Hey everyone, thanks for the reviews especially the ones from Etoile du Bolshoi she's now officially my number one fan! Anyway thanks for continuing to read and enjoy the latest chapter. This story is probably going to be another 50-60 chaptered saga so don't think that's its over just yet. So without further interruptions here's the moment you've all been waiting for. If anyone has any suggestions as to where the story should continue to go I'm always open for suggestions.
The next morning, Erik awoke in between the sheets of a bed he was not familiar with. He looked around the dark room only to realize that Madam Lady was lying fast asleep beside him. As he lied his head back down on the pillow, he was about to close his eyes again when he looked straight ahead and noticed a familiar picture sitting on the night table. The room was in darkness, but the sunlight shinning in gave him just enough light to see what it was of. After rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Erik picked up the frame and looked at the picture which was of him and Christine at their wedding. He quickly looked back over at Madam Lady who was still fast asleep and was sure that this picture was a joke that she was playing on him. That was until Erik remembered that the picture that he held in his hand was the only copy and was in Christine's bag the day she fell off the train. He thought "could Madam Lady actually have found this somewhere?" Erik wasn't sure but he needed to find out how she got it. Everything in the picture was so beautiful and as clear as they day it was taken on. Christine's dress had been the one he put her in on the night of Don Juan Triumphant and she looked even more beautiful in it than he pictured in his mind. He on the other hand looked handsome but not as handsome as Raoul would have looked at the alter. Wearing that dreaded mask was torture for him, even when getting his picture taken. He remembered the argument they shared just before the wedding about him wanting to remember the wedding in vain and not by photography but Christine of course refused. After touching his angel's photograph he smiled, glad that he had posed in a picture with her. Erik wasn't finished with his curiosity just yet, no he needed to know how she got the photo and why it was displayed on the night table. After placing the frame back down, he quietly walked over to her wardrobe and opened it to search the pockets of any of the clothes that were hanging in it.
He first checked the pockets of a pair of black trousers that were hanging up but quickly found out that they were empty. He then flipped past a few of her dresses and found his way to the back where a familiar black suit jacket was hanging. It was jet black with red roses engraved in it's fabric that ran down the sleeves and over the front buttons. What made it even more familiar was the fact that it had gold lining running down the inside of it, just as the same jacket he used to own. What made it even more unusual was when he held it up to his nose and inhaled the scent of French cologne, the same French cologne that he used to bathe himself in when he was married to Christine. Erik knew that something wasn't right and took the jacket off of the hanger to investigate it further. He then took searched the front pockets and came up empty, that was until he checked the inside ones and felt something hard on the right side of it. Erik quickly took out what ever the object was and looked at it. There in front of his own very eyes was a box of matches, the same exact matches that his opera house used to use, the same exact ones that he used to steal from the lobby for his own use, the same ones he stuck in the exact pocket, in the exact same jacket. He then knew that the jacket that he held in his hands belonged to him. Without a second thought, Erik dug through the remainder of the wardrobe and took out the clothes that he had borrowed off of Madam Lady the past few days, the ones that she claimed belonged to her dead husband. After throwing every last article on the floor, Erik picked up a white shirt and examined it. He then noticed that there was a stitch in the right sleeve of it indicating that it had been sewn up from a tear that occurred somehow. Only Erik knew where the tear had come from because this shirt was the same exact one that he wore on the day he and Raoul battled it out in a sword frenzy over his beloved Christine. After Raoul had torn his sleeve, Christine sewed it up so he could wear it again as many times as he wished. It was then that Erik knew that Madam Lady had been lying about who the clothes belonged to. No matter how many articles he picked up to examine, he always found something on it that lead him back to a time when he wore it. In the pile of clothes also lied a pair that Erik would never forget, deep at the bottom he lifted out a silk shirt and brown trousers, the same exact ones that he wore the night he lost his virginity on. He knew that they were because the left knee was torn from when he lied Christine down on his swan bed causing the edge of it's wing to grab hold of the fabric before Erik could even get himself in the bed.
Everything belonged to him and all he wanted to know was where and how Madam Lady had gotten all his things, and why? He then scurried back over to the wardrobe once more, and took out the crate that was at the bottom of it and quickly tore off the lid. It was then that Erik almost blacked out at what he saw. Inside he saw more of his things than he had ever seen. His old pocket watch that no longer worked, a few of his quills along with the ink to go with it, his locket that had Christine's picture inside of it, the only photo of him holding his daughter's infant body, and a pile of notes that he had written to her over the years. He pulled one of the letters out from the ribbon that was tied around the bundle and opened it's wrinkled form to read it.
