Disclaimer: I don't own the Phantom song All I Ask Of You (Reprise). (That should tell you what happens here.)
"Cameron!" exclaimed Emilie after Cameron returned from Christine's lair a few days later and arrived at rehearsal for the new opera that the Opera Populaire was performing. "Where have you been?"
Cameron shrugged, knowing that he couldn't tell Emilie where he had been, for it would give away his secret concerning Christine. "Nowhere. I just haven't been here, that's all. I wanted to take a bit of a break for a few days."
Emilie nodded. "Well, that's nice. Did you hear? You were supposed to get the leading tenor role tonight -"
"Says who?"
"It was the orders of the Opera Ghost, but the managers wouldn't dream of letting you do it, even though you were really good when you were the lead for Mon Ange. Pablo's doing it instead because they don't want to lose him - he has a famous grandmother who was once the prima donna here, you know, back before the Opera had the huge fire and everything."
"Yes; La Carlotta," he replied, remembering that Christine had told him that during one of their lessons before they'd met.
"Correct. And since she's Pablo's grandmother, the managers wouldn't dare to give anyone except him the male lead. You have the silent role in the opera tonight."
He shrugged. "I don't care. Although I would like to sing... but never mind. I suppose it's no use squabbling about it, since it wouldn't do anything for me - except have me fired, probably."
"WHAT?" shouted Christine when François informed her that Cameron wouldn't be the lead role in the performance later on that evening. "I told them, Cameron, not Pablo! Didn't I make that clear in my note to the management?"
François sighed. "Christine - let it go. It won't hurt anyone if Pablo is the lead for just one night."
"It will hurt Cameron's career, and who knows - it may very well hurt someone's hearing, like mine!" She kicked the nearby piano stool, then placed her hands on her hips and let out a huffy sigh, causing a wisp of hair that was in front of her eyes to be blown away. "Damn it! Why do they insist on not listening to me? I know more about music than any one of the Opera's employees, and they all went to prestigious music schools while I was taught everything I know right here!"
"Oh, Christine..." was all François said.
Later that night, at the performance, Christine went up to one of her spots where she could observe the performance from above. Naturally, Pablo was killing the leading male role.
How do the managers not see that? she thought to herself, letting out an irritated sigh and glancing over in the direction of the managers' box to see how Berrain and Erisma to Pablo's performance.
However, she was sidetracked when she saw that the box next to the managers' box, Box Five, was occupied! Another one of her orders had been defied!
Feeling decidedly cross, she stormed out to the high balcony, knowing that she had to do something about all the insubordination that was going on in her Opera. She hated to interrupt Pablo's butchering, of course, but she didn't believe she had a choice.
Using her ventriloquism so that her voice had resonating power all over the auditorium, she boomed, "Did I not instruct that Box Five was to be kept empty?"
Everyone jumped and glanced up nervously at where Christine stood, the people who were performing onstage included. Fearful whispers surrounded her, and she felt proud to know that she was intimidating to the people looking at her - at least, most of them.
Berrian and Erisma squinted at The Phantom where she stood. She looked strangely familiar, they thought... she rather looked like a young masked girl that had auditioned for them several years ago.
"It's her," whispered Cameron, wondering what it was that his Angel of Music was trying to accomplish by interrupting a performance. It certainly didn't look good on her, in his opinion, though he would never say anything to her about it.
Pablo glared at him. "Shut up!" he snapped.
"It would be wise to practice what you preach, Pablo, and shut up yourself!" Christine called down to Pablo, feeling irritated at him for having stolen the role that should have been Cameron's and then acting rude to him.
Erisma rose from the managers' box, determined not to make the people sitting in the auditorium want to leave, which would surely make him lose money.
"Continue!" he shouted to the performers on stage. "Just ignore her; she's not going to do anything more than what she's done! She just wants to remind us that she's here!"
He thinks I'm not going to do anything more, does he? Christine thought to herself, cocking her one visible eyebrow in Erisma's direction although he couldn't see it. Well, we'll just have to see about that, I suppose.
Pablo quickly obeyed his employer's orders and began to sing his next line.
Where is my love...?
Upon hearing Pablo sing this line, Christine smirked, knowing what was about to come. The managers, the operagoers, and all of the Opera's employees were about to be in for a shock...
