they both shared when she first arrived to the Opera House.

For a moment Christine was transported back into time when she was a young eight year old girl again and the pain of losing her father to the sickness washed freshly over her again. Once more she began to feel the tears threaten to escape from her eyes and she felt powerless to stop them.

Christine decided that praying would help not only the fresh wounds of remembering her father's death but to also stop her heart from racing fast. She found a spot away from the other cast and crew and sat in the dark corner.

Oh I wish you were here papa, I don't know how I can do this without you. I need you here with me, you were supposed to grow old and have grandchildren. If I could go back in time I would have done anyting to have stopped this from taking you away from me. Things have changed so much for me and I wish you were present tonight to hear me sing like we used to when we traveled around the world together with your violin and laughter. I didn't cry as much or worry about things because I knew you were right there with me. Papa, I met someone I love with all my heart but he is an angel and I cannot be with him because he belongs up there with you and mama. Please, dear god, help me find a way for us to be together. He has helped me through so much since your passing.

Christine finished her prayer and did the sign of the cross just in time for her to reach the wings and walk in on time. However, now she felt a wave of calmness around her and she was not frightened anymore. It almost felt like one of her papa's hugs he used to give her when she was a little girl, and Christine welcomed the safe and warm feelings that it brought upon her.

As she finished her lines to Piangi and he left the stage Christine faced an entire auditorium filled with people staring at her. But it didn't matter soon because once the music began she took a breath and allowed herself to gaze at Box Five, knowing that her Angel was watching her from his seat, to the back of the room as she began to sing.

Think of me, think of me fondly,

When we've said goodbye

Remember me once in a while

Please promise me you'll try

When you find that, once again, you long to take your heart back and be free

If you ever find a moment spare a thought for me...

We never said our love was evergreen or as unchanging a the sea

But if you can still remember, stop and think of me

Think of all the things we've shared and seen

Don't think about the ways things might have been…

Think of me, think of me waking silent and resigned

Imagine me, trying too hard to put you from my mind

Recall those days, look back on all those times

Think of the things, we'll never do

There will never be a day when I won't think of you

Flowers fade, the fruit of summer fades they have their seasons so do we

But please promise me that sometimes

You will think of me!

After hitting the high D on the "me" Christine could feel the adrenaline rush hit her as hundreds of roses were thrown onto the stage for her. All she could hear was clapping, whistling, and many "bravos" and "bravas!" As the curtain fell, almost all the stage crew and cast members flocked to her to congratulate her and question where she got the voice of an angel from. Christine felt herself smile wholeheartedly, for the first time in forever, and let the feeling flood her entire body.

After about ten minutes of constantly answering questions and saying thank you more times than she could count, Christine politely excused herself due to the exhaustion she felt from performing for her first time. Everyone, of course, agreed wholly with her and stopped pestering her as she went to the small chapel that was built in the opera house.

After she lit a flame over a picture of Gustave Daae she had placed there when she first came here and said a prayer for her father about the performance, she felt someone else was in the room with her. She heard a familiar voice call her name followed by the musical sound of her angel. Christine instantly relaxed because she was excited about meeting him tonight.

Meg emerged down the stairs and flew to her foster sister,

"Oh Meg! You did so amazing during act two! You danced so fluidly and gracefully out there that it brought me to tears!" Christine knew she was lying about seeing her dance, but she also knew that her friend and sister needed this appraisal as well because all her mother gives her is criticism.

"Christine enough of my acceptable dancing when you are the true star of the Opera Populaire now!

Where in the world have you been hiding? Really you were perfect!

I only wish I knew your secret, who is your great tutor?"

Christine was suddenly worried about that and looked away from Meg's imploring eyes, Christine knew that her long time best friend could read her eyes like a book and was not ready to answer any questions that arose from Meg's curiosity. Christine turned back to face a very excited Meg and smiled.

"I'm sorry I didn't let you know I was coming here, I was just feeling faint after singing so much tonight along with all the excitement." Christine glanced over to the picture of her father and Meg followed her eyes to see what she was really doing. Meg sighed because she could understand, according to her mother her father left them when Meg was a little newborn. So in a way, her father was as dead as Christine's was.

After Christine finished looking at her father's picture she gained enough courage to share a little secret with her sister, "Meg, when your mother brought me here to live, whenever I come down here alone to light a candle for my father a voice from above and in my dreams appears to me. He was always there you see, when my father lay dying in his bed he told me that I will be protected by an angel. An Angel of Music." Christine let the memory fill her and soon she felt the calming presence of her angel watching over her.

