By Seraina.
Not mine. Alexei and Caroline are mine, but everyone else belongs to others. Here's the last chapter.
Sins of the Father
"Every day a new deception
Pick your scene and take direction
And all in all I search to connect
But I don't wear a mask and I have no regrets"
"Fly from the Inside" Shinedown
4 - Angel's Tears
Caroline was improving with the lessons. Unfortunately, Alexei had to cut their lesson short because he wasn't feeling well. Alexei put a hand to his chest and staggered against the wall. No! Not yet! I'm not finished! His vision blurred and his thoughts became a jumble as blackness took him once again from the world of the living.
*
The opera was putting on Faust again. And by some fate, Caroline was chosen to play the lead. She was looking all over the opera house for Alexei, to tell him the good news and to thank him for all of his wonderful help.
But she couldn't find him anywhere.
"Mlle Giry!" Caroline called when she entered the dance studio.
"Ah, hello Caroline," Meg said.
"Have you seen Alexei today?" Caroline asked.
"No, I haven't. Did you check with M Moncharmin?" the ballet mistress asked.
"I was just on my way," Caroline said with a smile. Although Alexei probably already knew that she had the part, she still wanted to see him. He made her feel appreciated wanted loved?
She thought about it again. Did she love Alexei? She couldn't think of a reason why she shouldn't love him.
Caroline knocked on the door to M Moncahrmin's office.
"Come in," he said from his desk.
"Hello M Moncharmin, have you seen Alexei today?" she asked sweetly.
"No actually. I haven't seen him since yesterday afternoon. I have some business that I want to discuss with him," he said.
"Oh. Do you think do you think that he is sick today?" Caroline asked hesitantly.
"Oh, I'm sure he's fine. He's probably with his father today. I'll tell him that you were looking for him when he comes in," Moncharmin said with a smile.
Caroline thanked her boss and left the office. Alexei was fine. He was just with his father. And she loved him.
*
Erik unlocked the door to Alexei's room. The room that once belonged to Christine. The room that he remade for his son. There was a thick layer of dust covering the floor and the bed.
Six years ago, Alexei sat at the old oak desk writing something beautiful. Or he would be playing his violin, or
Or he would be laying in the large bed. He would be pale and clutching his chest. He would gasp for air and try to talk through the pain in his heart.
Erik sat down heavily on the old bed. This was the bed that he was born in. It was the bed his mother died in. It was the bed where his son lay
In the end he couldn't bring himself to do it. Nadir was kind enough to give Alexei the relief that he desperately sought. Alexei didn't have to suffer very long. Alexei died peacefully. Six years ago at the age of nineteen.
*
Nobody had seen Alexei in three weeks. It was the opening night of Faust and Caroline was getting nervous. A knock on her door made her jump. She rushed over, hoping to see Alexei smiling down at her.
It wasn't him.
It was her brother Charles.
"Oh! Charles! I wasn't expecting you," she said, embracing her older brother.
"You don't have to sound disappointed," he said, smiling down at her.
"Well see" she started awkwardly.
"I understand that you're nervous. I just wanted to wish you luck before the show," he said. "Mother is waiting for me in the lobby. After the show, we'll go to supper."
"Yes, it has been too long," she said as he brother left her dressing room.
*
"I'm surprised that you asked me to sit with you, Erik," the manager said, sitting beside the opera ghost.
"I do like Faust. And I hear that that girl has improved. Who did you find to tutor her?" Erik asked.
"Well, I asked a few good tutors, but none of them have reported back to me. I have no idea who is teaching her," Moncharmin replied with a shrug.
They two old men watched the opera in silence, both thinking about the young chorus girl playing the lead.
*
The performance went beautifully. Caroline sang like an angel. But the night wasn't over yet. Christine and Charles stood outside Caroline's dressing room for fifteen minutes before Charles forced the door open.
The room was empty. The door had been locked from the inside. Christine stood frozen in front of the large mirror that covered the wall. And she knew where her daughter had gone.
*
Erik sat down in his study. The memories were almost overwhelming. He could feel the tears threatening to roll down his face.
"Where did you go?" a feminine voice asked the darkness.
Erik replaced his mask and followed the familiar voice. "Who is there?" he asked the intruder.
"Hello? I'm lost and Alexei?" she asked, groping in the darkness.
Erik sucked in a sharp breath when she called the name of his deceased son. He quickly lit one of the lamps to see who she was.
"Caroline du Chagney. What do you know of of my son?" he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
"Alexei led me down here. I he disappeared I'm sorry to intrude, monsieur," she said, looking down at the floor.
"You are a liar!" he said, grabbing the frightened girl by the shoulders. "YOU LIE!"
"ERIK!" came Christine's shout. She was followed closely by her son. "What are you doing to my daughter?" she asked, marching between her scared daughter and the enraged and surprised Erik.
"I only only followed A-Alexei h-here," Caroling sobbed, her brother comforting her.
Erik slumped into the old couch defeated. "Alexei my son is dead. He has been gone for six years. How can you say that you've seen him?"
"But I have! He was in the opera house when I auditioned. He fell from the catwalk when he had an attack. He was the one to give me lessons. It was Alexei who told M. Moncharmin to give me the lead," Caroline sobbed.
"Father?" a weak voice said from the old bedroom.
Erik turned to see the apparition of his son walking toward him. "Alexei?"
"I it hurt me to leave you so hurt. I did everything I could to try to make you happy. I" the ghost sighed and gave a weak smile. "Father, Charles is your son. I thought that you would have figured it out on your own."
Erik looked from the ghost to Charles and studied the young man intensely. His face looked so familiar
Alexei gestured to the drawer where Erik kept the pictures of his parents. "My God" Erik gasped, tearing out the drawer for the picture.
Charles and his father looked identical.
"I thought that if I could bring the two of you together I'm sorry Caroline. I didn't want to use you so terribly," Alexei said as his image flickered.
"B-but Alexei I love you," she cried approaching the ghost.
Alexei looked ashamed and he turned from her. But his shame turned into anguish as his form flickered once again. "I stay," he gasped.
Erik looked at his dead son with a pained look in his eyes, "I'm sorry, my beloved," he said quietly.
"I know father you did what you thought was best," he said. "I love you father."
As Alexei faded, the solemn family stood in the lonely house under the opera house.
"Erik?" Christine said, "I think you should make some tea, this is going to be a long night."
Erik stood and made Russian tea while Christine started to tell the story of
the opera house and the Phantom. "I was young and the new managers hired
me as a chorus girl"
End