Thanks for the reviews everyone.
In this chapter Madame Giry finds Erik while an old friend of his returns. Christine also arives to find her Angel of Music. Dark Erik, Adult Language, Violence, Angst.
What New Surprises Are in Store?
Madame Giry let out a cry as she walked over to Erik. "My God…" was all she could repeat. She saw him dangling by the noose at the foot of the Phoenix bed. His body was limp and she thought for sure he was dead. She ran out to find a chair and something to cut the rope.
She ran to Erik's desk where he would write to the managers and grabbed a knife and the chair. She dragged the chair back to Christine's bedroom where Erik was still hanging there.
Madame Giry cut the rope as Erik's body fell to the floor. She was still shocked and horrified as to what she was witnessing. Her shaky hands went to his chest to hear for a heart beat.
"Why Erik? You could've talked to me. You could have worked things out…" She cried, talking to him so that maybe he would come back.
"Damn it Erik! Wake up!" She screamed.
Christine rode towards the Opera House fast. She never really learned how to ride a horse properly but she was frustrated at her Angel. 'Why would he do that?'
She saw another person on a horse right by the Opera House; he immediately jumped off and ran for the building. Christine got closer and got off of her horse. She saw the man's face and could not believe who she saw. "Excuse me." She yelled.
The man turned around and looked towards her direction. "The Persian…" Christine said fascinated. She remembered him at the Opera House from a long time ago. He came there when she was 11, and mysteriously disappeared when she turned 14. He would be at every performance, and actually became a legend himself, though nothing compared to that of the Opera Ghost. He is a very powerful man, or so she heard. And he is a very mysterious person. A lot like how her Angel is. Sometimes she even heard rumors of them being acquaintances. On some occasions she saw him sitting in Box 5 for a couple of Operas.
She walked over to him but he looked like he was in a hurry as well. She noticed he was holding a letter in his right hand. He laughed when he heard 'The Persian', it became like a second name to him in the past. "Actually, Mademoiselle, You can call me Nadir." He held out his free hand to her and they shook hands. "But I'm terribly sorry I have to meet with someone. Goodbye." He said running back to the Opera House. He ran inside as Christine wondered why he would go there to meet someone.
He found one of Erik's many secret passages and ran down through the maze to get to him. Meanwhile Christine went straight to her old dressing room.
Madame Giry sat by Erik's side crying. She felt a pulse in his neck but she was unable to wake him up. She just sat there waiting for him to wake up.
"Hello?" A male voice called.
Madame Giry's head went up in the direction of the foreign male voice.
"Hello?" He repeated.
"Help!" Madame Giry yelled back. Nadir ran into the room and nearly fell into shock with her.
"What happened?" He said walking over to Erik's body. He checked for a pulse.
"He tried to commit suicide." She whispered. She sat there in silence still questioning what was going on. She knew he was unhappy, but she did not see him taking his own life. Though it would make sense given all he's been through. But she just couldn't imagine him doing it. Her negative thoughts gave way as new hopes appeared.
"Allah be praised! He still has a pulse." Nadir proclaimed smiling. "Go get cold water for him." He asked Madame Giry. She got up and ran out to the lake to get some water for him.
Nadir looked over and saw a box that was left open. Inside he saw the morphine Erik used. "Not again." He muttered. Madame Giry returned with a bucket of water and a small towel, she gave the bucket of water to Nadir. He immediately splashed the water on Erik and he twitched, but did not wake up.
"Wait…that was your plan" She questioned the Persian, "To splash water on him?"
"Normally it works!" He replied back. "Try again." He said back to her. She listened and walked back out to get more water.
"Forgive me, old friend." Nadir said looking at him, and then started slapping him across the face. Madame Giry walked in and screamed.
"What in the name of all that is holy are you doing to him!"
"It's ok…this will wake him up." He replied.
"No this will get him angry." She said. Then she took the towel and soaked it in the cold water. She dampened his face to try and get him to wake up. Nadir took the bucket again and splashed the water on his face for the 2nd time, but he still did not wake up.
"Damn." The Persian cursed and Madame Giry rolled her eyes. They then both heard the sound of a boat going through the lake. Madame Giry looked out and saw Christine coming to shore and getting out.
"Angel! Come here! I need to speak with you!" She yelled looking around for him. She was obviously very angry with what he did to her house and all of her stuff. She looked over and saw Nadir and her Maman. They both walked in front of Erik's body to block her view.
"What are you two doing here?" She questioned.
"We are here to speak with Erik." Nadir answered.
"Well then that makes three of us. Is he home?" Christine asked walking towards them.
