Disclaimer: If I were Gaston Leroux and owned Phantom of the Opera, I wouldn't have pronounced Leroux totally wrong in front of my english class last year.

a/n: due to popular demand, i've made these chapters longer by adding chapters together. there's only so much waffleing i can do before it just gets too boring... so i just took out chapter names and such. thanks so much for your review (even the mean ones)! oh and to broken-vow yet again for catching my spelling oopsies! enjoy!

plz read & review!

Chapter Ten - Preparation for The Rest of My Life

Shouldn't weddings be happy things? Shouldn't they be something that should only happen once in a life and should be cherished for ever and a day? In today's society there are so many divorces and I had had everything planned on how I wanted everything to happen. I was to be proposed to through song in either a fine diner or a lone place of beautiful scenery. It would happen once I was out of college and settled with a fair job. The man would be wealthy enough to support the two of us and during the engagement we would discuss our terms on marriage so that we knew we would be on the same level in everything. It was going to be perfect. Even the guy wouldn't be bad looking. I would have a Victorian style wedding with all my wonderful friends and family there to watch. And at the after wedding party there would be dancing and laughter and embarrassing stories. All the things any bride could ever want…

Under Erik's and Christine's wedding, none of the above happened. I'll never know if I were actually married. Does God care about whose name is said on at alter? Or does it just matter that a presence is there to fill the necessary space? I presented myself as Christine Daae, not Rachel Carson, so was I actually married after all?

He stayed with me until midnight the night before Friday. At midnight he left saying, "See you at dusk my love! Then we shall finally be wed!" What words to be spoken to me in the state I was in! I remembering him bringing me some chalky tasting water before he left. "Sleep well! Sleep well!" he laughed walking out. Not thinking I chugged down the water. It was drugged. I didn't wake up till the following afternoon.

The dress was laying down at the foot of the bed. What a sight it was to my poor eyes! It had critiqued bead worked that worked it's way all up and down the dress in an assortment of floral patterns. It was an off white dress, one of mid 1800's style. It spread low unto the floor and had a small train that followed me when I walked. The dress was so lovely and I know I give it shame as I only try to explain it. As of now, I'll leave it to my imagination to remember it. It was low cut… I was at first trilled at how it complemented my body so perfectly, but then thought, "it's low cut… low cut things make men think…" This 'thinking' scared me. Oh how that thinking scared me to death!

Hair was another issue I had to deal with. I knew women of the time had their hair up off their necks, but I had only seen hairstylists of the stage do such things with much hairspray. I didn't even have the hairspray I needed! What I end up doing wasn't really important. Just know that without all the little pretty bobby pins I found on the dresser, my hair would have been confused with that of a rats nest.

The dress had short sleeves and required little white gloves (that surprisingly fit me). I stared holes into that piece of reflecting glass that mocked me. I remembered from the original novel that there were no mirrors in Erik's house. So what was this thing that laughed so loudly at me and stood too boldly in front of me? Maybe that was a dream…?

No, no, this was the dream! This was the dream!

Three knocks on the door signified a presence standing behind it. It was he, one that I should become wed to today.

"D-don't come in!" I said quickly.

I wasn't ready! I wasn't ready for any of this!

"Dearest, it's near dusk, we must get this done." He said expressionless from the other side, "are you fully dressed?"

"Y-yes, but – "

Too late, the door was already opening. I went to a corner of the bed and shrunk down into the floor. I wanted to curl up into my ball, but everything on me was too tight. I felt no protection at all.

He looked straight down at me. He didn't even need to look around to find me. It was as if he knew I'd be down there.

"Stand."

I looked up at that what had said the word. He was a well-dressed man for the occasion, but my eyes were too blurry to see perfectly straight to explain what he wore exactly.

"Stand." He said again offering his hand.

"Erik, please, I can't do this – "

"I said stand, Christine!" he barked taking my arms roughly to get me to my feet.

He walked through the house with me under his stone arm and straight to the door of the apartment. It was open and darkness seemed to be streaming through it such as light usually would in the normal world. Now, this darkness was blinding to the eye. My little white shoes slipped on rocks as we walked on. I couldn't see a thing and I wondered if Erik could either. For all I knew, it was all being done by memory that he walked. We were silent and I was not crying. No, I was not crying.

We walked on for what seemed like forever. It may have been as long as an hour later when I saw the little red light up ahead. We walked toward it to find it was coming from no where. I could see we were still in a dark tunnel of large, cold, black stones. My hearing had been heightened as my vision became impaired and I heard a small tickle of water. The little stream from the book behind the dressing room! I was where Christine woke up after she went through the mirror!

I was set down on my knees. Erik got down on his knees in front of me and took my gloved hands.

"Do you remember where you are?" he asked quietly.

"Yes, I do."

I didn't 'remember' but I did know.

"Christine Daae, I take thee at this spot of ground to be my wife; to have and hold, through sickness and in health, as long as we both live…"

He took two gold rings from his pocket. What symbolism hid its self in those simple pieces of gold that lay so peacefully in his large hands! He took the larger one and placed it on his forth finger on his left hand. There was another ring left that was much smaller.

"And does she, Christine Daae, take Erik, to be her husband?"

What should I have said, what should I have done? I was obviously in a real place now that was outside of the house. What if it was real? What if it wasn't real? If it wasn't real I could say yes and nothing would ever happen. Time was passing as I stared into his eye pits. I didn't know what to do. I didn't like this darkness with only little glimpses of red light that escaped to the heavens as it was scared away from the surrounding darkness. What else was I to say?

He never said I had to have and hold and care for in all aspects of life… I just had to be his 'wife'. Wife, wife what does that mean? It comes with such an array of definitions that for an experienced woman, it may take days to explain all the factors that go into being the word. I didn't want to do that! I was too young! Too terribly young to be doing anything like that!

His hands were sweating. His hands were tight upon my own. So larger than mine, so much stronger they were. I had no choice. I had no choice.

"Yes,"

Faint, breathless, short was the world that I spoke. He brought my left hand and with the up most gentle care the ring was placed on my weakest finger. He slid it on so easily and yet I have never been able to take it off. He brought the hand up to his masked lips and I felt soft leather on the back of the hand. He then cupped the small hand I once had ownership over in both of his.

"Then let this be witness to God above, that we have made an unbreakable vow before Him. We are one wed."

And with that, I was no longer a single woman under the face of God.

what shall happen next you wonder...? night has already fallen, has it not? there's only one way to find out: review!