…Oh and baby,
When you kiss me
You go raising the damned out of hell.

If you miss me,
Then my soul is alive and well.

If you love me,
The years ahead are shining so bright.

If you hold me
Through the darkest night,
Then I can almost believe you
When you say it's all right.

If you kiss me
You're saving the damned out of hell…

-mine

Chapter Fifty Six: Heaven and Hell

Eric

For the first time in my retched life, I was happy.

As my beloved sang for me in her tiny dressing room, it seemed that I was on the brink of overflowing with all the joy that life could ever offer me. All of my plans were coming to fruition, and I secretly wondered if God had finally decided to bestow his pity upon me.

By the end of the week, I would have a perfect mask with which to greet my future bride. She would triumph at the gala performance, and I would whisk her away and profess my love. She would accept with her whole heart when she realized all that I had done for her, and she would be mine by the time that the estate that I had purchased was ready to accommodate a newly wed couple.

With Giry's help, I had bought a beautiful mansion, set on acres and acres of woods and immaculate gardens. With a few repairs that I had already ordered, and furnishings that were being shipped to the Parisian countryside from far and wide, I would give my beloved the most wonderful home that she could ever imagine.

It saddened me slightly that I would no longer control the wonderful opera house that I was so fond of, but as I considered it, I knew that my angel would never flourish if I shut her away in this tomb in the earth. She deserved far more than that, in thanks for all that she would provide for me. She would be my wife, and my greatest salvation, giving me a life under the sun and a hand to hold. I knew that I could make her the happiest of women, for I would provide everything that she could ever want or need to repay the celestial gift of freedom that she would soon bless me with.

Thus I had gladly obtained a real home, and a real face with which to hide my curse from her. When we were wed at last, I knew, I would not be able to hide my nauseating face from those breathtaking blue eyes, yet I could not allow her to see it before she loved me as deeply as I did her. With a wedding band on her finger, surely my precious goddess would not be frightened by my misfortune.

Hope bubbled up within me as I was caressed by the sound of her sweet, crystalline voice.

Anges purs, anges radieux,

Portez mon cour au sein des cieux

Margarita's powerful words of faith resounded majestically from the perfectly crafted voice that I had set so carefully into my angel's delicate little throat, bending the heartstrings of any who listened. Even I was nearly moved to tears by the emotion that pulsed through every note of her part.

I, Eric, who had lost his heart nearly twenty years ago to a dead woman, felt the stirrings of joy and love inside my breast as though I had been reborn! Had I never believed in paradise before this moment, I would have been the most ferverent convert to ever fall to my knees.

This woman, her voice, her innocence, her lips, her smile, her skin… there was not a part of her that did not bare the most unspeakable fingerprints of her heavenly creator. Ever inch of her breath taking body was a testament to his perfect artistry. Such a fragile work of art was meant to be cared for with only the most careful of hands, and adorned with the most dazzling riches of earth.

Indeed, Christine Daae was a precious relic in the rubbish bin of humanity, made to be rescued and reverently enshrined away from the prying eyes of mortal men.

And I would be her truest worshiper: A monk, a priest who would keep constant vigilance over the eternal flames upon her alter.

"You will see, my love." I thought silently. "I shall indeed carry you off to heaven."

All too soon, her divine lips lay still in her perfectly sculpted face.

My angel was patient and quiet, but waited expectantly for my critique. Once the poor darling had ceased to believe that she was mad and hearing voices in her imagination, she had quickly become a devoted and obedient student. To my delight, she now obeyed me without question, and always waited for me to speak to her.

I had been reluctant to impose the latter rule on the inquisitive girl, but she had asked far too many questions for her own good until I disallowed them.

Startled by her quiet sigh as she delicately folded herself into her tiny lounge, I left my musings of devotion behind and franticly raced to find the correct train of thought.

It was a few moments before I found the voice to speak. Though there were still several minor errors to correct in her stunning performance, I could not find it within me to chastise the woman I loved this afternoon. She looked to docile, so content, … so extraordinarily beautiful, that I could not force the reproaches from my thin, wizened lips.

"That was excellent, my child." I nearly purred, calling on all the strength within me not to use my voice to seduce her there and then.

"Oh thank you, Angel! I am so glad that you are happy!" She cried happily, leaping to her feet and giving a little laugh in her excitement like a babe of three.

"Yes, I am well pleased with your progress." I could hardly stop myself from flinging my God forsaken body through the glass that separated us and professing my love that instant.

"Shall we work on another piece then, ma fille?" I inquired in an attempt to restrain my lustful thoughts.

I nearly wept for joy when she asked to sing the wedding duet from 'Romeo et Juliet' with me. On the rare occasions when I could bring myself to sing with her, the emotions within me grew to an intensity that was nearly painful.

The unearthly way that the instrument I had given her resonated with my own was magical enough for a miracle of the saints. The way that I could feel her voice intermingling with mine as the vibration of our duets echoed in my chest was like a foretaste of heaven itself. I could hardly stutter out a yes before we began, thanking every saint and angel I could remember from my troubled childhood.

So mesmerized was I, by both the music that we had just created and the unrivaled beauty of my beloved's body, that I did not hear the knock at my angel's door that came moments after we finished.

Leah

When I first arrived at Tina's door, I could not bring myself to interrupt the unrivaled beauty of her song.

I had never heard her give voice to such emotion, such hopeful passion in all the years I had known her. The open, honest quality of her voice was like a window into her naked soul, and the sounds she drew forth from it came as close as anything had in ten long, painful years to making me weep aloud.

