Thank you again for reading and reviewing. I see there are a few new followers to the story. I am thrilled you have found it and to those of you who have stuck by me since chapter one, I am very appreciative for your support.
If you celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday, I hope you have a wonderful holiday. To those who do not, I suppose you don't need me to tell you that a holiday isn't necessary to be thankful for all the blessings in your life. So the universal message is; eat, drink and be merry, and read more fan fiction.
On with the show…..
"No! Absolutely not! It will never happen! I will not perform!"
"Erik, calm down. Don't you see that this is wonderful news? You will be able to highlight all of your gifts. Not just as a composer, but as a true performer as well." Christine took his hand, and out of instinct he intertwined his fingers with hers. She felt her heart grow warm from the contact.
"Christine, this wasn't supposed to be about me. This was about the music. My music, getting its voice, your voice. I couldn't possibly perform live on that stage in front of….. No! It will not happen." He started to become agitated again.
Christine was about to speak once more, when another voice was heard coming through the passageway. "Uncle Erik! Oh my word. I cannot believe it. I just heard the wonderful news!"
Christine eyes communicated to Erik that she was right. See. Erik could only stand there shaking his head. She, on the other hand, couldn't begin to disguise her glee. She was overjoyed at the casting of her Angel to play the male lead opposite her.
Meg entered shouting out both their names. "Christine? Uncle Erik? Oh, there you two are. Forgive my intrusion, but when I saw the cast list I could not believe my very eyes. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. Of course when Monsieur Reyes told me how your audition came about, I was thrilled." She went to join her hands with Christine.
"I am so happy for you, dear friend. I have no doubt you will shine as bright as we all knew you would." She then looked at her uncle. "As for you Monsieur, well aren't we full of surprises!"
Erik eyed her with contempt."Megan…."
"I cannot tell you how much I regret missing you sing. From what the other girls were telling me, you practically had them eating out of your hand. What did one of them say? Oh yes, it was as if Gabriel himself came down and started to serenade each and every one of them." She giggled. "Christine, I am sure they will all despise you now."
"What do you mean?" She listened with keen interest.
"As if grabbing the largest part wasn't enough, now they all want to scratch your eyes out for dating the amazing Erik Dexter!"
"I…." Christine started to grow nervous.
"Fear not! I warned them all how they must behave. After all it isn't your fault they were all too late and the latest heartthrob of the opera house is very, very taken."
Christine had to suppress a twinge of jealousy that overcame her. Meanwhile, Erik rolled his eyes.
"Really, Megan that's rubbish."
Meg looked at him coyly. "Are you not taken?"
"I mean about my being a heartthrob!" He started to feel a headache coming on.
Meg giggled once more. "It's true. I'm sorry; Uncle Erik, but you are a wanted man. Christine, you better lock him up. Keep him prisoner in some dark cellar five feet below ground. Oh wait, you've already done that." She winked.
Christine however wasn't so amused. She stood there wondering what all of this would mean. Before she was able to reply, Erik walked to the couch and touched her arm with his finger, nudging her to accompany him. She more than complied. Once seated, he placed his head in his hands.
"How could this happen?"
"How could it not?" Nadir's voice surprised everyone.
Erik groaned. "When did I send out invitations to entertain? Get out, Daroga!"
"What? Don't be foolish. I brought flowers for all of the Paris Opera House's new leads. First, to the graceful Meg Giry. You were a complete delight." He kissed her hand.
"Thank you, Nadir." She accepted the lilies with care.
"I know your mother is so proud."
Meg didn't pretend to smile. "Right. Yet one must see one's performance to really be sure of how proud they are." She turned away, and Nadir resisted the urge to move towards her.
Don't be angry at her, Meggy. It was my fault. "Next, we have the newest prima donna. Ah, Mademoiselle Daae, you were indeed a triumph." He handed her a bouquet of lilacs. "I do hope we can start over. I would very much like us to be friends."
Christine nodded. "Of course. You were only looking out for him. I understand why." She looked over at Erik, who looked as if he would strangle Nadir, if he proceeded to give him flowers. Christine giggled at the sight.
"Mon Amie!" Nadir grinned at Erik. "You sly fox. I had no idea you were up for the male lead. Then again seeing the beauties that were cast, I can hardly blame you."
"Get out!" Erik was now on his feet, pointing towards the door.
"Come now, I brought roses for your crowning achievement." No one could keep a straight face anymore.
