And Then He Came
Always AoM


Song 2: A Shadow in the Mist

From the darkness, he watched her tortured sleep, saw her small figure stir and sit suddenly upright at, what he guessed was, the realization of her all too familiar surroundings. Her eyes grew wide with fear and it was almost as if he could sense the inevitable tears that were to come from that realization. He drew back deeper into the darkness when she called out to her unseen captor.

"Why have you brought me here?" Her gaze, fearful, as she looked around frantically for someone known, yet unknown, to her. "Where are you? I know you are here... Angel..?" She placed her hand quickly over her mouth, as if she had made a terrible mistake.

"Of course I am here, Christine." He moved soundlessly through the shadow-ways of his night world, making sure that she would not see him just yet. "I am always here. It is my accursed fate." His voice surrounded her from all angles, confusing her senses. She found herself in a make-shift bed of variously shaded silk comforters, in the middle of what seemed to be a rather large room. At first she had thought this to be his music room, now she realized she had not recalled the proper room, for this was one she had never been in before.

Her burgundy dress was awkwardly wrapped around her legs, she guessed from her tossing and turning in her sleep. Her shoes were still fairly intact and her hair was in slight disarray. Her heart was in turmoil as she took a deep breath and another glance about the strange room. Isn't this what she had wanted, what seemed to be, just moments ago? Moments. A moment. The garden. Her voice broke, "Raoul."

"No need to worry about him now, my dear. Though I am sure it is troubling him quite some bit, that you never showed up for your quaint little garden rendezvous." His words reflecting her thoughts perfectly. The tears finally fell down her cheeks in little streams that glistened in the candle light.

He moved from the shadows then and into the dim lighting of a dozen or so candles that were scattered about like tiny, twinkling stars amidst the hollow blackness. His cape flared brilliantly about him with even the slightest movement, drawing her attention to the power he seemed to hold over everything here. Even with his graceful movements as a distraction, she could not help but fix her gaze on the immaculate white mask that covered the right side of his face. That mask, which had forever haunted her dreams, and nightmares alike, and would continue to long after this night had ended. If it would ever end...

"You never answered my question..." Her tears had stopped, but her voice was still breaking with emotions that continued to swirl through her. "Why am I here?"

Simply, "Because you wanted to be."

@}-}------

"I don't understand what has happened to her." Raoul looked sickly white, his grief greatly apparent on his usually calm features as he paced the main entry way confiding his fears in the only person he knew he could turn to. "Do you think it was him? Has he stolen her again?" When he finally did sit down, it seemed that he crumpled into the unexpecting chair with such a swift movement, that he may have fallen out of it, had his company not steadied him. He was now in silent tears. "I just don't know what I am to do! She means the world to me and he continues to take her from me, Nadir."