I leaned against the rough plaster of the dim hallway's wall, drinking in the astonishing, compelling music that flooded every sense. Though I rarely attended the opera any longer, due to lack of funds and my propensity to develop excruciating headaches when exposed to loud noises for extended periods of time, I felt as though I could stand there forever.

It had been so long since I had simply listened to a beautiful piece of music, merely for the sake of hearing it. Most often, I was far too caught up in the details of production to appreciate the vibrant emotions that a song could instill. I closed my eyes and enjoyed myself for a few moments, until she finished on a final, triumphant note that must have reverberated throughout the entire house.

After a few moments of carefully allotted silence, I began to lift my tired body away from the dusty wall.

But I froze when an all too familiar voice issued out from the tiny room.

"That was excellent, my child."

Disbelief, outrage, and every sentiment in between the two instantly flared up in my furious chest as I over heard their brief conversation and drew my own terrible conclusions.

"Quand on parle du loup on en voit la queue!" I growled angrily under my breath before approaching the door.

How dare that … that … bastard! Did he think that he could get away with hurting another as he had hurt me? Did he honestly believe that I would allow such an ill breed, goat sucking lout attempt to seduce someone who was like a sister or a daughter to me?

Any pity I that I had held in my heart for the man slipped through my fingers like sand through clenched fists.

He would dearly rue the day he laid eyes on Tina! I had never ceased to practice fencing, and I was still young enough to move dangerously.

With the utter contempt that was pulsing through my veins, I would kill him shearly with the force of my will!

And he had thought I would provide him with a disguise! I would disguise him, all right!

I would sever his licentious head from his filthy body!

Yet any thought of righteous fury, any thought of anything for that matter, evaporated like steam when they began to sing.

That music!

I had never heard anything so heartrending, so utterly overflowing with power and emotion in the entire span of my life. I slid to the floor in a daze, hypnotized by the raw splendor of the pure music that thrummed in the air around me. If I had been amazed by Tina's voice, then I was struck dumb by the haunting majesty of what I heard now.

The vibrant, unfathomable potency of their duet came as close as anything ever had to reminding me of what it was like to dance. This, this was a reason to live, and I could have died happily on the spot if they never ceased their singing.

And when he began to sing a verse by himself, I truly thought I had died. Surely I was ascending the stairway to heaven on the steps of each note!

That voice, oh Dios mio!

That voice was the most divine, glorious sound that had ever graced my ears. It was so commanding, so full of brilliant light and eloquent persuasion. Every word from his lips, even deformed though I knew them to be, was like the sweetest chocolate on earth melting on my tongue.

That rapturous voice could have instructed me to leap from the very top of the Garnier's roof, and I would have gladly obeyed.

It could even have compelled me into his terrifying bed, and as long as the voice remained I would have been like clay on a potter's wheel.

It was only when the music stopped that I was able to remember just what I had been doing. With a forceful bang on the poor little door, I called out Tina's name and stormed in.

My hermanita's sweet little face was a picture of abject elation, and her eyes were as clouded as a dead man's. It took some minutes before I was able to rouse her from her catatonic state, as I puzzled over the lack of a certain man in the room.

When she finally realized that there was another person in the room, she was startled and taken aback.

"Leah?" She murmured uncertainly, as one only half awake. "What are you doing here?"

I spoke to her as though she were a little child, patiently stating my purpose as though it were an obvious fact. "I've come to tell you that it is time for your nap, hermana. You must go and lie down in one of the dormitories now."

"Yes … I'll go lie down now…" She droned as she stumbled out of the room.

All of the motherly tenderness that had been in my voice for Tinita instantly vanished like a puff of smoke.

"I know you are here, ghost." I hissed dangerously, emphasizing my loathing by refusing to address him by his title. "Come out where I can see you!"

Several minutes of silence on his part did little to calm my wrath.

"Perhaps you are too much of a coward to face a woman who knows the truth about you, yes?"

Still no reply came.

"Damn you, you awful man! Stay away from Tina. I warn you, if you intend to break her heart as you did mine, you will regret it until the day you die!"

Even my threats provoked no response.

"I hate you! You gave me hope and then stole it away! Bastard! Answer me, you son of a pig!"

Still nothing.

"Well, if you don't have the manhood to come out and face me, I have no reason to act as your errand girl." I tossed the little wooden box to the floor with a violent crash. "You will get NOTHING from me! Ever! Do you hear?"

My temper at its precariously low boiling point, I stormed out of the room after shouting one final insult over my shoulder.

"Fine, burn in hell for all I care!"

Authoress's Notes:

The excerpt from Faust roughly translates to:

Holy Angel, heaven blessed,

My soul longs with thee to rest

Or more literally:

Pure angel, radiant angel,

Carry my soul to the bosom of heaven

'Quand on parle du loup on en voit la queue' is a French proverb that translates literally as: 'Talk of the wolf, and you will see his tail'. We would more often associate it with the phrase: 'Speak of the Devil, and he will appear.'

Empress Kipper- I don't know the movie, sorry. You shall have to enlighten me. I'm glad you like her temper, it will be featured a lot more.

Tigger- Huzzah for eavesreading! I emailed you. I'm so happy that someone commented on the Giry/Persian thing, cause I was very concerned to know if it works or not.

Fish- Arg. Every time I invent a theory, I am disproven by my wonderfully intellectual beta fish. By the way, some girls in my hall just got a REAL beta fish, and I got to name it. I named it Moe. I will have to devise a scheme for the reasoning behind her disownment now… Arg.

JPT- Well, I do know which method I would more enjoy… though I have this odd feeling that everybody's favorite crazy man would run screaming if he saw me coming… oh well, since I'm the authoress, I'll just temporarily blind him until I move in for the kill…(giggle)