"Where is he?" Raoul threatened, hand hovering above the pistol at his waist, as he stared at the first priest who stopped him. "Where is the hell spawn demon?"
"Monsieur I do not understand," The priest motioned for several of the other priests to come closer. "There are no others here. There are only my brothers and I."
"Where are you hiding him?" Raoul snarled again, "You would hide an adulterous woman and her demon lover in a holy building? You would allow such sin in your place of worship?"
The priests exchanged glances, never breaking the blank stares on their faces. "If you would please remove your weapons." They motioned for Raoul to give the weapons to them but he only pulled the pistol on them.
"Tell me where they are!" Raoul raised the pistol in the air, pulling the trigger and letting the first warning shot ring through the grand room. "Last warning."
"There is no one here, Monsieur. If there was anyone here they would have had to speak to us. We do not take in wayward folk and runaways. We provide a meal, clothing when needed, prayer, and we provide them with money if they need."
"You have not seen a man with the curse of your enemy upon his face?" Raoul laughed hysterically, "You would lie to me? Risk your lives to save his devil's soul?"
~o~
Erik lay back against the bed, pulling Christine close to him. He showered her cheeks with kisses, smoothing his hands across her warm silken skin. Every time they shared this experience together, he learned something new about her. Some new way to make her mewl, to make her tremble, to make his worship more powerful. He understood what love was every time he died with her.
"Mon amour, ma belle, mon ange." He punctuated every word with a tender kiss. She made him feel alive with the ways she cared about him. She was intoxicating and possessing. He could drown in her and never want to be taken up for air.
Their tender afterglow was broken by a shattering sound from above the crypts. Erik pulled away from her, staring up at the ceiling and straining to listen.
"What was that?"
"A gunshot." Erik rose quickly to his feet, jerking his trousers on and leaving Christine unwillingly behind in the bed.
"Where are you going? I thought you said we were safe down here?"
"It could be your fop of a husband trying to play hero again."
"I don't want to be rescued by him, Erik. Please just stay down here where it is safe. There is no point to tempt fate twice. You barely survived your last encounter with him."
"I will best him this time," Erik snapped, pulling his shirt over his head and walking across the room for his waistcoat next. "I will prove to him that I am the one who has won you. That I have the upper hand." Erik dug through a trunk, removing a pistol and checking to see if it were loaded. Satisfied with the gun he reached for his "magical lasso", quietly savouring the feel of having his weapon of choice in his hands once again.
"Erik don't risk your life to prove that you are better than him." Christine wrapped the sheet around her body, travelling across the room to follow Erik. "Please Erik. We are finally happy."
"No." Erik gritted, turning and pushing her away from him. "I will not be satisfied until Raoul is put in his place. You are mine."
"Erik, please." Christine trembled as Erik shoved away the slate stone that concealed their doorway. "Please, do not do this. If not for me, for our child."
"I am doing this for both of you." Erik snarled, as she slipped through the doorway, pulling the slate closed behind him. He knew there was no way that she could move the covering. She was safe until he returned. Or if worst came to worst she would be cared for by the priests. He had plans that would be set into motion in the occasion of his demise.
Erik could already hear the Viscount's shouting as he continued up through the crypt. He could hear the cold, cruel things he said of Christine. He was rambling without end, no doubt waving the gun about, like a schoolboy rebel that thought he could win a revolution.
As Erik drew near, he let a menacing laugh escape from his lips. Letting it thunder like it had so many times to warn his next victim of his emanate approach. "Do you believe that you can win?"
"Who's there?" Raoul jerked, his finger dangerously cocked on the trigger as he spun around the cathedral, searching ever wall for the concealed voice. There were too many ornate edifices on tombs, to many grandly designed carvings where anyone could blend in. "Come out you coward. I've bested you before?"
"Bested me before you say?" Erik sneered, hiding behind one of the columns where he could just see the Viscount and the priests.
"I'm not afraid of you!"
"Of course, of course." Erik let out a fiendish cackle. "Not afraid of the man who has, what was that you said? Stolen my wife?"
"She is my wife." Raoul corrected, searching desperately for any shape that could be the Phantom's.
"But I was the one who took her. I am the one she gave her love and adoration. It is I who she so willingly submits her very soul to. I am the one that makes her cry out those, sweet passion fuelled words. But of course, your wife."
"Bastard!" Raoul shouted, grasping his head in pain. "She chose me!"
"Who are you fooling?" Erik taunted, looking around the column again to see if his shot was clear.
"Show yourself!" Raoul snarled, aiming his gun at the priests again. "I'll kill them and then I will kill you!"
Erik stepped out from behind the pillar, making a grand entrance of himself. "Ah yes, the ferocious Papillion." He smirked, keeping his hand on the pistol.
"Look at you, foul as sin. Hideous - horrible." Raoul stared in horror at the half faced, skeleton. To think that his beautiful Christine had chosen him over himself. He was handsome and he was a rotting cadaver.
"Look at you, stinking drunk and pitiful. The Viscount reduced to a drunkard." Erik laughed coldly, "Can't even get a pretty little ballerina to give him the privilege of his wedding night."
"Monster!" Raoul screamed, raising the gun and aiming it at Erik. He pulled the trigger without a second thought.
A/N: Ooooo I so just did that (: And guess what? I might not be able to post at all this whole week! Ha, ha, ha. But then again I probably will just because I want to know what's going to happen! Anyone like the use of Devil Take the Hindmost? Anyone heard David Thaxton singing it with Ramin? Check out Youtube and take a listen. It's pure win.