"You all think this is funny? I write music. I am perfectly happy being in the shadows. I've been there my entire life. It's manageable. It works for me. It allows me to accept my life for what it is. I don't know how to be….out there, like that. Here I have control. Out there, I'm at the mercy of a world that threw me away long ago."
Nadir huffed. "Erik, you can be in control anywhere, and you are hardly a recluse, not since a certain lady entered your life." He smiled. "Besides, this is your own damn fault. If you hadn't made the male vocals so impossible to reach, maybe someone less talented than yourself would be playing opposite Christine. Then I'd have to hear about how handsome the insolent boy is and how you will ensure he keeps his distance."
Erik refused to listen. "I can't play Don Juan with my mask. He is my alter ego. He is supposed to be the most handsome man in the world, able to get any woman he wishes. He fears nothing. I can't….."
"Uncle Erik, it is high time you received your rightful due. You were cheated out of your recognition for this very opera house. You've been in the shadows for far too long."
"Megan, I'm inconspicuous for a reason."
Christine chose now to utter her feeling on the matter. "Angel, you've gone out with me before and then the other night we were all in public at the opera…."
"That was different. I could pretend the others didn't exist. I didn't have a house full of people who will have no choice but to gape at my mask and wonder what is behind it. In real life, I can make haste or cover it up, but on stage I'd have to expose my very fear. Everyone would stop paying attention to the story and the music and focus on this bloody mask. It is always about the mask!"
Christine touched his face and slowly brought it closer to hers. "The moment they hear your voice, all of those silly thoughts and questions will fade away."
Nadir and Meg gave each other a knowing glance that their presence was no longer required. "Meg, perhaps we should go and find some Champagne."
"Oh that sounds like a splendid idea, Nadir. Although it could take a while. We may not be back for hours, what with all these passageways and secret hiding places."
Erik's eyes never left Christine's, but he did speak. "Then you better get going."
Meg laughed, as Nadir escorted her out of the room.
Christine brought her face closer to Erik's and they exchanged breaths. "Angel…"
"Christine I won't do anything to jeopardize your achievement. Everything you worked and waited for is finally here. I can't be responsible for allowing it to fall apart. My face….This infection, it follows me everywhere."
"Sh….Sh…" She brought her hands to his head and began to gently caress his hair. She could feel how he began to relax the moment he felt her touch. "First off, you are the reason I even have this opportunity. You do not jeopardize my chances, you enhance them. I know you are scared, but Angel I am overjoyed. I have the opportunity to play opposite on stage with the very man I want to play opposite with me off stage. Think of this as yet another way of constantly being there with me, as my muse, my guide and my light."
"But this…" He pointed to his mask.
"Is immaterial. Wear it and add to Don Juan's mystic. He is after all, always hiding from some jealous husband or lover no? Don't wear it and use your flesh mask. I couldn't care less." She brushed his exposed cheek. "Neither will the audience, love. In fact, this just gives you more of an incentive to rewrite that ending. For I could never bring myself to shoot you." She grinned.
"When I wrote this, Amita was you and in my mind I may have subconsciously been Don Juan, but it was a fantasy I never saw coming true."
"And is this only just a fantasy? Soon you will see all you can do without me."
Erik blinked rapidly."What?"
She motioned to get up, but Erik pulled her back down towards him. "Speak."
She touched the masked side if his face."This infection as you call it brought us together. It was my way of laying a clam on you. For you deny anyone else the chance of getting close and seeing the real you. Erik, don't you see who you really are? Any woman, if given one hour alone with you, would find themselves head over heels for you. Less time, if you sang to them. Do you really think we would have met, had you been born beautiful on the outside, as you are on the inside? Do you have any idea how I shudder to think what would have become of me if we never had met?"
"Christine…."
"Erik, don't sit there and say you would have spent all your time with a poor orphan girl."
This time it was he who reached for her face, cupping her chin. "I never saw an orphan girl. I saw a lost soul, similar to mine. I wanted to help. I felt compelled; I felt a purpose, one for hope as opposed to despair. I had no idea why you tugged so at my heart, but all I wanted was to protect you from the sins of the world. Then when you grew up and I realized I was hopelessly in love, I….God, it was insanity."
"Why would loving me by an act of insanity?"
"Because I never should have deceived you the way I did. I never thought I would ever have to tell you the truth. I thought I would be some Good Samaritan that helped you along the way as you grew up. I knew I was confusing you. I should have stayed away." He looked away, ashamed of himself. "But I couldn't stay away, by then the bond had grown so deep, I couldn't deprive myself of you. God, what a selfish bastard I am!"
