Epiphany
She was vaguely aware of the mask falling to the floor (a flash of white in the corner of her eye). He pulled away from her, shocked. She could somehow sense the audience and even the house pulling away from her. She was suddenly frozen, and more alone than she had ever been.
A wave of sympathy for Erik rushed through her. She quietly and intuitively understood his loneliness in that moment of silence. He still held her arm, and his proposal echoed in her mind.
She felt an unfamiliar heaviness on her finger and looked down. Ah- she had accepted his proposal. His ring glittered benignly on her finger and she stared at it, mesmerized. Then she looked up and met his gaze.
"Christine."
In that word, scarcely a
whisper, she heard all of his pain and fear.
The spell was broken.
Someone screamed and the curtain crashed to the stage. A gun went off. The house seemed suddenly close and claustrophobic, and his fingers tightened painfully on her arm.
She tried to scream, but choked on the sound. He pulled her close into his cloak. For a moment, all she was aware of we his body pressed to hers as the fell (flew?) through the air. And then they were in the cool darkness of his labyrinth, safe and away from the chaos above.
It was then that they began to be angry.