Enjoy!
-Nico
"Cured?" Rae repeated, her voice slightly edgy. "What the fuck does that mean?"
Gerard moved over to the large windows in the bedroom, overlooking the sparkling night-lights of Paris.
"It happened in the Opera House…all my memories…all the identification I had with him…it's gone." He said quietly…
almost woefully.
"How?" Rae asked, coming up behind him.
Gerard turned around.
He was obviously distraught.
"I don't know, Rae," he said. "All I know is that I no longer carry with me the Phantom's mind."
Rae looked at him.
It was true.
The only pull she felt towards him was her own.
"It was when we were in Box Five," she said suddenly. "That rush of air. He left you. You brought him home."
Gerard raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that?" He asked her.
Rae shrugged. "I feel it," she replied.
"And you still have her memories?" He asked her.
Rae nodded. "Yes," she confirmed. "But it's getting easier to distinguish between her and me."
"Who's here now?" Gerard asked.
"I am," Rae replied, locking eyes with him.
She held his stare, even as his hand rose to fall on her hair. He threaded a curl between his fingers, allowing the silky strand to loop and fall between his pale digits.
He brushed the back of his knuckles against Rae's smooth cheek, the sight of her eyes sliding closed almost more tempting than the heat he felt rising from her body.
"Rae," he whispered. "You must let her go."
"I don't know how," Rae replied.
"Something happened to me when I was standing in his footprints," Gerard said suddenly. "A terrible feeling of entrapment…a feeling that I was all at once home and imprisoned. And just before you fainted, I felt an incredible sensation of relief…of a return to myself."
Rae listened, watching as Gerard relived the moments.
"Yet I was overwhelmed with sadness," he continued. "I had identified with that man for so long…I had almost felt honored that he had chosen me as his vessel. That he had shared his torments with me."
He grasped Rae's hands in his own.
"And I felt the purest, most genuine love for Christine…" He said softly. "I have never experienced a more powerful emotion. And now it's gone…and I feel emptier than ever."
Rae licked her lips.
"But aren't you happy, Gerard? To be back to normal? To be yourself?" She asked.
Gerard raised his eyes to her. "I've never known what normal is, Rae…and I certainly don't know myself anymore."
"You should be pleased, Gerard," Rae informed him, pulling her hands from his grasp. "Because now you can return to your life as it was when you left."
Gerard considered her suggestion.
Back to his life.
Back to the drugs…the late nights, the bad decisions…the endless touring, the false adoration of millions of people who barely knew him.
Back to the way things had been six months ago.
"And what will you do, Rae?" He asked quietly.
Rae looked out the window. "I must bring her back to him," she said calmly. "They must be reunited."
Gerard stood behind her, allowing his hand to come to rest on her shoulder.
She still wore the black outfit she had fainted in. Yet Gerard could feel her warmth through the thin material.
He let his other hand rest on her other shoulder. He could hear the sharp intake of Rae's breath, which she let out slowly as his hands cascaded down her arms until his fingers entwined with hers.
Rae allowed her eyes to slide shut, reveling in the feeling of warmth from Gerard's body. He was now pressed up behind her, his chest against her back, his hips slightly higher than her rear.
Before he could stop himself, he dipped his head, allowing his lips to rest in the crook of Rae's neck. She tensed, wholly unprepared for the heated feelings that were beginning to pulse from what felt like her core.
"Gerard," she whispered, licking her lips. "What are you doing?"
He spun her around slowly, looking down into the depths of her green eyes.
He placed his crooked pointer finger under Rae's small chin and lifted her face to his.
She looked up at him…his pale skin…his heavily lashed eyes…
For a moment, she forgot where she was…
Forgot about Christine…
Gerard moved in closer…
Rae closed her eyes…
And then there was a knock at the door.
Gerard instantly pulled away, looking over to the hotel door.
Rae watched breathlessly as he walked over to the door, stopping to pick up a white envelope that had been shoved under the door.
"What is it?" Rae asked.
Gerard opened the door and looked out into the hallway.
Empty.
He came back into the room, carrying with him the envelope.
"Open it," Rae told him.
Gerard flipped the envelope over in his hand, slowly pulling it open.
He barely noticed the wax insignia that held the envelope closed.
He pulled out a sheet of paper and read.
He raised his eyes to Rae once he had finished.
"What does it say?" She asked.
He handed her the letter.
I thank you for your body…And your mind…
But now it is time to finish it…
Bring Christine back to me…
Tomorrow night by the hour of midnight…
I will be waiting for her…
In the darkness that was once my home.
Yours in life and death,
O.G.