Chapter Three
Christine had curled up at his side when they had first entered the carriage. Her head rested gently against his shoulder, her brunette curls tickling his face and he put a protective arm around her as they hit a bump in the road.
Erik did not sleep through the trip. How could he? His mind wondered of its own accord through the first nine years of his life.
"Freak of nature…""…an asylum….
He shuddered. No, the horrible Doctor Etienne Barye would not be there, thankfully. He'd long since left for… Paris, wasn't it? It was a wonder that he hadn't met the doctor there, with his luck as it was.
"Erik?" Christine mumbled against his dress coat. She turned tired blue eyes up to him. "Angel?"
"Hmm?"
"Didn't you hear Madeleine?" He shook his head and she gave him a patient smile. "She says that we're nearing."
Erik nodded and his wife knew that she saw his jaw clench in apprehension. She moved her hand from his upper arm to his hand, gently brushing against his arm on the way down. He squeezed her hand in his own and they exchanged silent words.
The house was just as he remembered it, as was the town itself. Everything was deceptively inviting to the casually wandering eye, but not to Erik. Erik knew what lay behind that pleasant door and the ivy covered walls. Hell. No, it did not burn physically, but if there was ever hell on earth, that is where it began. The flames simply spread from that one house. Spread outward to engulf sections of the world in its torment, but no one knew its origin.
"Erik?"
Christine looked worried as the Phantom turned to her. Her eyes were wide with anxiousness and she gripped his sleeve a bit too tightly. "I'm alright, my dear," he murmured.
"Would you tell me if it were any other way?"
He said nothing as he smiled, reached forward, and kissed her perfect little forehead. As he pulled away, her bag that she had been caring lurched to one side, casing the exiting occupants of the cart to jump. Christine reached in with frightened eyes to pull forth an irritated looking Ayesha. "Stow away," she muttered.
Erik's face lit, if only for a moment. "My dear!" he addressed the cat, taking the purring feline into his arms and caressing her gently. Ayesha's pur grew louder and she snuggled up next to him.
Marie laughed. "I see she would not be left behind!"
"You must understand," Christine said with a bright smile, "that Ayesha does believe she is human."
They laughed as hey moved forward to the house and the women inside. Erik paused at the door. Ayesha let forth a loud "meow" and hopped from his arms, moving forward to Christine. If her master was going to stop petting her, it was time for her new mistress to begin. She would get the girl trained in the way it was supposed to be yet!
Christine scooped the Siamese up from the floor and turned to her husband. "Erik? Are you well?"
He'd turned ghostly pale in he doorway, leaning heavily against it. His mismatched eyes watched everything. "I've never seen this place…from this point of view before," he murmured.
"Coming inside?"
"Yes… The only time I left as a child would be when I would sneak out from my window upstairs. I never used the front door. It's… bizarre."
"It's nothing of the sort," Madeleine said stiffly, moving further in. "Just different. Come in now, Erik." She did not note the way he stiffened even more at the sound of her voice or the way that it seemed to fall right back into that cruel and cold tone that she had used for so many years with him. This house... He shuddered.
Erik's eyes met his wife's and she urged him on with a gentle smile. He felt as if he might fall into the room instead of stepping, but he manage to keep his usual grace about him as the room spun dangerously and memories bombarded relentlessly against his now aching head. He heard Christine ask where they might put their bags and Madeleine offered Erik's old room. Not that, please…
Her hand grasped his and he was dazed until they reached the attic bedroom where he slumped down against the old, hardly used bed. He was shaking horribly by this time, eyes wide with horror and Christine kissed him over and over until his shaking subsided some. "We can go anytime you wish to, my love," she whispered into his ear, stroking his hair from his face.
"Anytime?" His voice was barely a whisper as he stared at her, eyes wide behind his mask.
"Anytime," she assured him.
He nodded, his eyes lulling shut in her embrace. "I'm sorry, Christine," he murmured. "I don't know what's come over me."
Christine couldn't find the words to answer him, so she held him close. He fell into her embrace and she kissed his cheek. "Never once in this house," he murmured quietly.
"Shhh," she hushed and kissed him again. "I told you once and I'll say it again. You may have a kiss from me any time you wish, my love."
LostS: I want siblings so badly sometimes… best to live vicariously through friends, I suppose. Lol! Sorry for the end-of-the-day update.