Disclaimer: Still, I own nothing.

Note: This is the final chapter! Thank you for the reviews, I love reviews.

In this chapter, POV will change, the change will be marked by people's names bold Like So

I don't think some people will like the ending..but I did say that it would end with horror...

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Chapter 03/03 - The Truth Chains You

Christine

"Erik! What do we do?" I ask in my panic. To my surprise, he doesn't answer. I turn to face him, he is only staring at me without saying a word.

"Erik, did you hear me? Raoul is at the door! What do we do?"

Still, he wont answer me. Why...why wont he answer me?

"Erik! In the name of your love for me...answer me! If you love me, tell me what to do, Erik! ERIK!"

Maybe he thinks I will only leave him again. Poor Erik! He only thinks that if I open the door, I will run to Raoul and leave him alone again.

With this in mind, I calm myself and smile warmly at him, "Erik, I wont leave you again. But please, I must tell Raoul that I am safe and happy. I will send him away, my dear Erik! Tell me how to open this door Erik, you know you never told me how to."

He still only stares sadly at me. Does he think I am lying to him?

Raoul knocks on the door again, and calls to me, "Christine? Is that you?"

I walk over to Erik and sit before him, "Erik, I implore you. Believe me when I say that I only wish to tell Raoul the truth. I owe him that much...I will only send him away."

He still doesn't answer me!

Now he is starting to anger and frighten me. Why is he acting this way? I start beating on his thin chest and yelling at him, "ERIK! ANSWER ME ERIK!"

I turn back to the door and start pounding on the door, hoping to knock it down.

"Christine? CHRISTINE!" Raoul is worried now. Oh, if only I could tell him to go away! Then Erik will talk to me again and we can be happy. But if I only tell him through the door, he wont believe me.

I stop beating at the door, and I gasp for breath. It was then that something on the door caught my eye...a small crack by the handle. I run my finger along it, and the door springs open.

Raoul

When Christine told me she had to go back to the monster's house, I have to admit that I wasn't happy about the idea. He had proven before that he wasn't beyond deception. He had, after all, posed as an Angel of Music...had he not?

No matter how kind and sweet she was, however, she is very stubborn about certain things. Singing for Erik one last time in Faust was one example, giving him her last respects appeared to be another. She wouldn't be swayed, and it wasn't my place to stop her, no matter how much I wanted to.

I allowed her to go, and she promised to be back by nightfall.

Nighttime came, and though I was worried, I only sat awake and waited for her return. There wasn't a way to tell time in the underground home, after all. She probably just lost track of the hour.

Midnight came, and I could wait no longer. I grabbed my cloak and walked to the Opera.

As before, I couldn't enter though the Rue Scribe entrance, as I still had no key for it. I went into the main entrance of the Opera, but was immediately turned away. It wasn't performance night...and I wasn't a patron anymore. After all that Christine went though and Phillipe's death, I didn't think that it was a good idea to keep supporting the Opera house.

This didn't stop me though, and I spent the next 8 days trying to find a way in. I tried the police, I tried bribing the managers to allow me in to Christine's old dressing room, I tried to sneak in...I even tried to find the Persian to help me. I was about to go mad with worry and frustration when the Opera announced a party to welcome their new diva. I went to the party on the pretence that I was only seeing and being seen like all the others...but I was happy to finally slip away and find my way to the cellars. Christine had been gone for 13 days by this point.

I made my way across the lake, and almost cried with joy when I made it to the door of the monster's house. I knocked on the door, hoping Christine could hear me, as I didn't know how to open it. I waited for a few moments that felt like eternity before I heard Christine's frantic voice from inside.

"...answer me! If you love me, tell me what to do, Erik! ERIK!"

Erik? Why was she calling the monster's name? He was dead!

She start speaking softly again, but I can't understand what she is saying. Who could she possibly be talking to?

I knock on the door again, and try to call to her, "Christine? Is that you?"

She still doesn't answer me! She is still only talking softly to someone unknown.

I am truly worried now, something isn't right! Before I could try to break down the door, I hear my love's normally kind and beautiful voice screech, "ERIK! ANSWER ME ERIK!"

I step back in surprise. Before I can say anything else to her, she starts pounding on the door with strength I never expected of her. I am frantic with worry...what is wrong with her? Is she hurt? In danger?

"Christine? CHRISTINE!" I call to her.

A pause...and then the door finally springs open.

The first thing that hits me is the strong smell of rot. The second is the devastating sight of my fiance. Her eyes are wide and crazed...her normally soft, shiny hair is now matted and filthy...her skin has a sickly yellow tint to it...and she has obviously lost a lot of weight.

"You...must...leave.." she panted, still out of breath from her outburst earlier.

"Christine..." I reply weakly, I can hardly think of anything to say.

"Erik...wont speak to me until you leave. I wont...come with you. I have to...stay here," she motions to the high-backed chair behind her...and I realize where the smell had come from.

There in the chair sat the rotting corpse of what I'm sure had to be Erik. True, the man always had the face of a dead man...but there was no doubt of his death now. His skin is starting to fall from his bones. He's sitting in an uncomfortably stiff position. And, the absolutely worst of it is his eyes...they were wide and blank and sunken.

I can only gape at the scene in front of me. What can I possibly say?

"Leave Raoul."

"Ch-Christine...that's a corpse!" I finally manage.

"Raoul! How awful of you!" she hisses, "You know how sensitive he is about his face!"

"But Christine!"

"No more of this! If you are at all the gentleman your name implies, leave!"

And with that she turned from me and walked to the dead body...and kissed its rotting cheek.