Hello everyone! Thank you to those who keep reviewing and a special hello to those who just started reading! It sounds like everyone is enjoying the story and that makes me super happy :)
Disclaimer: If I were Gaston Leroux and own POTO I wouldn't have just started working at a coffee shop for fun. Literally, I just like working there.
Chapter Twenty-One
"A...a wedding?" Christine stumbled out, pulling her hand back to her, surprised she was able to slip it from his fingers.
"Of course, dove. How else am I supposed to trust you'll keep your promise?"
Christine looked back and forth between Erik and all of the people watching, "Erik I'll, I'll keep it I promise, let's just go. Let's go now."
"I don't think so," Erik slowly got to his feet. Sensing that others in the room wanted to do the same, he sharply pointed to the group, "Not you. You all are going to be our witnesses, so that no one can say that we were anything but properly wed. Stay seated, you're show hasn't ended and you wouldn't want to be a rude audience would you?" No one in the group moved anything beyond their eyes that flashed back and forth to each other, "Would you?" Erik roared making everyone jump.
Slowly, painfully, people started to shake their heads, a few murmuring, "No."
"Of course," He turned back to Christine, "Isn't this thoughtful, Christine? Not exactly what I had planned for us dove, but I believe it is just as important that you be involved in the plans just as much as myself. You'll be married among all your new friends, isn't that nice?"
He reminded her of a snake the way he held out "nice." Christine went to grab his coat sleeve, desperate to not pull anyone else into such a mess, "Erik no, please, we can go, we can leave-"
"Oh but we can't. It wouldn't be proper, would it? No, of course not." He roughly pulled his sleeve away from her before she could move again, "We must keep you so holy, remember? As you believe you're so much better than anyone who ever really cared for you."
"That's not true, Erik!" she all but screamed
"Is this your choice, or is it?" He barked, holding the strange disk above them all with one dramatic sweep. He sneered down to her, "Don't make me ask you again. I, unlike you child, am true to my word. It means nothing to me to snap this in two."
"Erik-"
"WELL?" He boomed so loudly that sandy parts of the ceiling crumbled around the door and the baby started crying all over again.
Even with the shivering and trembles of the people before them, the baby that cried making them all want to scream in terror with it, the shaking hot breaths that filled the dirty basement with life, it was clear that when Christine stepped forward to this terrorist of a man, what her words were even if they were not heard. This was enough. She had to end it. She could do something. She could make it end.
Eyes strong and forward, locking into his soul as he had done too often with her she said very clearly, "I will marry you."
"Good. Now convince them why you want to marry me. Convince me why you want to marry me."
"What do you mean?" her voice was not as strong anymore. She thought this would surely be the end of the torture.
"Tell them how perfect we are for each other, Christine. Tell them just how much you love me, how you ache to be my wife."
Twenty pairs of eyes might as well have been twenty thousand. There was a weight on her and it was far greater with so many watching her, judging her. She tried to keep her head steady even as it began to shake, "Erik that's too much-"
"You leaving was too much you little witch!" He took her shoulders and pushed her forward to them, "Now start talking!"
"HEY!" Meg yelled ready to stand, but Erik was already holding the disk above them as a threat.
"Meg don't!" Christine cried, reaching any arm out to her. Meg stopped moving and Christine pressed further, "Please Meg, please sit back down."
"My patience is dying, Christine."
"I know! I…" Her eyes went to Meg, whose face was fill with absolute hatred. She looked down and began to rub her temples, trying to get her brain to work, "I…" The feeling of Erik's cold eyes on her made her shiver and she turned to him, "I don't know how to, where to...start."
"Where indeed," Erik commented, "Should you start with my arrangements for your continued life off the street after your father died? Or my assistance in your education, getting you into the school in the first place, not to mention paying for all of it. How you must adore me for that?"
She could feel her fingers digging around in her fists, "This is...true. And I- and I thanked you for that, Erik, remember?"
"Not good enough anymore. Keep going. Your publicity awaits." He made a sweeping gesture to those before them.