"Dearest Christine,
I am writing you to apologize for my actions tonight. I understand that my temper can be terrible at times especially when I become as frustrated as I was. I have made myself a promise to try to control it better than I have and to never yell at your beauty ever again. You must understand that I never had a loving childhood and so when I get mad and I become weak and as rabid as a caged animal. You have shown me the love that I have always been forbidden to receive and it's hard for me to take in. Please my angel forgive my distorted soul and love me once more as I love you. You mean more to me than my own lonely life and I would do anything that your heart asks. I can't say no to your beauty and I never will. From you I ask the same in return and tonight I'm writing you to ask that you return to me. I know that we can make things right again and so tonight I shall leave the gates to my lair open only requesting that if you do return please close them on your way in. I wouldn't want any unwanted visitors coming in to slay me in my sleep nor would I like it for the Viscount to make an un announced visit. I shall be asleep but you're always welcomed to crawl in beside me, at least I will know if you still love me when I awake. If you're not with me tomorrow morning I will know that I am a foolish man and deserve to be alone for the remainder of my life. I love you my angel of music, always and forever.
Your obedient tutor and lover
Erik"
Erik smiled at the letter because he remembered that after writing it and sending it to Christine's dressing room he had gone to bed only to wake up the following morning to see Christine lying beside him fast asleep. Years ago he had always seemed to make his beloved angry by bringing out his temper but then again she would always forgive him within hours especially when he wrote her an apology letter. That was beside the point now, the question of why Madam Lady had his things still prevailed. Erik immediately darted back to the bed and flipped her over, tightly holding her arms above her head.
Christine was awaken by the feeling of her body being violently shifted over on her back. She thought that someone had broken into her room, that was until she awoke and saw Erik starring down at her. His knees were up against her waist and his arms were holding her hands above her head and by the look on his face he didn't seem happy. Christine glanced around her dark room to see that her wardrobe was torn apart and the crate full of Erik's things were all emptied on the floor. This was it, the jig was definitely up and it was time to reveal herself. What had struck this anger deep within his soul? She wasn't sure but knew that her little jig was up.
"Who are you!" growled Erik as he pressed her hands down harder onto the bed.
Christine looked around the bed and then saw it. She saw the double framed wedding picture sitting on the night table. She had totally forgotten about how she was supposed to tell him the truth before making there way over to the bed. How could she have been so stupid not to have remembered the picture? Christine knew not to make any sudden moves because she knew that Erik could kill her within seconds if she didn't cooperate with him.
"Erik, please let me explain." pleaded Christine as she tried to loosen his grip on her hands. Erik only pressed down harder and got closer to her face.
"How do you know my wife? How did you get all of our stuff? The clothes that you let me borrow off of your dead husband didn't belong to him in the first place. They have always been my clothes and you knew it. Who are you! I demand and answer!"
Christine knew that Erik was furious but knew that if she removed her wig now he was sure to have a heart attack of die from complete shock.
"Erik, I'm not who you think I am."
"You've got that right! You better get talking and you better do it quick because you don't know what I'm capable of!"
"Actually Erik I do know what you're capable of. I've seen it in action many times and we've argued over it on several occasions."
"How do you know what I'm capable of? You know nothing of me."
Christine then used all her strength and forced herself out of Erik's arms causing him to press down harder. It was then that the unthinkable happened. When Christine forced her hands out of Erik's grasp he had pressed down harder causing their struggle to become rough and for Erik's elbows to hit Christine's wig causing it to be pulled out of place. When everything was calm again Erik looked down at the woman in his grasp to see that from underneath the blonde strands chocolate curls were beginning to show. None of them said a word and what happened next took Christine by surprise. There in front of her, Erik lightened his grip on her hands, and curiously pulled away the remainder of the blonde wig leaving just Christine and a full head on chocolate curls lying there. She looked up at Erik who was in complete shock as he examined the wig before looking right back at her. His stare never moved away from her eyes as he kept looking at her as if trying to see right through her soul. All Christine could do was keep staring right back at him hoping to God that what ever happened next wouldn't be a tragedy. It was then that Christine felt drops of water hitting her cheek and fore head, only to see that the liquid was coming from Erik's tear soaked eyes.
"Chr….Chris…." was all that Erik could make out under his loud sobs. Christine then felt her hands being set free and looked up to see that Erik had gotten off of her and moved to the edge of the bed where he sat with his head in his hands as he sobbed even harder.
"Erik, please don't be like this. I'm here and that's all that matters."
"You made me think you were someone else! I began to think that it was possible for someone else besides you to see past my face. I should have known!" cried Erik as he continued to sob.
"Erik please I love you with all my heart and I was afraid to tell you. It's over now so why can't we just move on and be a family again."
"How many?" cried Erik as he wiped his eyes.
