Shots Fired

1871

Erik

The inside of the mansion was filled to the brim with an abundance of warmth, but Erik didn't have time to enjoy the sense of feeling returning to his limbs. Samuel was wiggling out from beneath him, sliding across the floor like a snake over to the nearest end table. There he he grabbed a heavy candlestick with both hands and stood up, a deranged and animalistic look upon his face, which was shredded to ribbons from falling through the glass. Erik backed up instinctively, placing both palms on the hardwood floors to push him upwards to his feet. He frantically surveyed the library, looking around for anything that could be used as a weapon. Unless he were to fight with a book though his options were limited. Samuel advanced towards him, the brass candlestick raised above his head. Erik held up his forearms, crossed in defense, already anticipating the feeling of their bones breaking as he blocked the blow that would surely be aimed to his head. He winced as the man swung, already feeling the ghost of the pain to come, but the blow never landed.

Instead he heard Samuel cry out, the man knocked to his side as a blur of color flew past his field of vision. As the heavyset man landed books rained down from the library shelves as the room shook, and on the floor he saw Christine crawl atop him, pulling the candlestick from his grasp and tossing it aside, where it rolled far from his reach. Erik panicked and dropped to the floor just as Samuel reached out for her neck, grabbing the side of his face and slamming it down hard against the floor. Samuel tried to fight back, but Erik was done with his trifling games. He pushed Christine aside and grabbed the nearest hardback book off the floor, pressing the spine of it roughly against the man's throat. Within seconds he could see Samuel losing consciousness. Still though he did not let up. There was far too much tension pent up in his body for him to do so, far too much anger at all that had happened to lead up to this point. The unresponsive man turned a sickly pale blue, and Erik knew he had but seconds to live. He smiled in twisted satisfaction.

A small but hard grip pulled at his shoulder. "Erik stop, you'll kill him!"

Erik froze, broken from his murderous trance, and obeyed Christine's order without a second thought, dropping the book to the side where it hit the floor with a hollow thud. He saw the slightest bit of color return to Samuel's face as the man once more began to breathe shallowly. Christine was in his arms then, crying and clinging to him as if she would fall off the side of the Earth should she let go. He was shocked to say the least, feeling the desperate tightness of her embrace. A part of him was still torn, hurt by her actions, but the other part of him, the part that lived and breathed only for her, soared with happiness as he held her in return, both of them on their knees as he twisted his hands tightly in the fabric of her dress.

Their reunited bliss was short-lived though. The sounds of heavy-clad boots coming down the hall caused Erik to remember the surrounding danger and act fast. He pulled himself and Christine to their feet. Then, as gently as he could, he grabbed her by the shoulders and positioned her so that she was hidden behind him. For no matter how she had betrayed him, no matter how much he wished he could hate her and leave her to Raoul's brute men, he just couldn't. She would always be his to protect.

"Do not harm the girl!" Raoul's order sounded clearly from the next room over. Erik curled his lip hearing the sound of the viscount's voice. Of course the bastard would hide. He was far too plush to handle matters himself.

Two men dressed sharply in black stepped into the room. Erik had to admit they were quite the intimidating pair. Each had a pistol in hand and the one to the left also had a dangerously long hunting knife holstered to his hip in plain view, obviously meant to frighten those whose saw it. The effect worked. He felt Christine stiffen behind him at the sight of them, clinging to the remains of his prisoner's shirt in a tight and fearful clutch as the men loomed in closer.

"Step aside from the woman," the taller of the two brutes ordered.

Erik held his arms out to either side, trying desperately to shield the soprano as much as he could from the men's frightening gazes. "I'm afraid you'll have to make me."