"No he isn't." Madame Giry lied. Christine looked to her and Nadir and felt suspicious of the way they were acting. She looked around and saw that right behind Nadir was a boot sticking out.
"Who's that?" Christine said pointing behind them. She didn't wait for their reply; she just walked past them and saw Erik's body on the floor with a noose near by.
"Oh my God, what happened?" She cried kneeling down next to him. "Who did this?" She yelled wanting an answer.
"He did." Madame Giry said softly.
Christine looked down at him in disbelief. "No…he wouldn't" She sobbed and paused. She looked to Nadir and asked, "Is he dead?"
"No. He's going to wake up soon though."
Christine looked down on her former mentor and cried. A part of her felt it was her fault. "I'm so sorry." She said to him and kept repeating it. She placed her head on his chest and continued crying and saying sorry.
"It's not your fault my dear." Madame Giry said placing a hand on her shoulder. Christine looked over to Madame Giry and hugged her. She hung on and cried all the tears and frustration she has felt for such a long time.
"There there." Madame Giry comforted her, trying herself not to shed any more tears.
Nadir got more water and splashed it on Erik. This time it worked. Erik opened his eyes. He hesitated, not entirely sure where he was at. When he realized he was alive and in his lair he got frustrated. "No…" He said.
"Thank God!" Madame Giry exclaimed when she saw him wake up. Christine turned around and faced him.
"Damn you…" Erik repeated realizing he wasn't dead. "Damn it!" He yelled again.
"Erik, we saved your life…what the hell is wrong with you?" Nadir snapped at him.
"I don't want to be saved!" He yelled. "Do you think my letters to you were cries for help? No! They were to really say goodbye."
"Erik, we're here to help you…" Madame Giry started to comfort him but he coldly rejected her pity.
"I don't want your help!" He said looking over to her and for the first time he realized Christine was there.
"Perfect." He said sarcastingly. "Did you not listen to a word I said before, Antoinette?"
"She came on her own accord. I left the manor by myself to see what was wrong. She came later on." Madame Giry replied.
Erik tried to get up and Nadir offered a hand to help him but Erik was too stubborn. He ignored his gesture and found a chair to help him up on his feet. He stared at Christine wondering why she would come here. But then he remembered what he did to her house, and why he did it. So far his plan has not worked.
Christine was still crying but when she found her voice she began to talk, "Why?"
"Why what? Why did I tear up your home?" Erik replied.
"That is what I originally came to ask. But now I don't really care too much about that. I want to know why you would do such things…"
"What? Kill myself?" Erik sneered. "You wonder why I would do that. Well even an idiot could figure that one out Christine."
Christine stood speechless.
"Erik, don't say mean things to Christine…" Madame Giry said.
Erik laughed at the thought, "Oh, poor little Christine. She was called an idiot. How horrible! That must hurt a lot." He paused and looked at both Madame Giry and Christine. "Try being called 'The Devil's Child', or 'The Living Corpse', or a monster, or a demon! How about an ugly little bastard child?" He paced around them and started fuming. They obviously started something inside of him that has been built up for some time. "What about a 'thing'," Erik walked over to Christine and continued, "I know your precious Vicomte has called me that a lot of times."
Erik slowed down from his ranting and continued, "Or how about having someone tell you that your soul is deformed. That everything about you is deformed." He gave Christine a cold hard look.
"Angel…" She cried.
"For God's sakes! I'm not your Angel!" He yelled. Christine jumped back at his yelling and felt the world around her begin to spin.
"Don't you get it yet? Your father is DEAD." Erik started ranting again. "There is no afterlife. There is no God. There is NO ANGEL OF MUSIC!"
Christine's knees gave out and she fell. "Your father lied to you Christine, he promised you an angel, but you got a devil. Your father is not in heaven, he's not watching over you. The only place he is in is a dark cold grave and you will never see him again."
Madame Giry's mouth dropped open; she could not believe the words coming out of his mouth. Christine cried at his feet. "No…that's not true!"
Erik grabbed her arms and forced her to look at him. "It is true Christine." She pushed away from him and felt the vile in her throat rush up. She ran over to the lake and vomited from all the crying that she had done.
Never before had she felt so disgusted with him. She got into the boat and started rowing away. Her cries were so loud that Erik was sure they would still hear her when she got to her room.
Nadir looked over to Madame Giry expecting her to run after Christine but he saw her staring at Erik with such disbelief. He had a feeling they were going to have a long discussion about what he just said. So he decided to run after Christine to make sure she was ok.
"How dare you say that to her!" Madame Giry slapped him across the face. She had never been so furious with him in all her life. He gave no reply and she pushed him backwards. For a woman her age she showed great strength and was actually able to make him stumble back.