"Pardon me?"
"How many have you slept with? How many have you displayed your naked body to in that filthy place?"
Christine didn't answer and just stood there with a huge lump in her throat, ready to break down at any second.
"I always told myself that you were too smart for this sort of place and that you would never bring yourself down to that level but I guess I was wrong. It is true, I really don't know you."
"But it's ok for you to do it right?" it was then that Christine broke down in tears as she pleaded for Erik to forgive her.
Erik stood up on his feet and through on his cloak before running out the door and leaving Christine alone once again. Christine tried to run after him but only found herself on her knees in the doorway of her room in tears.
Erik ran down the snow covered streets as he tried to make his way back to his room. He was not only torn to pieces about finding out that Christine was still alive and having sex for money but he had left his daughter alone all night long. Once he made it back to his room he immediately started to search for her but she was no where to be found. The first thing he thought of was what if she wandered off into the night? Or what if someone broke in and kidnapped her? Erik tore through everything, searching high and low hoping that she would pop out of the smallest place that a girl her age could hide but she never did. As he was tearing through his wardrobe, he heard a familiar voice greet him.
"She's not here Erik."
Erik immediately spun around and to his horror saw Madam Green standing there in his doorway.
"Where is she?" asked Erik as he angrily approached her. Madam Green didn't flinch nor back up when Erik started to approach her. Instead she got even closer to him, close enough to touch his snow soaked shirt.
"Let me ask you a question Erik, where have you been all night." she replied as she took a sniff of his cloak. "Smells to me like you've been someplace you shouldn't have been, and I'd say that place would be the local brothel."
"It's not what you think." said Erik as he turned away from her to hide his sorrow.
"I will not have your lies Erik I saw with my very own eyes you walking into the brothel last night while your seven year old daughter was here all alone. Alone in the cold with no fire, alone with no adult or anything to protect her from the dangers."
"I had some business to take care of last night with her teacher, she lives atop of the brothel."
"Last night wasn't the only night you went on a little journey to the brothel was it Erik? You see when I went to your daughter's aid she replied that you do it quiet often. You're a horrible father and that is why you will never see her again! Children should never be left alone at night especially in the winter. Prostitutes shouldn't be teachers and you should have never been able to reproduce."
With that Madam Green walked out leaving Erik to sulk in solitude. His wife was a prostitute and now his daughter had been taken away from him. Everything around Erik had begun to crumple even his world. The only thing that mattered in his life had been taken away from him and now all he had was the four walls that surrounded him. He quickly began to kick over everything in sight, began to break anything he could get his hands on and tear what ever of his music that he had sitting on the piano. As he sat there in a pile of glass, chipped wood and pieces of music he sobbed harder. It had been his fault, everything had been his fault. If he hadn't gone to Madam Lady's room he still would have had his daughter and Madam Lady. She wasn't even Madam Lady anymore because now all Erik could see was Christine. He had actually come to believe that someone besides her could love him for who he was but he spoke too soon. That lady had tuned out to be Christine all along. Without thinking twice, Erik picked up a shard of glass and held it over his bare wrist pausing with the it's sharpness right on his vein. He knew that if he cut himself he could end the misery that God had refused to end on him throughout his whole life. God had no control over this and knew that by ending it now he could finally be at peace. Then again as he took longer to think about it he knew that by ending it he would certainly go to hell. Even Erik looked like he belonged there, it was the last place he wanted to be. He began to suspect that God had wanted him to kill himself so he would go to the place where he belonged. Erik through aside the shard of glass, and wiped his eyes.
"Not this time you bastard, you won't take me down that easily." he sobbed.
Erik stood up on his feet and decided that he needed something to take his mind off of things. It was Monday and he had no intentions on going to work today, no he needed to take his mind off of things before they got any worse. It was then that he walked himself to a place that he never approached on a Monday ever and at the moment he didn't really care. He had walked himself straight into the brothel and approached the bar to have himself a drink of hard liquor. The brothel wasn't that busy at all, probably because it was Monday morning and at a time when no one in their sane mind would want sex, that is everyone except for people like Erik. Drink after drink he forced down his throat and it seemed that he didn't know his limit. He was never really a big drinker but today was a new day and with the way his mind was, drinking seemed like the best medicine. After twelve shots of hard liquor Erik stumbled to his feet and made his way over to Mama Morton in a drunken waltz. Even though he couldn't walk straight, Erik still knew what was going on around him even if everyone else seemed to disagree.
"Well well well, do my eyes deceive me? I would have never thought in a million years you'd walk your way in here on a Monday morning. But since you're here, what can I do for you today?" she asked. Erik reached into his pocket and took out the bag of coins that Christine had given back to him the night before and handed them to her. Mama Morton looked inside and handed him a room key.
