Chapter 2

Down Once More

"Christine you told me if you refused to go, that I had to carry you off by force," Raoul pleaded. "Don't make me resort to that."

"Raoul," Christine said, "Something has changed. I need to stay here. I can't run off at a time like this."

Christine sat at her vanity in her dressing room and Raoul stood guarding the door.

"Is it him? Is it that creature… that thing? Did he threaten you; is he forcing you to stay here? I can protect you from all that Christine, you said you loved me, now trust me Christine."

"No Raoul this is my choice. I do not doubt your word, but on that bridge when he sang to me… he was trying to tell me something. I pulled off his mask, so he could hide nothing, but it enraged him, as I knew it would, he looked like he was about to inflict something terrible, but he held back…"

"He is a monster Christine and he is manipulating you. We must get far away from here, so…"

"No," she cut him off. "If he is such a monster how would he be able to contain himself back there? I cannot leave here; there is something I must do."

"You promised me on the roof that you would run away with me at the stroke of midnight and here it is half past and we are still discussing it. Christine I love you and I have to get you away from here, I cannot live here and you cannot either. We need escape here, from him and all his manipulation."

"Raoul, you must go, but I must stay here. Give me a few more days; there are a few more things I have to figure out."

Raoul opened his mouth the object, but the sad look in her eyes stopped him.

"Just know that I am staying of my own free will and soon we run away together, but just not tonight."

Christine could see the hurt in Raoul's eyes, but she knew he wouldn't object to her wishes.

"We leave tomorrow night," he sighed and he left her alone.

Christine didn't know what held her back from going with Raoul. She loved him, but maybe not in the way she thought she did... and the look in Erik's eyes… Erik needed her and she couldn't leave him with a last memory of her humiliating him. Erik was her friend. He was there for her when she needed him and when Raoul was far away forgetting her. Raoul had been a great friend when they were children, but since the opera came in something had changed between them and Christine couldn't quite place it.

Christine had done a horrible thing to Erik, but it had to be done. She had hurt her angel and she knew it. She could only wonder what Erik thought of her now.

Erik limped through the dark corridors beneath the opera house; cold and alone. Christine would run off with Raoul, they would be married and there was nothing he could do about it. He had already caused so much pain, he didn't want to cause anymore to the one person he cared about.

He paddled his small boat across the underground lake to his secluded home. There he was greeted by silence and solitude. He walked over to his organ, his music, and his only life before Christine had come along. He sat down on the organ's bench and found there was no song sad enough, no melody depressing enough to pertain to his anguish.

What was happening? Music had always been there for him. Whenever he was alone, sad, angry, or anything, music was always there to comfort him, but now everything just seemed empty. The world was just an empty shell with her in it, even music seemed powerless now.

Erik rose from the bench and slowly stepped to the center of the room. He looked around at all that once seem most precious to him, so it was nothing, he was nothing.

Suddenly Erik screamed at the opera house five stories above him. The scream was inhuman, incomprehensible, and indescribably horrible it seemed to shake the foundation on which the opera house stood. Erik released all his pain and anger into that scream and there was just so much anguish in his heart.

His scream ended and Erik fell to his knees. "Christine," he whispered, "what have you done to me?"