His taunt provoked the two men, their faces twisting as their lips curled and their eyebrows drew in close together. They charged, the first grabbing hold of his left arm and tossing him aside as if he weighed no more than a mere ten kilos, instead of the eighty he was. He slammed into the nearest bookshelf hard, books raining down around him off the shelves, some of them striking Samuel's body and bouncing off it onto the floor. The man in black moved quickly then, firing off four gunshots, each one barely missing Erik as he dove to the ground. Three of the bullets fired into the shelves, splintering off wood and paper bursts in all directions. The fourth barely missed his calf, instead embedding itself into the face of the unconscious Samuel, his blood spraying up into the center of the room as his face caved in, causing Christine to scream.

The man was slightly taken back by his accidental slaughter and the piercing sound that she emitted, hesitating a moment before firing off the last of his two rounds, which missed wildly due to his lack of concentration. As he went to take aim once more Erik rushed him, grabbing him by the waist and plummeting them both down through the middle of the side table the candlestick had been on. The wooden debris that littered the floor around them from the wreckage was sharp and jagged, and Erik moved quickly, grabbing a piece the length of his hand and slamming it down through the man's chest with both hands. The man cried out, dropping his pistol to the floor where it discharged a single shot out the busted window. Blood poured over the sides of his chest then, seeping into the maple floors as Erik stared down at what he'd just done with horrified eyes.

Disgust with himself didn't last long though. A shot struck his shoulder then, the pain blistering and sending a blaze of fiery pain throughout his entire body. He didn't let it knock him down though. There was enough adrenaline coursing through his veins now that he just kept moving regardless. He grabbed the pistol by the deceased guard's side and turned it towards the man, who was now holding Christine out in front of himself. Erik cursed silently. He knew he could never will himself to fire with her so close, would never risk hitting her by accident. The guard didn't need to know that though.

"You won't shot!" the guard declared arrogantly, as if reading his thoughts, "If you do you might hit this little bird, and we both know you care for her far too much to risk that!"

"If you truly believe that monsieur, then you underestimate just what a monster I am!" Erik shot back, "Look at my face and tell me again just how much I care! Please, remind me once more how much I long for the affections of a whore for ran straight to another man the very moment I was removed from the picture!"

The guard looked quite uncertain of his human shield upon Erik's outburst, doubt clouding his eyes. Christine herself looked anguished, his derogatory term seeming to seep down into her very core. Tears streamed down her face as she looked at him in desperation. It was far too late for her apologies now though. Erik had seen her true colors. The way she'd held him just moments ago...he'd let himself go in that embrace. But staring at her now from a distance his head was clear and he remembered just how badly she had betrayed him. He saw the thin golden band on her finger that wasn't his and he lost his control, turning his anger towards her.

"Just how long did you wait, Christine! Hm! How long before you decided I was a lost cause! Did you run to the viscount that very night or did you at least wait a few days out of respect for those of us sentenced to die?"

Christine stared at him with horror, her tears of sadness turning to those of fury. "You bastard! You have no right to say such things to me! I nearly died the night you were taken away! And all of this, everything I've been put through here, it has all been for your sake!" Her sobs broke out once more. "Raoul's men may have been the ones to free you, but it was I who paid for that service, with myself! It was all I had to give! All he would take! All I could do to save your life!"

The guard behind Christine seemed very uncertain of where he stood, stuck in the middle of their shouting. Christine reached up to her throat as she finished speaking. A thin silver chain was barely visible around her small neck. She grabbed hold of it and pulled it outwards, the rest of the hidden necklace slipping out from its tucked away place within her complicated corset. She then yanked it hard, the chain breaking, and threw it at him as hard as she could. Erik could only stagger back in surprise as her engagement ring struck the middle of his chest and fell to the floor. In that moment he felt himself cave in and nearly fall apart. He felt lower than he ever had before for even daring to proclaim her affections falsehood. If they made it out of this alive, he would beg her forgiveness for the rest of his life. Right now though he could only stare up at her and plead with his eyes that she understood through his current state how things must have appeared to be.

