One heart's darkness

Disclaimer: Erik is mine... totally mine! What, you don't believe me? Well, try to take him from me then! I'LL BITE YOU IF I HAVE TO!

Erik: (grins) Go tell them!

Me: See? He loves me!

Erik: Eugh...

Me: You DO!

THANKS to my reviewers! Gosh, it's so great to see that people like my story! Y'all, have a cookie and a Phantom! You deserve it! It's almost midnight here, so I'm gonna be brief... Chapter Four is here, I'll try to update once a day. But I still have school, so I might not be able to everyday. Be patient, don't abandon me:)

As always, dear readers, REVIEW (please), makes me write faster!

Chapter Four

Erik caught Madeline as she fell and scooped her safely into his arms.

"Christine, take off her mask," he said commandingly, "I need to say how badly she is hurt."

Christine's hands trembled, but she reached into her daughter's thick mass of silken curls, loosened the straps and pulled the mask off her face.

Madeleine looked like a wilting rose, Christine couldn't help thinking, with a hidden memory of beauty that was long past, and now only left this thing, dreadful and decaying and, now that the only vibrant thing, her eyes, were closed, utterly dead.

She hadn't noticed that she had gasped and taken a step back from the repulsive sight until it was too late and she had to look up into Erik's eyes, which were cold enough to freeze fire.

"I should have known," he said quietly and turned around to go back through the open mirror, carrying Madeleine with him.

"No, please wait!" she pleaded with her hands stretched out toward her daughter but hesitant to touch her skin.

Although she hated herself for it, she couldn't bring herself to lay her fingers on the pale face, afraid to touch the living corpse that was her child.

"Go away, Christine!"

"No, Erik, please, forgive me… I have to… I have to see if she will be alright… My… I can't leave my child when she's hurt!"

His only answer was a dry laugh. "She has been hurt many times before! Oh, that surprises you? What do you think? What should I tell you? About the time I found her bleeding and beaten in an alley behind the opera, or about the time a stagehand broke a wooden pole across her back? Or how about the time she had to defend herself against a drunk opera guest, who had torn off her mask and found the idea to lie with a corpse particularly entertaining? Should I tell you about how she stabbed him to death with a glass shard? No, I know! I could tell you about the time I found her in front of a mirror without her mask and she had seen her face for the first time. She was screaming and trying to claw her own eyes out! She was ten, Christine!" He was breathing heavily and his amber eyes were glistening with tears, but the fury that was shaking his body was stronger.

The woman was sobbing into her handkerchief once more, and she found no words to stop him when he left. She only caught the scent of roses as he passed her, a fragrance that was clinging to Madeleine's hair.

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The ride back to the Chagny mansion was a quiet one. Christine refused to speak to Raoul and all Julie had gotten from her constant questions was a sharp reprimand. So now the girl sat in the carriage with silent tears falling from her eyes and onto her dress.

The town house was beautiful, white and regal-looking, large… -too large, in Christine's opinion, for only three people and a handful of servants. It lay behind high walls and amidst a small park with several cherry trees, a large group of rose bushes and one majestic oak.

The little family didn't pay attention to that as they exited the carriage and entered the house, each with his or her own thoughts troubling them.

Julie wanted to go straight to her room, but a call from her father stopped her.

"We should talk," he announced to his wife and daughter, but Christine shook her head.

"Not tonight. Let us sleep over it and talk in the morning. I, for one, don't think I could reach a decision or a qualified opinion this time of night."

She looked him in the eyes as she said that, and Raoul felt the last flicker of hope die.

Even if she stayed with him, he had lost whatever love she had held for him.

Then again, he mused, you can't lose something that had never been yours to begin with. No matter how close she had been to him, Erik, dead or alive, had always been a bit closer.

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When Madeleine opened her eyes again, she was in her bed, with a clean bandage wrapped around her forehead and her dress had been replaced with a nightgown.

She propped herself up on her elbows and looked to the side. Erik was sitting in an armchair, his head supported by one hand, the other one was limply holding a book.

He was dozing, but woke immediately when she moved.

"How are you?" he asked softly, and gently caressed her cheek. The book had dropped to the floor, forgotten.

"I'm… better, I'd say," she said with a smile, which quickly turned into a frown when something struck her as odd.

"Why are you wearing your mask, papa? Since when do you feel the need to hide from me?" He reached up quickly and took it off.

