I felt around the room for the dresser drawer containing the scissors, but upon opening it, I found them to be missing. Distraught that my last escape plan had been foiled, I paced in front of the door, desperate for a way out of this nightmare.

Erik would never forgive me for what I had done.

Oh, what would he do? Would he lock me in the torture chamber?! How could he love me anymore after I had betrayed him with a kiss?

I was alone in the dark for a while, contemplating, trying not to stare too intently at the figments of my imagination that encircled me in the dark. Oh, how ravaged my mind was!

I collapsed upon the floor, shivering from unnatural cold, perhaps due to my exhaustion. And I remained there. Time trickled by like nothing.

Then I shrieked as a voice filled the room, the mighty voice of the devil himself, from the very opera I had sang in: Faust!

"The calf of gold is still standing!

One adulates his power,

One adulates his power,

From one end of the world to the other!

To celebrate the infamous idol,

Kings and the people mixed together,

To the somber sound of golden coins,

They dance a wild round

Around his pedestal

Around his pedestal

And the Devil leads the dance!"

The voice was roaring like thunder and crackling like lightning! It seemed in my very soul, burning there, turning my heart to fear.

"The calf of gold is the victor over the gods!

In its derisory glory,

In its derisory glory,

The abject monster insults heaven!

It contemplates, oh weird frenzy!

At his feet the human race,

Hurling itself about, iron in hand,

In blood and in the mire,

Where gleams the burning metal,

Where gleams the burning metal,

And the Devil leads the dance!"

"Erik?" I cried out, horrified.

But was it Erik?

I fell to my knees to pray in my bewilderment, becoming unaware as to what truly was occurring. My eyes were glass and my body still as marble.

"No! You shall not pray!" The Devil cried, "Strike her with terror!

Spirits of evil, hasten here!"

"Kristina!" A demon called in the dark, from a corner.

"Who is calling me?" I replied, knowing my part well.

"Kristina!" Another called, this time beside me.

"I falter! I die!" I cried, feeling the need to sing with it, hoping if it was Erik this would help me.

"Dear God! Merciful God!

Is it already the hour of retribution?"

The devil returned, his voice thunder:

"Remember the past, when sheltering your bliss

Beneath angels' wings,

You came to worship the Lord in his own temple,

Singing his praise!

When you stammered out a chaste prayer

in a faltering voice

And carried within your heart your mother's kisses

And God, at the same time!

Hear these clamours! Hell is claiming you!

Hell is pursuing you!

Here comes eternal remorse and eternal anguish

In everlasting night!"

I hastened to reply:

"God! What voice now addresses me in the dark?

Almighty God!

What black veil has suddenly fallen over me?"

The darkness filled with hideous, pained, laughter, and pounded with the demons in my head, in my soul, my flaming soul! This was surely not Erik; this was Death!

"When the day of the Lord dawns" said a chorus of hope, coming from above.

"His cross will shine in heaven

And the whole world will be shattered!"

I sang, "Alas, this pious chant is even more terrifying!"

But the devil continued, his voice shattering any dream of hope:

"No! God no longer forgives you!

The sky no longer dawns for you!

No! No!"

And the chorus replied:

"What shall I tell the Lord then?

Where shall I find a protector

When the innocent himself stands in fear!"

I cried out:

"Ah, this chant stifles and chokes me!

I am clamped in an iron band!"

The devil laughed:

"Farewell, nights of love and days of rapture!

A curse on you! Hell awaits you!"

"Lord!" I wailed.

I united with the voices:

"Lord, welcome the prayer

Of unhappy hearts.

May one spark of your light

Shine down on them!"

But then the mighty fury of the devil shattered our prayers:

"Kristina!

Be accursed!

Hell awaits you!"

I put my hands over my ears, and the torments began anew as the devil sang, sang without me, but not mocking Marguerite! Kristina! He called me Kristina and cursed me in the words of Faust, brought to life with his tongue of fire! And Erik did not know of my old Swedish name, Kristina... so this was not he!

"I think my advices are in vain

And that love carries him away,

But to make you open the door,

You have great need

Of the help of my voice.

You who are supposed to be asleep,

Don't you hear

Don't you hear

O, Kristina, my sweetheart

Don't you hear

My voice and my steps?

Thus your lover calls you

Thus your lover calls you

And your heart believes in him. Ah!

Don't open the door, my beauty,

Till the jewel is on your finger!

Kristina, whom I adore,

Why refuse

To the lover who implores you

Why refuse such a sweet kiss?

Thus your lover pleads

Thus your lover pleads

And your heart believes in him. Ah!

Don't give a kiss, my sweetheart,

Till the jewel is on your finger!"

And he cackled hideously, as the music of not Faust, but the Devil himself, thundered through the room, a great, hideous roar!

I lay on the floor, trembling and beaten. My hands were over my ears, my body quaking, destitute and powerless against the music, the very music of the abyss, which enclosed me on all sides and filled my soul with darkness.

The music was deafening, and nothing could shield me from it. It penetrated every recess of that room, every part of me, until I yearned for mercy, mercy that was nowhere to be found! I had been forsaken.

Then, suddenly, around me were red flames, and in them, demons! They danced to the noise, the hideous song that the Devil played. With every note, I fell further into despair, into madness.

Then, with a tremendous crescendo, the roar suddenly died. I looked up from my trembling ball of fear, and a ray of orange light entered, but there was no angel inside it. I screamed, for Death himself had come to take me!

"End it now, Christine, here!" He cried with human desperation.

He thrust a miniature ebony casket into my trembling hands, with a bronze grasshopper inside. He even placed my hand atop this.

"Turn the grasshopper, and it shall end, for everyone!" He pleaded.

"Don't take me!" I pleaded. "Please, I don't want to die! What do you want? Oh, I shall marry Erik! If you will let me go for that, is that why all this torment? I shall marry him!"

My eyes began to clear, and I felt myself fading. Before me was not Death, but Erik, with his eyes wide with pain.

"Erik, why?" I whispered, letting the casket fall from my trembling hands. "Why?"

I fainted away.

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This chapter was only slightly edited, and as you can see, it focuses a bit more on Christine's confusion over whether she wants to die or not. At the beginning, she searches for the scissors, but at the end, she begs to be spared, for Erik (perhaps unknowingly) has frightened her into not taking her own life. Poor Christine...