"Why would you say that?" She screamed, inches away from his face.
"I already told you before. Now I know she will never want anything to do with me." He replied.
"But you broke her heart in the process. You destroyed her spirit."
"Well maybe she needs to realize life is NOT a fairy tale. And that dreams don't come true. She needs to come to terms with reality." Erik looked away from her and added, "You may show yourself out of here." Erik left the room but Madame Giry sat there soaking in everything that has happened.
"Christine!" Nadir yelled. Christine ran from him, she did not want to talk to anyone. But her sobbing made her weak and she fell from exhaustion onto the cold hard floor. Nadir ran over to her and held her up. She began crying uncontrollably, she rested her head on his shoulder and started to cry for her dad. Tears began to sting in his eyes as he heard her crying to her deceased father. Rage built up in him knowing Erik caused her this pain. He had no right to say any of that. "Papa…" she yelled.
"I'm sorry Christine." Nadir said hugging her. "Erik did not mean what he said." He also knew why he trashed her house and why he was trying to get her angry.
"Yes he did mean it." She cried. Nadir handed her his handkerchief and she thanked him.
"No he didn't. He's trying to get you angry."
"Why would he want to do that?"
"You see, Erik has a weird way of thinking. He doesn't really think and act like most people would. In his mind, in order for you to move on you'd have to hate him. He could not come up with any other way for you to live your life." He paused and sighed. "I guess when he saw you here he felt his plan did not succeed and he thought irrationally."
"He didn't have to say all those horrible things."
"I know. But Erik doesn't know how to handle certain situations."
"Why doesn't he?" Christine asked.
"I guess because no body taught him how to act, or how to behave. He didn't face the normal challenges of childhood. You know the kind of challenges that help build character, and learning lessons for life."
Christine sat quietly listening to what Nadir had to say. Eventually he added, "And his time in Persia did not help much either."
"What happened there?"
"Erik was a magician, sort to say, and was very well known in Europe and parts of Asia. The Shah of Persia asked me to fetch him. And so I did. I traveled to Russia, where he was currently at, and I took him back to Persia. In some ways, I regret taking him there. Sometimes I think Erik would have been better off traveling."
"Why? What happened to Erik there?" Christine had become fascinated; she knew hardly anything about his past.
"A lot of times entertainment in foreign countries usually contains people dying or being tortured. The victims were mostly criminals, though. The Shah decided to have Erik invent ways to torture people…" Nadir stopped to find a better way to describe everything. "I rather not go into details, but he invented ways to kill them. And sometimes took part in physically killing people with his lasso, rather than just sending them into a torture chamber. Erik eventually killed hundreds to thousands of people."
Christine gasped at his words. In her mind she remembered what she told Raoul after Buquet's death. 'If he has to kill a thousand men, the Phantom of the Opera will kill and kill again!' She may have been scared and confused, but she didn't truly believe he would kill so many. Tears again formed in her eyes.
"Erik changed, a lot from the time I took him there until the day I took him away. He was different, and not in a good way." Again the Persian took in a deep breath and continued, "He almost…enjoyed killing those people." He heard Christine gasping and he sighed. "The Shah definitely changed him. But eventually, the Shah wanted him dead. I felt so sorry for Erik, and all that has happened to him in his past. Erik became a wanted man, and as the Daroga I was expected to capture him and bring him back to his death. And I would not allow that to happen. I asked him where he would be safe, where was his home. And he told me Paris. So I took him here and he returned to Madame Giry."
"Is Erik the same way he was back then?" Christine asked.
"No. Back in Persia he seemed a lot different than how he is now. When we were in Persia he was doing drugs…"
"What?" Christine asked with a shocked look on her face.
"Yes, drugs. He did opium but eventually got too addicted to it. So I offered him morphine. But yet again he got addicted to that, and he continued using drugs until he met you."
"Why did he quit when he met me?"
"I don't know why. That's something you would have to ask him."
Madame Giry walked up the tunnel and found them on the ground. "There you are Mon chéri."
"Come now Christine, I think we should get you home." Nadir said. Christine got up and walked ahead of them into her old room through the mirror. Nadir told Madame Giry that she now knows about Erik in Persia. "Maybe it would be best if she knew about him." Nadir continued.
"I don't know. I really don't know what to do or even think."
"Do you think Erik will attempt suicide again?"
"I don't think so. Are you going to stay here and make sure?" She asked Nadir.
"Yeah, I'll keep an eye on him." He replied.
"Ok. Take care." Madame Giry said and headed towards Christine. She held her arm across the younger girl's shoulder and walked out the Opera house doors once more.