Then, suddenly, Pablo choked and bent over. Another moment passed, and he was vomiting on stage, having eaten tainted food courtesy of the Opera Ghost.
Feeling proud to know that her plan had worked, Christine threw her head back and laughed rather hysterically.
"You should have kept silent!" she proclaimed gleefully. Then she walked over to a door in the wall and entered it, closing it behind her and deciding that she'd had enough fun for the evening. Besides, she was feeling somewhat dizzy and a little bit out of her mind. Perhaps she'd taken a bit too much morphine earlier and it was producing the reverse of the effect it should have been producing, making her energetic instead of tired...
Little did she know, James, a male chorister too curious for his own good, made his way up to the door and entered it, following her.
"Ladies and gentlemen," announced Berrain loudly from the managers' box as several stage hands started pulling a still-vomiting Pablo offstage, "the performance will continue in ten minutes' time, when the role of Michael will be played by Cameron Luc!"
Even though he felt bad that Pablo was getting sick and looked terrible because of it, Cameron couldn't help but smile upon hearing Berrain's words. It seemed that Christine had heard him express his wish to be the male lead earlier. She could make anything happen, it seemed.
"Meanwhile, we shall give you the ballet from Act Three of tonight's opera!" Berrain continued, giving Renior a meaningful look. "Now!"
Upon seeing the look on Berrain's face and hearing his tone, Renior nodded fervently in a gesture of consent and started conducting the orchestra to play the music from the ballet. The ballet rats ran onstage and started dancing.
Christine turned and saw James following her. He let out a gasp of terror and immediately turned around, starting to run away from her and wondering why it was that he'd ever thought to follow her.
Feeling irritated because she didn't feel like herself and also feeling angry that someone was following her, she ran after him, picking up the skirt of her dress so that she wouldn't trip on it.
A small chase ensued, and then she finally cornered him and tripped him.
"Oh!" he gasped in terror as he fell flat on his face.
Smiling rather wickedly, she pulled out her Punjab and put it around his neck, tightening it so that it would fit him. This foolish chorus boy wouldn't trouble her any longer.
"So, you thought you could escape the Opera Ghost, did you?" she said mockingly. "You thought you could follow her and get away with it? Well, James, it seems that you were wrong!"
With the last word, she pulled the Punjab up roughly, and she heard his neck snap.
Chuckling and feeling a little bit less like herself than before, she made it so that he would dangle over the stage if and when she decided to release the rope. When that was done, she let the rope slide in between her hands just a bit, causing him to drop into view enough that everyone would see him.
Panic ensued. Choristers screamed. Old ladies in the audience fainted. Cameron, terrified to know the crime that his Angel had just committed, ran to look for Emilie.
Smiling with satisfaction, she let go of the rope completely and let James fall onto the stage with a thud. The she wrapped her cloak around herself and made her way up to the roof of the Opera, where, if history was repeating itself the way she believed it was, Cameron and Emilie would soon be arrived.
Just as she hid herself behind the statue of an angel that she would never be, the two burst through the rooftop entrance. She scoffed a little. Predictable.
"My God, what happened?" gasped Emilie. "James killed... horrid! It was The Phantom!"
Cameron put his hands on her shoulders, his facial expression a mixture of terror and seriousness. "Emilie, do you believe in the Angel of Music?"
Emilie nodded. "Of course I do! Don't all musicians and artists?"
Cameron sighed with relief. "Oh, good! Then you won't think I'm mad, Emilie, when I tell you now that I've been visited by the Angel of Music."
"Oh, how wonderful!" exclaimed Emilie, smiling rather delightedly. "Tell me about him! What's he like?"
"My Angel is a female, actually," he replied. "Her name is Christine. She's fourteen years old and has black hair, grey-green eyes, and a white half-mask on the right side of her face."
Upon hearing this description, Emilie's eyes widened and her smile faded. She even paled a little bit. "You mean that -"
Cameron cut her short by nodding. "She's The Phantom of the Opera, yes."
They looked at each other for a moment, and then he let out a heavy sigh, removing his hands from off of her shoulders and turning away from her, starting to walk closer to the statue that Christine was hiding behind.
"I can't believe what she did tonight - murdering James," he said softly. "I never thought that an angel was capable of doing something so evil... I didn't think she, as a person, was capable of doing something so evil."
