Around what I figured to be midnight, the door creaked open and in walked a tall figure in a dark cloak that shielded his face, but I knew that the familiar white half mask was hiding under the dark fabric. I closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep, but there was no fooling him. "Christine," he sang softly, his rich tenor reverberating in my ears. I rose slowly, as if in a dream, because for all I knew, I was. I pinched myself, but I didn't wake up. So I wasn't dreaming; Erik was really in my room at midnight.
"Yes?" I sang back. He extended a dark arm, and I reached out to grab it. His fingers, gloved in black leather, closed tightly around mine; they were so small in his hand.
"Come, my angel." So I followed him, letting him lead me down the twists and turns of the pitch black corridors. I knew the upper floors of the theater like I knew the back of my hand, but as he led me deeper and deeper into the basements and sub levels I became vulnerable to the dark. I once got the impression that I was standing over a large chasm that fell into the blackest pits of Hell, and the only thing keeping me from tumbling to my death was Erik's firm grip. My eyes never became quite as accustomed to the dark as his, but after what must have been an hour, I could begin to make out the protrusions in the wall, and make out large rocks on the ground, which Erik led me around.
I realized that we were deep in the catacombs, and I shuddered to think about what was crunching under my bare feet.
After the second time I cried out as a sliver of rock embedded itself into my foot, Erik swiftly scooped me up and carried me the rest of the way, much to my discomfort. I fought against him for a while, but eventually, I became cold and tired, and nestling myself in the warm crooks of his body didn't seem like too bad of an idea. If he ever tired of carrying me, he didn't show it.
Finally, we reached the shore of the lake, and I realized that we had come from the opposite direction this time. I was once again standing on the black beach where he had gently set me down, but this time I was looking out onto the lake that he had rowed us across the first time I had come here. I turned around. Erik was lighting the twisted candles with a swish of his hand. Not for the first time, I wondered if he was a magician of some sort. I had never been one to believe in magic, but the way he melted into walls and prowled the theater invisible made me wonder.
He saw me looking his way and beckoned me over. He sat at the organ, warming up. "Scales," he commanded. I looked at him, dumbfounded. The last time I had seen him, he had tried to drop a chandelier on me.
"Erik?" I asked. "Aren't you mad?" He looked at me, and I saw the anger in his eyes, but buried under it, all the sadness as well.
"Scales," he repeated. So I sang scales, hitting notes in a register that I didn't know I could. He nodded and was quiet for a moment. Then he pulled out a heavy looking leather bound book from under one of his stacks of papers. One of the loose ones fluttered to the ground. I bent down to pick it up for him, turning it over to see what it was.
My breath caught in my throat, drawn in charcoal on the paper was a likeness of me that was so perfect, I wondered if I was looking in a mirror. Every little detail on my face was there, my high cheekbones, the little smudge on my nose, and every line in my eyes. I had not posed for this. He had drawn it from memory. "It's beautiful," I whispered. He looked at the picture clutched in my hands and a small smile flickered across his lips before fleeting away.
"It's just…one of my sketches," he mumbled.
"Sketch? This is better done than many of the artists on the street can do, and that is their best work. This is…perfect."
"Thank you." He appeared to be lost in thought for a moment, and then he began pounding the keys on the organ, and then he grabbed a fairly empty piece of paper and began scribbling the likeness of the treble and base staffs before scrawling in the notes. I had him for a moment, but once again, I had lost him to his music. I sighed and set the picture down on top of the pile that it had been buried in. I frowned. Was it wrong to come here, was it wrong to come here and do this, now that I was bound to Raoul? It was just lessons, after all. I kept telling myself that it was just lessons, but I couldn't help myself from thinking that it was something more. I looked up and saw Erik was staring at me, confused. Then, seeming to remember something, he flipped open the big manuscript to a page near the middle. He glanced up at me and met my eyes, brown into blue. "Would you sing this?" He showed me the page he had flipped to.
It was the first time he had asked me to do something. I nodded and looked at it. It was a piece of sheet music, much neater drawn than what he had just done. "It doesn't have a title," I observed. It wasn't finished either, the notes and words only went to the middle of the second page. He nodded and pointed at the first note. I took the hint and hummed it, preparing to sing. Aminta was the name printed above the words. It was a pretty name. I began to sing.
You have brought me
To that moment
Where words run dry,
To that moment
Where speech
Disappears
Into silence,
Silence…
I read ahead, and said, "Erik, I don't think I can sing this…"
"Sing! It is nothing but a song…" Was that longing in his voice? I sung.
I have come here,
Hardly knowing
The reason why…
In my mind,
I've already
Imagined our bodies entwining,
Defenseless and silent-
No second thoughts,
I've decided,
Decided…
That was where the notes cut off. I looked at him wearily, half apprehensive, and half…hopeful. I was ashamed to admit it, but I had imagined our bodies entwining, even though I belonged to Raoul. And even though he was like, twenty years older than me. Or maybe he was my age, maybe he was younger. It was impossible to tell. Once again I contemplated taking off the white crescent of a mask that hid his face from me and the rest of the world. Then, recalling the consequences of the last time I did that, I figured that I could continue wondering.
"Erik-" He ignored me, rearranging some notes, almost as if he was fine tuning to my voice.
"Again. With meaning." So once more, I began to sing, and this time I meant it, my voice louder and clearer, and the emotion behind my voice should convince him- it was real and wrong enough.
You have brought me
To that moment
Where words run dry,
To that moment
Where speech
Disappears
Into silence,
Silence…
I have come here,
Hardly knowing
The reason why…
In my mind,
I've already
Imagined our bodies entwining,
Defenseless and silent-
No second thoughts,
I've decided,
Decided…
He nodded. "Good, but it could be better. You'll have plenty of chances to practice though," he mumbled, half aloud, half to himself. I tried to stifle my yawn, but it came out anyways. He looked up, as if startled to see that I was tired. Tomorrow was the New Year's party, and I would have to be up early to help prepare for it. So much for sleep.
"Christine, you're half asleep," he observed. He glanced at his watch and looked surprised. "I hadn't thought that so much time had past," he murmured. "Come, you must return to your bed. So once again, we began the journey back up to the world where the sun would be rising in just a few short hours. This time, I fell asleep in his firm grasp started to drift off almost immediately, snuggling into the cloak that he was constantly wearing. The only time I'd seen him take it off was to wrap me in it as a blanket. I wondered vaguely if he would leave it with me again. Chances were that he wouldn't, but I could still hope…It smelled like him, roses and parchment and leather. It was a wonderful combination, and I fell asleep in his arms, lost in his scent. When we reached the hall outside my bedroom, he shook me gently and I woke up.
I half stepped, half fell out of his warm arms and in the process, my new engagement ring fell off my finger and hit the floor with a ping. He reached down to pick it up for me, and I watched the shock register in his face, quickly followed by anger and hurt. "Christine," he sang quietly.
"Erik, I'm so sorry, I should have told you…" but he was gone, leaving the ring at my feet. I hugged my knees to my chest, huddled in front of the door and cried. I felt like I had just lost the most important thing that I had ever had.