To my dearest darlingest Momsy and Popsicle- I mean readers. Did anyone read the last chapter? :)
This chapter is ridiculously fluffy.
Rating: T, because I'm paranoid.
Characters: Christine, Erik, Raoul (as a girl), Andre, Firmin, Carlotta, Piangi, Meg Giry, Madame Giry, etc. etc. and some minor OCs.
Summary: Instead of Raoul, Renee. Instead of a boy, a girl. Instead of an unhappy ending for Erik, a happy one. What the musical may have been like if Raoul were a girl. Erik/Christine. Mostly musical verse, some book-based ideas and concepts.
Disclaimer: Do you really think that if I owned the Phantom of the Opera, Christine would have ended up with Raoul? Can I say "fop" enough? Code for: I don't own anything. The only thing I own is this pack of tic tacs. Wait, my sister owns that. Too bad *downs tic tacs*
Penelope Zozes: Yay, lemon bars! I will eat them after I'm done with my tic tacs. Here's your cookie.
Anonymous Reviewer That Threatened To Kill Me: I'm happy you like the story so much, however, if you kill me, you'll never know what happens! *dramatic chipmunk*
Meg Giry was the first to scream, a heart-wrenching, bloodcurdling scream.
The girls that were standing near where the body had landed were gagging and swooning.
It only took a moment for cries of "It's the Phantom!"
"The Ghost has arrived!"
"He's here- the Phantom of the Opera!" to arise, while the audience interrupted into blind, insane panic.
Carlotta shoved Christine and glared at her. "It's all your fault! You lying little toad! You murderous witch!" Her cursing became louder and more frenzied, and soon drifted off into Spanish.
But Christine didn't respond. She didn't glance at Carlotta. She wasn't even listening. Instead, hot tears streamed down her cheeks.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" Andre and Firmin were desperately trying to calm the screeching crowd. "Please, remain in your seats! It was an accident! Merely an accident!" Andre turned to Christine.
"Miss Daae -"
But Christine could take no more. She turned on her heel and ran offstage.
Renee stared in pure, blind, shock at the stage, then promptly fainted into Averell's arms.
"Good God, " he said to himself. "Perhaps we should be going home now..." and mumbling to himself about the events of the evening, he half dragged, half carried his swooning wife to the entrance hall of the Opera Populaire, where he quickly hailed a carriage and guided her to it, hoping to God that nothing bad would come of this night.
The Phantom watched the scene of confusion from Box Five, feeling an unfamiliar stab of emotion in his gut. It took him a moment to name the feeling. What was it? Ah, yes, the Phantom thought, pained. Guilt.
He put his face in his hands, the new emotion overtaking him. Was it his fault? Was he to blame for this misfortune, for the possible shattering of his beloved Christine's opera career? And what of the man? Did he have family, a wife, children even? Had Erik inadvertently caused his children to suffer poverty, perhaps worse? He looked upon the stage again and saw that Christine had fled. Erik began to panic, quietly so. Where had she gone? She could get seriously injured by the mass of stampeding people everywhere.
His mind flying over common hiding places of hers, he suddenly realized where she was probably hiding.
With a swish of his cape, he departed Box Five and left for the roof of the Opera Populaire.
He heard sobbing even before he opened the heavy wooden door that he knew led to the starry night above. "Christine?" He said gently as he opened the door.
"Go away!" Erik heard the angelic voice of his Angel.
"Christine..." He stepped out onto the rooftop, seeing Christine curled into a little ball. "Why have you come up here? You must return!"
"Don't make me go back there!" She spun herself around and glared at him. "You'll kill me!"
Erik felt his heart break. "Christine...don't say that...you know I won't..."
"Your eyes will find me there! And if you have to kill a thousand men!" Christine's eyes were filled with tears. "You will kill, and kill, and kill again!" She broke down, still sobbing. "My God what kind of man are you, who hunts to kill! I won't escape from you!"
