Erik

I will never forget that night.

After painfully tethering my horse in the stable, I struggled into our home and collapsed on the couch. My wife rushed up to me and tore open my shirt with a pair of tweezers in her hand. The cold from the night air had made the blood stop flowing, but this only meant that she had to cut a fresh wound to remove the bullet. I saw tears well up in her eyes as she cleaned a small pocket knife and opened the wound once more. I tried to hide my pain for her sake, but was only partly successful.

The tweezers were the worst by far. She carefully cleaned the utensil with rubbing alcohol so as not to infect my wound, and the set about extracting the bullet. After what seemed like an eternity, but was only actually a few minutes, she found the bullet embedded deep within the muscle of my shoulder. I cried out in searing pain as the bullet was extracted and Sabine began to clean my wound. She was sobbing as well by the time she found fresh linen to wrap around the wound.

"Here," she whispered as she came back from a brief visit to the kitchen. "Here's some brandy that should make you sleep."

I drank the liquor gratefully and in moments, I was asleep, but I was plagued by nightmares the entire night.

When I awoke in the morning, the first thing I noticed was that my mask had been removed and that I had been covered with a blanket. While my shoulder was much better from the previous night, it still ached very much and I could barely move it. Slowly, I sat up and noticed that the snow was falling softly outside our window. That's when I saw Sabine standing quietly by the window watching the snow fall and drinking tea.

I sat there staring at my beautiful wife. She had a dark red robe tied around her body and slippers on her feet. Her hair was a mess and her face looked tired but fair as she stared out the window in deep thought. She almost reminded me of an elf or a fairy from some mysterious land. I knew then as I gazed at her beautiful form that I would hold that image of her in my heart and mind for the rest of my life.

"Sabine," I whispered reluctantly after I had taken a mental picture of her and stored in my mind forever.

"Erik," she replied as she hastily put the cup of tea on the little table beside the couch and rushed over to my side. "How are you feeling, my love?"

"My shoulder still aches, but I'm sure it will be better with time. Are you all right? I had almost forgotten that you were raped at least three times. Are you going to be all right?"

"I'm a little sore," she answered, smiling sadly, "but I'll be all right. The world looks beautiful today. We're both alive, with minor injuries unfortunately, and it's Christmas Day! Merry Christmas, my dear."

"I forgot it was Christmas!" I exclaimed. "Merry Christmas to you too darling."

I lovingly wrapped my arms around her as she laid her head on my shoulder and we sat there for a long time staring at the beautiful Christmas tree by the fireplace and occasionally turning to the window to watch the steady snowfall. It would have been an extremely peaceful moment if we had not been preoccupied with the events of last evening. Still, we both knew that the Englishman was dead and that Christine was probably too broken to do anything about us now.

We spent Christmas Day eating, talking, kissing, and enjoying one another's company immensely. We didn't even dress the entire day and I found this very satisfying as I etched more pictures into my mind of her in that luscious red robe. As the evening wore on, I sang Christmas carols to her as we sat by the fireplace in each other's arms and stared into the embers.

After singing to her and almost lulling her to sleep, she looked into my eyes and as the fire burned to a soft glow, she laid down on the soft carpeting and removed her robe. As I bent down to kiss her lips and explore her body with my fingertips, she whispered, "Make love to me Erik."

Just those simple words evoked arousal within me, but I was too cautious because of previous events. I didn't want to push her into this so soon after what had happened the previous night.

"Are you sure? Are you still sore from the rape?"

"Please don't mention that," she whispered with such sadness that I immediately regretted my words. "I'm trying to forget that ever happened and even though I still hurt a little, I know you will be gentle and make it better."

I nodded as I removed the rest of my clothing and made gentle and sweet love to my darling.

When we had finished, we wrapped up in a blanket laying nearby and fell asleep under the Christmas tree before the dying embers of the fireplace.

About two weeks after the New Year, we received a letter from Madame Giry. She and Meg had decided to stay in London and Meg would be coming for their things in a few days. When Meg did arrive, she told Sabine that the reason they had decided to stay was that she had met an Englishman and had fallen in love. Madame Giry did not want to be so far away from her daughter, so they had both decided to stay in England. The house and most of the furniture would belong to us now. All I needed to do was to take care of a few arrangements with the bank and all would be settled.

After Meg left a few days later, I made the necessary arrangements and the house now belonged to us. That same day, after returning from the bank, I sat down with a brandy and read the newspaper as always. Suddenly, an article caught my eye. Diggers had gone down into the opera to bury phonographic records of singers when a few of them decided to try and find the infamous opera ghost. I smiled at this, but it soon faded as I finished the article. Apparently, they had found two bodies floating in the lake; one was male and the other female. After the police arrived, the bodies were taken to be autopsied. The male appeared to have died as the result of a bullet to his chest. The female had drowned.

I showed this to my wife and she put her arms around me and whispered, "I'm so sorry, dear. I know she was your first love."

"Yes she was my first, but not my true love."

"I almost lost you because of her…and him. I thank God every day and night that you were there to protect me and that you are still here today. Never leave me, Erik. I need you with me every minute of every day. I love you."

"I need you too, darling," I answered and kissed her forehead. "And I love you more than anything."

I kissed her lips and then simply held her as she laid her head against my body and sobbed.

There will be one more chapter after this. Thanks for reading!