Chapter 27: Changes in the air
Erik sat upon his bed inside his sleeping chambers, staring into his wine glass, a grimace upon his masked features. Memories of the past years flooded his mind, consuming him. The past months had given him plenty of time to think, and sometimes he wondered if he thought a bit too much. Giving up Christine and Marie had become both a blessing and a curse, with the surse portion of that being much more significant. It was a blessing in that he was not constantly making plans to have them as his 'family of music', and not being able to follow through on them. He knew that he had truly let them go, and that they were happy. But this factor did not keep him from being himself. He was still angry and it was only the memory of their thankful faces that kept him form storming out the door and accomplishing what he had intended to do only a few months ago.
And in his mind, he was cursed, and he cursed himself daily for letting them go. It was really only Madame Giry that kept him from going insane. But seeing as she was not here at the present moment, he stormed downstairs and pounded out music from his piano. He had had them in his graps, under his control, he had taken advantage of their emotions, he could have had all he wanted, and yet he had let them go. He questioned himself, not for the first time, why he had done so. But deep in the back of his mind, he knew why. For he had realized on that day, a few months back, that he could not force Christine and Marie to do as he wished. If he had made them stay, he would have only hurt them by tearing them away from their families. One part of him had wanted to make them stay, to force them to see his pain, but the part of him that had prevailed had not wanted to hurt them.
There was only one thing that comforted him, and that was the fact that Madame Giry was there for him. She represented to Erik the love that he longed for the most; a motherly love. Then as he sat lost in his torrent of heated emotions, he heard a knock at the door. A slight growl escaped his lips. Who dared to stop by, and what the hell did they want? Unless it was Madame Giry, or his old friend from his gypsy days, he had half a mind to punjab them. When he reached the door he looked through th window and saw that it was in fact his old friend, whose name was Gabrielle. Her mother had worked for the gypsies, and she had been the only friendly face during his horrible years there. She had run into him on the street a few weeks ago when he had dared talk a walk down his street at around eight at night. He had had his cloak wrapped around him, but she had somehow recognized him.
"Bonjour madmoiselle," he said in as normal a tone as he could muster at the moment, as he opened the door.
"Bonjour Erik," she said quietly but with a small smile. She had been overjoyed to find her childhood friend again. Although admittedly, he was a bit different than she had expected, but she didn't want to let that frighten her.
"This is an unexpected surprise," said Erik as he led her to the sitting room. "But a pleasant one."
They sat down in the living room, and Erik was grateful that it was his sleeping chambers that he had ravaged and broken things in rather than downstairs. For some reason, he had no desire to turn her away, even though he was still incredibly wary of other human beings. There was a silence for a moment, until Gabrielle broke the ice.
"So how did you end up here in this lovely house?" she asked, brushing her raven black hair out of her eyes.
Erik didn't answer for a moment. How did he explain that? He would give the short story, he wasn't quite ready to trust her. "After I was rescued, the girl that rescued me, Catherine Giry, let me live under the opera house. I acquired money from the managers over the years, and now I'm here." said Erik, leaving out all of the events concerning the de Chagnys and the Pages. "How about yourself?"
Gabrielle's hazel eyes searched his face as he spoke, as though she knew he was hiding something. "My mother and I left the gypsies about a year after you dissapeared. We found work at various circuses in Paris, working as tiprope walkers. But now I'm actually going to be working as a ballet dancer at the Opera Garnier. It fairly near the new Opera Populaire." she stopped, as she heard the door open.
As she had spoken however, herhand had inched ever closer to Erik's and was now resting lightly on his. Normally Erik would have instantly drawn back, but she showed no fear of him, so he decided not to. Madame Giry walked in the room, a grand smile on her face, seeing as she had just returned from the Page' house, and from seeing the newborn twins. An even bigger smile claimed her features when she saw Erik and Gabrielle.
"Bonjour Erik, Gabrielle, " she said coming over to them, her custon long braid hanging over her shoulder.
"Well I really must be going. But I will come back tommorow if that 's okay." said Gabrielle, her tone hopeful.
"Of course," said Erik. "You are always welcome."
Madame Giry raised her eyebrows at his welcoming tone; it was obviously incredibly unlike him. They walked Gabrielle to the door, and to Erik's immense shock Gabrielle placed a quick kiss on his cheek as she exited. The door closed and Erik shook his head slightly before turning without a word back towards the parlor. After a few minutes of silence, Erik spoke.
"You left in a rush today, what happened?" he asked.
"Marie Claire gave birth to twins today." said Madame Giry with a slight wariness, perhaps a bit tense about how former phantom would react.
"Ah..." was all Erik said to that statement, so the good woman continued.
"They were glad to hear that you had been reunited with Gabrielle again." she said quietly.
Erik started from his previous activity of staring at the floor. "They asked about me?"
"Yes," she said simply. "And they are so happy Erik, you did the right thing."
Erik grunted an inaudible response to that, taking a rather large swig of his glass of wine.
"And from the look of things you seemed to be quite content with Gabrielle a few minutes ago."
Erik gave her a look. "She is just an old friend. You forget what happened a few months ago Catherine."
"I will never forget what has gone on between you and the de Chagnys and the Pages. But you let them go Erik. They are moving on, and I think that it is finally time for you too. I sense something between you and Gabrielle, it dosen't mean that it had to happen immediately, but give it a chance." said said, looking at her friend, her eyes meaningful.
Erik allowed a small half smile to come onto his face. He certainly had a long way to go before he could truly live. But his experiences with Christine, Marie, the Vicomte, and Arthur had taught him something; that compassion was felt for him. Because, even after all of this, after all of the anger, the hate, the tears, they found it in themselves to forgive him, and he found it in himself to let them go. Christine's face ran through his mind. She and Marie, had always felt compassion for him, and he realized that now. But they had not been able to show it because they had wanted to try and protect the ones they loved from his wrath. They belonged with Raoul and Arthur, he knew that now. That was not to say that he would ever forget, or that he would not be angry or bitter, because he still was. But as he pictured Gabrielle in his mind, and touched his cheek in rememeberance of the kiss that she had given him, he saw a glint of hope.
"Perhaps you are right Catherine"
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A/N: Alright, so thats kind of a wierd place to end a chapter, but it works. So, there's what's going on with Erik, I hope that you like it! Okay so only one chapter left! The majority is going to be told through Marie Claire's eyes, ending the story where it began. See, I told you guys that it would be happy for everyone! You can have a strong RC story, and still have a happy ending for Erik. I want to thank everyone for their support through this story, and I hope that you like this chapter and the next one! Please read and review! And thanks to Asia1st for the review, its good to have you as a fellow RC fan, and I'm glad that you liked Elissa and Jean. Also thanks to all of my reviewers; Samantha, Guitarprincess, and I am the Angel of Music(I thought of you as I wrote this!)