"I am but the voice you hear-"
"I never will!" Christine's eyes were wide and roamed around the roof, looking for an escape. "And in your labyrinth where night is blind -the Phantom of the Opera is there, inside my mind! You-" she pointed with a trembling finger at her Angel- "are the Phantom of the Opera!"
"I did not kill him!" The Phantom roared. Christine scooted back, shocked.
"You are a monster, nothing more than a creature of the night..."
"You make assumptions of me."
"I've been there, I've been there, to your world of darkness, of unending night...I've seen your world, where mere daylight dissolves into darkness!" Christine spat at her teacher. "But your voice..your organ...it filled my spirit with such a sweet, strange sound." Christine tried to make reason of her situation, the two conflicting people- the Phantom of the Opera and her Angel.
"In that night, there was music in my mind. My soul began to soar, and-and, I heard music like I've never heard before. And in your eyes- all the sadness of the world. Your pleading eyes that both adored and threatened..." her voice trailed off, yet she remembered Erik's "crime." "But I hear the choir girls screaming. I saw the body fall."
"Yet, I was sitting in my box." Christine hiccuped slightly, trying to stop her tears. "Watching you perform."
Christine's jumbled mind hastily added the pieces together. It made no sense that he had done the terrible crime that he had been unfairly accused of by the judging eyes of the chorus girls, it couldn't have been, not her Erik, her Angel of Music...
"But I am not innocent."
Christine stared in pure shock at him. "I startled him. He tripped. It's my fault." Erik sat down next to her and buried his masked face in his hands.
"Angel..." Christine said, but he did not respond. She tried again. "Erik..." this time, he responded, peering up at her through his mask. "It's not your fault..I'm sure it's not."
"But Christine, it is! Look at me, a monster!"
"Erik...Angel...you're not a monster..." Christine tried to comfort him. "Now...No more talk of darkness." She tried to put on a brave smile. "Forget these wide-eyed fears. I'm here, nothing can harm you -my words will warm and calm you."
Erik looked up, scarcely believing the words that left her mouth. "Let me be your freedom, let the stars and the moon dry your tears. I'm here, with you, beside you, to guard you and to guide you. Say you love me every waking moment, turn my head with talk of melodies. Say you need me with you, now and always ...promise me that all you say is true -that's all I ask of you." Erik said.
"You gave me your music ...Made my song take wing ...and now, how you've repaid me, to love and to protect me..." Christine whispered, turning away from Erik. "All I want is music- a world with no more light, and you, always beside me, helping me to find me ..."
"Always," Erik whispered, and he stood, spreading his arms wide as he surveyed the roof. "Then say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime ..." He plead, nearly mad. "Let me lead you from your solitude ...Say you need me with you here, beside you ...anywhere you go, let me go too. Christine, that's all I ask of you!"
Christine stared at her Angel, entranced. She stood up and took a tentative step forward. "Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime, say the word and I will follow you." She promised, her large brown eyes forgiving.
"Share each night with me, each note, each song..."
"Say you love me..." Christine's eyes filled with unshed tears, out of happiness or some unknown sorrow, she could not tell.
"You know I do." Erik murmured. "Love me- that's all I ask of you."
Christine leaned into Erik's arms. "Anywhere you go, let me go too..."
But Erik simply responded, "Love me...that's all I ask of you..."
Christine turned to face the Phantom so that their noses were nearly touching. He held his breath, not willing to believe what was happening.
Christine smiled slightly, and leaned up nearly kissing him.
Erik barely registered his mask being torn off his face. Yet as soon as he felt the cold night air nearly caress his tortured flesh, his stomach dropped as he realized what Christine had done.
Christine took a scared step back, witnessing his horrific features, her mind in shock. His eye drooped, and his flesh looked as if he were badly burned, with disturbing scars and crevasses all around his marked face-
Erik took only a moment to recover from his initial shock, a mask of rage covering his now exposed face.
"Damn you!" He grasped Christine by the wrists and threw her to the floor. "Damn you!" He repeated. "You little prying Pandora!" He seethed, glaring at Christine. "You little demon! Is this what you wanted to see?" He motioned to his face, Christine's eyes wide with shock. "Curse you! You little lying Delilah! You little viper! Now you will not ever love me!" He realized he had just stated his worst fear aloud. "Damn you!" He wailed. "Curse you!"
