Chapter 12
Lysette eyes opened at the sound of footfall in the corridor. She glanced at the little ornamental clock next to her bed and saw that it was past two in the morning.
So he was up again...
Every night since she had arrived he observed the same nightly ritual. First there was dinner after sunset, followed by hours of self imposed seclusion in his room ending with a nightly walk around the grounds. She knew that he slept very little at night because of nightmares. The cries from his bedroom were heartwrenching. There was more behind his mask than just a face. There was a damaged soul hiding a past that was devastating and cruel. Yes, they had lived in different worlds and had both been enslaved by the ignorance of men. The difference was that she was now free while he remained in bondage. From her window she watched him wrap himself up in a dark cloak stalking down the footpath that led into the gradens behind the house.
He walked the grounds with quick, determined steps and stopped only when the house was out of his sight. There were times he felt like the walls around him were closing in. The peace he found in the daylight seemed to slip away in the darkness of his bedroom. Only when he was outside alone could he truly breathe. He walked under the lush shelter of an aged oak tree and rested against the trunk, listening to the soft serenade of the night around him. It had become his nightly ritual and he observed it with the fervor of a man rendevouzing with a mistress. Every night he came to that place allowing clinging remnants of his dreams to pass away.
The first nights had been the most difficult. He would wake with the image of Christine's face and the feeling of brokeness clinging to his soul. But, as time passed the visions of Christine began to blur and pain gave way to acceptance. Christine Daae was gone from his life forever. She had made her choice and he was not a part of it. Had she ever loved him? Perhaps for a moment she had felt some love for him in her innocent heart. But, he knew now that she would never be able to love him the way he needed and wanted to be loved. He wasn't the angel she had been promised, he was simply Erik.
There were only three people who had known and accepted him for who he truly was.
One of them was Meg Giry...
Through the part in the curtains Meg watched the moon chase the clouds across the night sky. Sleep seemed determined to avoid her company that night leaving her wide awake with her thoughts. Seeing Erik again would be a relief after weeks of being surrounded by strangers. As she lay there she began thinking of how her feelings towards him had changed from fear, to resentment and finally to gratitude. He had protected her from so much during their journey and she would never forget that. Yet, there was more stirring in her than just gratitude. Everytime she met with this emotion she flirted with it allowing herself to revisit that one night on the ship. The way he had looked at her made her feel like she was no longer just a girl in his eyes. Finally she knew what it was like to look into the eyes of a man and be seen as more than just a "pretty child". She wondered if he ever thought about what had passed between them. A part of her was afraid that he hadn't and that she had been relishing it in vain. She turned her face back to the moonlight and continued to wonder.