Chapter 28:Has No One Told You She's Not Breathing
Icy fingers grasped Christine's wrist and she was pulled into the comforting darkness of a lovers embrace. The curtain was dropped as the stage manager made a slicing motion over his neck to the stagehand.
Blindness was all Christine had as she felt his lips, his hands. She grasped at him hungrily. He answered to her, nuzzling his face against hers, giving her a shiver of cold porcelain. She shuddered at the joy in her body. Erik laid his pure side of his face in the crook of her neck, enjoying her breathing and nothing more. He laid his lips against her skin. She could feel the softness of his eyelashes, like butterflies on her skin.
What in the hell was he doing!
Raoul was just beyond that curtain! He obviously came with Christine; he was as good as dead to her! She belonged to another! He would cherish what he had with her, it was enough, and it was more than a demon deserved from an angel.
Erik didn't bother giving her the agony of hearing his horrid voice, he vanished simply, swiftly.
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The curtain was rising again and Christine was choking back the tears. What hell was this? Why was she condemned to this sin? Love. But love was not a sin, was it?
Her thoughts were forced out of her mind as she was pushed out onto the stage.
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Erik ran through the passages, madness again taking his whole being over. He staggered, grasping the wall for support. He cried. He felt the tears sting and burn. He cried, letting it out, the insanity, the death, and the jealousy. It weakened him as he sank to the floor, exhausted and spent.
It would end now.
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Playground School Bell Rings,
Again,
Rain Clouds Come To Play,
Again,
Has No One Told You She's Not Breathing?
Hello,
I'm Your Mind Giving You Someone To Talk To,
Hello.
Christine sang out sadly to the accompanying piano. Her voice was deep yet soft, the way it rains but the sun shines to create a rainbow. The play had gone well so far, she was now singing her goodbye to Christian's character, Lestat. She sang as Gabrielle, accusing her lover of things he is innocent for, though she does not believe it. She sang of him lying to her and making her life nothing but darkness.
If I Smile And Don't Believe,
Soon I Know I'll Wake,
From This Dream,
Don't Try To Fix Me, I'm Not Broken!
Hello,
I'm The Lie Living For You So You Can Hide
Don't Cry…
The violin now twisted itself with the piano and they had a solo duet as Christine went to hold Christian's face, finally letting her tears fall.
Suddenly I Know I'm Not Sleeping,
Hello!
I'm Still Here!
All That's Left Of Yesterday!
Christine leaned in to lightly kiss Christian's lips and she turned and silently walked into the wings of the stage. The next scene she was to marry another, the man who had framed her lover. She smoothed the dark blue taffeta, and went quickly to the nearest mirror with her next costume. It was a tight white bodice with straps and a deep V-neck cut. Shiny gems and pearls were scattered over each breast. The bodice ended in a point and then cascaded around the hips in silk and tulle. A puffy silk bow at her lower back finished of this gorgeous costume. But it wasn't always a costume. It once belonged to a girl who secretly bought it to marry a phantom. Nothing more but an echo in her memory. She reached for the laces on her dress but found that the dress had already come undone. But she hadn't even felt anything! It must have come undone onstage, or one of the girls did it. Christine waved it out of her mind and pulled off the dress with a little difficulty. She asked a passing dancer to help her pull on the dress over her corset. It was done in minutes, standing as a vision in white. The dancer laced up the back and Christine thanked her. She needed a mirror to fix her face and hair. All the girls moved away from the nearest one and she smiled gratefully at them and placed the angel wings in her untamed curls, now attached to a flowing veil. She took up a silk cloth and ran warm water over it; she bent over the sink and rubbed it along her face. She dried her skin and straightened.
Christine opened her mouth in a silent scream, stumbling back against a table for support.
Erik's face stared back at her from the mirror.
Then he was suddenly there beside her, his mask shining but his hair slightly mussed.
"Raoul is here." Erik's voice was calm and quiet. Scaring Christine was as easy as being calm.
Christine's eyes went wide and she pushed past him. "You should not be here Erik." Her voice was breezy and calm. She could not get the image of him lying in his own blood again and again, an endless nightmare. She hoped it was only a nightmare.
"Why?" Erik asked, again in his eerie calm voice. He followed her around backstage as she powdered her face. The only thing that mattered was her voice.
She turned to him her eyes flashing with anger. "Erik it doesn't matter any more, just go!" She turned away from him, rushing to her entrance.
But ice encircled her hand and the strange Erik was gone and replaced with her passionate lover.
"Why Christine!" He snarled, bringing his face to hers.
She squirmed until she was free. She could hear the grunting as Erik overpowered the stagehands that had tried to block him.
He grabbed her and she fell to her knees in front of him. She took his hands begging him in a way to leave her. She was crying uncontrollably now.
And the curtain was rising.
The wave of whispers started immediately.
And then Dominic's voice saved them all. "Though he wears a mask, I' am not fooled Gabrielle, that is your lover!"
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A/N: I told you would get into my old habits. Whahahahahaaha! Now honor me with reviews! OOOOOOOOOOO A cliffie! Dominic isthe actor that plays the villan in the play.
