Chapter Thirty-Five

Masks Part 2

The white porcelain clattered onto the floor, the only sound in the quiet of the room. Erik kept his eyes on his wife, watching as her round eyes slowly roamed over the horrible sight that was his face. Twisted pink flesh, horribly scarred...he had no eyelashes on his eye and his hair-line receded slightly, something you could never notice with his mask on. His skin lay stretched and taut on his face and Christine felt a lump catch in her throat. What had happened to him.

"Oh, Erik..." she whispered, not exactly sure how she should react but knowing that rejection would ruin him. He turned his head from her, not liking the emotion he heard in her voice. She found him repulsive. She would demand that he leave and he would because he was ashamed of himself.

Christine's thoughts were not nearly as depressing as Erik's seemed to be. The initial shock of seeing him without the mask was now over and Christine was left in total surprise. For a long time she had always thought that Erik was a handsome man in a very different way, the mask only adding to his allure. But to find that his face was quite different on the other side left her with a feeling of helplessness. What could she say to him that he would not take the wrong way? He was her husband and she loved him despite the disfigurement.

"I'm sorry..." he whispered. Christine watched him get up from bed and pull a robe on before going to get his mask. His shoulders were stiff and she could see that he was valiantly trying to hold back any emotions.

"Erik!" Christine pleaded. He ignored her, taking his mask and placing it on his face. Christine called his name again and he simply headed to the door, knowing it had been a mistake to show her something she would never accept. He stopped when he heard a loud thud and Christine's painful cry. He whirled around to see Christine lying on the floor, suddenly sobbing hysterically. He rushed to her and picked her up gently, gritting his teeth when she moaned in pain. He laid her down and checked her bandage, sighing in relief when he saw no blood.

"What the hell did you do? Throw yourself out of the bed?" he demanded, angry that she would take such a risk.

"You ignored me! I was trying to tell you to stay!" she sobbed, angry at him. He was not making it easy for her to get over the fact that he was disfigured and he was being rather hard headed, not wanting to hear anything she said, thinking it was going to be a rejection. Erik's face was hard and emotionless.

"You do not want me to stay, Christine," he told her. Christine wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Yes, I do!" she said. Erik's eyes looked away from her.

"I do not want your pity," he growled softly.

"I just want to love you, Erik. If that is to hard then I am sorry that you cannot accept what I have to offer you," she answered.

"You do not realize what you are saying," Erik said.

"Yes, I do! You deformity means nothing to me!" Christine said, begging him to believe her. He said nothing and Christine could see that she was slowly losing him. She grabbed his hand, squeezing it gently within in her own. Once more their gazes met.

"My mother loved you, Erik, and she saw beyond outer appearances...do you not believe that I can do the same?" she whispered.

"I do not want you to wake up every morning to a monster and wish your life was different," Erik murmured, his finger running over the smooth flesh of her hand.

"In the beginning I admit that I wished day and night that I was not with you...that was before I got to know the man I fell in love with...do you love me simply because of what I look like?" she asked, praying that was not the case. She did not want any man to love her because of her beauty.

"No...You're my spit-fire," he murmured. She smiled, liking the spark that came into his eyes when he said that.

"I am not a vain woman, my love. Your visage is horrible to look upon because of the fact that I know how much pain it must have cost you."

Erik studied her closely, desperately wanting to believe that what she was saying could be true. For as long as he had had to wear the mask he had always believed that no woman would love him fully. He had always felt like less of a man because of his face.

True, he had had many women in his bed, and he had given them pleasure. But none of them had made love to him without the mask. He would never have trusted his heart to anyone before Christine came along. She was light and compassion. Love and passion. Everything his soul had been craving for years it seemed. Her eyes never wavered from his. He knew that she had been horrified when she had first gazed upon him. It was the expected reaction. But she was strong and had come out of her initial shock. Now she was offering him all of her love.

"I love you, Erik...for the man you are inside...not outside..." Christine said softly. Erik climbed into the bed and pulled her as close to him as he could, pressing several kisses to her mouth.

"I love you..." he murmured. She smiled. It was silent for a long time.

"Let me tell you what caused this..." he whispered. Christine said nothing, closing her eyes as Erik slowly began to finish the tail.

xXx

Paris

1864

"Isaac, what are you doing here?" Emma asked. Gustave's arm wrapped itself firmly about her. Isaac was holding a lantern in front of him, illuminating the room in its soft glow.

