Chapter 4: The Fallen Angel
The Phantom had not heard Meg's arrival. So, this last one moved the most silently possible. He continued to rock. His face was hidden between the arms. He murmured between his sobs a name which he repeated to the infinity.
" Christine... Christine... Christine... "
He seemed in trance, blinds, ignoring the girl who got closer to him.
Meg considered him one moment, not knowing which attitude to adopt.
What was it happened to Christine? Did she have to turn back before he realizes her presence? Did she have to bring him out of his torpor? What reaction would he have against her?
All these questions crowded in her head, but her instinct, her feelings of compassion and pity got the upper hand over her spirit. This man did not look like any more the proud and haughty Don Juan, the captivating voice, fascinating the spectators of the opera a few hours before. It was not more than a wounded animal. So, she knelt down in front of him and held out the hand to touch his arm.
Hardly she had touched it that he went out abruptly of his torpor, jumping up on his legs as an agile feline. The suddenness of this movement frightened Meg, who brought down the mask which she held. She pushed her back against the opposite wall of the tunnel in the one that occupied the Phantom. This one was standing in front of her, a flash of madness crossed his eyes.
" Whom are you, poor impertinent woman? You have to make nothing here! He roared with a hoarse voice. What do you want? To deliver me to the outside world? "
Meg remained paralyzed, hypnotized by this deformed face which she could distinguish in this crepuscular brightness. The right side was shrivelled, with a reddish color. His falling lower eyelid, enlarged his look in a absurd way making him still crazier. The right side of the skull almost lacked hair, whereas his other profile wasn't comparable at left side was extravagantly perfect, of an almost ridiculous beauty, if the fury which boiled in him, at this moment, had not deformed his features.
The dumbness of the girl put the Phantom in a nameless anger. He swept down on her and, with a single hand, gripped her the throat.
" Did not you know that the curiosity is a mortal sin? He whispered to her, tears continuing to pour along his cheeks. I lost everything. Today, I am not more than a Fallen Angel but I assure you that nobody will be again the witness of my fall. You will fall at the same time as I! "
Meg's heart beat to break everything in her breast. She would have liked shouting but the Phantom's grasp closed with more and more strength around the neck. She tried of fighting against this hold but in vain. She had no longer the necessary strength. She would thus be the new victim of this monster.
She had understood too late that you do not approach a wounded and forced wild animal because it has no other instinct than attacking to death. Butterflies danced in front of her eyes. She suffocated and misses oxygen. This leaded her, little by little, towards the unconsciousness and the death...
" Erik! What are you doing? Release her at once! She made nothing to you! She is my daughter! "
This voice seemed to come of beyond the grave. Meg felt the grasp disappearing. She subsided on the hard, wet and cold ground. She was paralyzed. The air filled again her lungs and the stabbing burning in her throat, every inspiration, made her take back consciousness.
When her mind found all its lucidity, she recovered and recognized her mother, who was standing in front of the Phantom. She was at the edge of the hysteria and roared at the top of the voice.
" Why were you attacking her? She does not want to harm you. You had promised me, Erik! Everything but not Meg!''
''I am sorry, Antoinette, he answered her, in moaning again. I was caught off my guard. I thought that nobody would find me in this place. I acted without thinking of what I did. "
Meg felt her mother helped her to get up.
" Meg, my darling, are you fine? She asked her in a terrified voice. "
But she could not answer her, taken by a coughing fit. Her throat burned as the Hell. Her sigh improved little by little and she was able to distinguish her mother who supported her by the waist, the face was still frozen by the fear, which she had had by discovering her dying daughter.
When Meg was up and about again, Madame Giry embraced her in a gesture of reassurance and love, contrary to her usual character. The glance of the girl settled on this one of her executioner, at the moment, standing, catching against at the stony wall.
" Forgive me... Forgive me... Forgive me, he repeated "
Meg was still incapable to articulate the slightest word to answer him. Her mother released her embrace and approached then the man
" Erik, what happened, after Christine's kidnapping? The viscount came to save her. I sent him to search her. It is me who guided him until you. You had to leave herthe choice, she...''
