"You did not tell me Monsieur Chagney how badly off she was, the woman I just saw was nothing but a walking corpse" Doctor Knapp exclaimed. Raoul nodded his head in a quick gesture, barely moving his eyes away from the scene that the door exposed. Though only a sliver of light was let in, he could clearly see the pure gown turned dingy from being in the dirt, and the brown curls that once bounced with life now seemed like dried ink stains that have limply curled around each other. It was a sad sight, the slow destruction of a once sought after opera singer, now looking like a spinster on her last coin.

"You will take her?"

"Are you certain Monsieur she is…"

"Was…"

:Cough: "Excuse me…..was…..the love of you life"

"You may take her now, I get sick just looking at her"

With one last glance Raoul walked down the hallway past two solidly built guards that would soon take Christine away. Monsieur Knapp shook his head gently and preceded to step into the poorly kept room and to the lost angel that seemed to huddle and Satan's throne. She seemed aware of his presence shifting a little the closer he stepped to her. A dingy angel fallen from heaven, and here if was to bring her to one of the hells on earth. For, the Pyrenees insane asylum was not a pleasant for even the most deranged souls.

"Madame De Chagney, my name is Monsieur Knapp, and I am here to take you to a place where you may get better"

He tells a quick lie that had rolled itself off his tongue many times in numerous years. He has learned the way of royalty, lie today and cover it up tomorrow. Accepting his role and the grim reaper he is to coerce the patient in soothing tones so as to lessen the results of them kicking and screaming. He feels no remorse as Christine lifts and tilts her head a little to his statement, a childish act she has yet to outgrow in her womanhood. It makes her endearing and he cannot help but feel a pang in his chest, it startles him because his heart froze over the last time he checked it.

"Make me better? Are you a God Monsieur?"

"A God? I should think not"

"Then maybe, a saint?"

"A saint Madame? Surely, I am nothing more then a helper of those in need of care"

"Then I don't believe you could relieve me of this 'illness', as you call it"

"You do not believe you can be helped?"

"Do you believe in witchcraft, monsieur"

"I did, as a young man in life"

"Well Monsieur, I have seen Satan, and he cursed me with such an enchanting voice it still echoes its soft tenors in my head, I have touched his hand, kissed his lips, and been seduced into a world of darkness that at one point I would have never returned to the light if asked. And then I killed him, I betrayed him worse then Eve with her cursed fruit, and he wept the most pitiful lullaby that my ears have ever been graced with. Monsieur I am a murderer, and if anything I should die myself for hurting such a creature that bestowed itself upon me"

"But you said he was the Devil, surely you cannot possibly love the devil, that is witchery milady"

"No Monsieur, for when he wept that night as I looked back, I saw the wings sprout from his back, and I realized that he was a God, a God of music"

'she has surely lost her mind' Dr. Knapp thought to himself. 'She speaks of Satan and fallen angels, Monsieur Chagney was certainly right this poor girl has lost touch with reality, she lives in her own fantasy world.

Dr. Knapp raised his hand and the two guards came forward and quietly entered the room. They glanced at Dr. Knapp before moving forward and gently picking Christine up by both arms. She gave no fight, it really would not have mattered, she was to frail to fight off these guards, and even in her best shape she could not fend them off. If seen from the outside it would look like two boys decided to play a game to see who could rip the rag doll in half first. Christine hung limply between them, hair flailing limply before her face and legs barely keeping instep of the fast pace strut the guards took. She could hear the soft waddling of Knapp's pudgy feet trying to keep up behind them, which again made her giggle at the image of dancing walruses.

"Christine!"

Her giggling cut short Christine looked at the brown riding boots that seemed to invade her vision of the wooden floor. Christine raised her head enough that one brown eye could e seen behind the curtain of hair. She would not dignify this man of seeing her in full shameful glory, she at least had some integrity left, that had not shed itself from her body.

"No, Little Lotte, Raoul?", Christine exclaimed with a small smile playing upon her lips. Raoul could only glare in response and nod his head at the guards to continur their trek to the front door. It reminded her of her wedding, the maids lined up leading her down an isle to a new life she had never to experience, yet this walk was not of bright smiles and flower it was darker, a strange melancholy air that seemed stale inside of her lungs. She was pushed, if not thrown, into the carriage and joined by Dr. Knapp who seemed a bit out of breath. He looked her straight into the eyes and told her the most sincere thing he has said in many years.

"Keep your bravery Madame, for they will surely strip you of everything else"

A.N.- Sorry about the long wait, school has been hectic and i've been trying to catch up