I don't own the Phantom of the Opera or any of it's characters…. Damn! Gerard Butler is hot!
Chapter 33
Kristen sighed. This was not good. All around her tension brewed. Giry's eyes were like daggers, and Erik's eyes positioned on the lovely Christine, who dared not look back towards him. She stood there, and just watched. She watched the anger. What was it for?
"Erik" Christine whispered, finally gaining control of the ability to speak to him. Kristen could tell however, that she was frightened beyond her wits.
"This is ridiculous" Kristen said, and everyone looked to her. "Madam Giry, why are you here?" she asked.
"Christine?" Antoinette looked to the girl, waiting for her to answer for her.
"Oh… Good God" Kristen whispered to herself, and made for the organ bench. What was to become of this? Shadows, she figured, were the best security from this chaos. She sat in the darkness silently as the madness played itself out.
"I have come to ask you to- well. A, Erik."
Kristen nearly snorted. The hatred she had once felt for this woman slowly returned. A? no doubt she nearly called him Angel, the wench, Kristen thought. Erik was right, the girl really was a child, a dangerous child who could ruin everything. She saw him turn to look for her, then back to Christine.
Erik frowned. How dare they intrude? Besides the fact that Kristen was basically his wife, nothing else was to change.
"There are too many of you here. Madam Giry, take your daughter and leave." He ordered dryly. "Christine, you will stay. Madam Giry, this is now out of your hands." he said darkly. Kristen stood from the bench, and lifted the curtain, "Please go, Meg, I'll talk to you later about the Opera." And she winked at the young ballerina, as if to signal to Antoinette that Meg was there to talk to Kristen about the next production. Madam Giry nodded, and the two girls left.
Kristen hadn't felt this sort of satisfaction since the night Raoul died.
Christine turned, and looked to Kristen, "I'm sorry," she said quietly. Kristen shook her head.
"Don't be" She replied. She made her way to Erik's side, took his hand, and tried to smile at Christine. "We will help you." she offered. Erik looked down at Kristen with wide fierce eyes. Kristen returned his gaze with a certain authority she never expected herself to exert. "It is the only way to save the Populaire. Christine, you will take lessons only during the daytime, and in my presence. I know everything of the past, I will not have any more tragedy in this theatre. It is a long way from now, when you should need teaching. I will walk with you back to the surface."
Kristen then looked up at Erik, who seemed furious, although his hold on her hand was passionate. She slowly let go, allowing her touch to linger somewhat before she led Christine out of the dungeon.
"Why Christine?" Kristen asked, when they were out of range of the lair, although she knew Erik, he could be anywhere listening to them at the very moment.
The singer stopped, "Why what?" She asked.
"Why Erik?" Kristen's eyes conveyed sadness. She was so weary of the torment, the trouble involving Christine.
"It was Madam Giry's idea." she replied. "She told me to come here."
Kristen covered her eyes as they began once more to walk. For fear she would cry, she hid her sight. "I don't want to lose him Christine." She said, her voice a trembling whisper, and then she stopped once more, and leaned against the wall. "I love him." She took her hand away, and allowed long awaiting tears to cascade down her cheeks. All the while she tried strength. It ran out quickly. Trying to control her sobs, she looked to Christine,
"He loved you once, he could love you again." She said, the truth of that fact piercing the very heart within her chest.
Christine shook her head, "No… Kristen, if it is anything he feels for me, it is hatred. I've done him so much damage, I've caused him so much pain. How could he possibly find fondness for me now?"
"Because his past is one that he cannot bring himself to forget." Kristen returned, and then once more, began towards the surface, "Christine, I will warn you only once. You are to maintain a teacher/student relationship with him, do I make myself clear?" she asked sternly, stopping yet again in her tracks to face the singer, with almost as much madness, or pain, in her eyes as that in Erik's.
Christine nodded cautiously.
It would seem Kristen was picking up on his personality. "I will not lose him," and she said no more.
