Now
Raoul enters the room with a stagger, gripping the door handle to keep himself upright. He is very tired, worn nearly to a wraith, and his entire demeanor shows that. A thick, red line surrounds his throat, looking almost like a cravat in the light of the doorway. He is sopping wet, water dripping onto the lush carpeting. He waits a moment, regains his balance, and then hobbles into the dark room, closing the door behind him and cutting off all of the light. It doesn't occur to himto see ifthere are lamps available in the room, even though its previous owner abandoned it barely a day ago. Raoul stumbles over to a chair, pulling his coat around him, and sits down heavily, almost as though he was collapsing. A minute goes bye, then two, and he simply stares into the darkness, occasionally coughing, gathering his thoughts.
It has been over a year since the fire, three months since he learned of Christine's indiscretions, and a very long time since the story began. As Papa Daae had always told him, you must begin at the beginning, and it takes him a few moments to find the beginning of his story. He does not know if he has an audience, and does not really care. This story is for him, and perhaps another, if he is listening. He fingers the bruise on this throat, then winces. It is still new enough to hurt badly. Finally, ignoring the pain speaking brings him, he begins to speak.
"Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Raoul. Raoul was brought up to be a Christian, so every night he got down on his knees by his bed and prayed to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit to protect him and his family from evil. But Raoul did not really believe in the Holy Trinity his parents told him about. Why pray to some idea you can never see, thought little Raoul, when there is something you can see that leads you through the day? Raoul worshipped the sun. The sun was beautiful and bright, and it warmed him up all the way through, but it was all alone up in the sky. Raoul thought that the sun looked lonely, just like he felt. Obviously, the sun needed a friend, and Raoul knew that the friend would be him. After all, Raoul needed a friend too. Someday, Raoul would find somebody on earth who was really the sun, and they would be best friends and never go away from each other. Raoul looked for that person every day, and he spent as much time in the sun as he could, keeping it company.
"Then, one day, Raoul was at the beach, where many sun worshippers loved to spend time, and he saw a bright red flying thing being chased by another bright thing. Perhaps, Raoul thought, that is the sun, and it has lost the bright red flying thing. If I catch it, and bring it back, the sun will be my friend! So Raoul ran out into the sea and rescued the bright red thing from the cold and dark water which went on forever. Raoul got cold and wet too, but he brought the red thing back to the bright thing that had been chasing it, which turned out to be a blonde-haired, blue-eyed little girl. 'Are you the sun?' Raoul asked. (Raoul was only a little boy himself, and not always a smart one, you see.) 'No," said the little girl, 'I am Christine.' Well, thought Raoul, perhaps she is not the sun, but she can be my friend anyway. And she was. Raoul learned many things of great use from her and her father, like how to tell a story, but Raoul never really believed that the bright little girl wasn't the sun.
"Then the little blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl went away, and Raoul's family decided that it was time for him to grow up. Raoul learned to hunt, and fight, and sport, and he almost forgot about his sun-friend, who he may not have even found. Raoul grew into a man.
"When Raoul was all grown, he went to a big building with music in it, and there he found the blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl again, but she was not a little girl any more, and Raoul was not a little boy. (Though some would say that he was still not very smart.) 'Do you remember me?' Raoul asked. 'Yes, you are Raoul,' said the girl. 'Do you remember me?' 'Yes,' said Raoul, 'You are the sun. Come and be my friend. I will give you many bright things to keep you company. I will give you anything you wish.' But the sun looked away, and Raoul was scared. Raoul had never been sure what the sun looked at when it looked away, but he knew it was deep in the darkness and that the sun followed it at night. He was afraid that if the sun followed it away into the darkness, he would be left all alone again.
"So Raoul went to the men who guarded the sun and gave them many bright, shining things that looked like the sun, and some men worshipped like the sun, and he told the men to guard the sun even more. Then he went out and brought the sun a small round thing that reflected the color of her hair, and had a bright stone that shone like the sun in the sky. He thought that such things would keep her with him. But one night the sun followed the thing she saw into the darkness, and Raoul followed her. He went deep down into the darkness, and he found her. He could not really see the thing she had seen, but he knew that she loved it more than him, and he was afraid she would leave him alone. So, after a great fight and many adventures in the dark, Raoul took the sun's hand and pulled her back the way they had come. They traveled for what seemed like a very long time, and Raoul became very tired. He turned back to look at the sun and speak to her, but what was this? The sun was not the sun, but only a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl, who was still looking back at the thing in the darkness. Realizing that he had been very much mistaken, Raoul dropped her hand and went on towards the light alone.
"He got lost and had many more adventures in the dark. He could not see anything. Then he heard a sound like the stars singing, (for what are the stars but many tiny suns?) and he saw, in the dark, two small, bright, shining, golden suns, who had been lost in the darkness for much longer than he had. Raoul smiled at them and asked them their name. The two suns widened, narrowed, then returned to their own size and said that their name was Erik. And Raoul knew that he had found his special sun-friend, and he was happy."
Raoul pauses, closes his eyes and clears his throat.
"That's not the end. There isn't an end yet. But it's a good place to stop."
Raoul opens his eyes again and looks around the dark room. He can see very little but the crack of light beneath the door, but he tries anyway. He strains his ears for any sound of his audience, but again finds none. He stands tiredly and makes his way to the door, squinting as the light floods into the room and turning to survey the room once more before he closes the door behind him.
Behind the mirror, Erik sits very quietly, not knowing exactly what to do.
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Yes, this will get more slashy as we go along (if we go along) and yes, this is a mixture of many things. I've taken elements from the movie, the musical, the book, the other book- Phantom by Susan Kay, and a couple of other places. I own nothing. This whole thing is inspired by Sanely Challenged, who now goes by the name Kytten, and to whom I owe my love of Raoul/Erik slash. Read her stuff!