Authorette's Note: Hello again my dear readers! I hope you all had a great Christmas and have a best year ever in 2006! Sorry Stephy for forgetting to run this by you, and I apologise to all my readers and ask that you find it in your hearts to forgive me any mistakes! One last thing: I am a psychopathic review hungary maniac. Review today and prevent me from screaming so loudly that all my windows shatters!

Unspeakable Truths were Spoken

1870, November 1st

I stood there. She stood there. We stood there, silence in the air and my heart pounding faster than it had in a very long time.

"Why is she doing this?" I asked myself searching for an answer in vain. How could she toy with my heart so easily? Just a few moments ago she had demanded that I return her home, and now. Where could I start?

Touch is a human right that occurs countless times each day for everyone. Whether it be a brief hand shake, an accidental bump or even a quick hug or peck on the cheek, touch is present in everybody's life; expect mine Until now.

Gradually, Christine tightened her grip on my hand and soon she was no longer just lightly grasping my fingertips, but tightly clamping my palm in between her slender fingers. I simply cannot describe how wonderful I felt as the warmth of her skin spread over to my eternally cold fist. The euphoria that I was filled with as Christine gently began to caress my long fingers with her thumb, was unearthly and I was lost as I floated on a cloud of bliss that took me miles away from my troubles.

I slowly opened my eyes and looked down at our joined hands, almost in disbelief. I turned my head upwards until our eyes met, and for a brief moment our eyes locked. I felt my mouth open and words spill out of it, completely unplanned and unchecked by my mind.

"Please Christine, please." I paused, it seemed that I, the infamous 'Phantom of the Opera', was begging.

"Please, just stay with me for one meal. One meal, I've already prepared it for you, it's chicken soup! You like that don't you? Please, please stay with me just for this one meal. Then I promise that I will do as you wish."

I gazed pleadingly into her eyes and wriggled my fingers so that I was gripping onto Christine's hand, and able to give it a slight squeeze. To think of it, I, a corpse was holding the hand of an angel!

Christine, who had averted her eyes to the floor, now lifted her face up to me and after a moment's pause gave me a nod and slowly slid her hand out of my grasp. Not that this bothered me, had she never come near me again, that one moment would have sustained my heart and love for her forever.

Silently and without contact, I lead my precious angel into the dining room where I pulled out a chair for her and placed her soup on the table in front of her. I sat opposite her and suddenly a shower of nerves came over me. I began to ponder the full meaning of my last words; had I promised that after this one meal I would let my love go forever? I had reason to believe that I had, but a promise was a promise and if this was to be our last meal together, I had to savour it.

However, there was a burning question on my mind, and after Christine had taken only a few sips of her soup, I allowed it to slip from my lips.

"Why did you follow me tonight?" I asked softly, yet forcefully.

I had to admit, it was a good question. After all, I left the hall on my own, Christine came after me of her own free will. It was her choice, unlike her previous visit, where I'd had to use a morphine soaked cloth to carry her down on my home on Cesar's back.

After a long silence, Christine placed her spoon beside her bowl, and swallowed. She was nervous again, and I noticed that her cheeks were flushed. Finally, with her head bowed, came a reply.

"I, I oh please Eri-"

"No, please Christine. I have never asked much of you. How can you deny me the answer to this one question when this is all I have ever wanted from you?" I said, far more angrily than I intended too.

Despite the common elements that Christine was surrounded by, she had always maintained a most aristocratic way of conducting herself. Of course, most people remembered their 'p's and q's', (as was seen decent by all levels of society), but Christine was as gentle and mild-mannered as a sister of charity. Never before had I heard her shout, rage or show the slightest signs of vexation other than a wrinkled brow. But it seems that there is indeed a first time for everything…

Suddenly Christine jerked up from the table, sending her chair flying backwards. Her face was bright red and her fists clenched.

"Never asked much of me? No that's correct, you never asked much of me - you demanded what you wanted and took what you couldn't! That's why you appeared at the Bal Masque tonight, that's why you abducted me from my dressing room, that's why you kill, and destroy, and ruin all that displeases you!" She yelled, her tongue forked and her words thrown at me with such spite as I'd never known her to have. How could she say such things to me after all that I'd done for her?

"Yes, yes my dear.. Yes yes… You would see only that would you not? I knew that you would forget all that I have done for you --"

"All you've done for me? What have you done for me? You have always made me feel guilty, that I owe you so very much. But I don't! You've never done anything that helped me!"

