Oh, how Christine wept upon the corpse of a man before her. His frailty and peacefulness within this clam state made all his past cruelty and viciousness seemed to fade from her mind.
She wept for all the tortures he had suffered and the happiness he had never known. That is until the corpse seemed to stir. Surely it must have been a trick. Erik was dead. The papers had stated so, and he lay still in the coffin before Christine. He remained just as cold as the cellar that was his tomb. Yet she still felt a twinge of fear for the dead man in front of her.
She steadied her breathing her eyes never looking away from his motionless black mask. Then once again the body stirred. Her eyes had not deceived her though she so desperately wished they had. She stepped back in horror as the body slowly rose from the coffin, and he spoke his cursed heavenly voice haunting her to her one more.
"I must truly be in hell for no god would be so cruel to allow such an Angel to weep such tears for a demon loathsome as Erik."
He was alive! Her Angel was alive! She fought back as gasp and tried to look away, though she could feel his glowing eyes upon her as if they could stare into the fiber of her very soul. She wanted to say something but no words were able to come out instead her silent tears returned as loud sobs.
"Please do not cry for Erik for what has he done to deserve such tears. Do not torment me with this image of Christine any longer." He reached out to brush a golden curl from her crying face, but instead pulled back at the last moment fearing her apparition to truly disappear leaving him alone once again in the dark.
"You're alive" Christine choked out
"That certainly was not my intention. I was supposed to die and you we're supposed to your happy days and not mock me any longer with what I can not have" Erik spoke so calm and cold Christine scarcely knew what to think of his words.
In a sudden burst of confused, courage she placed her hand upon his and moved it to his heart to feel it's slow but steady beat within its cage. She felt her own heart rate increase.
"You are alive" she spoke again with a little more conviction though she was not sure who she needed to convince of that fact more.
"And so you have said my dear." He looked down at her delicate hand still upon his own and gently placed it down and he looked at the ring upon her finger. "Have you married your pretty little Vicomte? Are you happy Christine? Do not fear my jealousy now as I know you still do but believe me, I have made my peace."
She turned the ring on her finger not daring to look into his grotesque sockets still hidden beneath the black mask. She still so greatly feared the fire which could burn in that dark. She began to speak so softly that one could hardly hear such a tiny voice.
"I did not marry Raoul." He heard her plainly but wanted to hear her speak it again.
"What was that my dear? You must speak the truth again louder for your Erik is a very old man and you must do well to explain to him what was said." A devilish smirk beginning to form upon his dead lips.
"I did not marry Raoul. He left on an expedition yesterday. It was my wish to remain in Paris a free woman. I came to return your wedding present to you." She spoke with more conviction but still dared not look into his eyes. She desperately hoped he would believe her for she spoke only the truth.
Erik swiftly tore off his black mask and seized the wrist of Christine's ringed hand with a grip so intense she feared if he gripped any tighter the bone may break. His other icy, skeletal hand lifted her face to stare at his horrifying visage.
"DO NOT LIE TO ME CHRISTINE!" He thundered "Do you not know how much Erik has suffered? Do you understand the extent to which he loves you? Don't toy with his affections any further lest you make yourself his murderer and truly send him to his unhappy grave." He released his grip upon her and fell to her feet and let out a great and terrible sob.
Trembling she tried to nurse her aching wrist, looking down at the man in tears at her feet. He clawed at the bottom of her dress and the horrible sounds his cries made shook her to her core.
'Know that it is a corpse that loves you, and will never, never leave you.' That phrase that had haunted her echoed in her mind once again as she stared at the sight pitiful before her.
"Erik please believe me i did not lie to you. It is the truth" Christine pleaded.
"Stop lying Christine!" His fists pounded the floor. "I know you loved the boy and not I. Cease this incessant torture."
"For the last time Erik. I am not married." She threw the ring to the ground in front of Erik. His burning eyes stared up at her in the dark.
"Prove it." The flames within the death's head narrowing in on her. Though she immediately regretted it she spoke the only thing her racing mind could come up with to appeal to the madman.
"I have chosen the scorpion. I will marry you. Raoul is gone. This is my decision." Those seemed the magic words to calm Erik indeed. Though Christine did not feel calm she was filled with dread at the words she had spoken and what they might mean for her future.
Erik stood to his full height which towered above her. This time truly reaching down to brush a curl from her tear stained face.
"Oh, my dear, sweet Christine, you know i had freed you from that promise and told you to go marry your pretty, little, vicomte." Christine nodded at his words, but before she could speak again he continued. "However, since you proposed again to me so sweetly, I have no choice but to accept." His bony fingers slid the ring back on to her finger while his death's head began to twist into a grotesque form of a smile with far too many teeth. The sight Christine's stomach lurch.
He led Christine across the hall into the Louis-Phillipe room. She wanted desperately to protest but her words died in her mouth before they could ever be spoken into the world.
"You shall stay here tonight and tomorrow you will be the most happy and beautiful bride." He left the room locking the door behind him. "Oh, and Christine do not try and flee or kill yourself again. The siren will hear and she is not nearly as loving and forgiving as your Erik. Just get some rest tomorrow is a big day, eh?"
Christine could not get some rest. Whenever Erik walked away, she cried for what seemed hours alone in that dark room on her big empty bed. Erik would truly never leave her. She cried more tears than she thought possible, feeling shed never sleep again. That is until in the distance she heard Erik play a gentle lullaby which caused her to drift away into a quite nothing.