Hello my ducklings! Please forgive me for not updating as much as I used to. A situation has arisen and i can't update as much asI used to. Here is a semi-short chapter, chappie 49.

Getting It Clear

Christine made sure that the next morning she woke up earlier than Erik. Somehow, she knew that if he caught her, he wouldn't have let her go do what she was about to do. She had set her cell phone to vibrate and was the only one that heard its soft thump on the carpeted floor.

She turned it off quickly and turned over to see Erik's back to her, sleeping soundly. She got up quietly from the bed and walked to the living room where she found a pen and paper.

Christine left him a note telling him not to worry that she would be back by noon and that she loved him very much. She added a couple of hearts at the bottom for him, sealing the small declaration.

Looking down at her wrinkled clothes, she sighed. She hated sleeping with her clothes on, this only made her clothes even more wrinkled then before. She therefore decided to go to Meg's apartment.

She left his hotel room to go the apartment, where she showered and changed into plain jeans and a black shirt. Convinced that her brain wouldn't function properly until she had caffeine, she went to a small coffee shop. She had always been a caffeine addict. There, she had a muffin and coffee, her usual breakfast when out.

Christine went to Raoul's apartment positive that he was not awake. She was right, when she arrived, she found the apartment just as she left it.

She didn't know he would sleep so long, though. When he awoke it was almost ten and Christine was just about ready to take a foghorn and use it as an alarm.

He staggered from his room with a hand in his messy hair, dragging his leg. When he looked up at Christine, he looked at her confused. "Christine?"

She only raised an eyebrow.

He looked around the room and examined the things around him. "What the hell happened?"

Christine sighed and reached into her purse, taking out the DVD from the night before.

Raoul watched her as she put in the DVD and only sat on the couch in front of the television when Christine ordered him to.

He sat down obediently scratching his head. "Christine, you're not making any sense."

"Just watch." Christine put in the video and it immediately started.

The video started out with a small girl talking to the camera. She recognized her as Rachel, the flower girl. She could not mistake her with her white roses in her hair.

"And I just wanted to say," she told the camera in a small voice. "That I loves you very, very, very, very much and that I hope you come back to Bois sometime soon."

Christine could tell that the person behind the camera was a woman for she spoke. "Rachel, how much do you love Philippe?"

Rachel looked heavenward in thought, then she spread her arms wide. "This much!"

The camera girl laughed. "All right." Then her mood lifted and she spoke excitedly. "Come on, the Maid of Honor, is speaking!"

The camera zoomed in on Christine on the small stage where the DJ kept his booth. Christine at that point looked happy and she twirled the cord of the microphone as she spoke. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the de Chagny-Giry wedding…"

Christine walked out to the balcony after that, not wanting to listen to that again. She waited until it was over, she didn't want to relive it again, no. She didn't want to cry, not again.

She didn't go back in until she thought it was over and even then, it wasn't. "…fed my child bullshit about an Angel of Music and a little girl named Lotte when what I should have been doing was going out into the world and getting a real job!"

Christine could hear herself gasping on the tape and saying, "How could you!"

Christine looked away from the screen but she heard the camera click off and the DVD come to a stop. The television went black again and Christine could only look at the floor to keep from yelling at Raoul. How she wanted to hurt him, she wanted to hurt him in the cruelest manner possible for saying those things from last night.

"Christine, I'm so so-"

"Don't apologize to me, Raoul," she snapped. "Your apologies run dry with me," she took a deep breath to calm herself. "it's not me you should apologize to."

"I wont' apologize to him-"

"Damn it, Raoul, not everything has to do with Erik! You ruined your brother's wedding!"

Raoul looked away as if disappointed.

"You embarrassed yourself, your family! Your father, your brother and Meg!" Christine stood. "Damn it, Raoul!" She sniffled, knowing she was about to cry. She wouldn't let the tears flow, no, not for him, she had done enough of that the previous night.

"Christine," Raoul said standing. "About last night- I was drunk, I don't' know what I was thinking."

"You let your hate for Erik and me take over and ruin your brother's wedding," Christine told him harshly.

"Christine, I don't hate you."

"You don't hate me? You don't hate me for being with Erik? You don't hate me for sleeping with him?"

Raoul visibly cringed. "How could you be with that monster, that thing?"

"He is not a thing, Raoul!"

"Are you saying that because he's handsome now, Christine? Because he's a celebrity, rich?"

"What the hell does that have to do with anything?"

"You're with him now because he's not deformed anymore! He's not repulsive to look at!"

"Am I that shallow, Raoul?" Christine asked aghast. "I'm not with him because of that. You know me!"

