3
The Vicomte de Changy sat in sadness, looking at Christine's grave. He had just sat back down in his wheelchair after placing the musical Serbian monkey on her grave. He saw the rose placed next to the gravestone, the black ribbon being held by Christine's ring, and knew that the Phantom was near.
Even 49 years later, he is still in love with her, Raoul thought. He looked around the graveyard, searching for the Ghost of the Opera Populair. He stood up from his wheelchair and asked the young man and woman to sit in the car and wait for him. They obeyed his wish and left him alone in the cemetery.
"You may show yourself, Phantom," Raoul said, calmly.
"Sing once again with me, our strange duet," came a singing. Raoul looked to the left and saw an older version of the Phantom standing next to him, staring down at Christine's grave. "Ever since I first heard you sing I've needed you by me to serve me, to sing."
Think of me, think of me fondly, when we've said goodbye. Remember me, once in a while; please promise me that you'll try. When you find that once again you long to take your heart back and be free. If you ever find a moment spare a thought for me. The beautiful voice of Christine Daae came softly from the memories of both men.
"After that night, why did you torture her so?" Raoul asked. "If you loved her, you would have let her alone from the beginning; you would have let her be happy."
"I did love her, I still do," the Phantom replied. "You filled me with anger every time I saw you with her. I do regret not killing you when I had the chance in the dungeon."
"And I regret not killing you in the graveyard 49 years ago," Raoul said. "Why did you let us leave?"
"Because I knew that she would never be happy with me," the Phantom replied. "I knew that if she was willing to spend the rest of her life with me, just to save your pitiful life, then she loved you far more than me and I would have to life with the fact that she loved someone else more than I."
"Tell me, who are you?"
"I… am the Phantom of the Opera." And with that last word, he turned and walked away. Besides the sounds of the Phantom's footsteps, there was silence.
"Wishing you were somehow here again, wishing you were somehow near. Sometimes it seemed if I just dreamed somehow you would be here. Wishing I could hear your voice again, knowing that I never would. Dreaming of you won't help me to do all that you dreamed I could! Passing bells and sculpted angels, cold and monumental, seem, for you, the wrong companions; you were warm and gentle," Raoul sang quietly. "Christine, I love you!"
The Vicomte did not look back until he heard a soft voice behind him. Order your fine horses; be with them at the door. He did not know whether it was his imagination, but when he turned back, he saw Christine, standing in front of her grave, looking as young as she was in 1870.
Raoul continued the song, "And soon, you'll be beside me." And suddenly, Raoul was as he was in 1870. You'll guard me and you'll guide me.
The young man and woman decide to see why the Vicomte de Changy was taking so long. They approached the Countess de Changy's grave and gasped in surprise. The Vicomte lay on the ground, unmoving, his breath no longer coming.