A/N: Hello all again! As promised, I got this chapter to you way faster than the previous one. Well, we've made it to Chapter 5. D I find that remarkable that I've lasted this far. For you people who write a million chapters, I applaud you. You people are insane. I might just join you too. It depends on how well my plot unfolds. So, thank you thus far for being so patient with me and my random ramblings in all these author notes! You all must think I belong in a psychiatric ward or something. ) But I assure you, I'm perfectly sane. I enjoy all these little conversations though, even if they are one sided. Well, I won't keep you waiting. Hope you all enjoy this chapter. –AzIce
"I was there as he brought down the chandelier," Erik continued. "As well as when he brought his love down here, only to have her taken away by another. Yes, I knew him." He wasn't ready to tell her the entire truth. However, he didn't lie. Everything he said was true.
"That's terrible," Reina remarked. "That's her, isn't it?" she asked, looking at all the painting and drawings adorning the walls. All of them pictured the same girl. There was even a mannequin of her in a shrine-like area. "He really loved her, didn't he?" she asked. "There are portraits of her everywhere. She's pretty. Christine. That girl told me her name."
"Yes, he did love her. He gave her his dedication and his very soul," Erik said, reminiscing. "Now come. Let us return to the Opera House. It is getting late and you should return to bed."
"Alright," she said. She was slightly disappointed that she didn't get to meet the Phantom, but it was okay. There was always some other time she could return.
Over the next few weeks, she could barely wait for the candles to be blown out at night so she could slip away to the cavern beyond the fifth cellar. After the visit to the Garnier Opera house, he began giving her voice lessons. Slowly, but surely, as he promised, the improvement came and it was enormous, but she was careful not to show it during the rehearsals. Sorelli became easily jealous and was dangerous when she was. Other than an instructor, he became someone that she could go to for console and help, and he was the light that led her from her depression from her friend's death.
Reina also had an impact on him. Now that he was concentrating on her more and following their rehearsals and such, he didn't think of Christine too often anymore. Of course, he still felt grief from her loss, but a lot of it was alleviated when Reina came down always with a cheerful smile on her face. And the role he played with Reina was different. To Christine, he had always been an ethereal, intangible guardian angel until those last, fatal months. But in addition to that guardian angel position he held, he was a real person to Reina. He didn't become a real person to Christine until the end, but he was always real and tangible to Reina. (Random A/N: Hm…I don't know if that makes sense. It's 11:00 right now, so probably nothing I write will make sense. Basically what I'm trying to say is that to Christine, Erik was only a voice, an angel sent by her father to train her voice. She didn't know he was an actual person. She was gullible enough to believe it was actually an angel. However, to Reina, he is a real person because she knows he's not an angel. The angel is just figurative.) It felt different, but it felt better. She easily engaged him in casual conversation—about her troubles, her day, and anything else that happened to be on her mind. And he found that he did the same with her—something that he had never done with Christine.
Reina was out in the courtyard one afternoon after Madam Ellisa had released them from rehearsal early, talking to one of her friends. "Ahh," she exclaimed, stretching her arms out towards the sun. "It's so pretty and sunny today. Madam Ellisa has been letting us out early from rehearsal a lot lately. I'm not complaining though. It's nice to just sit here in the sun."
"Mmm," the girl agreed, picking a flower. "It's good for people. Like you. You've changed since the Opera Populaire girls came."
Reina looked at her puzzled. "What do you mean, Kayla?" she asked, confused. "I haven't changed at all."
"Maybe you don't notice it," Kayla said. "But you're a lot happier lately, like you used to be. I know you were really depressed over Liz's death. And even after everyone moved on, you still seemed to be down. But since they came, I've seen more smiles on your face than in the entire last year. So, what's different now? Are you seeing someone?" she asked inquiringly in a joking fashion.
"No way," Reina replied, laughing. Only Kayla would come up with something like that. "I don't know what's different now. Maybe it's just that there's so many things going on around her that I haven't had time to think about Liz that much." she said, quickly coming up with an excuse. She knew that it was him that made her feel better, but he had told her not to tell anyone about him.
"Fine," Kayla said, giving up. "Hide your secrets. But I will find them out."
"I'm not hiding anything," Reina said, laughing again. "Oh…I think Madam Ellisa is calling us back." She sighed. "Only three more hours today. I don't know if I can last that long."
"Three hours?" Kayla asked. "That's nothing. Try following Sorelli around all day before an opening performance and having to pay attention to her every whim."
"Oh God," Reina exclaimed. "I would never survive that. I would have to glue her mouth shut first."
They laughed together as they returned to rehearsal.
That night, she headed down to his cavern. He no longer had to guide her, although he still did most of the time. The pathway from the fifth cellar to his cavern was long and twisted. Once she got out of sight of the door to the cellar, she took a torch off of the wall and lit it with the small candle that always remained lit in case he ever needed one. When she reached the cavern, he wasn't there, so she assumed he was in one of the back rooms preparing something. He always had such amazing tricks and displays. It was almost as if he really were an angel and could perform magic. She looked around and saw some new music on a stand. Curious, she walked over to it. It was an opera: "Don Juan Triumphant". The edges of the paper were slightly burned, but the lyrics for the parts were still intact.
'I've never heard of this opera before. I wonder if it is what we're going over today,' she thought as she flipped through it.
Still curious, she started singing from the script. "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? When will the blood begin to race, the sleeping bud burst into bloom? When will the flames at last consume us? Past the point of no return, the final threshold. The bridge is crossed so stand and watch it burn. We've passed the point of no return." (A/N: I'm on a roll! It's 11:20 p.m. and I should be sleeping. But anyway, those lyrics are the best part of the entire movie! 333 That's why I put that entire blob there. Okay. Mooooving on.)
He had heard her coming. He was making some final preparations for a magic trick he was going to show her. She was always so easily entertained, even by the simplest magic trick. But then, she started singing that song that had ruined everything.
"…Past the point of No Return, the final threshold. The bridge is crossed so stand and watch it burn. We've passed the point of no return…"
And his words came back to torture him. 'Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime. Lead me save me from my solitude. Say you want me with you here, beside you. Anywhere you go, let me go to. Christine, that's all I ask of—'
Suddenly everything came back at him and he felt the despair all over again. He sank to his knees, a tear already falling down his cheek. And he realized now that even though he was trying to get away from thoughts of Christine, this girl was almost exactly like her. Now, everything he knew about the girl seemed to remind him of Christine. And now, there was only one solution left.
Reina put away the sheet music. It had been some time now since she got here. 'Where are you?' she wondered as she walked towards the set of back rooms in the cavern. But she found that they were all empty.
He was gone.
A/N: Muahahahaha. It's over! I wrote most of this chapter in a day, interestingly enough. Normally, I write about a paragraph or two a day. But the beginning of this was super sluggish, and then it hit me and it all spewed out. Anyway, I have to start working on my Gov't homework. I'm four chapters behind. :D I'm such a horrible procrastinator. Comments, criticisms, and plot ideas are always welcome and helpful for me. --AzIce