Epilogue

Christine surveyed the scene around her with contentment - unconcealed love and happiness welling in her enormous brown eyes, which were as lovely as ever. There were tiny lines around those eyes now, but the lines were simply the unmistakable markers of time and many smiles. She watched her family with one of those smiles playing on her lips now. Her family...There had been a time when she could never have dreamed she would ever live to see a scene such as the one before her. In the soft light of the setting sun, on the grassy lawn of a comfortable manor, twin girls, both with auburn curls and gray-blue eyes were dancing. Their father, a handsome and distinguished looking gentlemen with the same gray-blue eyes, was singing for them a song of fairy princesses, castles, and knights on horseback. Her smile deepened as she listened to the rich, melodious voice she loved so much and remembered their own story – it too had a castle, and a fairy princess, and of course, a knight on horseback. He caught her gaze, and returned her smile. She marveled at him still. This man who had once been so lost, so tortured, now was the very image of a loving father and husband. There was a gentleness to his spirit and a depth to his love that anyone who had known him before would never have believed possible. His world revolved around his family, around her. And the face that had once haunted all of Paris, now marked with the same laugh lines she herself wore, radiated love, joy, and finally peace. So much love, she shook her head, neither of them could have dreamt their story could ever turn out like this.

Suddenly, their quiet reverie was interrupted as a curly-haired young boy with the familiar gray-blue eyes burst onto the lawn begging his father to come and hear him play his latest song on the violin. "Erik William, please remember your manners, "she scolded, but without any real anger in her voice. "I am sorry mother," he hung his tousled head, "But I have something I would like to play for you as well." His face brightened, "You and the twins can sing, and father can accompany us on the piano." His crooked grin was familiar and irresistible, like the one that his father had stolen her heart with so long ago. He was so much like his father in so many ways – even now, he was composer, performer, conductor. All of her children had been gifted by the Angel of Music. Which was indeed fitting, she mused, as that angel was their father.

She smiled again. She reached for Erik's hand and laid her head on his strong shoulder as they walked up the shadowy lawn to the house. He pressed his lips to her forehead and covered her hand with his own. Arm in arm they walked, as the waves of the sea played their joyful music from the shoreline below the house. So much love, so much music. All was as it was meant to be at last.

Notes to the Reader:

Okay, yes, it is sappily romantic, perhaps naive and oversimplified, but this is my fantasy, and wouldn't the vast majority of us have felt so much better if it had ended like this? I, of course, did not write the italicized lyrics in the final chapter, or in any other chapter. Those are the inspired work of Mr. Charles Hart. I did make one or two tiny changes to have them fit the context of the story. The ideas for the story are of course based primarily on the ALW version from the 2004 movie. Is there anyone else out there who wishes this is how it would have ended?

Also, as one final note, you will notice in the epilogue that there is no mention of Erik's mask. In fact, I describe him there as a handsome man. In my mind, the mask is still present, but it is not mentioned because it no longer defines him. He is Erik now, not the phantom, and through Christine's love, his inner beauty is now what his family sees, not the mask.