"Were you not getting enough from my friends, dear sister, that you had to sneak out to be with this man?" Isaac asked. Emma gasped and Gustave glared at the man in front of him. Emma had finally found the courage to tell Gustave about what her brother had done to her and let his friends do to her. Gustave had wanted to kill Isaac with his bare hands but Emma had stopped him.

"You have no business being here," Emma informed her brother.

"I have every right to be here. I am going to stop this little affair the two of you have and you are coming home with me," Isaac hissed, his handsome face contorting. Gustave pushed Emma behind him.

"You will not touch her."

"Oh, really? And who is going to stop me?" Isaac asked, a smirk on his lips. Gustave's hand clenched into a fist and Emma gently took it in her grasp.

"Do not do anything foolish, my love," Emma whispered to him. Gustave's fist relaxed only slightly.

"Why, Isaac?" Emma whispered. Her voice was small and heartbroken.

"Why what?" he demanded, impatient.

"What did I ever do to you that warranted the way you treat me?"

Isaac said nothing, deciding to glare at his sister instead. Gustave did not like the malicious look on the other mans gaze and he turned Emma from him.

"Let us leave, before something takes a turn for the worst," Gustave said. Emma, however, did not move. Her eyes remained on her brother. She had questions and she wanted them answered.

"What have I done?" she insisted again. She could see in his eyes that Isaac did not want to answer her, but she continued to ask, knowing he would answer eventually.

"I was a good man...then you came of age," he growled, his eyes more angry then she had ever seen them, even when he was beating her. She suddenly did not know if she wanted to know what he was going to say.

"You were so innocent and beautiful...it was sick," he hissed. Emma frowned.

"What about that is sick?" she demanded.

"The way it made me feel," he snapped. Emma gasped softly and Gustave wondered if he had heard the other man right.

"I saw you, the way everyone seemed to be drawn to your beauty and kindness. I had never backed down from a challenge and you were the greatest challenge I had ever faced...I wanted you for myself," he hissed.

"You're her brother!" Gustave cried, disgusted. Was the man insane?

"Perhaps being siblings had nothing to do with it," Isaac answered.

"You wanted what you could not have," Emma murmured, understanding. Isaac nodded grimly.

"The downfall of many a man...if I could possess you then there was nothing in this world that was out of my grasp. Anything was possible," he answered.

"I had my whole life ahead of me, Isaac. How could you just ruin the innocence I held so desperately?" she asked.

"Your innocence meant nothing to me! I have deflowered many women in my life and you would simply be another," he answered.

"That is not true! You let your friends have me before you even so much as tried!" Emma said, desperately needing to understand the chaos that was her life.

"That was because the prize I had so desperately wanted had already been used...you were no longer innocent, thanks to that Persian bastard," Isaac spat.

"He loved me, and he gave me my son," she whispered, not wishing to talk about Nadir. Not now.

"And he took what was rightfully mine!"

"I never belonged to you, Isaac! And I never will!"

"You are not fit to even look at her!" Gustave spat. Erik watched silently from the shadows as the scene unfolded before him.

"I know that. But you are no one to judge," Isaac said, "Perhaps I would be free from wanting you if you were no longer around, Sister?"

Emma gasped and Gustave took a step forward. Isaac smiled and pulled a pistol from the inside of his coat.

"Stay behind me, Emma," Gustave insisted. Had he known that he had been putting Emma's life in danger he would never have had her meet him here.

"Isaac, please, think about what you are doing," Emma pleaded. Isaac cocked the pistol and Emma found several tears fall from her eyes. Isaac was obviously surprised by the sight.

"Why the tears, my dear?" he asked.

"All I ever wanted from you was for you to be a brother, nothing else!" she cried. Isaac obviously did not know what to say.

"You were never that! I was alone since Mother died. Neither you nor Leroy cared about me! I just wanted a brother who would love me and tell me stories when I went to sleep," Emma said softly.

"Life is not all fairytales and make believe, Princess," Isaac said.

"Why should a family be a fantasy I cannot have? What have I ever done that God thought I did not deserve one," she demanded, tears now falling freely.

"You got your family, that little street rat and your whelp," Isaac hissed. Emma gave a shuddering sob in the face of his indifference. For as long as she could remember she had just wanted him to love her.

