And here comes chapter four. POTO and GD not owned by me. Let's go.

Chapter Four: Opening Night

"What do you mean, she's not here?"

Yes, she had been ready for this since the day she had accepted the Voice's tutelage. Yes, she knew the part perfectly. Yes, she knew how to do what was expected of her. But had she ever expected it to come?

Even with the Voice's awesome powers, she had never thought it possible that Carlotta would ever not be there to do as she had always done. And so, though Christine could hear Meg's voice through her haze of thought, she was neither really listening to nor comprehending her friend's words.

"Carlotta! She hasn't arrived and the others are all frantic. You do know the part, don't you?"

Christine nodded reluctantly. Meg smiled and grabbed her friend's hand. "Then come! We must tell them—they will be so relieved!"

She barely remembered the journey to the office and from thence to the stage. There was a sort of glow halfway between joy and terror that suffused her vision and it was only when the curtain rose that she returned to herself. With minimal presence of mind she opened her mouth.

And she was gone, falling into the light, the music taking her higher and deeper than she had ever been before, her voice reaching into the very center of her soul and dragging every emotion into the light.

Her eyes met Raoul's where he sat in the audience, then lifted to the ceiling. There, at the edge of one of the lights, a figure stood, watching. Her soul gave a wild leap. She let loose a pure, beautiful note to end the aria and managed to stay standing until the curtain fell.

Raoul must have knocked down at least twelve people in his mad dash to get to Christine, but honestly he couldn't have cared less. In all reality he probably didn't even notice them—his entire attention was fixed on his objective.

He made it into the room just as the girl's eyelids fluttered gently. The other man who was there—a doctor, by his appearance—nodded to Raoul and departed. Raoul sat down beside her.

Christine looked at him as if without recognition, but he saw the brief tremor of her gaze. She knew.

"Do you not remember me, Mademoiselle?" Raoul asked gently. "Do you know me?"

Christine shook her head slowly, reluctantly.

"But you must remember me," he told her desperately, taking her hand. "Remember how we met? I ran into the sea—"

Christine gave him a glance that silenced him. "I beg you, sir," she said softly, "I ask that you go. Perhaps later we may speak together, but tonight..."

Though reluctant to leave her, Raoul nodded and went to the door. Although he turned back to speak, she pressed a finger to her lips and, with a small sigh, he was gone.

Christine turned back to the mirror. "I am sorry, Angel," she said softly.

"Do not apologize for what you cannot control, my darling. Shall we begin?"

Christine nodded and song followed.

"Then with your hand in mine, dear,
You'll whisper gently yes!
The castle's lord by yours dear,
Come, and lover bless!"

She recognized the words and knew them well...but they had never sung this before, had they? But in any case, she continued what her teacher had started.

"I would, and yet I would not
My breast with terror heaves:
It would be the happiest lot,
Unless this lord deceives."

"Come, then, with me, my beauty!"

"Masetto claims my duty."

"I wish to change your state, love."

"I yield myself to fate, love."

Suddenly the Voice was just beside her ear, and strangely hoarse. "I take thee at thy word, love," it said softly. "So come! Come with me!"

"Come, then!" was sung. "Then with your hand in mine, dear,
You'll whisper gently yes!"

Christine felt the words ring true even as she sang them:

"I would, and yet I would not;
My breast with terror heaves."

And there before her the mirror turned and spun and she walked forward into the flashing light and darkness with the words still ringing in her ears:

"Then come, and share with me

The pleasure of innocence and love."

Into the darkness she walked, and in darkness she fell.

When her eyes finally opened, they opened on the strangest sight she had ever seen in her short life. She was in a beautiful room furnished in deep, rich color, reds and blues and purples mostly. And across the room, his back to her, stood a man.

"Angel?" she asked gently. "Is this heaven?"

The man laughed harshly. "No, Christine," he said softly, turning around. "If anything, I would call this hell."

Christine covered her small gasp with a hand. The man was tall and wiry, but that was not what one noticed at first. He wore a black mask that covered three-quarters of his face and was completely out of touch with his lanky physical grace and the silken texture of his voice.

"Who are you?" she asked, rising and moving away from him.

"What, you do not know me?" the man replied mockingly. "Not even though you heard me less than half an hour previously?"

She looked closer, overcoming her fear to travel a few steps in his direction. "Angel?"

"I am no angel, my love. You are the angel here. No, I am neither angel nor demon nor ghost nor man...I am Erik."

She came closer, ever closer, simply wonder and curiosity in her eyes.

Perhaps it was because he had seen the knowing Christine, known her and loved her, that he forgot this girl before him did not know, had never seen...or perhaps he simply was not paying the attention the situation deserved. But he allowed her to get so close that, even with his reflexes, he could not have stopped her snatching away the mask.

Her face when she saw him was worse than he had remembered it. There was not only disgust and astonishment, but a level of fear she had never worn before. He walked towards her slowly. "Christine, I..." he tried to explain.

"No," she breathed, dropping the mask and sinking against a wall to sit in a small huddle on the floor. "Oh, God, don't come any closer...oh, God..."

She continued to weep softly. He looked at her, stunned into silence. He tried to speak but there was nothing to say—and she probably wouldn't have heard him anyway.

"Oh, God, let me forget," she wept. "Please, only let me forget this."

"Done," the voice of Gabriel said gently, and the world spun into darkness. Erik looked up into the raging face of an archangel.

"You idiot," Gabriel hissed angrily. "You are as stupid, ignorant, insensitive, and oblivious a moron as I have ever seen in all my existence! You didn't think, did you? She has forgotten you entirely! She remembers nothing of you and she knows nothing of your soul! And you show yourself within the first five minutes? You irresponsible, selfish little bastard!"

At first Erik looked as though he were going to retaliate with violence, but then he looked away, almost in tears. "You're right, Gabriel," he said. "I had no right to do that. God, I'm such a fool!"

He appeared about ready to hit himself when Gabriel softened. "No lasting harm has been done, Erik," the archangel told him. "She will not remember it. All will be started anew when you wake up this morning."

"May I ask a question?"

"Of course, though as always I offer no guarantee that I can answer it."

"Is there a God?"

Gabriel started. "Why on earth would you...never mind, I could answer my own question. Yes, Erik, there is a God, but that God is less able to intervene than many think. There is a kind of fate in this world, but it is only what might be—what should be. God cannot change that—only situations or people can be helped." Gabriel paused and looked away from Erik. "Like you."

Erik sighed. "Then what is my fate?"

"That, my friend, I could not answer even if I wanted to. Not only do I not know what is to be, I could not tell you if I did. What is meant to be will be—only then will life continue as it was."

Erik ran a hand through his hair and nodded. "Then let us continue," he said. "I do not want this to take longer than it must."

Gabriel nodded and raised his hands. "Let it be so."

All right, ending blurb. I'm really starting to hate doing these. Basically, the usual questions—Comments? Questions? Reviews? Anything? I'll be here...mostly. Next chapter soon I hope. Siobhan out.