Note-Sorry about the length of the chapters, everyone! I'm trying my best but I'm quite bad at writing long stuff!
The phantom returned from his outing, rubbing the sweat from his forehead as he entered the cave. Visions of the previous hours swirled in a mist clouding his vision. Grunts and struggles, red rings around the neck marking the Phantom's presence. Mud, shovels, shallow graves. Al l this for the trembling figure before him, her eyes widened in anxiety.
His heart melted at the sight of the brown eyed beauty standing before him, brown twisting hair framing her structured face. Her chest rose and fell heavily, yet rhythmically as the gown he had bought her rose and fell in time. Her hands quivered and shook in a repeated mordent, and the murmured sighs echoing from her mouth reflected a perfect cadence at the end of a tormented and emotional sonata.
Yet his anger returned as red hot images flashed again. He saw his love scrabbling at slimy walls, desperate to be rid of him. Her creased forehead calling out for his enemy in the blackest emptiness of her dreams. And worst still, the Phantom saw the young soprano's eyes flicker with fear at the thought of her captor's mood turning. His blood boiled at the sight of her; he did not know what to do. He could not love her when he knew what she thought of him as, yet how could he possibly live without her?
Christine ventured a little towards him, cautiously and nimbly, while he stayed stock still. "What..?" she began, mumbling. She took a deep breath, and looked him in the eyes. "What did you do?" The Phantom smiled, demonically. He pulled a rope out from behind his back, unravelled in the middle and dried blood stained around it. Christine gasped, and closed her eyes. Tears fell from her eyes, and the Phantom's anger boiled up inside him once again. "What should it matter to you, anyway?" He asked, maliciously, dropping the rope into the water with a splash. Christine sniffed and rubbed her eyes before answering. "So the monster is back."
The bellow roaring from the man's mouth shook Christine to the core, not giving her enough time to react from the strong grip he had around her neck before she was on the hard ground, starving for oxygen. "A monster?" he hissed into her ear. He shook her, so her hair fell from her face to drape on the dusty floor. "A monster?!" He dropped her to the floor with a grunt and lay on top of her, pushing the last molecules of oxygen out of her lungs. Christine cried out in pain and shock, shouting for help. The Phantom grabbed a fistful of her hair and held it to his nostrils, inhaling her scent. His rough and slimy kisses caught her skin, from her eyelids, to her cheek, neck, breasts. She moaned in terror, pushing against him, trying to rid herself of him. The Phantom's mind interpreted it as something more, and grabbed her by the waist, throwing her onto the silken swan bed. She yelled in fear, and he realised what she thought. For a moment Erik saw her as the sweet, beautiful soprano who had turned his lonely life around, and he saw what he was about to do. He groaned in his sorrow and guilt, stumbling away to the alcove containing Christine's likeness. He wept bitterly, as Christine stepped forward and looked upon him. He averted her pitying gaze, so angry with what he had tried to do to her.
Christine knelt down to his level, and sought out his eyes. She held a hand to his face and gently removed his mask. He cried out and covered his face, but Christine took his hand away and caressed the ruined skin. "You do not need this anymore, Erik." She smiled, reassuringly, with no hint of hesitation. Erik relished in the touch on his horrific skin from her delicate fingertips. Christine looked at the puzzle of woven scars and long ago forgotten veins. She placed her lips on the hollowed eye socket, and kissed the swollen cheek and rotting nose with her full red lips.
The Phantom was paralysed in shock. She pulled back from him, again smiling at him, boring into his black eyes with her doe-brown. "I am your friend, Erik." She said, her voice soft, yet still filled with emotion ready to rip his soul into pieces. "Come back to my angel, do not be my captor. Promise me you won't kill anymore, I will stay with you." Erik cried with joy, and held fast onto her shoulders, light entering his face. Again Christine pulled back, looking sternly at him. "Promise me, Erik." She pleaded, still looking into his soul, and his stomach turned inside out with the look. "I promise, Christine." He replied, his voice choking. "Just don't leave me."