21) ... disaster´s in the air
Erik looked up in alarm. "Madame!", he exclaimed. In the door stood Mme.Giry, carrying a lantern and an expression of utmost disgust as she spotted her daughter lying in his bed, fast asleep. His first thought was to cover the most private part of his body. Hastily he leant over to the bedside table and snatched the black mask that hid his entire face. Having put it on he turned around again. In horror he noticed that there were two more people in the room now. One was this annoying Vicomte and the other… Erik squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again, but this time there was no mistake possible. It was Christine.
"What are you all doing here?", he whispered, shaking his head about the absurdity of the situation. He had not had a single visitor ever since he lived here, but today they seemed to be everywhere. Never had he let his guard down before, and the moment he started doing it he didn´t hear three people entering his house… "You´re not in the position to ask questions!", the ballet teacher said sharply. While he picked up his clothes from the floor and dressed, she came to the bed and stared at Meg. "What have you done to her?", she repeated. Christine and Raoul were silent, but the expression on their faces mirrored Mme.Giry´s.
"We just… we both wanted it.", Erik muttered, addressing no one in particular. Mme.Giry lifted the blanket and gasped in shock. "And where does this come from then?" His hands started shaking as he saw that Meg´s chest was bloodstained. At first he didn´t know the answer himself. He had read that women sometimes bled during their first time, but not there… A slight pain under his shirt revealed the secret to him: Probably due to the friction some of the cuts on his chest had begun to bleed again, and the blood had inevitably trickled down on her.
"That´s not her blood, but mine.", he said. "You smeared your own blood on her body?", Raoul whispered faintly, his face pale. After throwing a quick glance at the sleeping girl, he had fixed his gaze on Erik instead, not wanting to hurt her privacy. He was glad that Christine had eventually approved of Mme.Giry´s suggestion to take him with them when she had noticed that Meg had no longer been in her bed. Till yesterday he had only thought Christine´s teacher to be a little eccentric, but now he was certain that this man was disturbed and possibly dangerous.
Christine gave a strange choking sound, as if she was about to throw up. Raoul´s remark had added to her guilty conscience. Why hadn´t she stayed with Meg? Why hadn´t she been here before her friend? Maybe she could have done something to prevent it. Surely Meg hadn´t come to him on her own free will. Erik had probably used the alluring power of his voice to lead her to his house. She shuddered at the thought how often he could have done this with her. ´The only difference is that you would have liked it.´, a nasty little voice told her, making her bite her lip. It was true.
Panic stood in Erik´s eyes as he tried to explain himself. "The blood had nothing to do with it. We only made love." Now he actually blushed, but nobody saw it beneath the mask. He had the feeling that he would burst into tears before long. He couldn´t bear listening how this wonderful experience was perverted into something dirty and despicable.
"Made love?" From Mme.Giry´s lips it sounded like an insult. She was shocked. For years she had followed his orders, and he repaid her by doing violence to her daughter. She examined the man on the bed mercilessly, noticing with a certain satisfaction how he squirmed under her stare. Erik shrank back, plunging into the soft mass of pillows. If only he could sleep now! Sleep next to his Meg and wake up the next morning, laughing with her about this ridiculous nightmare! But it wasn´t a nightmare.
"You´ve shamelessly taken advantage of the fact that my daughter was weak from the medicament the doctor had given her." The ballet teacher was handed Meg´s clothes by Christine and started dressing her. "I didn´t know anything about medicaments, I- Why doesn´t she wake up?", he asked suddenly, seeing how she was stuffed into her nightdress like a doll. "The doctor said the sleeping pills would make her sleep deeper in the next days. It´s supposed to keep her from dreaming… about what has happened to her. But it also affects her when she´s awake.", Mme.Giry explained reluctantly.
A terrible suspicion crept up in Erik. Had Meg only given herself to him so willingly because she had been under the influence of medicaments? He hadn´t seen any differences in her behaviour. But then, he didn´t know her too well. What if he, without even realising it, had finished what he had done to her last night? Would she wake up and be disgusted about having lost her innocence to a monster? He needed answers to this questions, yet the only person who could give them was unable to do it.
Meg was completely dressed now, and Mme.Giry wanted to leave with her. "M. le Vicomte, could you help me, please?", she asked, and Raoul picked up the sleeping girl from the bed. Erik could only watch him, paralysed with his own thoughts. It wouldn´t be difficult to take her away from the boy and throw them all out of his house. But why should he bother to do that?
They were about to go when Erik rose from his pondering. He jumped up and went to the door, grabbing Mme.Giry´s hand. "Madame… Antoinette, please! I didn´t mean to harm her in any way. Have I ever lied to you? Have I ever given you reason not to trust me? I just want to talk to her when she´s awake.", he whispered pleadingly. Her certainty wavered as she looked at the miserable man. "Well… I… Oh, I have to think about all this.", she said. "Come to my house tomorrow evening, then we shall see."
"Thank you, thank you…", Erik muttered. He had been given a chance, and this time he would seize it. He watched them leave one by one. Christine was the last to go. As the others already walked down the corridor she turned around to him. "We´d have a singing lesson in three hours´ time.", she reminded Erik, looking at him with a peculiar expression on her face. But maybe this was only a trick of the candlelight. "Do you think you´ll be able to make it?" "Of course.", he replied, surprised by her eagerness to meet him again. "Very good." Her words seemed to hang in the air long after she had left.
