Chapter 15

Unknown future

Up until now, Christine, Erik and Raoul have not met, though all have been trying to facilitate the fateful meeting. There has been sickness and healing in many ways through this journey. Currently, it is about 3-1/2 weeks after the disaster at the Opera Populaire, Christine and Erik are on their way back to Paris from Merde. (French for Shit! That is why the comment, this is a totally fictious place, obviously. My slightly sarcastic humor strikes again here.) I hope you continue to enjoy the story, with gratitude, mk.

Christine was pierced through the heart. They were at the cemetery, Raoul realized Christine went with Erik of her own free will, in a jealous rage, he decided if he could not have her, Erik damned sure wasn't. He walked over to her trembling figure standing against her fathers tomb, took out the sword from its sheath and crying;

"Damn you, Christine!"

He pierced the sword through her heart. She fell to the earth, her blood spilling everywhere. Then, tears streaming down his face, he turned to Erik and went for him. Erik had a small dagger in his hand and murderous rage through his body when he met Raoul half way. Raoul was not ready and had not fully armed himself with his sword when Erik reached him.

"You shall never see light of any kind ever again; I curse you to the hell you and all of your kind have condemned me and now my beloved Christine to!"

The dagger plunged deeply into Raoul's chest, Raoul let out a yell of incredulity at the end he was facing. The color drained from his face as he sunk to the earth with the dagger sticking a mere couple centimeters from his chest. Erik had delivered the same death blow to him he had dealt to Christine, only he was not a coward, he used a weapon meant to end a life!

He walked up to Christine's lifeless form. He sank to the ground next to her and took her pale body in his arms;

"Oh Christine, what have I done to you. You made me promise not to kill Raoul, that promise has cost me the one thing which made my life worth living. I promised you I would not let anything happen to you, now you die right in front of your father's crypt. Oh God, what a loathsome creature I am, what made me think I was worthy of your kind and gentle heart?"

Suddenly the train lurched hard, Erik woke to discover he had Christine in his arms, and his eyes were wet. He bent his head to check Christine, she moved in slumber, he kissed her cheek and straightened his head. He continued to silently replay the dream while tears fell. Now Erik felt fear for the first time, a terror that he could not keep his promises to Christine. He was not sure how he could shake this dream, short of killing Raoul. He could not go back on his promise to Christine, yet everything in him said that it would be their death if he didn't. The dream left him uneasy about their future for the first time. He was not sure he could hold on to his tenuous future. He did something he had not truly done for a long time, he prayed;

"God, please don't take from me the one thing that makes my life worth living. Allow me to accomplish what I plan with great success so that I may live out my life quietly with my Christine. Please don't make me suffer more loss and isolation. I cannot bear to be alone anymore." He continued to talk with God, trying to shake the dread of the dream, neigh nightmare. This took him a long time, but when Christine finally stirred and asked if it was morning yet, Erik was able to answer her with a voice more steady then he felt.

"We should be arriving in a couple of hours. Daylight is breaking now, we must prepare."

Christine looked at him, he was looking like something had happened, and she could not imagine what could happen on the train at night. She was not sure whether she should ask him, but knew something had upset him. He was shaken and rather angry right now. Ignoring her senses, she decided to ask him what was wrong.

"Erik, what happened, you seem angry and tense. Did I miss something?"

"Just a dream, that's all. I don't dream often, so when I have one, I take it hard. As you can imagine, not many of my dreams are good ones."

"Oh, that would make them nightmares, then, right? What was it about, you are angry and I can tell that."

"Just trying to shake something I should let go of. I don't want to talk about it right now."

"But Erik, you really must talk it out, then you can get the feelings the nightmare evoked out and move on."

"Leave it, ok? I don't want to revisit it for anyone."

"Erik, I am sorry, I just want to help, and reassure you that all will be alright."

"I am glad that you are so confident. I am sometimes bound by promises I have made to you which seem to endanger our very lives. You must know that these promises may need to be released by you in order to save us. I will do my best to keep them, but you must understand that they may be impossible to keep."

Christine fell silent, hearing the way Erik spoke these words, the rage and anger he felt when he said them, and she was disconcerted. There were promises he made to her that would mean life or death, either to them or Raoul. She didn't know if she could live with herself if her familiarity with Raoul caused his death. She didn't hate him; maybe it would be easier if she did. She just wanted to be rid of him, let him move on to someone else. To see the way he was acting, she guessed it must have been a nightmare which ended badly for them. Now she was not so sure she ever wanted to know what he'd seen in slumber.