Christine's fury didn't let up. Erik didn't know who she was more angry at in that moment, himself or the man holding her captive. Either way she seemed thoroughly through with being a prisoner. As Erik and the guard stood with pistols raised in stalemate she lunged to grab the knife from the holster of his leg, bringing it up in an expert flick of the wrist to slash his face. The guard cried out, falling backwards as he slapped his palm up to cover his bleeding cheek. Christine stepped off to the side as he staggered away, dropping the bloody knife and giving a nod to Erik to proceed. Erik took her order and fired the gun in his hands, the bullet entering the man's throat, a gory spray following that shot as the man fell to the ground and seemed to choke on his own blood.

Erik dropped the pistol then, too exhausted to continue on. The library around him was in disarray, books and pieces of furniture littering the floor, blood covering every inch of the room in some form or another. Pain still seared through his shoulder where he'd been shot, and Christine stood only a little ways away from him, breathing hard as she stared him down with cold eyes. There was a hatred in those eyes that he had never seen before. Her face seemed worn, aged in mere minutes by all that she'd seen. He took a slow step towards her, half expecting her to turn and run from the man who had dared to ruin her name aloud, who had brought such violence and destruction into her life. She didn't move though. She merely let her shoulders fall as she began to cry, her tough exterior falling away as she looked down at the blood spray on her clothes and the bodies on the ground.

Erik crossed the room quickly and with his good arm he pulled her in close to his body, shielding her eyes from the horrors she needn't dare dwell on. The fight was over now and she was safe. That was all that mattered to him. As she clung to him he only hoped in time she would heal from what had happened here tonight. He didn't know what the next few days would bring though. He was still a man on the run and he knew he had to leave, escape while he still had the chance. The only question now was whether or not he had truly lost her, or if she would go with him.

He turned away from her slightly, looking over to see the anguish on her face as he let her go, and bent down, wincing from the pain as he did, to carefully pick up her engagement ring off the floor. He turned back to her and held it out almost timidly, apologetically. She stared at it a good long minute, probably the longest minute of Erik's life, before pulling off the thin golden band from her finger and tossing it aside, slipping her own ring back in to its rightful place. There were no more words needed then, nothing left to say. Erik knew that silently, in that moment, they both proclaimed all they needed to in order to set things right between them. He pulled her in close and kissed her, softly and gently, just once, before holding her once more tightly against himself as they both shook, overcome with emotion.

"I thought for sure you were dead when he fired," Christine cried into his chest, holding him tightly, her breathing ragged, "I thought for sure I had lost you forever."

Erik eyes watered, hearing the care in her voice. He rested his chin upon her hair, ignoring the spike from the pins in it. "Oh, Christine. You'll never lose me. I promise. I'm here now. This is all over."

He closed his eyes for just a moment, taking in her scent, her touch, her love. It was almost too much for him to bare. He felt as though over the past week he had been lost but now once more he'd found home. For she was home. Wherever she was, he was whole and complete. Though only just alive with his injuries he felt more alive then than he had in years. She filled him with unexplainable life, with mirth and joy he'd never thought he could know, just by being within his presence. How he'd yearned for her so in their time apart. How he'd needed this. His Christine, his fiancee, his everything. Here, in the flesh, in his arms.

In that moment where there seemed to be only the two of them left in the world, Erik let down his defenses. They'd both forgotten though that there was one last player on the board. The king of the castle they found themselves in. Suddenly, so suddenly, his happiness shattered. Christine was yanked from his grasp and thrown across the hardwood where she landed in a mess of sorts, falling amongst splintered wood and broken glass. Erik looked down at her once, only to make sure she wasn't too badly injured, before turning in anger to face the viscount. The man stood only a few meters away, pistol in hand.

"No more violence, Vicomte!" Erik yelled, "Can't you see there's been enough bloodshed tonight? Lay down your weapon and allow us to leave here in peace! Enough is enough!"

"Enough indeed!" Raoul agreed, clicking the hammer down on his pistol and taking aim at Erik's chest, "End of games!"

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