A/N: Yeah I posted the chapter yesterday and today I had a review! Woohoo, so to thank my sole reviewer (so far) here's a new chapter. I would also like to thank this reader for all their helpful constructive criticism and reviews. Also I would like to note with a celebratory cheer, that with the addition of this chapter this will official become my longest fic…. Thus far.
Chapter Twelve: Moonlight Memories
Charlotte forced her self to walk painfully slow as she tried to think through what she had just done. She had defied her father in front of all of Paris's upper-class, with the exception of the DeChagny's who could not attend as Christine was a having a difficult time with her pregnancy. Charlotte sighed inwardly. She couldn't go unless she was willing to submit to her father's will marry the vile Barron De Savois
Oh God, what am I going to say to him?
Charlotte was half inclined to just turn back and marry the Barron, but she was terrified of him, especially seeing as, unlike most men, he wasn't afraid to hit her in front of people, and in a church no less. So she carried on, her feet carrying her to what was once her refuge. Soon she was at the edge of the underground lake, staring across the water into the dim light of all Erik's candles. She was scared to the point that she could not move, even though the little boat was in the water at her feet. She stared down at the dark water, standing on the edge of darkness, or so it seemed to her. She could almost feel madness at the edges of her mind. She vaguely wondered if Erik ever felt the way she did now.
Probably.
Good Lord what am I going to do?
Erik stared at his newest composition. It was part of his new opera, the one Charlotte had to play the lead in. It was written for her voice alone… not even Christine would sing this. It was Charlotte or no one. His new Opera, La Beauté et le Bete, was written solely for Charlotte, Don Juan had been a work in progress when he'd met Christine, she had merely inspired him to finish it, Charlotte had inspired him to write a whole opera, one which was nearing completion.
The role of Lorraine, the beast's tragic love belonged only to Charlotte, and Prince Lucien, the beast, belonged to him. The thought of Charlotte singing those songs with him, sent a chill down Erik's spine. He turned the pages of his opera, to the song that Prince Lucien, or Talen as the beast, would sing as Lorraine leaves him to see her family and tend to her dying father, and began to play and sing.
"One time in everybody's life
there is a moment
like the moment we knew
and if you're a fool
you'll let it slip away
sometime in everybody's life
there is a feeling
a feeling so real
and once it's gone it can never be replaced
I'm dancing with a shadow
holding on to a dream that'll never come true
still haunted by that old love song
my moonlight memories of you
my heart is like a ghost town
to every stranger that passes on through
all they find there
is what you left behind there
my moonlight memories of you
you thought when you left me
I'll let you go
but here I am loving you more
then you'll ever know
if I could hold you
feel your heart beat
just one more time
there's nothing that I wouldn't do
'cause without your love
I'll never be free of
my moonlight memories of you
one time in everybody's life
there is a moment
like the moment we knew
and if you're a fool
you'll let it slip away
I'm dancing with a shadow
holding on to a dream that'll never come true
still haunted by that old love song
my moonlight memories of you
my moonlight memories of you"
Charlotte looked up suddenly. A melody had begun to wind it's way through the corridors of Erik's labyrinth, echoing slowly and mournfully. Charlotte could hear faintly hear Erik's voice floating gently through the halls.
"Erik, my love…" she whispered brokenly. Tears filled her eyes at the sound of that beautifully melancholic voice. That voice she loved more than life its self. The voice that belonged to the man she would do anything for. "Erik…" and she followed the voice as it sang to her of lost love…
By the time she had silently made her way to Erik's home and was standing unnoticed behind him as he sang the final noted of that achingly beautiful melody, Charlotte had decided that that mournfully lonely song had to be about Christine. However as he leaned his head into his hands and began to sob and she reached out prepared to alert him to her presence she was stopped short by the name he was softly sobbing, in such heartbreaking tones.
"Charlotte… my angel…. Mon ange… Charlotte…. My love"