As he realized that the sight of his gruesome visage had scarred her, his voice took on a softer tone, yet no less foreboding. "Stranger than you dreamt it." He said through his teeth, cursing his bad luck. "Can you even dare to look? Or bear to think of me? This loathsome gargoyle who burns in hell, but secretly, yearns for heaven..." Only if heaven had Angels as lovely as the figure who sat in front of him, he thought bitterly- "Secretly, secretly ..." He held his hand out to Christine, who looked at if as if a bomb. "But, Christine, love has turned to fear," His voice grew softer still, until he was merely whispering his blind hopes of forgiveness. "You'll learn to see, to find the man behind the monster, this repulsive carcass of a face ..." he pointed at his face. "Who seems a beast, but secretly, dreams of beauty, secretly, secretly ..." Beauty. That was what he was seeking. Wasn't that why he had sought out Christine, for her beauty in voice, in mind, in spirit? "Oh, Christine ..." a single tear trickled down his deformed cheek, carving out a small path in his worn features.
"Christine..please..." Erik could see tears glistening in his beloved's cheek, before she turned away. "Christine..." he pleaded, but he realized she was merely giving him back his mask.
He took it, studying the fine porcelain to make sure there were no cracks. Once he was satisfied with the results of his quick inspection, he smoothed his wig over and attached the mask again, making sure that his- his mind stumbled over the thought- deformity was covered.
Christine instantly felt more at ease when the- her mind, too, stumbled over the thought- deformity was gone again, in it's place her loving Angel of Music.
"Come." Erik yanked her up roughly. She winced, and Erik instantly loosened his harsh grip on her upper arm. "Those two fools who run my theatre will be missing you." He nearly growled, heading towards the door.
"Say you'll share with me, one love, one lifetime..." came the words from behind him. He turned around sharply, seeing that Christine had stayed behind him and was now surveying him with a pained expression in her eyes.
"Say the word and I will follow you." The Phantom responded, still not turning to face Christine.
"Say you love me?"
Erik turned around and saw Christine, her eyes large and pleading. "You know I do. Love me, that's all I ask of you." He considered for a moment, then reached into his cape and pulled out a ring. "That's all I ask of you." He repeated.
Christine rushed forward and threw her arms around him. At first, Erik shuddered, not used to human touched, but after a few seconds, he returned the embrace. She took the ring, smiling.
The door flew open. A group of policemen rushed onto the roof, brandishing guns.
"Where is he?" One wildly shouted, his eyes filled with bloodlust.
"Where is the murderer?" Another screamed, his eyes too filled with want for blood.
Erik thought of his options, none of them good. He could overpower the policemen, yet there were simply too many of them, and his Punjab Lasso was curled into his secret pocket in his cape. He could rush for the door, but it was probably locked. There was one more option. Yes, that could work, Erik thought, it could work indeed.
He pressed a gentle kiss to Christine's forehead, took a step forward and looked at the scene behind him.
The police were closing in on him, their hair wet with sweat, their eyes crazed and angry. The wooden door, most likely locked and bolted behind them. And his Christine, still cradling the ring in her hands, being rudely shoved about by the police.
He took a deep breath and jumped into the starry night.
Well, dear readers, technically, we have reached the end of Act I, as there will be no chandelier scene. However, you can expect the next update with no further delay than normally.
I apologize for any mistakes. Google Docs deleted the last half of this story last night, and I had to re-write it rather quickly.
Thank you for all of your reviews, favorites, and story alerts. It's great to know that it's being read :)
Love, Panda
(Reviewers get a "Phantom of the Opera" candle. Well, not really, but I'll light mine (it's homemade) for each review. And I get a large, silly grin on my face and start to giggle)
*struts off pretending she did not just stop at a major cliffhanger* Dum di dum di dum...weather's nice today...dum di dum di dum.
Please review! 3