Upon reaching main level, Kristen opened the door for Christine, and then closed it, remaining in the stairwell. She would not stay with the girl any longer than was needed right now. Hurriedly, she descended back towards her home, oh how she worried.
Erik… she thought. She could remove the look in his eyes from her memory, and then as she entered, she was faced with them.
"What are you thinking Kristen?" Erik asked of her,
"I am thinking that you will teach her." she answered.
"You are creating a path of destruction for us both." he stood, and walked to her. She remained still, and waited. "The girl will part us. Mark my words." he said darkly. Cold chills ran up Kristen's body with his words. How dare he inflict her with unease? He was hers now! Right? She nearly growled, taking the mask from his face and throwing it onto a near by chair, she pushed him back towards the wall and kissed him madly,
"I am doing what is best for us." she said, operating her voice in such a way as to mimic his own darkness. He stared down at her, and she stared back, once more exchanging passionate gazes. It was all too amusing. This anger was almost foreplay. She kissed him again, deeply. "And our child." she spoke through their kiss, wrapping her arms around him, she didn't stop. It was strange and ironic to her that she now preferred conflict in the bedroom.
"Can I not trust you to stay in bed when you are ill?" Madam Giry asked Meg, "What were you doing down there. It is dangerous there, I can't even understand why Kristen prefers to live there, in that hole, with him!"
"She loves him!" Meg yelled, ripping her arm away from the hold her mother had on her, "And it is not a hole, it is a lovely place, and my best friend Kristen happens to live there. Why are you so cold towards me mother? What makes me different next to Kristen, or Christine, or any other of your ballet students?"
"Because you are my daughter Meg, you are far more important to me than they are. I know something is going on, something you are keeping secret from me, and I refuse to believe that you were in the cellars talking to Kristen about the productions. I know that if you wanted to talk about that you would have come to me. I am not stupid, what is going on?"
"She is seeing Nadir."
Meg nearly fainted as she saw Christine behind her mother. She felt sick almost immediately. Clutching her stomach, she backed away towards a wall, and rested, her thoughts becoming distorted after the way Antoinette paused in a mad glance. It was surprising how much a moment's shock could inflict minutes of discomfort.
"What!" Was the ballet mistress's response.
"Tell her Meg. You are having an affair with Nadir."
Meg ran. She ran from her mother, from Christine, and perhaps from a life she felt would soon fall apart. Neither of the two made to follow.
Antoinette turned to Christine, "What is all this?"
"I saw them together. I thought you should know, because she had planned to keep this a secret from you."
"He is too old for her, and less than sane. His past is one that I will not allow to be shared with my daughter. He will ruin her life."
Christine watched Meg disappear into the shadows of a walkway in the distance. In a way she regretted what she had just done, but something in her heart told her that telling Madam Giry was the right thing to do. She herself had fallen victim to the love of a strange man before, and she knew the consequences.
Meg found a hiding place. The attic above the theatre. This must have been where Erik disabled the chandelier, and put fire to the Populaire. It was quiet, and empty, and she cried. Christine. How dare she interfere? No one interfered withher when she turned away poor Erik to be with that rat Raoul, and no one interfered with her when she decided to return to the opera house after he had just found happiness with Kristen. Everyone loved Christine, and it seemed to her that they still did, even more so than they noticed her, the little ballerina, one of many, right? Just one of many. They wouldn't need her.
Just as she stood to find Nadir, the door opened, and there he stood. Never before had she been so happy to seem him. But the expression on his face did not match her emotions just then.
"Meg, you've been crying?" Nadir whispered, and walked to her. Embracing her warmly, he asked, 'What's happened."
"My mother knows." she said, allowing herself the comfort of his arms, "you should have seen the look in his eyes Nadir, she was positively mad. It's over, it will never work out, you and I…" She looked up at him, her eyes bloodshot and her cheeks red from her anguish, "We were supposed to be happy." The young girl could literally feel her ambitions crushing along with her heart. Why must love cost so much? Love, if love was the feeling he gave her by just being there, then perhaps she really was in love with him. "Nadir, what do you feel for me?" she asked him, looking up into his eyes, which were filled with worry.
