Chapter 3

It was late one evening when Erik first heard her voice floating through the fine arts building. He had locked himself in his office to catch up on grading his students' papers, but kept finding himself composing new parts of his opera instead. He finally decided to take a walk through the building in hopes of clearing his mind so he could focus on grading. He had just entered the hallway containing the music practice rooms when a soft, angelic voice reached his ears. It was unlike any other voice he had ever heard while a professor at this school and it seemed to take him back to his childhood when his mother used to sing around the house. Erik's hand slowly trailed the side of his mask as he thought of his mother. All he had ever wanted was her approval, her love. All she wanted was a normal son and that was the one thing he could not achieve. It did not matter how talented he was in singing or piano, how many sketches or drawings he created for her or how intelligent he became. All she ever saw when she looked at him was his disfigured face; he had been born with a port wine stain covering most of his face, neck and down his chest.

When he was born she was appalled with how he looked, but the doctor assured her that these birthmarks were fairly common and typically treatable, although his did seem to cover more surface area than most. They tried different treatments on him multiple times as a young child, but each time the markings seemed to become darker in color and more inflamed. By the time he was seven his skin was a deep purple with rough bumps all over and the doctors deemed him impossible to cure. His face was now one that not even a mother could love. His mother soon fell into a bout of depression and began thinking Erik was the spawn of Satan himself. The more he tried to win her over, the more her disgust turned to fear which turned to hatred. She spiraled so deep into her distraught mind that finally she took her own life, no longer wanting to be the mother of a Devil child.

Erik's mouth fell open as these feelings of despair washed over him as he listened to the singing. He had tried to block out his horrific childhood as much as possible, but this voice brought back all his feelings of loneliness with a full force. "Whose voice is that?" He barely muttered out loud. He slowly made his way closer to the practice room as if his body was no longer controlling itself. He finally reached the door and peered through the glass panel and saw Christine Daae singing along to the music she was listening to through her headphones. Tears began to fall gently down her pale face as she continued to sing, and Erik could feel his heart swell at the sight of her pure beauty.

He continued to stand there listening and with each note she sang he could feel himself falling in love with her; a feeling he had never fully felt to this extreme. He wanted to walk in there and wipe all the tears from her face and make sure that nothing could ever make her cry again. He wanted to embrace her small body in his arms so she felt safe. But most of all, he wanted to have her sing for just him. As her song came to end, she looked up and finally noticed him standing there and let out a little shriek, covering her mouth with her hands. She then opened the door and looked at him with a mix of confusion and shock. "Dr. Destler?"

Erik felt his face turn quite hot, and suddenly his legs did not know if they should keep standing there or start running. "I…I'm sorry, Ms. Daae. I didn't mean to scare you like that…" He wanted to hit himself for not walking away before she noticed him, but he knew there was no way he could have left.

"No, I'm sorry. Was I too loud? Was I bothering you? I didn't think anyone could hear me in here, otherwise I would've never started singing. I don't really like people listening to me sing." She turned a deep shade of red, something that Christine noticed her professor was capable of causing many times. Her voice was soft and still held a hint of the tears that she had just been crying. She quickly wiped her eyes and looked even more embarrassed. "Oh, don't look at me, please, I cannot believe you heard me sing and saw me cry…" She looked so distressed that Erik actually felt his arms reach towards her.

He stopped mid-motion and instead ran his hand through his dark brown hair. "For what it's worth, I think your voice is beautiful. Why is this the first time I've heard you sing? With a voice with that, surely you could give Charlotte a run for her money for the lead of the musical, and Lord knows we could use someone different singing since, truth be told, her voice is highly overrated. I just have no one else to cast for those parts. But you…" Erik's nearly black eyes almost seemed to glimmer with hints of gold. "Your voice is just so pure. How long have you been taking voice lessons?"

"I…are you kidding? Uh, I've never had real lessons, actually. My dad would have me sing along to his violin or piano playing, so I just grew up with music. But, I never really perform like I used to. Not since he died…" Her green eyes began to swell with tears again. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to cry like this, I just…miss him so much and music just always makes the pain so much worse…" With that she tried to brush past him, so she could just get out of this whole situation but he grabbed her arm when she neared the door.

"Please." The word resounded in her ears like a timpani. "Please don't leave. You cannot truly believe that music causes pain in this world. Music is one of the only pure beauties that this world has to offer. You must embrace it and let it heal your wounds. You…you must let me help you."

She frowned and shook her head so that her long hair fell free from her low ponytail she had haphazardly pulled her hair into while practicing. "I…I don't understand."

Christine was suddenly aware of how close she was to her professor, and that he was still holding onto her arm. Her arm seemed to tingle where his fingers grasped her bare skin, and she found herself taking a small step towards him so their bodies were nearly touching. He looked so intently at her and said, "Let me help you feel the warm delight of music again. If I train you then you will far exceed any singer at the university. You will become a star." His deep voice was merely a whisper but it echoed through her and set her whole body on fire. Her brain was trying so hard to put any form of a sentence together but she could hardly figure out how to breathe, let alone talk, with the way he was looking at her. All she could manage was a slight nod of agreement. "Yes? Good. Meet me in my office tomorrow night at 10:00 and we will begin." He leaned his mouth to her ear and said, "But do not tell anyone about this." Her eyes fluttered shut as his breath tickled her neck. "This is our little secret." Again she nodded her head and Erik's lips turned upright in what was almost a smile. "Good. Until tomorrow, my Angel of Music." He then finally let go of her arm and left the room into the darkness of the hallway.

Christine stood there for a moment longer and finally caught her breath. She gently touched her arm where Erik had held onto and smiled for the first time all day.

To be continued...

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