At this, Christine let out a heavy sigh, suddenly not feeling so mad and unusual. The adrenaline had rushed from her body, and she had to lean against the statue for support. His words were more painful that any murder she was capable of committing.
That's the thing, Cameron, she thought to herself. You've been wrong about me all this time. I'm not any kind of angel - not even an angel of Hell. I'm worse than that. I'm a completely flawed human being.
Emilie looked at Cameron curiously. "Do you love her, Cameron? Are you in love with The Phantom of the Opera?"
Upon hearing Emilie ask such a thing of Cameron, Christine drew in her breath sharply and stepped a little closer in the direction of where she knew Cameron was standing, wanting to see if he would answer... and if he would, what his answer would be.
Could he love her, even though he surely knew that he was no more an angel than the next person - even though he knew that she was possibly the most horrible, imperfect creature to ever walk the earth?
A sudden thought then occurred to Cameron, and he quickly turned back towards Emilie, facing her and looking somewhat frantic, not answering her question. "I - I think she might be here, on this roof, right now, listening to us! She's everywhere now! Let's go somewhere else; let's try and find someplace that she can't get to us..."
"Oh, don't be such a goose!" Emilie scoffed, suddenly looking rather bold. "She isn't here! Why would she be?"
"She is here," Cameron said with fear still in his eyes, his voice so full of determination that she didn't dare to try and argue with him, even though she disagreed. "I can feel her presence here. I'll prove to you right now that she's with us."
Then, as he looked all around the rooftop, he sang softly:
Christine...
Christine...
Not wanting to disappoint him, as he already knew that she was there, Christine replied:
Cameron...
Emilie looked terrified upon hearing an unfamiliar voice respond to Cameron.
"What was that?" she whispered, rushing over to where he was and clinging to him.
Cameron wrapped his arms around her waist, still looking all around the rooftop for some sign of his Angel. "It was her," he said seriously. "It was Christine. She's here, just like I told you."
"Oh, Cameron!" Emilie cried out, clinging to him even tighter, if that was possible. "I'm frightened! I truly do think we should leave now - now that you've proven yourself right!"
Upon seeing her afraid, even though she was in his arms, Cameron shook his head and replied reassuringly, "Don't be afraid, Emilie. She won't hurt you; not while I'm around. I won't let her."
Emilie looked up into Cameron's eyes. "Do you love her?" she asked again, wanting to see if she had some sort of competition for the affection of young man who was holding her.
Christine held her breath. Was he really going to answer her this time - and, more than that, was he going to give her the answer that she, Christine, wanted to hear more than anything?
"No." Cameron cupped her chin. "No... I love you."
At this, Emilie smiled, then got on her tiptoes and kissed him.
Christine watched from behind the angel statue, watching with dull horror and sadness and feeling her heart ripping into about a million pieces.
They were kissing! They were kissing, and they knew that she was there! Were they trying to give her some kind of cruel punishment for the murder she'd committed some short time earlier?
Whatever the reason they were kissing right in front of her was, she couldn't take it any more after a moment and turned away from them, bending over and feeling ready to cry.
Then, when Cameron and Emilie broke apart, Cameron smiled and took Emilie's hand in his.
"Let's go!" he exclaimed to her enthusiastically, and they ran back inside the Opera together without another care, holding onto each other's hands.
After a moment, Christine heard the door leading back inside the Opera close, and when she was sure that they were gone, she walked out from behind the angel statue and got down on her knees, her heart heavy.
Tears filling her eyes as she stared down, she sang softly:
I gave you my music...
Made your song take wing...
And now, how you've repaid me...
Denied me and betrayed me...
She was bound to love you
When she heard you sing...
"Cameron," she whispered helplessly, and then she started to cry, covering her face with her hands. "Oh, Cameron..."
She sobbed uncontrollably for a few moments until she heard the couple laughing inside. They were happy. They were happy together, and she was alone on the roof, miserable.
Angry, she rose, wiped away her tears, and ran to another statue, jumping onto it and climbing up it a little bit so that she was more elevated. Then she sang, halfway shouting:
You will curse the day
You did not do
All that The Phantom
Asked of... you!
Then she jumped off of the statue and ran down to her lair, determined to change things once and for all.