Yay! I finally update! I was inpsired at four in the morning so, please excuse the mistakes. Okay, another thing I have to make sure you understand... I am trying to make this as true to the story as possible, hence it is NOT an EC fanfic (sorry people, really I am) I just have a thing with moving around the story line. I DON'T like it. (how original, i know) Okay, please pretend that James is Piangi. So here we go with chapter Twenty: Plans.
Plans
Christine sat in Meg's room, deep in thought. She couldn't go through with it, she wouldn't. But then she thought about what Raoul had said. He can't get away with what he did.
Christine sighed. Something had to be done, yes, but she couldn't do it. She couldn't go through with it.
Christine got up from the floor of the room and walked to the door, she could still hear Raoul telling the others of his plan.
He seemed like a General, telling everyone their orders and how things should be carried out. He seemed so organized and so focused, that was exactly the opposite of how Christine was feeling at that moment.
She sat cross-legged on the floor, in front of the banister of the loft. They were all in the living room, discussing how the Phantom of the Auditorium was to be caught.
Raoul had told her that she should be there with them, but she refused. She couldn't be part of their little scheme, the devious plan to catch her mentor, her Angel.
She started biting her thumbnail without consciously doing so, it was a habit she caught on when she was little. Her leg began to shake without her doing so.
"We have all been blind," he told them. "And yet the answer is staring us in the face."
"Oh, God, here we go," Christine could hear Meg's sarcastic voice all the way up the stairs. "What are you, S.W.A.T. leader? Let me tell you now, you look nothing like Collin Ferrell."
"Megan, shut up," Carlotta snapped.
"Children, children," Principal Firmin said. "Please quiet down. If Mr. de Chagny has an idea to get rid of this pest, let him say it."
Christine flinched when he said pest. He wasn't a pest, he was misunderstood and lonely and… and his name was Erik. How could they talk about him like that? No one knew him as well as she did.
No one.
"Please, everyone," Raoul finally said. "If we are to be rid of this man, we must do it quickly."
"And with no mistakes," James told them. "We have to squash him quickly. The bastard needs to rot in a cell for killing Joseph."
Christine could feel her rage building inside her. She couldn't bear to hear them talk about him that way.
"Okay guys, stop it," Raoul said. "We need to figure out a plan. We need to catch him, to prevent him from ever doing this again."
"Come on," James said again. "Let's hear it."
There was a silence after that, Christine had to move closer to the banister to make sure they weren't whispering.
They weren't.
"Out with it, man!"
She could imagine Raoul looking at Andre –who had said that- furiously. After a sigh, he said, "We're going to use Christine as bait."
Bait. The word echoed in her head. She had never been used as bait before. The word seemed so harsh, so cruel. Somehow she knew that if the situation were reversed, Erik would never use her as bait.
She listened intently for their answers.
"Just send the little bitch to him. Place a nice stamp on her forehead and send her to his lair. I'm sure he'll go away after that."
"Carlotta," Meg said disgusted. "Just shut up."
"Oh, please," Carlotta said.
Christine could hear her walking around the living room.
"Before she came, there wasn't a peep out of him, other than the occasional accident. Now Miss Daáe is here and he's killing people? I'm no genious-"
"For obvious reasons," Meg chimed in.
"But it's obvious that the reason he's out if because of her. I say that we pack her a suitcase and send her to him. Easy. It's like killing two birds with one stone. We get rid of the bitch and the Phantom."
"Carlotta, don't be jealous," James said to her. "As soon as you graduate this year she'll replace you."
"That's the point," Carlotta said furious. "I don't want to be replaced by her! I'll be nothing but a memory. People will forget me and think only of her! I want her out! The bitch-"
"Call her bitch one more time and I'll break your nose!"
Carlotta laughed whimsically.
Then something happened that made Carlotta yell in –Christine guessed- fear.
"Megan!" Madame Giry scolded. "Hands to yourself! Carlotta, sit."
After about ten seconds, Raoul started again. "Madame Giry, how are we with Don Juan?"
Christine heard a sigh. "I have never seen a more complicated piece. Reyer and the orchestra will have their work cut out for them if they pull it off in the time required. We will have to do double rehearsals, or do them everyday after school." Another sigh. "The leads Don Juan and Aminta are extremely complicated but Christine and James are extremely disciplined pupils and will do well-"
"Madame Giry," Raoul said to her. "Will we be able to do it?"
"The man is a genious, monsieur, I can not lie. He has written a beautiful opera. But, yes, yes, we will be able to do it in the said time."
