Disclaimer: I do not, and never will, own: Les Miserables (brief reference), Broken by Seether feat. Amy Lee,or Phantom de L'Opera by Gaston Leroux/ Phantom by Susan Kay/ ALW's Phantom of the Opera.
Broken
By: Inulvr7
Erik had watched Christine grow up. He had trained her voice. He had been her angel. She had been his world. He had loved her, and loved her even now. Now, now things were different. She was married to the Vicomte, and she never laughed anymore. He missed her laugh. He looked up from his reverie to see her sad, tear- stained face.
I wanted you to know I love the way you laugh
Then he looked down to the figure between them. The boy she had loved so much, the boy who she had left him for.Now, the boy was nothing more than a corpse. Christine brought a tentative hand up to her rosy cheeks. They stood out against the pale skin of her face. She brushed the tear off and Erik watched it sparkle as the sun hit it and fall onto the dead leaves that covered the graveyard. It was autumn in Paris. Erik looked back at the trembling form of Christine. He wanted her pain to go away. Truth be told, he just wanted her. And right now, there was no one else left in the graveyard but the two of them.
I wanna hold you high and steal your pain away
But her husband was dead. Hardly two years and he was dead. Died of the consumption. Erik bowed his head and smiled to himself. It was ironic that he, who had always thought of himself as dead, felt so alive with the death of this boy. But what of Christine. He still kept the picture of her in his mind, just as she had kept the picture of her father- the cause of much suffering- near to her. God! How he had tried to make the pain go away! It had worked, but it had taken time. Unfortuantely, he himself was running out on time. Erik was going on fifty- two, though he didn't look it. No, if anything he looked in his early thirties, well, that was with the mask.
I keep your photograph and I know it serves me well
I wanna hold you high and steal your pain
Christine felt the tears running down her face. She had loved Raoul. Loved him to his death, but it was a different love. It was like an innocent love that never grew passionate. She had given up Erik for Raoul, and now Raoul was dead. She couldn't ask Erik to take her back. She loved him and left him for someone who would leave her. "How is it that everyone I've ever loved," Christine thought as her lower lip trembled, "is taken from me?" She sobbed and the tears poured afresh as they had when she first realized she could never see Erik again aslong as Raoul lived.
'Cause I'm broken when I'm lonesome
And I don't feel right when you're gone away
Erik watched her tears flood down and felt the urge to go brush them away. But she wasn't even looking at him; she hadn't even acknowledged his presence. She had left, and she could no longer feel his music. She could no longer feel the night's music.
You've gone away, you don't feel me, anymore
Christine searched for her handkercheif in the folds of her skirt. Of all the times to not have one in her dress purse, it had to happen when she needed once. She hiccupped as another tear squeezed its way out of her watery eyes. If she was to be honest then she would have to say that she never stopped loving Erik, but honesty was something she had given up when she chose Raoul. She was no longer true to her heart and in that was no longer true to her self. Christine held her breath as the tears stopped when the realization hit her. All her father had ever asked of her was that she always remain honest to her true self, and now look at her. She trembled in a silent laugh at the absurdity of it. The silent laugh soon turned into a low, cracked laughter. Erik's cool hands firmly grabbed her shoulders and shook her. She looked up at him with a huge smile lighting up her face.
The worst is over now and we can breathe again
Erik looked down into herglistening doe eyes and onto her glowing, creamy skin and was struck to the bone in a moment of breathless delight. The thing radiating off of her very essence was love, and that love was for him. He rushed his arms around her and pulled her close to his chiseled chest. She let hersilky, chocolatecurls fall down herback andaround his arms as she closed her eyes. He brought his hands to her hips and thrust her, twirlinginto the air. Christine's angel, now below her, had probably never been closer to the highHeavens than now.
I wanna hold you high, you steal my pain away
He brought Christine down, back into his strong, warm embrace. There was nothing left standing between the two. There were no confused thoughts, nor childish misunderstandings. There were no words left unsaid but the most neccessary.
There's so much left to learn, and no one left to fight
The two looked deep into the other's eyes, the other's soul. There was no longer any distortion in Erik's, and there was no longer anything remniscent of child in Christine's. "I've always loved you," Christine said.
"I still love you," Erik said simulatneously. Christine blushed and Erik stood stark still and sucked in her sweet scent of rose.
I wanna hold you high and steal your pain
"Christine, I-...I never meant to hurt you. I never meant to ever hurt you. Back when- back when I did the drugs and I pinned you against the wall, back when I screamed at you because of Raoul: I'm sorry for all of it," Erik said, looking Christine straight into the eyes. "I was just," he choked, "I was so blinded by my- my passion." He stopped. He had to continue, but the fear was too strong. The fear of the pain of being alone again. Christine was the light to his dark. She made him complete. With her, he wasn't whole. He wasn't right.
'Cause I'm broken when I'm open
And I don't feel like I am strong enough
'Cause I'm broken when I'm lonesome
And I don't feel right when you're gone away
"Erik, I forgive you. I forgive you for everything. And I'm sorry that- that I didn't act on my feelings sooner. That I didn't- oh God, Erik! I've missed you. I've missed you so much!" She cried, casting her arms around his neck and sobbing into his crimson, silk cravat. he put his arms around her.
'Cause I'm broken when I'm lonesome
And I don't feel right when you're gone away
Christine got control of herself. "Come, Christine. We must go," Erik said, releasing her. Christine pulled away and ran to look into the unburied coffin one more time.
"Good- bye, Raoul. All that we had, is lost. It's been lost since I found Erik. But know this, you did take care of me. And for that, I thank you. And for your love, you deserved someone who could return it to youas I return Erik's to him. And now, I no longer feel you because you're gone. Fare well, fare well forever," Christine whispered into Raoul's dead ear. If he had been alive, he would have cried. Erik put his arm around Christine as they walked through the graveyard, to Erik's carriage.
You've gone away
You don't feel me here anymore
"Where to now?" Christine asked in earnest. Where would they go? Wherecould they go?
"To America," Erik replied. Christine looked at him, clearly surprised.
"America?" she asked incredulously.
"America."
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