Why Now?

By: KaitlynRose

Disclaimer: I don't own them.

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He hid in the shadows. Never, never had he thought to see her here today. Why was she even here? Voices. Men. So she was here with the Vicomte. Of course. The fool would never let her come back here alone.

He watched as she walked slowly towards the stage; slowly towards him. Did she know he was here? Could she feel his presence even now? Suddenly the floor he stood on creaked. He cursed the weakened condition of the stage.

She froze. He remained perfectly still for fear of revealing himself. She took several more steps towards the stage, all the while peering into the darkness that surrounded him. He held his breath. He wasn't ready for her yet. He had yet to work out his plan. It would have been so easy to snatch her right now with that imbecile talking in the other room. He could sweep in and grab her in a second, but that wasn't what he wanted now. No, he wanted her to come to him freely.

"Angel?"

She did know he was here. He was so tempted to reveal himself to her, to beg her forgiveness but he had to resist. For once he needed to not act drastically.

She took several more steps towards him. She was getting too close. How long before she spotted him for real. He needed to flee, and yet he couldn't help but look at her. She was a vision of beauty, even here in the dark. She wasn't afraid from what he could tell, and she had called for him. Maybe she had come here today looking for him. Maybe she had come back.

Finally, he stood up where he stood. The minute he did he knew it had been a mistake. Her lover had entered the room and approached her from behind, but even worse was the look on her face. She was terrified.

He ducked back down. She turned to run and crashed into her lover. She started to scream and scream.

"Christine, it just me. What's wrong? What happened?"

"He's here. There on the stage."

He watched her point an accusing finger at him. He stayed motionless. Would her lover charge the stage to attack, or would he grab her and run like a coward? It was the latter. He picked her up like a child and carried her from the room with those two useless managers running after him.

Finally he fled the stage and made his way to the caverns. She had screamed. She had screamed over and over because of him. How was he to win her back if she was terrified of him? How was he to prove himself worthy to her?

Why the hell had she been her today? This wasn't supposed to happen. He hadn't even been here for two weeks. He had just returned today to gather a few of his remaining things before moving to his new home.

Damn her! Curse her! Why did she have to scream? Why did everyone have to run from him or cower in fear? Was everything he was doing right now in vain?

No! He would not be deterred from his plan. He would become a gentleman. He would win her back. His new home was almost ready. All that remained was for the furniture and the new organ to be delivered and for Mme Giry to hire the servants.

The job would be much easier since Meg was going away for a week. Mme Giry had tried to hide the fact that Meg was to go and stay with the Vicomte and Christine, but it had been easy enough for him to find the letter. He knew Meg kept a diary. That was good, for the silly girl would write down everything that happened while she was there, and then he would read it and find out what he needed to know about Christine's new life and her plans.

"You will be mine," he said to himself.