"I feel enough for you to see that this place is destroying you," he said, drying her tears with soft touches, "Look at your tears, how did she find out?"
"Christine told her," She replied between sobs, "she just came right out and said it, as if it were nothing more to her than good gossip."
Nadir closed his eyes, and strengthened the embrace. It was horrible. He knew why she would not want her daughter in his company, but the way that it happened… it was disgusting. "Come away with me," he whispered to her. She felt her own heart stop. Had she just heard what she thought she heard? She looked up at him,
"To Persia you mean?"
"To Persia." he said.
Kristen laughed behind closed lips. All candles had been blown out at least two hours ago, and nothing remained but darkness. She could feel him however, beside her, both of them were without their clothing, their only cover was shadow.
"You're laughing." he said quietly.
She placed her hand to the right side of his face, and found his lips. Not too long ago, this was her reality, the state of constant shadow. A while ago she would have been frightened, but not now, not after having so much faith in their love. "You make me happy," she whispered to him. She leaned into him, near exhaustion. Nothing exceeded this moment in joy for her. All thought of Christine and Meg and Nadir had faded from her. She placed her hands on her stomach, feeling the tiniest bump where their child rested.
She then felt his hand come to her stomach, and was surprised that although she could see nothing, she knew before hand what his intentions were.
"I wonder if our child is a boy or girl," She pondered in near silence.
"There are ways to…"
"No Erik!" Kristen responded in haste, "I would rather it… be a surprise." She heard the soundless laugh come from somewhere behind her, and she instantly sat up and looked, then remembering all of his trickery, made to smack him on the shoulder, "Erik, don't do that, please, not while the lights are out."
He sat up beside her, and all of a sudden there was a candle, and flame. Realizing she was stark naked in her position, she pulled the covers up over herself, then witnessed the puzzled expression in Erik's eyes.
"Why do you hide your beauty?" he asked her, sitting the candle on an elegant wooden table beside the swan bed. She omitted the lightest sigh,
"I'm sorry, my love," she said, "I guess it was just a reflex." She allowed him to remove the silk red sheet from her feminine form. His touch was the softest feeling in existence to her. Every time his hands and her skin made contact, her heart rate seemed to accelerate to unimaginable speeds. He moved his hands slowly from her shoulders, to her chest, her abdomen, admiring every part of her as if she were a masterpiece. To him, she was the greatest masterpiece ever created.
He softly kissed her, "I love you, Kristen" he told her, his eyes filled with a care he rarely showed for anything else any more. She smiled against the lips which once more claimed another kiss.
"I love you too Erik," She told him.
"She won't know I'm gone" Meg said, "Not for a while." She quickly, yet carefully, packed her belongings into a plain brown leather bag. She didn't have much, and she was willing to leave behind anything she would not need.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Nadir asked her, watching the anxiety in her eyes. Every few seconds Meg turned from her bed where the bag lay, and looked over to the door, which threatened to open at any moment presenting to her an angry mother.
Meg looked up to Nadir. "All my life I have remained here, and all my life everyone I love has left me here. Christine left me, all my friends who fled the scene that the phantom… I mean, Erik caused, have left. I have no one left here, except Kristen and my mother, and my mother will make me into a full time ballerina for another five years, and then what? After I am twenty or so, my career will be over, and then what will I have? I will be here alone, again. You… make me feel something I have never felt before, I don't want to let go of that." She couldn't believe she'd managed these words, and she couldn't believe the smile she saw on his face after she'd said them. "I cannot stay here and dance behind everyone else who takes a higher rank on that stage." She closed the bag, put it on the floor, and began to make her bed. She was moving much too fast, in such a hurry she was. He gently took her arms, and stopped her,
"You cannot just leave though." he told her. At these words she nearly fainted, again. Then was completely relieved when he said, "At least leave a note for them."
She did this. And just as night began to fall over Paris, Meg left the Populaire, taking one last glance at the building she lived her whole life in. In a carriage which had been waiting near one of the back exits, she started a new life with Nadir.
