In Truth
I love you.
Christine's softly uttered declaration seemed to resonate through the cavern. A flash of overwhelming joy raced through Erik's blood, only to be quickly chased away by anger…denial…betrayal. He spun violently, the action taking Christine off guard and sending her stumbling back several steps.
"You lie! What trick is this? Do you mean to finish me off now? Is your boy hiding in some corner waiting to run me through?"
"No!" Christine threw herself against him in anguish, gripping the edges of his cloak together tightly. The words that spilled forth from her lips were born from a truth she had dared not admit until that moment. "I have been hiding, refusing to face the truth. But I can no longer deny my heart...my soul, Erik. I cannot be without you, I am dying without you!"
The simple brush of his body against hers, the feel of his hands as he grasped her shoulders to still her, caused a reaction within her unlike any other. Without conscious thought, she reached up and drew his head down, her mouth finding his in desperation. For an unending moment, Erik stood passive before her, resisting Christine's passionate advance. Just as she began to think him completely unmoved, his hands pulled her body closer and he returned the ardor of her kiss.
It felt like Heaven...like Hell. It was too much and never enough.
Christine struggled to get closer, just as she had in the countless dreams that had taunted her since the night she had left Erik behind. The passion that stirred within her now was unmistakable…undeniable.
This was what we were meant for. This was what I could never find with Raoul.
As if Erik somehow read her thoughts, he abruptly broke the kiss, pushing Christine away from him. He struggled to regain his fragile control, allowing his anger to stir again and cool the fire between them. "What of your Vicomte? Or will you tell me you do not love him?"
Christine drew an uneven breath, closing her eyes in guilt. It would do no good to lie to him, so she whispered, "I will not tell you that, Erik, but know that my love for him is not...like this."
He glowered over her…her words twisting the knife deeper into his heart once again. His beautiful voice turned even colder. "And what is this, Christine? Some new childish game of yours? You love him, yet you want me? You cannot have us both!"
She stared at him with wide, anguished eyes. "Do you think me a fool, Erik? I am here because I choose you! I love you."
Those words again.
Oh, how they threatened to erase all the bitterness within him. Even now, he could feel hope blossoming in his chest, fragile and so easily crushed. He shook his head in denial, stubbornly ignoring the truth in Christine's steady gaze. "You cannot love a monster...an evil thing."
She reached for him and tenderly drew his face into her hands with darkening eyes. Her words were spoken with quiet determination. "You are not a monster, Erik, and I do not believe you are evil. I have felt the good in you. Seen the beauty."
He scoffed, "Then you are blind."
Christine dropped her hands, shaking her head sadly. "No, I can finally see, Erik. I see the man that you can be." Her voice softened as she thought of every little moment that had proved him a man, before her fear of him had truly blinded her. "And it is the man I cannot forget, nor turn away from. Please...do not ask me to again."
Erik closed his eyes in pain. Every word she spoke was one he had conjured up in countless fantasies. He could not believe this time might be real.
It is not real, you fool. Nothing has changed. You still cannot keep her with you.
"What sacrifices are you willing to make for me, Christine? Will you give up your Vicomte to haunt the shadows with a murderer?"
His question was the very one that Christine had been struggling to answer, and even in coming here, she still had not fully understood what she hoped to accomplish. Raoul was still very much in her life, and in her heart. Yet how could she leave Erik…be parted from the other half of her soul? She could not. Knowing this, the answer suddenly seemed clear.
"I only know I cannot give you up, Erik. Perhaps if we leave here, go away from Paris, where no one knows the story of the Phantom. We can simply be Erik and Christine…as we should have always been."
Erik smiled sadly, tracing his fingers across her cheek with such reverence, as though it would be the last time. His tone was suddenly soft and his words gentle. "Such a lovely dream, my angel, but only a dream nonetheless…and you should have your dreams. I cannot ask you live a nightmare. This, at least, I finally understand."
He turned from her once again and began to move back into the shadows, and Christine suddenly felt her heart begin to flutter madly in panic. She could not let him go. She had come here in search of something she'd not been able to fully define, but now…faced with losing him once again, she knew. She stopped him with the words of his own creation.
"You have brought me to that moment where words run dry,
to that moment where speech disappears into silence, silence . . ."
Erik paused with his back to Christine, stopped by the sound of her sweet voice growing steadily more passionate.
"I have come here, hardly knowing the reason why . . .
In my mind, I've already imagined
our bodies entwining defenseless and silent -
and now I am here with you:
no second thoughts, I've decided, decided."
Erik drew in a ragged breath as he turned towards her once again, knowing he was helpless to resist her. She was calling to him with the very music he had created for her, and he answered, his voice becoming one with hers.
"Past the point of no return no going back now:
our passion-play has now, at last, begun . . .
Past all thought of right or wrong -
one final question: how long
should we two wait, before we're one . . .?"
"What raging fire shall flood the soul?
What rich desire unlocks its door?
What sweet seduction lies before us . . .?"
"Past the point of no return the final threshold,
the bridge is crossed, so stand and watch it burn.
We're past the point of no return."
They had moved closer to one another with every word, and now their lips were but inches apart. Erik closed his eyes briefly, fighting one last battle with himself. He had tried to release her…tried to forget her…but the insufferable girl had come back here on her own. He was simply not strong enough to resist what he had craved for so very long. On a frustrated groan, he pressed his mouth to Christine's as passion ignited once again, consuming them both...all thought of right and wrong lost to the flames of desire.
A/N: Thanks again to those who reviewed. More fluffiness to come.