"Um, well, all of that and my apartment and food and books and things….all of that you," She remembered her audience again, "He did all of that." She said, pleading to them that she was being truthful.
"Then he kidnapped you." Meg spat out.
Christine didn't know whether to be grateful to Meg or to hate her for making everything so much more difficult than it already was.
"Tell her why," Erik moved Christine to speak again.
"Meg he….he did that because of, well he did that because he didn't, um, didn't want others involved and he want to, to work on music and talk to me." Her voice was getting very small, very unsure.
"I'm not sure if they're convinced," Erik said stubbornly, "You there," he pointed to a middle aged Hispanic woman in a torn t-shirt. She shivered, "Are you convinced at all of what this girl says?"
The woman looked looked from him to Christine, then slowly said in a heavy accent, "Yeth, yeth, comprende, comprende."
"Well Christine, you managed to convince a non-English speaker, that is impressive."
"Erik," Khan rose to a knee, "Stop this. You're tormenting her."
"No worse than what the world has done to me. No worse than what you are ready to do if you ever gained the upper hand, but I have all the cards now. I hold what all of you need to live. Your lives are mine and you can never hope to move backwards from this." Erik held out a silence that sounded more like buzzing to Christine's ears before commanding to Khan in one clipped word, "Sit."
"Erik-"
Erik exploded and the room was shaking with the sound of his thunderous volume. The ceiling began to dust again and people were screaming again, "You want everyone here to die old man? Sit!"
Cries of "Please!" "Oh God!" "Just do what he says!" were everywhere, drowning Christine in their awful fear. A lady began to pray aloud, her whispered thoughts like roars.
Slowly, painfully, Nadir sat with the rest of them. Erik waited for a few more terrible moments before saying sweetly, "Now my dove, where were you?"
"I don't know." Her voice was hollow.
He spoke quietly now, with a cold hearted bitterness in his voice, "Have I ever hurt you?"
"No,"
He was directly behind her now, his voice resonating in her mind as if there were no skull to keep them out, "Were you content with things as they were?"
She shivered, an electricity from him traveling through her where her insides used to stay, "I was."
A whisper, "Why?"
A voice was there, she couldn't tell if it was hers or not, "I...It started to feel easy."
"What did?"
Swallowing the lump in her throat, using the last breath she had in her, she said what she believed to be the only thing that would get him to stop, to get the electric current to stop, for the baby to stop crying, for a lady to stop praying to beads, for Meg to stop interjecting and Khan to sit still, "Easy...to... love you."
His next words were so dark, so fill with utter hatred, that Christine could feel them slithering around her spine, ready to break it clear in half, "Of course," He looked out to the people before them, "You see everyone, she loves me. Doesn't that just fix everything?"
"She's lying you bastard!" Meg spat.
"I'm not! I swear I'm not!" Christine screamed.
"Convincing." Erik said dryly.
Christine rounded on him, " Why are you doing this?"
"What does it matter seeing as you love me now."
"Stop it!" Christine went to him, grabbing his arm sleeve and pulling him towards her so that they could only see each other, "Erik, this is what you want. I'm going to marry you. Now, since it's the only thing you'll accept. Enough of this. These people need to be let go. And I'll go with you. That's what you want-that's what we want, okay?" Feeling the connection she had felt from nights before, a string that pulled them to each other, but something she could never explain, only feel made her stood on her toes. As he was so tall, she was still a few inches away from him so she said softly, "Take me away from this. You were right, I never wanted any of it. Please, take me away."
She wasn't completely sure what she saw in his eyes as they flickered with pieces of gold. His eyes squinted, turned completely cold, and he was stepping away from her.
"Erik-"
Looking out to the people he pointed, "You. Old man," The man he pointed at was no longer holding the mewing child and did not look as surprised as Christine thought he would, "You are of the church, are you not? A man of God."
Christine could now see the torn white collar that hung around his neck and he looked up, "You expect me to perform such a thing? This poor girl is terrified."
"But how much more of a sign from God do you need? We needed a wedding and witnesses, and there so happened to be someone here would could do it for us. I don't care so much for details, but I know a proper wedding would be necessary for my queen."
