As the shot rang out, Erik lunged towards Raoul. He could be thankful that the drunken fop was unable to aim in his intoxicated state, otherwise he would have not been returning to Christine. Erik latched onto the gun, trying to pry it from the fighting hands of Raoul.
"Remove your hands from me creature!" Raoul roared, digging his nails into the Phantom's hands. "I will kill you!"
Erik pressed his heel into the Viscount's toes, relishing in the yelp that was released from the young man. With a swift turn of their hands Erik slammed his elbow into Raoul's face. "You will not be killing anyone."
"I will take my wife back. She is my wife!" Raoul was close to the point of breaking as he recoiled from the Phantom, without his gun. "I am married to her and I will have her back."
"She is having my child. Why would you want a bastard? Why would you want to raise my child as your own?"
"I will have a slip of a poison dropped into her drink. I am sure she has told you all of the cruel things she suffered in my home. Perhaps she said how terrible it was to have three luscious meals a day, succulent and full. Or perhaps it was this handsome face she had to look upon. Did she say that my kisses were putrid to her?" Raoul let his hand hover over his rapier, ready to pull it out. "But with your face and your disfigured lips, your horrid corpse body and dead soul I do not understand why it's eye that she abhors."
"Because she is not so shallow that she focuses on appearances." Erik retorted, giving his advisory and menacing grin. "I believe you do not know our Christine as well as you think you do."
"She is mine! I won her fair and square. I have loved her since I first laid eyes on her. I cared for her since she was a child. I love her! I married her. My every desire in life was to make her my wife and to care and cherish her for the rest of her lives. You ruined my life!"
Erik frowned, "I cannot be blamed for ruining your life. Christine chose me. The day you pried her from my life was the very day she gave me her mind, soul, heart, and body. She vowed to me words that a husband and a wife say to one another and vowed to her those same words. You were married by a priest and I was married by our love and a God that finally shined into my life. Christine was mine. Her father gave her to me when she was only eight, I promised my life to protect his daughter."
"Why would Gustave give a demon his precious daughter?"
"Because he saw what no one else would see in me. He saw a caring man and a diligent tutor. He saw a fitting person to care for his daughter." Erik closed his eyes, remembering the young child who had blossomed into the beautiful woman. "Raoul, there is no King Solomon to split our love in two. But I will have you know if there were a man who threatened to split Christine into two I would let you have her. I have waited all of my life for her. Someone to understand me and love me. But if it is between her life and happiness and my feelings I would let her go in the beat of a heart."
Raoul lowered his hand, covering his face in shame. "You love her enough to let her go?"
"I let her leave with you the first time, I let you take her the second time, I left her after I laid with her the night before she married you, I watched your wedding and I let it happen, I kept watch on her everyday and never interfered. I am willing to let her happiness overwhelm my desires. I love her more than I love music, more than I cherish the sounds it makes in my ears, I worship her more than the melodies I create. She is the air, she is the music, she is the notes, she is my heart, she invades every part of my life."
Raoul wilted to his knees, "You cannot be capable of such love."
"You think because my face is distorted that my heart is distorted? You think because I murder that I cannot love? I have been denied all the cares of the world and I would give you my caring world. Even if it kills me."
"I cannot, no. I love her!"
"Would you let her be with me if she was happy?"
"No." Raoul wept into his hands. "I deserve her. I have waited for years to be with her."
"Did you? You never tried to contact her before you saw that she was the star."
"I did not know where she was."
"Gustave never told his daughter's closest friend where he was taking her?"
"No!" Raoul shouted, his voice echoing through the cathedral. "Once I saw here there on stage I remembered my Little Lotte."
"Believe what you will Viscount, but your wife has decided her fate. In your best interest for your health and life, I would strongly insist that you have the marriage dissolved. Oh, look what we have here. A church. Priests."
"I will not give into your plots! I will leave here with my wife." Raoul quickly stood to his feet, drawing his rapier. "And I will leave here with you put in a grave once and for all. I will do what I should have done months ago."
Erik closed his eyes, inhaling and exhaling deeply. "If this is what you plan to do, I am unable to change your mind. Please give my condolences to Christine. Tell her... If you love her let her go." Without another word Erik dropped the Punjab lasso to the floor, laying the guns down at his feet. He stretched his hands out, standing ready for the feel of a rapier piercing his stomach or chest. He waited for something that never came.
Eyes opening, he realised that the only ones who stood around him were the priests. Silently watching in awe as the corpse faced man had beaten the Viscount. Erik had not defeated him for good, he was still lawfully Christine's husband. But for now they were safe.
A/N: My dear Opera Ghost, do not be upset. I have updated, as you see. Now, my dear readers I pose I question for you. Would you care to see me write a dark E/C story? I have this idea in my mind that's very faint. But, I want to know if after this story you'd be interested in this sort of story.