''I lost her, he cut her, eyes filled with pain. I gave her an ultimatum: he or I.''
''And she chose the viscount, didn't it?''
''No, she kissed me, he said, still stunned by this act which he had not ordered. I let her leave with him. I... "
His voice got lost in a murmur.
Madame Giry put a hand on his shoulder. Meg was stunned by this mark of affection towards the Phantom, towards Erik, as her mother called him. He did not oppose to this contact and the girl understood that her mother had a strong link with him, as a kind of authority which he did not dispute.
" I knew that she would choose me only by the strength.I had organized everything. De Chagny had to die, this evening. He did not have to intervene any more between us. But when her lips settled on mine, my spirit became muddled and nothing mattered anymore, set apart her happiness. I let them leave...''
''You acted well, Antoinette Giry answered him.''
''I acted like a coward, he replied her, finally becoming aware of his behaviour.''
''No, you acted as a human being. A human being capable of love. The love has many forms, Erik. The selfish love, which you carried to her, was only taking her away from you. This evening, you showed altruism. You understood that the deep love was at first to make the happiness of the other one. By letting her choose the viscount, you preferred to let her live a happy and free life rather than a life to hate you and to consider you always like an executioner rather than a lover. "
Erik wanted to bury his face in the hands but Madame Giry anticipated it and surrounded him the cheeks of her frail fingers, ignoring the ugliness of his face.
" I am proud of you, she whispered him, in looking at him in eyes. "
The Phantom seemed ill-at-ease, in this contact. Meg, who had followed their conversation, recovered from the shock of her aggression. Many mysteries had just cleared up and she knew that so much whom her mother was there, she risked nothing more. In her feet, was the white mask which she had released. She took it and wanted to give it to her mother but it was Erik, who took back it, by thanking her.
" I do not know if you will forgive me a day but I promise you that it won't never happen again, Mademoiselle Giry. "
By wearing back his mask, he had found an self-assurance, comforting words of her mother having also walked in his mind. Meg recognized then the coolness of the man, who she had always caught a glimpse and who was in a million years from the pursued animal that she had had the misfortune to meet, some minutes earlier.
" Call me Meg, was the only answer she could say. "
This man intimidated her too much but she felt that she could not ignore the protective instinct which her own mother had against him. She kept lowered( eyes, since Erik's confidences and she was intrigued by the fact that he had kept his left fist closed with strength, all this time.
What did he thus hide?
She swallowed and the pain which radiated in her throat reminded her taming her curiosity. So she kept this question for her. The Phantom had promised to harm her no longer but was he capable of keeping a promise?
"I suppose that the opera is surrounded. You would better go out. They are going to ask too many questions above, said Erik, with a composed voice, as if the conversation was natural.''
''Yes, they wait for you or quite at least they hope for it. When Christine and the viscount went out again from the passage leading to the small chapel, everybody wanted to assail them with questions, but they wanted to answer nobody of them and left with the carriage of the viscount. "
In the names of Christine and Raoul, Erik sketched no gesture. The human half side of his face remained impassive.
"You have to take the passage leading towards the East wing of the opera.''
''And you? What will you do?''
''I am a ghost, don't forget that. The Phantom of the opera will disappear at the same time as this last one.''
''What do you mean? Madame Giry asked, worried.''
''Do not worry about me. Go with your daughter to the house. You see that this purchase was useful. Pass by the entrance about which I had spoken to you. You will live in it and will be as there at home. I doubt that Gilles André and Richard Firmin, " your employers ", help you to find you a suitable roof to sleep this night. I shall join you when my business will be settled.''
''Very well, I shall wait for you. "
Madame Giry grasped the hand of her daughter and they borrowed the road of the exit. Meg turned around but Erik had already disappeared. Apparently, he had returned to his lair. Her mother pulled her of a fast step, knowing apparently very well this maze of corridors, staircases and forks. Never she had imagined that below the opera was such a tracery of underground passages.
" Please Meg, above all, no word on what has just happened. No one must know, she ordered her"
Her daughter was able to only agree with her head whereas her mother opened a door, which leaded them outdoors.
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