Knowing that he was mocking her, Christine felt a sting on the inside of her skin.
"You could play a part in saving the western world. Isn't that what God would want?"
"Please sir," Christine added, "This is best. My life for millions." She trailed away.
"Do it, Rick." Someone in the crowd said, "We can stop this."
The older man looked at the young man who addressed him. So many eyes were on him and the question he once asked himself while at seminary came to his mind again as if it were thirty years ago, What can I do to change the world for the better? He tried to clear his thoughts to hear God speak, tried to tune out the cries, the sighs, and the reddening feeling of so many eyes on him. He looked at the man calling this game, then to the children, and slowly back at Christine, "Let's get this over with. Let me go to my bag?"
Erik nodded, letting man somberly walk away from the cluster while chuckling a little, "Where is your dress, my love?"
"Please Erik, please stop,"
"You can't tell me you didn't see it. Did you like it?"
Christine thought for a moment at about the dress she saw in her mind's eye. There was no denying it's beauty and she was in no fit to lie, "Yes," she whispered hollowly, "It looked beautiful."
"It was." Erik looked forward, a pain in his eyes that he wouldn't admit. "You're mine," he growled through his teeth as the priest was approaching them.
"I know."
The two faced the man and he sighed as he opened up a book with different markers in it. It was too thin to be a Bible and must have been a book of vows, "I am sorry my dear."
Christine shook her head, keeping her tears back,, "Keep going," she gulped.
He cleared his throat, "We are gathered here today to...celebrate the union of...of"
"Her name is Christine and mine is Erik today."
"No family name?" he asked, trying not to look too far away from his book and to the couple.
"Her's is Daae. I have no family."
"But yours-"
"It doesn't matter." He clipped and the discussion was ended.
"Right," The man signed painfully, "We are gathered here today to celebrate the union of Erik and Christine Daae…"
The man went on talking as he was being forced to. She recalled someone coughing behind her, recalled children asking confused questions to their elders. On occasion, there was an answer that hurt her, something that was low and made her sound like a fair trade, but most of the time it was, "I'll explain later." A few children even asked if they could go back to sleep. One child had to use the bathroom. Someone was tapping their finger on the floor. Parts of the ceiling still crumbed near the door. Every sound but the man speaking was heard and recorded until, "Christine, repeat after me please."
"Oh, right."
And like a puppet she repeated what he was saying to her, things about having and holding and sickness and health and Erik...and Erik. She couldn't recall seeing anything besides that her hands were being held tightly by his. When it was Erik's turn to talk, he squeezed her hands and brought her closer to him so that she could no longer follow through with her daze. She looked up to meet his eyes felt his words strike her heart painfully. He waved the priest off and recited everything from memory.
"I Erik, will have you, Christine Daae to be my wife, lawfully and fully, to have and to hold, to protect and cherish, through my sicknesses and all your health, through our rich life that we are sure to have, for the rest of our days." His last words seemed to be whispered in her ear and she wasn't sure if anyone else heard them. She couldn't even recall if she saw his lips moving, "Forever. You will be forever mine and you will never, ever leave me again or you will surely rot in this Hell."
She flinched and the priest continued like nothing had happened. More words were passed from the priest. Something cold and hard was shoved on to the ring finger of her left hand, then her fingers were forced over metal as they slipped over Erik's large fingers. Other puppet words were exchanged until the priest said loudly, "May I now pronounce Mister and Missus...Erik. Um, you may now kiss your wife."
Erik turned to her. Suddenly, there was a bashful feeling in her, something that didn't want him to kiss her in front of so many people. The spotlight on her were so bright and terrible and she feared that this act would make it far worse. Erik was taking both sides of her head in his hands he leaned down. She found herself holding her breath and closing her eyes, but he stopped short, kissing her very gently on her forehead instead. Something in that gesture spoke to her, he was angry, or at least he had been, but now he was happy somehow. He was calmer. He was still in love with her and she was unsure what to do next.
"Thanks," Erik muttered dryly.
