Disclaimer I own nothing :-(

(Real and present times) "Raoul?" asked a visibly shaken and distressed Christine. "I have to tell you something."

"What is it Christine? Why do you sound frightened? Did you have a nightmare?" he asked. He looked up at her and exclaimed, "Christine! Why do you look so pale? Are you ill?"

"No, Raoul, I am not ill. Not physically anyway. Emotionally, I am very ill. That's what I have to tell you. Raoul, I am not in love with you."

He looked up ate her in shock. Then he laughed. "Christine, little Lottie, you are ill, you haven't slept in weeks, you don't know what you are saying." Though his words were confident, his eyes showed her that he was upset and distraught at her words. "Why would you ever say such a thing?"

"Raoul, don't be angry, you know I love you, but I realized last night that I love- another. I love you as a sister would her brother."

Here Raoul became angry, for he saw that she was slowly becoming less pale and he knew that she was telling him the truth. "Who on earth could you possibly love other than me? You have been in the house for the past year, you haven't seen anyone else, and I know that you haven't had anyone else other than me."

Christine looked at him indignantly. "I don't have to tell you anything Raoul. Although I was in this house for a year, I have never truly left the place where I belong. At the opera house." She knew in hr mind that even though she didn't say that she meant Erik, Raoul would know. She saw his eyes flash in anger and surprise.

Raoul couldn't believe his ears. After all that he had done for her, she wanted to go back to the closed opera house? There was nothing there for her… except… but no, not that monster. He closed his eyes and a scene from his past flashed before his eyes, only now he realized things that he hadn't before.

Flashback

Raoul was tied to the gates in the monster's underground lair. His beloved Christine was being forced to choose to throw her life away or else the monster would kill Raoul.

"Either way you choose he has to win" sang Raoul.

" For either way you choose, you cannot win! So, do you end your days with me, or do you send him to his grave?" sang the monster with rage.
"Why make her lie to you, to save me?" spat Raoul at the Phantom.
Christine sang sadly, "Angel of Music… why this torment? When will you see reason? Angel of Music…"
"Past the point of no return, the final threshold! His life is now the prize, which you must earn! You've passed the point of no return…" The hideous monster sang at the same time.
Raoul sang with them both, " For pity's sake, Christine, say no! Don't throw your life away for my sake, I fought so hard to free you."
Christine suddenly became angry and spat, "You deceived me, I gave my mind blindly" Raoul had always thought that she had sung those words at the Phantom, but now he thought she was singing to Raoul himself.
The Phantom became angered as well and sang to Christine, "You try my patience, make your choice!"

Then she moved towards the monster with a new light in her eyes and sang softly and gently to him, "Pitiful creature of darkness… What kind of life have you known? God give me courage to show you, you are not alone!" and then she had kissed him.

Raoul was shocked that she would do such a thing, but at the time, he thought it was a way for her to let him live. For the monster had then let her go and she had come with Raoul. But somewhere in the back of his mind, he remembered that she had come reluctantly, and when he told her to go back and give the monster the ring back, she had tears in her eyes.

End Flashback

He looked at Christine with sadness and disbelief, and yes, anger. "You can't possibly love that… that… that hideous monster! Christine! He tried to kill us both! He is dead! And if he is alive, then he doesn't deserve to live, he deserves to be sent to Hell forever! He is nothing but a monster!" he yelled at Christine.

Christine stood up straighter and spat back at him "His name is Erik, and yes, I love him. More than I could ever love you. He isn't a monster, he is a man. You are the monster here, Raoul. Erik understood me more than anyone in the world ever understood me."

"Christine, you speak of what you do not know! He tried to kill me! For God's Sake Christine, he tried to kill me!"

"Raoul, you are the one speaking of what you do not know. He never would have killed you. Either way, he never would have, no matter which way I chose. He would never hurt me."

"Then why did he send you back to me?"

"To save me from the mob that was about to come and kill him. He didn't want anything to happen to me. And God knows that he didn't want me to see him if they killed him."

"Which they probably did, Christine, he is dead, so forget him, and stay here with me."

Christine spat, "He isn't dead Raoul, I know he isn't. You said it yourself, 'While he lives, he'll haunt us till we're dead.' And I know he is haunting you as much as he is haunting me. He isn't dead, it has only been a week, he could still be there waiting, or injured. I have to go to him. Raoul, don't you see? I love him."

"And if he kills you when you get there?"

"He won't, that I'm sure of. Does that mean… does that mean that you wont try to stop me from going to him?"

"I couldn't stop you from being happy Christine. And if you are not happy with me, then you have the right to go to the monster that will make you happy."

Christine frowned at him. "He is not a monster. He is the man that I love, so I'll thank you if you would stop calling him a monster."

Raoul sang under his breath, "Masquerade, paper faces on parade, masquerade, hide your face so the world will never find you. Masquerade, every face a different shade, masquerade, look around there's another mask behind you… Christine I love you" And she looked at him sadly and shook her head.

She went to he room to collect her few belongings, and to collect her wits, for she was afraid of what she might find in Erik's lair… or worse, shat she might find in his heart.