Release From Bondage

‚Would we never be free of him?' I thought desperately as Erik and I fled to the underground lake.

We reached the other shore and Erik opened the door to his house.

"We have to go away from here," I urged the Phantom. "We have to go to some place where Raoul can't find us!"

Erik didn't reply, but he was already gathering some things: clothes, a few books, money.

Suddenly I heard the door open. Erik turned around and stopped.

"Bang."

In the open doorway stood Raoul, his smoking pistol still pointing towards Erik. From far away I heard myself cry out and horrified I watched Erik sink to the floor. He was falling oh so slowly, eyes wide open in surprise. The pistol he had just taken out of some drawer, to pack it with the other things, fell out of his hand.

"No!" I screamed and ran towards his body.

Tenderly I turned him around.

"No," I whispered.

His dying eyes sought mine and with his final breath he managed to form four words:

"Christine, I love you…"

Then the light left his eyes as his soul fled its mortal coils.

For a moment I did nothing, I just sat there and pressed his lifeless body to my chest. Then something inside of me broke and I went deadly calm. Slowly I reached for the fallen pistol. Carefully I slid Erik's body to the floor and stood up, facing Raoul.

He had just started to come to me, but as he saw my face, he stopped.

"Christine?"

With cold determination I lifted the pistol.

"You killed him," I said accusingly.

And then I shot.

Raoul's mouth was still open in surprise as he hit the floor.

I ignored his body and knelt down besides Erik again.

"Oh, Erik…"

The pistol had fallen down after I had fired the shot, but I didn't care. It was empty anyway. Slowly I reached down to my left leg, where I kept a small dagger hidden from view. Gently I closed Erik's eyes and placed a last kiss on his cold lips.

"I love you, Erik," I whispered and closed my fingers around the hilt of the sharp dagger.

Without the slightest hesitation I placed the tip of the small weapon on my chest, where my heart was, and drove the cold metal into my flesh. I sank forward with a soft moan and my head came to rest on Erik's chest.

Then everything went dark.

---

When Nadir came down later, he found three corpses: Raoul, Erik and Christine.

He got rid of the vicomte and carried the bodies of Erik and Christine to a hidden tomb, deep underneath the opera. He put them into a big stone sarcophagus. Together, arm in arm, he laid them to rest.

Together for eternity.