The words may have been towards the priest, but she could not recall. She looked up to him, confused, right before there was a bang and smoke filled the air. She was being dragged away from the screaming, from the coughing and yelling and a few gun shots. Everything was leaving her. Everything.
It took a long time for all of the smoke to clear and for Rick to finally be able to see what strange thing had been placed in his hand. People were everywhere, some of the orphaned children had found him and hung to his pant legs. He patted one on the head and some of them cried. Two of them were not over the age of five yet. What a terrible life for a child to grow up in. Some of the women came to the children's aid, while everyone else started to scout out the basement for safety.
The estranged middle eastern man approached him, "Did you get it?"
Rick looked down into what he had. It was the odd little disk that Erik had held above them all in a brib.
"I guess, though I do not know how to work it. I fear for their safety."
"I will show you how to use it. Then, I will leave."
"Mister…?"
"It doesn't matter anymore,"
"But it does," Rick held out his hand for him, "You have seen enough my friend. Stay with us."
Khan looked at the old man's hand and was amused that someone in the room was older than him and still alive. Where else would he go until the city was no longer as devastated as it was? His home, but he wanted no more of that place. Perhaps he could undo all his sins in a week or so, just by helping out these poor people. Then everything would be done. Then he could leave for his solitary life and be done with it all.
He took Rick's hand and shook it.
"Let me show you how this works."
After igniting the bombs of smoke, Erik reached out and grabbed Christine's hand, lurching her forward into a blindness with a yelp. They were running towards the stairs that he had just come down and the sounds of the people they had left behind were getting fainter and fainter. Erik realized where the stairs began by the way the smoke curtsied around the incline and went up. Christine, unable to follow his movement fell.
He turned to her, a little less anger swelling in him, "one flight and we'll be at the car, Christine."
She looked up to him. There were scrapes and bruises all over her body. Blood was coming and drying from her knees and he wanted to kill Khan for all the damage that was inflicted on her. Her eyes were so tired and scared and he realized that time was being lost to them. He leaned down to her and she fainted.
Lifting her up into his arms, he proceeded up the stairs to the back door of the building. There would be people around his car, he was sure. They would all be fighting over it even though they would never get in to use it. Placing a cloth over his mouth, he clicked a mechanism in his pocket that would begin to spray gas all around the car. This gas was most related to tear gas, non lethal, but would do the trick for him as he made his escape.
Blinded, he ran out of the door towards where he knew the car to be. It was hardly half a block away as he wanted to be close, but not so close that people would follow him to his business either. The ticking in his ear piece got faster the closer he was to the car and he heard people coughing and crying all around him. Instinctively, he held Christine tighter to his chest.
Once at the door of the car, he sat in the seat, Christine now in his lap as there would be no time to move her elsewhere and started the engine. Gas surrounded the car and he waited for it to settle a bit more so that no one would get trapped under the car once he moved. He needed to see where more people were to spare his car the slow down of trampling some idiot out messing with his car from earlier. As he waited, he moved Christine to the passenger seat, buckling her in even as he did do so for himself. She was motionless, but alive.
The smoke was clearing and people could be seen wiggling and crying all around them. It was better Christine was no conscious as she wouldn't know how to handle such things. Placing the car into gear, he began to move, zig zagging around them to get out of the ally. The bright light from the fire hit his eyes as he continued faster down the road. The thought crossed his mind that he appreciated that this group didn't have a taste for dramatics. If that were the case, they would have shut all the lights off in the middle of rush hour and there would be no way he could drive through that. Instead, they chose to strike in the late evening when less people would be out.
People were appearing from allies, fire escapes, and man holes all over the place, every one of them trying to catch up with his car. Some people cheered, some started shooting, Erik kept going. He had to find a bridge that was not blocked off by warlords, and that was getting harder and he was not going to take the Lincoln Tunnel as that would surely end their lives.
Finally, he decided that the best way to get off the island would be to plow through a blockade. The Brooklyn bridge would do. People had actually pushed and dragged cars to block the entrance, trying to charge people whatever they had to get through. Erik simply drove through them and and the cars, creating a path which made all surrounding him empty their bullets on trying to slow him down. The same thing happened on the other side. It was no matter as the car was made to survive a bomb.