Erik rose from Christine's side and went about putting the batting back where he had found it. Christine rose and went over to Erik, knocking the hay from his outfit, picking out bits from his hair. Erik turned and grabbed her around the waist, pulling her to him hard;

Looking her in the eye, emphatically, Erik continued. Barely concealing his emotion; "I will kill if it will save you, do you understand. Raoul will not take you from me. I will go back on that promise before he can take your life if it comes to that, and you can not make me vow otherwise. If you can not accept that, then we must end this now!"

"Erik, what did you dream, did Raoul kill me? Surely if he was that murderous I would expect you to defend us, but there is a difference between that and cold blooded murder. That is what I will not abide."

He could not tell of the horror he dreamt, neigh witnessed. Hearing this from Christine; the relief was visible in Erik as his features softened. He bent down and kissed Christine briefly. They had to get ready to disembark as the train was slowing down now.

"It is time to go, Christine. Are you ready?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Not really!"

They jumped from the train, just before a steep embankment. Christine twisted her ankle; Erik came over to her and knelt down besides her;

"What did you do?"

"I think that I twisted the ankle, it will be alright, I just have to take my shoe off and rub it a bit. I really didn't do much to it, I can move it. It's just sore, feels like a stitch or something."

With that, Erik began to remove her shoe; he needed to assess the ankle and see if he needed to take her to the Populaire later, letting her rest for a while off that ankle.

"Well, it doesn't look too bad, how does this feel?" Erik massaged the ankle,

Christine closed her eyes and grimaced; "Erik, stop, that tickles. It hurts a bit, but it really tickles much more."

"Well, then, I guess that you will be able to walk if I give you a few moments to work it out?"

"Yes, no doubt. I really can do this, Erik; don't fret about your dream. I won't do anything to betray us, and I won't do anything to give Raoul any more hope of a future with me, either."

"I know, it is just hard to shake this dream, it was too real. I saw the wounds; I felt the knife going into flesh. It was too much to be merely a dream and that is what upsets me. Hopefully it will remain something in the subconscious; it has made me alert again. You have been a delightful distraction, more then I could have ever dreamed, but I must get my edge back before we confront Raoul, lest I make a fatal mistake."

Christine figured that statement and his actions meant that she was being held once more at arms length from his emotions. That was a hard place to return to after all they had shared for the past few weeks. It was hard to be there after all they shared and had become to each other. This was such a surreal life these days. She hoped with all she had that it would become more like a real life with everlasting love when all was said and done.

"Very well Erik, we shall keep our edge and our guard up. Though with Raoul convalescing he may not be out and about too much. At least that shall buy us some time"

Just then down the road a bit, they saw Raoul's horse galloping onto the Rue de LaSalle and breakneck speed. Only, it was not Raoul on the horse. This person was wearing pants, but she had long blonde hair pulled back into a pony tail. Christine gasped when she saw who was descending from the horse.

"Oh my God Erik, it is Meg. She's alive. Why is she riding Raoul's horse? We need to go see Mme. Giry. She will have answers for us. Should we do that first, Erik?"

"We need to get to my lair for now; we must set things up before we see anyone. We also should change our clothing, we have definitely earned that."

Christine didn't put up resistance to this suggestion, she was as eager to shed her well worn clothes for nice clean fresh ones, too. She hoped that there was still something left for them at the Populaire. This was going to be hard to see, the ruins of the once magnificent structure.

Erik was dealing with his own feelings regarding that sight they were bound to see very soon. Having helped construct the Populaire, he was facing a torrent of emotions over the ruin his lust had created. Part of him was glad he had destroyed such excess and gaudiness as the Populaire could arguably be considered, the other side of him mourned the passing of the days spent listening to Christine sing, as well as the power he had over the occupants. Now was the beginning of a new chapter, it was important that things had come to a head as they did, for now he had the upper hand where Christine was concerned and this time he was going to do it right.

Night was falling finally, they had rested for most of the daylight hours. Allowing Christine the time she needed to work the ankle out. Erik would go off for a bit and return with information on one thing or another, menial stuff. Christine would listen with rapt attention at his renditions of what happened to different people she knew in the Populaire. Erik really had quite a way of garnering information.

Christine couldn't begin to fathom how he went from place to place without being noticed. When she confronted him as to how, all he did was shrug and say; "You learn how to be invisible when you are not wanted. I am very practiced at that."

The rest of the day was spent like this, Erik coming and going and Christine lost in memories of the Populaire.

"Now, we go. Time has come to face our past and create our future. Are you ready, Christine?"

Christine took a deep breath, stood up and said; "Lead the way, my love!"