"I'll see you tomorrow morning."
Erik had given Mama Morton enough franks to have a twenty four hour session with what ever girl he wanted but Erik didn't who and trusted that Mama Morton would pick the right one for him. As he stumbled down the hallway to room seven, he leaned up against the door and began to aim the key into the lock but only wound up scratching the door way with it. After about twenty tries he finally got the door to open, and walked in, shutting it behind him. The room was all decorated in red and with a pink bedspread placed onto the germ invested mattress. After making his way over to it, he plopped down onto the covers and lied there looking up at the ceiling. The alcohol hadn't calmed his nerves one bit and only wondered what monstrosity was going to be walking in the room any second. When the door opened, a young woman with blonde curly hair walked in and approached the bed. She was all dressed in pink lingerie and had on black high heels. She sexually approached the side of the mattress and ran her finger up Erik's chest starting from the waistband of his trousers.
"My name's Pink Passion, what's yours?" she purred.
"That's not important." replied Erik as he lied completely still. It was then that the girl took him by surprise and jumped onto the bed with him placing both of her knees at his hip and ran her fingers down the buttons of his shirt.
"You're cute but I'm going to make you hot." she replied.
Erik for the first time looked into her eyes and liked what he heard. This had taken his mind off of Christine and his other problems. Usually he would never look at the girl so he could picture Christine's image in his head so clearly but today however he didn't want that picture. Today he was going to make love to a prostitute and not to pictures of past memories.
"What do you want me to do to you?"
Erik lied there looking up into her eyes and didn't hesitate on telling her what he wanted.
"Kiss me." he growled.
Erik had never kissed another woman besides Christine and now he wanted to know what it felt like. As she kissed him, Erik kissed her back using all the passion that he had stored in his body. It was when he tasted her tongue did he realize that he hated it. No kiss was compared to the ones he and Christine shared together. The kisses he was used to were soft and slow but these ones were hard and hurt his mouth. This had caused Erik to stop kissing her and to let her continue as to what ever she wanted to do to him.
"Go on." replied Erik as he lied there on his back. He kept staring up at the ceiling with his eyes open so that he wouldn't think about Christine. He knew though that the only way his mind was going to block out her image was if he watched the girl make love to him. The kiss she had given him was horrible but he thought that it was possible that the sex would be better. He then glanced at Pink who was un buttoning his trousers tried to think about her and not Christine. Once he began to feel her hands around his man hood, he lied there looking at her and being completely turned on. The feeling had eventually began to intensify so much that Erik couldn't take staring anymore and shut his eyes moaning as the girl continued. A few minutes later the worse thing possible had happened, he felt the girl release him from her grasp and grab onto his mask pulling it off in a sexual passion. Erik's eyes shot completely open to this because he had forgotten to tell her not to touch it. Her face was as if she had seen a thousand dead ghosts and her Erik's was as if Christine had been the one looking at him with that same face. It all ended with her screaming in his face and for her to run out of the room leaving the door open. Erik gathered all the blankets around his waist to try and calm his excitement down before making another move. It was then that he witnessed everyone else coming from different rooms, curious as to what went on. That was only worse because they too left screaming once they saw his hideous face. After struggling into his trousers once more, Erik fell to the ground and placed his hand over his distorted flesh as he crawled around the room looking for his mask.
As more curious spectators entered, the sounds of screams only became worse causing his ear drum to screech in agony. This had begun to be the worst day of his life if not worse because not only had Christine been a prostitute and his daughter gone but now this. Everyone in the brothel had seen his face and now no one was going to want to sleep with him now. Once he left the brothel he would never be aloud back in because of the fear he caused the prostitutes. He had been so stupid as to go and get drunk that it had caused himself to forget to tell the girl not to touch his mask. After finding his mask on the floor, he slipped it back over his face and ran out of the room in tears as the others pushed and shoved him.
"It's a monster!" they chanted.
"Somebody call the freak show and tell them that one of their own escaped!" yelled another.
These hurtful words had caused Erik to sob even more than he already was. They didn't understand that he was just a man and nothing more. He was just a human being who needed love and devotion just as everyone else did. As he ran out into the cold streets with nothing that a cloak wrapped around his snow soaked trousers. As he kept running he felt a pain in his chest and stopped to take a break as he continued to sob. As he stood there the pain occurred again and again causing him to fall to his knees and eventually to the ground completely. It was then that he thought "Maybe God is going to do me a favor after all." Erik wasn't sure but as the pain continued he knew that within seconds his heart would surly stop beating and for his pain and suffering to finally be put to an end….something that God had refused him his whole life….
Ok what you think? More to come soon thanks for reading!