"I'm sorry. I had… other things on my mind."

"Like my mother? Where is she, anyway? What happened?"

He sighed. "I sent her home. I don't know what is going to happen, my dear. A selfish part of me wishes you had never met her, so she would never cause me to rethink my decisions from back then."

Madeleine nodded. "I know. I remember the first time I saw her, in the foyer about two years ago. Did I ever tell you about it? No? She was… she had just arrived, with the Vicomte. They were laughing, and she looked so beautiful. I don't know how I knew that there was something special about her, I only knew she was my mother after Monsieur Moncharmin greeted them as Vicomte and Madame de Chagny. I thought my heart would break, because there she was, the mother I had dreamed about for so long, and now she was there… And the moment I saw how beautiful she was I realised that I could never get that, that motherly embrace I so longed for. After that the nightmares started again… I kept seeing my face, and… oh, papa!"

She started sobbing and he quickly wrapped his arms around her and allowed her to cry. A few lonely tears were streaming down his sunken cheeks.

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The moment the bedroom door shut behind them, Christine turned to Raoul.

"I don't want big discussions, tonight, Raoul, I only want to know one thing, one simple thing you have to tell me!" She took a deep breath. "WHY? Why did you take her from me? How could you!"

Raoul sat down on the bed and began unbuttoning his vest and shirt. His voice was tired.

"I'm not blind, my love. When you left Erik, I realised that you would always love him more than me, no matter that I could guarantee you a safer, richer life. That didn't matter. You loved him, you really did! But after I thought he was dead and you had gotten pregnant, I thought we could finally find that strong love, or whatever you want to call it… and then Richard and Moncharmin tell me that he is still alive…"

"You knew?"
He scoffed, "Of course I knew! I'm still the opera's patron, that informed me when the 'Opera Ghost' resumed his activities. But you didn't know! He was not a threat, until that child came! His child, that would always be between us, that would never let you love me as much as you love him!"

Christine was shaking, but her eyes were dry when she said coldly, "That was very selfish of you!"

"Of course it was selfish! I loved you to damn much to let you go again, so I took the child to her father. He would have killed me to have you, yet you call me selfish! I did it because I loved you, because I did not want to lose you so soon! You are my life, Christine, my whole world!" His voice had become pleading, but his wife refused to look at him.

"Then why did you ever allow me to set foot in the opera again? If you knew they were both there?"

Raoul smiled. It was a very sad smile. "Because in the end I knew that it was hopeless. I had small part of your heart. He had the rest, and your soul as well. The happiness I had with you was stolen from him, so I suppose I wanted fate to have a chance to make things right again. Tonight, it took that chance!"

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I will not keep you if you want to go back to him. How could I. My years with you were the happiest I've ever had, but the happiness was stolen. I want to set that right again. My only request is that you will continue being a mother to Julie, if you do choose to leave!"

It was too much for Christine. Although she felt as if she could cry no more, she started weeping again.

"Why do I always make the wrong decisions, Raoul? What should I do? How can I chose between my two children? What can I do?"

The door opened and Julie entered. Tears had left their trails down her cheeks as well, but she stood her ground firmly as she said, "I do not know this Erik, or that so-called sister of mine, and perhaps I should get to know them before I pass judgement…" "You should go to bed!" Christine interrupted her.

Her daughter's bottom lip quivered, "I see. You have only known her for a few hours and already she is so much more important to you than I am! I need you too, mama!"

Raoul felt sympathy for her and quickly went over to hug her, but she continued speaking over his shoulder. "Please, mama, don't leave me! I don't want you to go away!"

Christine's gaze remained calm as she met Julie's eyes. "Go to bed!"

A/N: So, another chapter done! Go me! It didn't have as much about Maddy's past in it as I originally wanted it to, but there's more to come. What's your opinion about Christine? She manages to always put her foot into it, doesn't she?

Ok, next chapter will have Nadir in it, more Raoul and Christine (R/C will probably not happen, sorry. She might (!) stay with him for appearance, but nothing more), Julie goes phantom-hunting, and Raoul and Erik have a little 'talk'.

By the way, did you get the thing about the rose? That was supposed to be a reference to the whole White Rose/Nightingale thing, with Madeleine being the forbidden red rose.

SO, share your opinion with me, a.k.a. REVIEW!

I remain your obedient servant

P.F.A.