"Erik, I fell in love with you too." She shook her head at his reasoning. "You weren't a mistake. The heart wants what the heart wants." She played with his collar. "I could have said no."
"Really?"He gave her a look. "Disobey your Angel?"
"All I know is I would do everything all over again, except for leaving you. I wouldn't have traded our meeting for anything, and all this still doesn't prove you would be here with me, if it wasn't for your face."
"I would have found you."He took her hand in his."This kind of certainty, happens only once in a lifetime."
"Perhaps we would have met in some opera. Perhaps you would have cast me, or played opposite me?"
He finally smiled at the thought of playing opposite Christine. "The most beautiful soprano in all of France, as my leading lady."
She blushed. "And now it seems that I have the most eligible bachelor as my leading tenor. How lucky can a prima donna be?"
"Perhaps this will be fun after all." He chuckled. He then saw Christine's face suddenly change. "Angel, what just happened?"
"It just there are many women out there who are more…Erik, there are many more exciting women that would be able to…."
He kissed her before she could finish. "You are all the excitement I crave and want. I was destined to love you, Christine. Don't you believe me when I say, I would have found you?"
"No, I…."
"Come, I want to show you something." He took her by the hands and pulled her into the music room. "I'm surprised you never saw him before."
"Saw who?" She looked confused, but followed his eyes to the top shelf of the mantel.
Erik took what appeared to be a monkey with symbols in each hand, sitting on top of a box. "He plays. Watch." He unwound the back of the box and music came out as the monkey played the symbols in time softly.
"Where did you find this?"
"I made it when I was a boy living with the gypsies. It was the only thing that kept me sane most nights after encounters with my master."
Christine cursed herself. She didn't want him to remember things about his life that reminded him of passed horrors. Living with the gypsies and his horrible guardian was surely one of them.
Erik's eyes never left the music box. "You see gypsies are very superstitious. They say that each music box can actually start playing on their own, if there is something they want to alert you to about the future. Sometimes it is a warning, sometimes it is an omen, or sometimes they just like to…." He tickled her side when she wasn't looking. "Startle us!" He laughed.
"Erik!" She slapped his hands away, playfully. "Oh you!"
"Monkeys are supposed to bring good luck, so I thought this little guy would be my good luck charm. The night before I killed my master, he started to play on his own."
Christine's eyes went back and forth from the monkey to Erik. "You mean it's real?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, but I can tell you he has only played on his own one more time since then."
"When was that?" Her curiosity was peaked.
"The day before we met." Their eyes met slowly. "So you see I am beyond certain I was destined to find you."
She reached for him, wrapping her arms around him. Erik breathed in the scent of her hair. Soon their arms were entwined in a tight embrace, and Erik moved to kiss her. The kiss started out slow and tender, but after a few moment of pressing one another's lips together, the heat intensified and Christine uttered a soft moan into his mouth. Erik responded, by applying more pressure to the kiss and soon their lips were passionately expressing the feelings mere words could not.
This time when they broke apart for air, Erik left a trail of kisses alongside Christine's neck. Although the feeling brought out a longing sensation throughout her body, Christine couldn't resist jerking from Erik's hold. She saw the fear and guilt in his eyes and she wanted to tell him to not be afraid, that it was her fault and not his. She did not want him to stop, but she couldn't speak.
"I'm sorry, Christine I…. must have lost my head."
"No, please Erik, Don't apologize….. I….I want it as much as you do, but…..You must hate me. Think me as such a tease." Why must I ruin every moment between us? Why do I have to go back to that horrible time when all I want to do is escape in the comfort of my Angel's arms? What he must think!
"You are a lady, first and foremost. I suppose, I was just channeling Don Juan for a moment." He winked.
She immediately threw her arms around his neck and kissed his unmasked cheek. "I love you."
He smiled. "The prima donna loves me, and I get to show the world she is mine. You were right, dear heart. The casting is wonderful news."
"I'm yours, my heart. Only yours."
Erik kissed her nose and then spoke in the direction of the kitchen. "You two can stop pretending not to listen."
A guilty Meg and Nadir came out with a bottle of Champaign. "We found the Champaign." Meg giggled as she spoke.
Erik looked at their faces and couldn't help but smile. "Well pour Daroga; we are celebrating, aren't we?"