"Okay," Raoul said to them carefully. "This is what we'll do. We shall play his game, do the opera he has presented before us. He will be there when we perform and that is when we shall capture him. Then we turn him into the authorities."
Christine hung her head. She hated that plan, she hated the fact that she had to lie to him to capture. But in a way, Raoul was making her do it and she hated him for it.
She needed to get out of there.
She got up forcefully and walked to the room to get a jacket to go outside. She tiptoed down the stairs and was almost out the door when she heard Carlotta say, "Can't we just call the cops and tell them that there's a murderer loose in the Auditorium?"
"I did," Raoul told them. "They wanted to go in there guns a blazing and kill him. That's the way they want to do it. Joseph's parents are desperate."
"Who wouldn't?" James said to the group. "He killed Joseph months ago and his killer is roaming free. He said something worse will happen, who knows? He's probably going to blow up the school."
Christine's trembling hand grasped the doorknob to the front door and opened it.
"I told them if they wanted him," Raoul said calmly. "They would have to do things my way."
Christine couldn't bare it and walked outside.
She walked for what seemed like hours but she knew was actually less than that. She walked around the block, then around her community until she found that she was in the park across the street from the school.
She didn't do it on purpose.
Or did I?
She sat down on a bench in the park, her arms around her legs, her hands wringing from fear or nostalgia.
She wanted to live. She wanted to get away from all of this, to forget it all. But she knew that with him around, she couldn't do it. He would always be there.
She somehow felt that she needed to warn him. To tell him to go far away, not to come. To leave the country, change his name, maybe get married, have children. To move on with his life, like she was trying to do.
Deep down, she knew he wouldn't, couldn't go anywhere without her.
As hard as it was to admit it to herself, she knew, in her heart, that he loved her. He truly, deeply loved her. She was his air, his reason to live. She inspired him just as he inspired her when she needed it, he was there for her.
And here she was, plotting against him.
Then she sobbed into her trembling, hands racked with guilt, because she knew that in the end, she couldn't do it. She wouldn't betray her Angel.
She had to tell him everything.
She stood resolutely and began to walk forward when she heard a car behind her.
She turned and got caught in the headlights, when she saw who it was, she sighed in frustration.
How was it that he was always there? She could swear that he stalked her for a living.
"Christine!" He got out, slammed the door and ran to her. Then she was in his embrace.
"What are you doing here?" Raoul asked when he let go.
"How is it you always know where I'm at?"
Raoul sighed. "I heard you go out of the house and was afraid you'd come and tell him." He pointed with his chin to the Auditorium.
"What if I was going to tell him?" Christine asked defiantly.
He ignored her question and wiped her dry tears from her cheeks. "Why is it that you cry, Little Lotte?"
She sighed and looked at the floor. "I can't do it."
"What?"
She walked away from him and with her back turned she told him how she felt. "It's not fair to him. I shouldn't do this to him. He trusted me. I trusted him. He's my teacher, my guide my Angel. I can't betray him."
"Christine," Raoul said as if in warning.
"I know," Christine said, scolding herself. "I know. I just can't."
Raoul walked to her and took her hands in his. "Christine, you're shaking."
Christine nodded. She knew she was, and it wasn't from the cold. "Raoul, I'm frightened. I don't want to do this. Somehow, I know that if he knows what we're up to, he'll take me far away. He'll part us forever. I can't do this to him." She laughed a bit. "He's my Angel of Music."
Raoul placed his hand on her cheeks. "You said yourself, he was the Phantom. That he used you that he betrayed you. You know that while he lives, he will do anything to have you. You remember that night in the cemetery two days go? He'll do it again and again until you are his."
Christine looked at the floor, in tears. "You're right, what answer can I give? Am I to risk my life to win the chance to live? Can I deceive the man who once inspired my voice? Do I have any choice? He killed Joseph without thinking about it, he'll probably do it again. I know I can't refuse and yet, I wish I could." She let out a long, shaky breath. "I'll do it but I can't help thinking what horrors wait for me, in this, the Phantom's Opera?"
Raoul hugged her, seeing that she was about to cry in front of him. "Little Lotte, don't think that I don't care but all of this planning, all of our hopes, the outcome of everything, is up to you now."
Christine looked at the Auditorium, a tear rolling down her cheek.
YAY! 100 Reviews! -does the dance of joy- Okay, sorry, -calms down-
Sorry, GlodenLyre, I suggest you find EC fluff elsewhere. Although soon there will be a very nice scene between Christine and Erik.
Tootles!
