Authors Note: Sorry to everyone for not updating sooner-I'm posting this as I go along and sometimes the muse leaves me-you know how it goes. Thanks to everyone who reviewed!

In case anyone's wondering this flashback takes place when Christine returns to the house on the lake, after she leaves with Raoul and before they are married. Everyone that's read Kay should recognize it. By the way...I know, I know, the whole rose and ribbon thing is from ALW's movie, but it fit so well I couldn't help using it.

Chapter Five

I opened the door to find Erik prone on the bed, his breathing shallow, his hands convulsing as the clutched his chest, wadding the black satin of his clothes. He did not wear his mask, and I for my part did not notice beyond a dull mental acknowledgement of its absence.

He had lost his power to frighten me now.

Approaching the bed, I laid the small hat and veil aside that I had worn to the Opera House, and it was only then that he noticed my presence.

"Christine…?"

I could no longer hold back the tears that had been threatening to spill at the sound of his voice, lost, broken, and utterly hopeless. My feet carried me at nearly a run to his side. I could not leave him…I could not let him die without knowing I was there with him, of my own free will, at last.

I smoothed a palm over his face, and he jerked at my touch on his skin, flinching and recoiling. "No, don't touch me..."

"Erik…I'm here."

His eyes focused on me at last, his mind swimming up from his pain to grasp that I was truly standing there, touching him-I'd not run screaming, I'd come back. One emotion after another flickered across his features, finally settling on a look of frank cynicism, twisting his malformed lips into a horrible grimace. "Come to make sure it's finished then, my dear?"

I opened my mouth for a biting retort when I saw the pain behind his eyes, how his hands shook with keeping it at bay. I could not bring myself to hurt him further now. Instead I sat down by his side and allowed by hands to slide gently over his chest, resting on the sides of his face.

"No, I haven't."

I saw shock and surprise vibrate across his face as I leaned down and covered his lips with mine.


"Madame?"

Marie's voice finally penetrated the thick overlay of memory running rampant through my mind, relegating Erik to the recesses of my memory.

I knew he would not stay there for long.

"What is it, Marie?" I could not help my defeated sigh. Damn him.

"I heard a crash…" she gestured at the shattered remnants of the lamp lying next to the wall, timidly raising an eyebrow at the mess.

I gave a short bark of sour laughter at her show of concern. "Leave it," I said tersely, turning back to the desk.

"Yes, Madame." I heard her shuffle to leave, but stopped her with a curt "wait."

"Make sure you leave clothing laid out for me." I could not very well go out in my corset and shift.

"You are leaving, Madame?" That was brave of her.

I turned slightly towards her. "I walk the city tonight."

I did not return home for three days and nights.

Marie must have been frantic-or relieved, a malicious voice whispered in my ear-but I simply walked, renting small hotel rooms for the day before resuming my travels at night.

I walked, and I listened.

I had learned long ago that I could hear the thoughts of others, ghosts of images flitting across my mind that threatened to drown me if I did not exercise my conscious will to block them. Three years ago the first unwanted image had flickered across my mind, a transient thought that opened the floodgates for more to enter. I had at first thought it was madness, resigned to the fact that I would soon join those I had once scorned in the mental ward of a hospital. Gradually I came to realize what it was, but those three nights spent walking made up the first time I had ever consciously used my ability.

I walked, and I listened for one word alone.

Vampire…

I heard it on the third and final night.

It was weak, soft and languorous as it drifted through my mind. And I latched onto it, concentrating on it until it pulsed in my mind, a beacon towards the one whose mind whispered to my own.

I followed it through a small section of warehouses until it stopped at one long abandoned, boarded up. Stupidly using my full strength to pull at the boards covering the door, I tipped and fill onto the ground backwards as it gave way as easily as though it were only cobwebs that held it to the frame.

A stream of colourful curse words learned from long years at the opera flew from my mouth, interrupted by a sardonic chuckle that made me get to my feet instantaneously, levering the board in front of me as a weapon.

"You are young, aren't you?"

The voice was unfamiliar, but the mind I recognized.

Vampire…

"Yes, I am," he said, obviously reading my thoughts, "and I gather you are as well, though rather untrained I imagine. Your mind was broadcasting so loudly I was nearly obliged to use earplugs."

A shadow detached itself from a wall nearby and stepped into the dim light.

He could have been Raoul's twin.

Dark blonde haired, green-eyed, with a cleft chin and a –God help me- purely aristocratic air, they could have been brothers. Dear God… I covered my mouth with my hands. He raised one eyebrow. "My name is Lucas. I daresay it would be of benefit to both of us if you told me yours."

"Ch-Christine." My mouth was cotton underneath the muffle of my hands.

He steepled his fingers in a gesture so purely Raoul I had to blink to clear away tears "Well, Christine, you are clearly in need of a teacher. And it so happens…" he bowed with a flourish, "you have found one."

We agreed to meet at my home the following night. I began to walk slowly home, my arms wrapped about me protectively I did not see the small hansom cab until it had pulled up to the curb beside me, so lost was I in my thoughts.

"Ma'am? Ma'am?" The driver barked.

I looked up, then away again as I realized who it was. "I have no money to pay you, monsieur. You are wasting your time."

"No need, Ma'am," he said, tipping his hat at me. "The gentleman paid for you. Told me to take you home."

Smiling faintly and somewhat indulgently as Lucas audacity, I simply nodded my head and opened the door to get in, refusing the drivers offer of assistance. And nearly screamed.

In the torn leather seat lay a red rose tied with a length of black ribbon.