Chapter 7: The Labyrinth

Erik began to lead Christine to his lair, not letting go of her hand. He wasn't sure why, but somehow he was afraid that if he let go of her hand, that she wouldn't be there when he turned around. Even still, with her hand in his, he looked back every once in a while, making sure still of her presence following him. It had been so long since he had felt her, and now, he wasn't sure if he could ever let go.

Christine had no objections. If at all possible, her immense feelings for him grew the moment their hands met. She held to him tightly. At the end of the long passageway, around a corner, there was a black horse. Christine recognized it, it was used for an Opera and then disappeared afterwards, to the fault of the Opera Ghost, the rumor told it. Erik smiled as he watched Christine stroke the animal's face and kiss it's nose, before he slid her hands around her waist and listen her atop of it. Erik led the horse down the long hallway with Christine atop it's back, her legs dangling over it's left side. Erik and Christine sang back and forth, a perfect and strange duet. Their voices blended perfectly together to create a sound that they had only imagined they could make. Christine had always been captivated by his voice, but here, with him before her, her mind filled with no thoughts of her own, only with the aesthetic voice resounding from the walls.

Erik helped Christine off of the horse and led her to a boat that floated atop of misty underground lake that she had no idea existed. She sat down and Erik poled his way across the lake, and the mysterious tunnels of the labyrinth that held ancient artwork and hundreds of candles. As they approached a large gate that lifted as they got close, Erik spoke to her.

"Sing, my angel of music!" His angel? She didn't have ponder it, she only wanted to please him. She began to vocalize strangely, and he encouraged her. "Sing, my angel! Sing for me!" Christine hit the highest E just as they met land. Erik jumped out of the boat.

"I have brought you to the seat of sweet music's throne, to this kingdom where all must pay homage to music, music." She stared at him, charmed. "You have come here, for one purpose and one alone: since the moment I first heard you sing, I have needed you with me, to serve me, to sing for my music, my music." He led her from the boat and they wandered about his home, him singing to her the entire way. She was completely enchanted by him. He led her to the mannequin that he had made of her, complete in a wedding dress, curious to how she might react. Christine looked at what seemed to be herself donned in wedding clothing, and felt herself faint in surprise.

Erik caught his precious gem effortlessly in his arms and carried her to his bed. He laid her down and smiled at her beauty. He stroked her cheek before pulling a veil down to surround the bed and leaving her to sleep. "You alone can make my song take flight, help me make the music of the night..." he finished his song. He gazed at her in awe for a short time, before retreating to his organ to pass the time.

Normally, Erik knew he would be lost in his music for hours at a time, but he couldn't help but let his thoughts drift to his sleeping angel in the next room. He longed to be near her, but out of respect for her, restrained himself to his organ until she arose. While he sat there, attempting to distract himself, his mind started to drift to the reality of what he had promised himself never to do, and had done. He had taken this innocent child down to his deep and dark hell - and what of his face? She soon would wonder what laid behind the mask that covered his gruesome true self.

The sound that resounded through his ears at the next second caused him to forget his flaws and close his eyes in pleasure - her voice.

"I remember there was mist," Christine wandered from the bedroom, and the mysterious and beautiful swan bed that she had awoken on. "Swirling mist upon a vast glassy lake," She had been so sure she was dreaming, but here, her dreamland surrounded here, as real as could be. She had awoken, but had it been a dream within a dream? It all felt so real... "There were candles all around and on the lake there was a boat," she continued, stunned that everything she remembered from her dream was around her. The last thing, the most important and wonderful thing... "And on the boat there was a man." Erik opened his eyes and turned to look at her. His face, half of it so handsome, half of it, masked. The dreaded mask that separated him, she needed to see him. "Who was that shape in the shadows? Whose is that face in the mask?" She stood behind him and ran her fingers along the edge of the white barrier. 'I need to know...' and with one swift movement, the mask was off of his face. Momentarily unmasked, for the first time in more than 20 years in from of someone, he burst forth with the anger and shame that accompanied his naked and disfigured face. He pushed Christine to the floor, and covered the wicked disfigurement with his hand, and began.

"Damn you! You little prying pandora! You little demon! This is what you wanted to see..." He pulled the cover off of a mirror and gazed at his reflection momentarily before turning away in disgust. "Curse you! You little lying Delilah! You little viper! Now you cannot ever be free! Damn you, curse you..." Christine pulled back in fear of this sudden outburst as her eyes welled up with tears, and was surprised to see how quickly his anger turned to despair, right before her eyes, and he continued.

"Stranger than you dreamt it, can you even dare to look or bear to think of me? This loathsome gargoyle who burns in hell but secretly dreams of heaven. Secretly, secretly. But Christine, fear can turn to love. You'll learn to see to find the man behind this monster. This repulsive carcass who seems a beast but secretly dreams of heaven. Secretly, secretly. Oh, Christine..." Erik collapsed a few feet away from Christine, still covering his face. He didn't want her to be so horrified to see his repulsiveness, or to see his tears of loneliness and despair. He didn't realize that what he did hurt her more. Christine blinked away a tear of her own as she set the terrible mask on the floor beside her. She made her way to where Erik sat away from her, and was pained to see the tears that streaked the uncovered side of his face. She sighed, building up courage - she feared another outburst. Still, she gently placed her hand over his and brought it down, away from his face. She drew it to his lap and held it tightly. She ran her fingers that weren't intertwined with his along the side of his marred face.

"Oh Erik..." she whispered and pressed her lips to his cheek. He couldn't believe what she had just done. She didn't hate him? How could this be? He felt his lips quiver slightly and tears threaten to fall once more. Christine smiled slightly and leaned in a little closer to him. Without thinking, Erik closed the distance between them and kissed her softly on the mouth, an sensation that neither had experienced before. That moment that they connected, it felt to them as if their blood was pulsing through each others veins, that their breath was in each others lungs. With their eyes closed, they blindly soaked in the feel of each other: the closeness that they had both longed for, for so long. Erik then pulled away, unsure of his actions. Christine opened her eyes to see his disfigured face only inches from her aesthetic one. She saw only beauty, she felt only love. She saw him blink away another tear and look down. Christine gently brushed his tears away with her finger tips, and drew his face upward with her hand. Again, their lips met. Erik pulled away slightly, and very softly sang against her lips.

"Christine, I love you." She shuddered with satisfaction. She leaned into him, with her head against his chest, and reveled in the feeling of his strong arms around her.

A/N:

Now, everyone say, awwwww. This chapter had alot of gushyness, but something really bad will happen in about two or so chapters, so beware.

Thank you to Lillta1957, the single person who reviewed on my last chapter.