Chapter 2

"Christine!" Raoul yelled from the doorstep of his house.

"Raoul?" Christine turned around from the step of the carriage she was about to climb into and gave her fiancé a look of confusion. "What is it?" Raoul ran towards her, picked her up, twirled her around, and then leaned in for one of the most passionate kisses he had ever given her. "What was that for?" Christine asked with a smile on her face.

"I love you Christine. Take care, please, be careful."

"Raoul," Christine replied with a wicked grin, "You have been telling me that you love me almost every five minutes ever since our discussion yesterday afternoon! I'm afraid that I'm starting to tire of hearing it!" Christine laughed, but then leaned in to whisper to Raoul so that none of the watching servants could hear what she said. "I love you too Raoul and I will never tire of hearing you proclaim your feelings for me." Raoul gave her one more lingering kiss, and then placed her into the carriage that would take her to Paris. He watched as the carriage pulled out onto the dirt road, but couldn't help feeling like he had just made the biggest mistake of his life. Raoul stood in the driveway staring at the back of the carriage for five more minutes before slowly turning around to go back into his house.

As soon as he entered the house, Raoul could sense the stares of all the servants. They respected him; he never gave them too much work to do, and treated them as he would his friends, but they didn't know the full story. All the servants knew was that one night, their master returned late from a trip to the opera in dirty, damp clothes, with a tear stained face, and an equally messy young lady asleep in his arms. They knew that something dramatic and important happened that night, but they never found out just what.

Raoul was on the verge of tears, he couldn't believe he was giving her up again. He did tell Christine that Erik was nothing but a man, but the phantom of the opera was one of the most inhuman men that had ever existed. He just needed to trust Christine, and he hoped with all his heart that the kiss they shared by the coach would not be their last.

Christine was equally emotional. Erik, the opera ghost, was powerful, and he wanted her. She worried that he had already left his home by the lake. She had no idea what he did after she left with Raoul, but he had to have left, at least temporarily; an angry mob was coming for him after all! Christine didn't know what she was going to do when she got to Paris. She couldn't just sit there, doing nothing. Her nerves were too strong. "I don't even know if I will be able to find him." she revisited her previous thoughts. Luckily for Christine, the ride was not long; it was really only a day trip from Raoul's mansion, but she would need more than a day for this trip.

The carriage pulled up to an expensive hotel in Paris, not incredibly far from the Paris Opera house, Christine noticed. She took the lift up to her room, it was beautiful. The room was ornately decorated with mini sculptures covering almost every surface. The room had a balcony that looked out upon the Opera House, and a huge bathroom, with fixtures covered in gold. Christine sat down on the bed, soaking in the beauty around her, and whispered, "Raoul, I wish you were here." Before she knew it, tears were pouring down her face, but she couldn't know that at the exact same moment, Raoul, who had barricaded himself in his study, was also weeping.

The morning sun slowly crept over Christine, gradually warming her body. She almost screamed when she woke up, forgetting easily that she was in a hotel, and expected to wake up in her room in Raoul's house. A new wave of nerves swept over her as she remembered last nights events and what she had to do today.

Christine, who had nothing better to do, decided to track down Erik the only way she knew how without actually entering the opera house. Nadir. The man who betrayed Erik was sure to be one of the only ones who knew of his whereabouts. The Persian, who was well known in Paris, lived in a house a couple of miles from the Christine's hotel and the opera house. He definitely wasn't expecting Christine.

"Mademoiselle Daee!" Nadir cried when he saw the identity of his announced visitor. "What are you doing here? I would have thought that surely you would be as far away from the opera house as possible!"

"Actually, I am staying a few hours away with the vicomte. I have returned to Paris on a very important… mission; I guess you could call it that."

"Mademoiselle… I don't want to invade your private life, but I feel I have a responsibility to protect people from… him. Please tell me that the goal of your visit is not to visit Erik?"

"It is… but he won't harm me."

"You can never be too sure of that mademoiselle."

"Could I just ask, do you know where he is? Is he still at his house?" Christine shook off the Persian's warning, not wanting to believe what he said was true.

"Mademoiselle, I am afraid that he has died. He posted an ad in the paper himself before he passed. I am to go in a few days to bury him… but he might have left something for you. A note, maybe… He didn't mention anything though."

"Thank you, Monsieur for all of your help .I really need to be going, however. I promised the Vicomte that I would rest before I gave Erik a visit, not that he's here to check up on me."

"You mean you came alone? That's lunacy!"

"I think that Erik would be more welcoming to me by myself than if I were accompanied by the Vicomte."

"Yes, I suppose so, but do you wish for me to accompany you?" Nadir inquired.

"No. I think that right now, I am one of the only people on Erik's best side, which isn't saying much, because I imagine he hates me for what I did for him… but I think he still loves me… I hope at least! That might be the only way I can get through to him."

"I understand. I am happy to be able to have helped. I wish you luck, although; if you find anything down in his house, treat it with caution!"

Christine dressed in a plain dress, no extra decorations. She didn't know what kind of journey she was going to have to take to get to Erik's lair and didn't want to ruin one of her better dresses. She barely ate anything for breakfast and slowly made her way down to the lobby, where she instructed her driver to take her to the Opera Populaire, Rue Scribe entrance. The trip to the Opera house was much shorter than Christine had hoped. She stepped out into the sunshine with her two maids, both very curious about the task ahead of them. "We are going to pay a visit to an old… friend." Christine didn't feel like retelling the whole story two the two women, but she felt very odd calling Erik a friend. She had never thought of him that way. "I had better be getting used to the idea." Christine mumbled to herself.

"What did you say Mademoiselle?" One of the women asked.

"Oh, nothing, nothing at all." Christine responded very absentmindedly. She could only focus on one thing. The Opera Ghost. "Listen carefully." Christine told the two young ladies. "The vicomte has asked me to instruct you that should anything happen to me, one of you will stay with me, while the other will go get help. Is that okay?" The two servants nodded, not daring to question their master's orders.

They three traveled down a dark, damp tunnel, in almost complete silence, save for their echoing footsteps and the sound of water dripping, magnified by the stone walls. Soon, they were able to hear the soft lapping of water on a shore. When they made the final turn out of the tunnel, a huge underground lake was made visible, the two servants gasped, never knowing such a thing existed.

"We had better wait here." Christine explained solemnly. "He will be able to detect us if he is still here, I imagine."

"Mademoiselle, if I may ask…" One of the women whispered, "Who is this 'he' you talk about?" Christine took a deep breath, thinking about her answer and choosing her words carefully. She was about to respond, when a cold voice stopped her.

"Get off of my property, right now."