He kept driving near ninety miles per hour, waking neighborhoods, highways, and side streets, everyone running out to see what they thought to be a miracle. Eventually he was above the city and suburbs and driving was easier with less people to dodge.
Christine hardly remembered the cloud of smoke that surrounded them only seconds after being married. There was a pressure on her wrist and she was once again running somewhere that she could not see. There were stairs that she could not have guessed to be before her and her feet ran into the first step with a thud. She began to fall forward, but remembered Erik's strong arms taking hold of her to steady her. Her knees buckled and her fought to keep her steady.
"One flight and we'll be at the car, Christine."
She remembered looking up to him, his white mask being the last thing she saw before blacking out. It was a dreamless terribly sleep that awaited her. There were so many thuds and turns to combat that made her feel as if she were in a small boat stuck in a large storm. The sound of Erik's cursing could be heard, puncturing her blackness with temporary light until her unconsciousness struck her again and again.
"Christine,"
With everything that happened, she knew immediately that this was no dream, that there would be no breakfast waiting for her, no music lesson after, no books, or movies, of fine dinners. There was only what awaited her with Erik. She sat up in a cold sweat, breathing heavily, her eyes snapping open to see a small cave of a car surrounding her, something relating more to a tiny and well laid out RV with drawers all around her, the tiniest of windows near the ceiling, and she had been sleeping on a bed that took up all of the center of the car. Erik sat where her knees had been bent near the door.
"Christine?' Erik asked, colder than usual.
"Erik,.." She tried to shake off all that happened enough to ask him questions, hoping that he would grant her with answers, "where are we now?"
"This will be our new home for the time being. I will let you outside only once we've reached Ohio."
"Ohio...are we still in New York? Where are we going?"
"We are in New York state, yes. Due to a malfunction in plans, we will not be able to cross into Canada until Idaho."
"Is Canada where we are supposed to be going?'
"Yes, Canada is where our housing will be."
Erik moved up to where she was sitting so that they were now closely beside each other. She shrank back, but had no where to go as there was the side of the vehicle there.
"I am very tired Christine. I haven't slept in two days since the stunt you pulled."
"Erik I-"
He put his hand to her face, "Not now. I don't want to talk about anything now. I've locked the car so that no one can get in or out. This will be safe. I only need a few hours of sleep. I recommend not screaming or trying to escape. There is no one out here, but it there were, I doubt they would be kind to you. Have you see enough of your precious freedom to believe me?"
Dumbly, she nodded.
"Good. Now leave me alone."
She sensed a great deal of hurt in those words as they were foreign for her to hear from him, but what was she to do now? There was nowhere for her to go, nothing for her to do, and the adrenaline rush she thought would come from trying to sort everything out with him was gone and replaced with a new strange surrender.
"Erik...I'm still tired too." She whimpered, "Where do I sleep?"
His back that was to her turned so that his eyes could be seen by her, "I believe you can figure this out."
Looking around and no longer seeing a way into the front seats, she pulled her knees closer to her, but stopped as the pain of newly formed scabs began to rip. She hissed.
"Dammit child, must you keep harming yourself?"
Ashamed, she looked to her knees for a moment. The next thing she knew, he was encasing her in his arms and pulling her to his lap as he sat with his back against one of the long walls of the car. She did not move further as he placed a hand over her head and brought it to his shoulder to rest. The feel of his rib cage moving slowly and fully in and out as he breathed was a comfort and she allowed herself to relax against him. He did not hum or run his fingers through her hair as she expected him to, he only breathed, but somehow even that was a comfort. He smelled faintly of smoke and she wondered if he had gone through any fire in a city. His grip around her back tightened for a moment and relaxed after he lay his head on top of hers.
"Don't leave me again." He whispered and they slowly escaped into sleep.
I dedicate this scene to all the weddings that my friends are having. I am very content to keep *writing* weddings and keep my boyfriend just the title he is :) Now how in the world am I supposed to afford to go to all these weddings this summer?!