Her words stung me like the lash of a whip, they bit me like feral dogs. They tore away at the protective layer I had sealed myself with and I didn't just feel anger any more, I felt pain. But not physical pain, a pain that throbbed in my heart and ate at my normally vacant soul. I found myself jumping off my chair, knocking over the table, and sending it to the floor with a bang as I did.

"Yes my dear… Yes, my angel…. Oh do you remember that? Your angel of music? After the story your father told you. That story… Remember all the tales I told you? Story after story… when you were sad and couldn't sleep who comforted you ? Little Meg? Her mother? Sorelli? Your little play friend? Oh no, who sung to you for hours on end? Who gave you all the chocolates… dresses…treats that you desired? Who… Oh but never mind, for now you don't want any of this… you want a lover… the one thing I can not be… that you'd want me to be."

I was out of breath, my face was probably red and tears were welling up in my throat. Yet I continued.

"I have never harmed you in any way - you understand. I have always treated you like some sort of queen - no, better. I could have done as I wished with you, five storeys underground, whatever I wanted… Yet I didn't even touch you, not even to offer you my finger tips! Even, even when I was not a monster, but your angel, the voice; did I ever hurt you in any way?"

I gasped for a breath, Christine turned away but this time I wasn't going to let her. I grabbed her arm and grasped it tight in my hand.

"You say that I demanded so much of you, but did I all? Did I ever demand anything of you that didn't help you? I was young too… I was only a young man… all I wanted was friend, but no, I became your teacher, your mentor, your guardian. Never for my own benefit, only yours. All I have ever done in this wretched place has been for you health, even if it was to my injury. Why? Because, oh my, because I love you."

With that I finally allowed my mouth to close, and tears began to trickle down my sunken cheeks. There was silence, thick, heavy silence. Suddenly, Christine's hand flew to her mouth and she ran out of the room, with out a clue where she was going. Tears streaming down her face, and sobs escaping her lips.

I waited in the dining room for a moment to compose myself, straighten my mask and wipe my brow, before I followed her to the unused guest bedroom I had prepared for her so very long ago. I expected her to be on my mother's bed, but instead she was curled up in ball on the floor; her head buried in her hands and her tiny body convulsing with sobs. Normally I could restrain my emotions, but the sight of my angel on the floor like an animal shocked me more deeply than anything had ever done before.

I ran to her and knelt down by her side, my hands instinctively rushing on her waist as I picked her up and placed on the bed. I removed her hands from her face and grasped her shoulders tight to stop her shaking so very violently. Finally, she was still and she looked at me, trying to find my eyes in the faint light. I brushed a hair back from her hot forehead, and as I did I felt a gentle, momentary touch on my arm.

"I'm sorry angel, I'm so very sorry." Christine stuttered.

I shook my head silently, I had endured many wrongs in my life and received not a single apology for any of them, so it shocked me to be asked for forgivness. There was no need for an angel, such as Christine to apologise to a dog like myself and I turned to tell her so when I was interrupted.

"I am a ungrateful creature, I was scared that is all my angel. You have done so very much for me and that's why, -" she paused.

"Oh my," she exclaimed sorrowfully as she sat up and placed her fingers on the palm of my hand.

"That is why it is so very hard to say this; you must make it your business, no ,no, you must make it your mission never to see me again. Not even to view me from the shadows as I know you do."

My heart stopped, what was she saying? Why did she wipe so many tears from her eyes?

"If, if you do both of our lives way very well be in danger." She said sharply, and she rose from the bed, smoothing her hair and scurrying out of the room.

"Now, in a few days time I am to leave the opera house - with Raoul, I suppose that you've guessed that we are to marry. But I will return for rehearsals, performances and all that. But I must keep myself to myself, and you must stay away from me."

She stopped and spun around so that she faced me, still sitting on the bed utterly dumbfounded and dismayed. I stuttered in shock and finally managed to find the calm to utter a question as I walked up to her.

"Why?"

Christine swallowed and bowed her head, "It's not my choice, please understand that. These things are out of my control, and yours for that matter." She added as she took off my slippers and offered them to me.

Slowly I outstretched my hand, and took the slippers. We stood opposite each other for a terribly long time, tears steadily, though silently running down her cheeks. I didn't know what to think, let alone what to say; other than the single word that escaped my lips once more;

"Why?"

At this Christine starred me straight in the eye and said in a strangely calm tone,

"For the sake of my safety, I must implore you to return me to the opera house, and in return I promise to tell you all that you need know. Please, do fetch my shoes - the sooner we may leave, the sooner - well." She looked into my eyes so pleadingly I thought my heart would break, so what could I do but as she said; and so I fetched those satin shoes.

Authorette's note: Thinking, 'hey I've already seen this!'? Well, you probably have, this is the new corrected version!