"I thought I did," Raoul told her, crossing his arms. "Now I know you are just a gold-digger-"

"That's bullshit and you know it! If it was ever about money, I would have stayed by myself, I have never in my life, Raoul de Chagny, been dependent of others when it came to money!"

Raoul looked at her with a reddened face, his rage building. "Then tell me Christine, why are you with the Phantom? Why are you with the man that killed five of your friends and almost killed me?"

"HE'S NOT THE PHANTOM ANYMORE! He is not an Angel of Music, he is not the man that lived underneath the auditorium. HE IS NOT A MURDERER!"

Raoul visibly relaxed a bit and said simply, "It seems to me that you are convincing yourself rather than me."

Christine looked at him furious. "How dare you?"

"Forgive me Christine, for hating the man that tried to kill me," Raoul let his arms loose and said each word as if he were discussing something as simple as the weather. "You're right, I hate the Phantom, I loathe him. The mere thought of him being near you sickens me, I don't understand why you would disregard the past so quickly and let him have you."

His care-free attitude annoyed Christine and she gave up, finally telling him why it was that she stayed with him. "Do you want to know why, Raoul?"

Raoul waited with his arms crossed.

"I love him."

Raoul visibly paled, he sat back down heavily on the couch. He put his face in his hands and ran his sweaty hands through his hair.

Christine regardless went on. He needed to know the truth, he had to know everything. As she watched Raoul, the man she once loved, her once best friend, she felt no pity, no remorse. Nothing. "I want to be with him because he makes me happy. Erik and the Phantom are two different people. He has changed even if no one has seen it. I know him. I know him like I know no other. He wouldn't dare do anything that will make me unhappy; can I say the same thing about you?"

Raoul shook his head, unbelieving and recovered very quickly but he spoke quietly. "People don't change. He can't just walk away from murder and shrug it off as if it were nothing."

"Well, I did," Christine told him seriously. "I forgave him for that and I don't need your approval or anybody else's to be with him."

Raoul looked at her sadly, knowing that he had lost that argument. "Why can't we be like we were? Why can't we be together like before? Little Lotte-"

Christine's fury was released once again. "Don't you ever call me that ever again!"

Raoul looked at her uncertain.

"Last night you disrespected my father. If you ever do that again-"

Raoul shook his head. "I didn't mean it-"

"But you said it," Christine told him, coldly. "That's enough."

Raoul leaned forward on his couch and placed his face in his hands. Christine sat on the coffee table in front of him, making sure that she was in front of him as she spoke.

Christine looked at him unremorseful. "Listen to me, Raoul, and listen to me good. Whatever friendship we had before died the second you thought of saying that about my father. I'm not your Little Lotte anymore. I love Erik now and if you ever try to do something to break us up or hurt us like you did last night, i won't hold Erik back. And you know what he is capable of."

Raoul looked at her in disbelief. "Christine, h-how-what happened to my Little Lotte?"

Christine took her purse and placed it over her shoulder. "Little Lotte died when you disrespected her father." She started to walk away but Raoul's voice stopped her.

"Maybe she died before that."

Christine looked at him, confused.

"Darkness and mystery claimed her once-pure soul. She may not see it now but she will soon enough."

"Darkness and mystery had been with her since the her father died."

"But isn't that what you want? The reason you are with him?" Raoul stood and faced her. "You want the darkness to embrace you. Isn't that what you felt when you danced with that man four months ago?"

Christine looked at him confused.

"When you went to the nightclub with Meg, right after we broke up?"

A sudden memory made itself clear. A man's hands caressing her on the dance floor as they danced sinuously close and breathless.

"You two looked hot together!" Meg had said.

Christine took a step towards him. "That was you?"

He shrugged as if tired. "We all have our dark side. Isn't that what you want?"

Christine looked at him squarely at his eyes. "No." She opened the door and didn't even glance over her shoulder as she exited, saying: "Good-bye, Raoul."

I dont know if the ending made sense, but interpretation is up to you! For all of those that guessed that the cable was a Punjab Lasso and that Erik was killing someone, you all receive Erik Plushies! -hands them out by the armful- Okay, sucky chpater in my opinion but whatever. Chapter 50 will be a lot easier to write for me so expect that as soon as I get my thirty -crosses fingers-- hopefully fourty reviewsfor this chapter! I am motivating all those lurkers out there to leave me a little reviews. The counter KNOWS all. -gives evil glare at lurkers, Erik too- All right,anything else?-random reader shouts-How about the ending! Hmm... an ending... that would be nice. (Check out my new profile!)