Erik, during the whole exchange had slowly began to make his way towards Isaac, keeping in the shadows and not allowing his gaze to move from the pistol in the mans hands. He had to steel himself from any sort of emotion from the pain he heard in his sister's voice. He had to protect her. Nothing else mattered. But Erik cursed under his breath when Gustave tried to be the hero.

"Go, Emma! Run!" Gustave pleaded, shoving her towards the entrance. Emma fell to her knees in surprise. Isaac said nothing as he raised the pistol and fired. Emma's scream erupted into the room as Gustave collapsed, the bullet having hit him. She crawled over to the man she had only recently fell in love with and sobbed as she tried to keep the blood from continuing to flow. Isaac's face was emotionless as he watched the scene in front of him.

"Come with me now, Emma, or I will kill your son and Erik," he promised. Emma shook her head, her eyes swollen from her tears.

"Please..." she whispered.

"I'll smother dear Anthony with a pillow, until his annoying little cries cease-"

"Stop!" Emma screamed, not wanting to hear it. Gustave was beginning to still beneath her hands.

"Erik will be an even greater pleasure. I have wanted to get rid of him from the moment you brought him home from the streets. I'll strangle him with my bare hands-"

"Stop!" Emma rushed at him, knocking him down in his surprise. The lantern he had been holding flew from his grasp and landed in a pile of hay, lighting it on fire instantly. The pistol clattered not far from the pair as they struggled. Emma pounded on him with all of her might and Isaac laughed, roughly throwing her beneath him and pinning her down with his body. She struggled but this seemed to only give Isaac more pleasure.

"Hmm, I love it when you squirm," he murmured against the shell of her ear. Emma struck the side of his head and he grunted but his grip on her never lost its intensity.

"I could have given you such pleasure," he murmured, licking the soft flesh of her neck.

"You could not pleasure a woman if you were the last man on Earth! You were intoxicated when you took me!" she spat. Isaac struck her, causing blood to fill her mouth. She closed her eyes and prayed that she was dead before he could force himself on her. The fire had spread quickly and half of the barn was on fire.

"You will die if you do not get out of here soon," Emma said. Isaac glanced the flickering flames. He smirked and stood up, roughly pulling her with him.

"You're right. We should finish this where we can take our time," he murmured. Smoke had begun to fill the room and Emma coughed, desperately trying to find Gustave in the gray.

"Let her go."

Both Isaac and Emma turned in surprise to Erik standing there, the pistol in his hands pointing straight at Isaac's chest. The man sneered.

"Or what? You are going to shoot me? You do not have the courage. You are nothing but a little street rat!" Isaac taunted. Erik cocked the pistol.

"Let her go or so help me I will kill you," Erik growled. Emma could not look away from the little boy she loved so much. He was no longer a boy, but a young man. The hardships he had faced because of her family had shaped him into a cold human being, his only feelings for her and her son.

Isaac laughed.

"Come on," he growled, tugging roughly on Emma's arm.

A single gunshot echoed in the room. Isaac's disbelieving stare found the gray green gaze of Erik as he clutched at the sudden hole in his chest. He collapsed to his knees, the look on his face never wavering. The little street rat had gotten the best of him. For the life of him he had never believed that he would have fired. It had cost him his life.

"Oh, God, Erik!" Emma cried, rushing to him when Isaac had taken his last breath. He dropped the pistol and allowed Emma to pull him into her arms, his entire body shaking from what he had just done. Emma gave him several kisses all over his face before pulling away, the barn beginning to collapse from the flames.

"We must get Gustave out of here!" she said desperately. Erik wanted to tell her it was to late, Gustave was dead. But her eyes were pleading and he could see how much she had grown to love the man.

"Alright! Go! I will get him!" Erik said. Emma did not argue and Erik watched until he was sure that she was safely out of the barn before rushing to Gustave. He could not believe the man was still breathing! Heaving him up from under the arms he began to drip the limp body slowly out of the barn.

"Erik!" Emma screamed his name as he slowly became visible to her. Erik looked up in time to see the burning rafter come toppling toward him...

xXx

"Oh, my God!" Christine gasped. Erik pulled the mask away to once more reveal his face to her.

"The rafter landed on my face...burning my flesh. I was lucky that I managed to get it off before it killed me," he whispered. Christine's good hand brought his face down to her mouth and she rained kisses all over the scarred flesh. Erik was left in complete and utter surprise. No one had ever had the courage to touch his marred flesh. Even Emma.

"I love you, Erik, I love you!" she whispered repeatedly. For the first time in a very long time Erik felt loved.