Meg pursed her lips trying to find the right way to ask her questions. "Christine do you believe, do you think the spirit of your father tutored you?"

Christine gently laughed, "No, of course not Meg. Not my father, someone else. But he loves me and I love him. That's all that matters.

Father once spoke of an angel, I used to dream he'd appear

Now as I sing I can sense him and I know he's here!

Here in this room he calls me softly, somewhere inside hiding

Somehow I know he's always with me, he the unseen genius!"

Meg followed her close friend as she walked and spoke of a man she barely knew. "Please,

Christine you must have been dreaming, stories like this can't come true

Christine you're talking in riddles and it's not like you!"

Christine spoke more about how her Angel guided and guarded her throughout the years in the opera house, feeling much better now that she was able to tell someone else about a person who has managed to make her feel like living once her last reason, her father, died arm's length away.

Meg walked with Christine back to the deserted hallway in the cast member's wing which only held Christine's dressing room. Meg looked around and thought, it's strange that in this entire, and very long hallway, that the builders only put Christine's dressing room in here. It doesn't make any sense! There should at least be a maid's closet or even a bathroom. Oh well, there are so many things about this opera house that I will never understand I might as well at it to the list…

When Christine and Meg reached the dressing room Meg began to walk in but Christine kept her from entering. Meg gave Christine a questioning look while Christine began to think up an answer.

"Meg I would really like to be alone with I'm getting freshened up. I need to pray to my father as well, please?" Christine hoped that Meg couldn't see through her little white lies and waited as Meg processed everything before answering.

"Well, I guess so Christine. If you need anything though, you can always talk to me or ask me, don't ever worry about me judging you. Ever. We are sisters remember? I promise to always be there for you." Meg said as she hugged Christine.

The little speech her sister told her made Christine almost cry from how sweet it was. Oh Meg, there is so much that I have kept from you. I wish I could tell you everything but I cannot because it is not safe for you to know. Christine decided on a safer reply,

"Thank you Meg, I believe you with all my heart. Thank you, I will be back soon but you go have a good time, do not let me ruin your night," as she closed the door on her closest friend she ever had. Christine sighed and began humming as she removed her dress and replaced it with a much nicer nightgown she found in the closest for her new personal belongings.

She sat back down at her vanity and began looking at herself wondering why it was her that got into the limelight. She heard a knock at her door and got up to answer it.

She was welcomed to find a young, handsome to some girls, pompous man holding a large bouquet of flowers.

"Hello miss, I would like to let you know that your performance tonight was simply amazing and oh! These flowers here are for you from my father and I." He handed her the vase containing all the daisies and lilies." For some reason this man looked so familiar to Christine but she didn't let her curiosity become noticeable.

"Thank you Vicomte," Christine replied politely as she sat the vase down at the table near her. She knew that she needed to keep her guard up because something in her didn't trust this man.

"Yes, well you are welcome. Not many people get the chance to go from a dancer to the leading soprano overnight. I need to return to my fiancée now, she will probably be waiting for me, she is really a big fan of yours."

Christine smiled and blushed politely to the compliment. "Yes well thank you messieur, I thank you for the pretty flowers." Christine watched as the man nodded his head and left while Christine closed her door once more to think to herself.

But before she could close it she heard a familiar motherly voice call out for her. "Christine! Wait, may I see you for a moment?" Christine saw her foster mother walking towards her at a calm pace. Christine grinned as she remembered all the lessons that Madame Giry taught her from proper lady mannerisms to the strict rules of ballet.

Once Madame Giry walked up to Christine she asked if they could move into her dressing room. Of course Christine knew her Angel would not mind her mother being in her dressing room because if she had not brought her to live here then she would never have known her Angel!

Christine relaxed as she sat back down and watched Madame Giry conjure a blood red rose with a black ribbon tied into a perfect rose on the stem.

"You did very well my dear, he is pleased with you," Madame Giry stated as she handed Christine the rose. Millions of questions immediately flew into Christine's mind, for a moment causing her to wonder if this was exactly how Meg felt all the time, and soon was about to ask many of them to Madame Giry now.

Who is the person she is referring to? Is this the same person that she knows? Is she talking about her angel?

Before she could ask Madame Giry any of these questions her foster mother quickly and swiftly excused herself from Christine's dressing room stating that she was retiring for the night and believed that Christine should sleep as well.

The young soprano looked up to the woman she has seen as a mother for many years now and nodded in agreement. The older woman looked at her daughter once more before leaving to retire to sleep before practice for Faust begins in mere hours.

Christine finished up removing her makeup and placing her curly dark brown hair into a low ponytail and began walking about to the door when a deep musical voice filled the empty air once more.