Author's Note: Thank you to all of my lovely reviewers! I luff you very much!

This chapter is dedicated to hirari-no-tsubasa for writing the ultimate modern day phic!

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Erik's face was, for lack of a better word, revolting. It was as if it had entirely been ripped off and replaced with the face of one long dead. His nose was either sunken in so far that it was invisible, or simply not there. His skin was translucent, almost to the point of appearing nonexistent. The veins and arteries stood out starkly on his face, the blood visibly rushing through them only thing on his face that made him look alive. His lips, in contrast to the rest of his face, were perfectly formed, and his chin was fine, if a bit pale. His eyes, which I noticed were a peculiar color of gold, were filled with a mixture of pain and rage.

After noticing the rage I felt myself take a step back, my blood pounding in my ears. Murder was shining in his eyes. Never before had I felt such intense fear. I wondered if I was going to die, just by looking in his eyes.

Erik advanced on me, until I was backed up in the corner. Grabbing my shoulders, he called out in a voice that chilled me to the bone, "What did you expect from Erik? Someone handsome perhaps, with a nose of his own? A Robert Chagney? Well Christine, I will have you know that I am made up from head to foot of death. And you shall know that it is a corpse who loves you, worships you, and who will never, never, let you go."

He began to cry, sinking at the floor at my feet. He changed emotions so fast that I could barely register the change before he called out to me once more. "Oh Christine, why?" Then he continued, in barely more than a whisper, "Why did you betray me?"

Now it was my turn to be angry. "Erik, you have lied to me, used me, and taken advantage of my trust for five years. Worse yet, you used my beloved father's memory as a tool against my trust. Do not speak to me of betrayal. You yourself are skilled in treachery."

He looked up at my face. "Christine, forgive me. All I have done is of my love of you. You are truly my Angel of Music, as I could never be to you." The tone of his voice melted my heart. I was so confused about this man. Did I hate him? I wasn't sure. I wasn't sure of anything anymore.

Erik continued to speak, after a pause that seemed to last forever, and yet no time at all. "I love you."

I knelt down next down to him. With a wry smile I spoke again. "I don't know who is to blame for all of this. You for lying, or me for believing. You were foolish, as was I. I will try to forgive you, and myself." I then tried to give a real smile, though I couldn't quite do it.

Erik stood up, grabbing his mask off of the floor in the process. He offered me a hand, once again the cold gentleman. "You look tired. Perhaps I could show you to your chambers?"

I took his hand, pulling myself up before he could do it for me. "That sounds wonderful."

Honestly, I ached terribly. It must be at least three o'clock in the morning, and I had been up since nine in the morning. Eighteen hours of stress tends to wear you out.

He led me down a hallway that had numerous doors on it. He opened the door at the very end of the hall on the left side, and I found myself in another, shorter, hallway. There was only one door in this hall, about halfway down on the right side. He led me to the door, then indicated that I should enter before him.

I opened the door, a little nervous. When I saw the room within my eyes widened, and I gave a small gasp.

It was beautiful. The walls were painted midnight blue. And beautifully offsetting the walls was the bed. It was silver, in the shape of a swan, with a white comforter that was covered in a layer of feathers, sewed to the comforter.

In the corner of the room there was a small tile, with a small ring of blue tile surrounding it. It was three tiers, and had a basin rim that looked wide enough to sit in.

I walked in and saw a door on the back wall. I opened it and found a walk-in closet that was probably bigger than my bedroom in my apartment. It was practically bursting with clothes. With a small, high pitched squeak, I flung myself into the closet to look at the clothes.

There were leather pants, there were old fashioned dresses, there was almost any type of clothing you could imagine. It was all beautiful, and looked extremely expensive.

I noticed Erik was standing outside the closet. I walked out, and as I did I felt a tear trickle down my cheek. Erik gave me a concerned look.

"What's wrong? Do you not like it? I can change it if you'd like."

I looked up into his face. "No, I love it. It's just…no one has done anything nice to me since my father died. And now you're doing all of this for me and I've just been perfectly rotten."

Erik made a noncommittal noise before changing the subject. "I'll leave you to sleep now. Good night." He walked out, looking back from the doorway for only a second, then moving on.

I realized, just as I was getting dressed for bed, that I had a pounding headache. I had found some black pajama bottoms and a white tank top to sleep in, in one of the many drawers of my closet.

Sleep did not come easily to me, exhausted as I was. My emotions were in such a spin that I was lucky I could keep myself from pacing, banging on the walls, or something else equally unproductive. I lay in my bed trying to sort out what had happened, and how I felt about it, until I drifted off to sleep many long hours later.

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Review Responses:

Monj: I wanted my Christine to be more sensible than your average Christine. ((Man, that make me think of Yogi Bear… "I'm smarter than your average bear!")) And I'm trying to get a good mix between ALW and the book, so I added in the full mask. And I think that Christine would have to be a lot less shallow if his whole face was deformed, instead of just half, to look past it.

Harem98: Hmmm…I have nicknames for everyone else…I shall dub thee Hari! ((If that's alright with you)) Or Remi! Take your pick! ((Unless you just want to be called Harem98. That's cool too.)) I'm glad you liked my update! Please continue to review!

Pix: Please continue to review! I love getting your reviews!

Tink20: Could I call you Tink::grins: Now I'm getting somewhere! I know I'm doing my job correctly if I get some emotion out of my reviewers::High fives Tink: I shall keep quiet about the pairing. I like to keep you guys on the edge of your seats. And yes, I did want to get the unmasking out of the way as soon as possible. It was really hard for me to write.

MMJ::Worships the Face: Heck yes! The face is penultimate! Even if that isn't a word! The face is all that is holy::Pets Erik the Muse: My muse is the French Erik and Christine from the French version of the movie. Very good singers. And that's the language they'd actually be speaking!

Please leave a review! Erik will give all the reviewers forehead kisses!