Chapter 17- Until The Fat Lady Screams.

Erik was completely silent. Of all the questions he had expected Christine to ask him, he had not been expecting that one. He couldn't answer her. He just couldn't... What if she didn't have feelings for him, and that her asking of the question was simply a way of confirming her suspicions.

"Erik?" Christine said softly. Erik looked down at the floor, trying to think of an answer.

"Just tell her, she asked you a question so why don't you just tell her?" Said a little voice in the back of Erik's mind.

"Because if I tell her then it could ruin the 'relationship' that we have already." Erik Argued back, but that was not enough to satisfy the voice.

"Are you frightened?" The voice was positively shouting at him now.

"Yes..." Said Erik out loud, then he suddenly realised what he had said, he had both given an answer to the voice, and an answer to Christine's question.

"Now that's more like it!" Cried the voice triumphantly, Christine however, had an expression on her face that was completely unreadable. Erik simply continued to look at Christine, trying to work out what was going on in her mind, to look past her eyes into her mind.

There was a very long silence. Erik was now trying to decide whether it would be best to get up and leave her alone. However something was rooting him to the spot where he stood. Then, without warning, Christine ran up to Erik and flung her arms around him.

"I love you too..." She whispered in his ear.

Erik put his arms around Christine. He felt as though his heart was beginning to melt. For a long time they just stood there, holding each other.

"That'll teach you for accusing me of being frightened!" Erik thought.

After what had seemed like a lifetime, they let go of each other, gazing into each others eyes. Erik had the strong urge to lean forward and kiss Christine, but thought better of it. He would go at Christine's pace, not his.

"I'd better get back..." Said Christine, looking straight into Erik's piercing blue eyes. "If Meg was suspicious of where I was, then others may be as well."

"I understand." Replied Erik.

Christine and Erik made their way back to the boat, hand in hand. A short trip across the lake and down a passage they stood at the bottom of the great spiral staircase. Christine had just remembered something.

"What's this amazing short-cut that you have invented?" She asked, looking up at Erik.

"It's just over here." He said, leading her away from the foot of the staircase.

They were standing on what seemed to be a very sturdy wooden platform, which was attached to several lengths of very thick strong rope. The platform was about two metres square.

"Hold on tight..."

"To what?" Asked Christine.

"Good Point..." He pulled Christine close to him and kicked a metal mechanism.

At once they started rocketing upwards. Christine actually had to close her eyes to stop herself from being sick. Eventually the platform shuddered to a halt. She opened her eyes, to see Erik smiling at her.

"If you thought that was fun you should try going down on it." He said, his voice very mischievous.

"Well..." Said Christine very quietly. "It's certainly a lot faster than the stairs..." Erik gave a small chuckle at this.

"Ummm, can we get off of here now?" Asked Erik, for Christine had been clinging to him as though the world was about to explode.

"Oh...yes." They got off the platform. Erik clicked his fingers and the passageway down to the mirror was illuminated by the arm-held torches. They walked down the passageway to the mirror, and Erik opened it. "When can I see you again?"

"Soon I expect, after all, the production of Faust is fast approaching and you will have to be trained up for that."

"OK, I'll see you soon then Erik." And with that, she gave him a swift kiss on the cheek, and stepped into her room.

Erik closed the mirror, but he did not leave immediately. He stood and gazed at Christine. Eventually however, she left, and Erik, seeing that the clock on her mantle piece showed it was 6 o'clock, turned and headed back down to his lair.

-

"If you do not learn to point those toes properly before we start the next production then so help me!" Madame Giry had been teaching her lesson for just under an hour now. She was still so angry with Meg that she seemed to be criticising everybody. "OK girls, that is enough."

The ballet girls sighed with relief. Meg was still looking rather pale, though that could have been due to the 'short-cut' of Erik's rather than Erik himself.

"It's almost time for dinner." Said Madame Giry in a very strangled voice, the short-cut had obviously shaken her a bit too. "You better go and get changed Meg."

"Yes mother..." She turned and headed to the dressing room. Madame Giry started to make her way towards the dining room. She was about half way there, when a voice called out to her.

"Madame Giry!" It was Christine. She too seemed to be very pale.

"Did Erik give you a ride on his amazing invention?" Asked Madame Giry, a grin crossing her face.

Christine didn't answer, but instead started to walk with Madame Giry down to the dining room. They were silent for a couple of minutes, until Christine spoke.

"I hope you weren't too hard on Meg. Were you?"

Madame Giry Smiled, then said, in a would-be casual tone. "It wasn't so much Meg, more the whole of my class."

Christine laughed. They entered the dining room and discovered that they were the first two there, closely followed by Meg, who immediately sat down next to Christine.

"So, how are you and lover boy getting on?" Christine blushed about seven different shades of red and then remembered that Meg didn't know what had happened after she left.

"Very well thanks." Replied Christine, starting to tuck into her dinner.

"Well?"

"I think so. I mean, I don't feel ill or anything." Meg rolled her eyes at Christine's sarcasm and then started to tuck into her dinner as well.

"Ooo gow wut I mern!" Said Meg as best she could, through a mouthful of mashed potato.

"Uhhhh, pardon?"

"Meg Giry! Don't speak with your mouth full!" Boomed Madame Giry from the opposite side of the table. Meg blushed a very deep shade of crimson.

Meg swallowed with what appeared to be great difficulty, "Sorry Mother." She replied. She turned back to Christine. "I said, you know what I mean."

"Yes of course I do." Said Christine, very slyly.

"So...?" Pressed Meg

"So what?" Christine could now see that Meg was getting very annoyed with her, which she was quite pleased about.

"Oh that's it. I give up." Meg then concentrated on her food.

The rest of dinner was quite uneventful. It was only at the very end when the two managers entered the room. This was quite unusual, if they were going to dine in the Opera House, then they would have been with them from the start of dinner. There was total silence.

"We have a few announcements to make. the first of which is one which I would rather not need to say." Began Firmin. "Due to the recent death of Joseph Bouquet, we have decided that we must impress on all of you to take extreme caution whenever..."

Christine did not hear the rest of Firmin's words. She was angry at the thought of Bouquet, yet angry at the thought of Erik killing him as well.

"...and never wander around the Opera House alone whenever possible." There was a long silence, followed by a lot of worried muttering.

"Next!" Began André, raising a hand for silence. "It is our great pleasure to announce that the next production that we will be putting on will be..." There was a long pause, during which both André and Firmin seemed to admire the tension in the air. Christine however already had a good idea what it was, and was not surprised when she heard André boom out the word. "... FAUST!"

This had the intended effect on most of them. There was a lot of excited muttering, followed by a loud round of applause for the two managers. Christine tried the best she could to look as though this piece of information was nothing new to her. One person however was not happy.

"And I suppose that little Miss Christine Daae will be taking the lead yet again, WILL SHE?" Carlotta's screech of a voice rang out from the far end of the table.

Firmin started to massage his neck. "Ummmm...well, we haven't decided on the...the cast list yet." He stammered. Piangi now looked ready to kill, yet left the talking to Carlotta.

"IF YOU ARE GOING TO LET THAT BLOODY PHANTOM DICTATE THIS PRODUCTION AS WELL, THEN I AM OUT OF HERE!" She shouted to the whole room, brandishing her fan.

"Well, I'm sure that you could..." Began André, but he stopped mid sentence. He could have sworn that he just saw the eyes of a portrait move, and looking back at it, he saw two very angry blue eyes, which quite clearly said.

If you even think of giving that toad the main female role, it will be your head in the noose.

"Ah ha I see!" She said in a very cunning tone. "You try to get me to stay long enough so that my dear Piangi will be the leading male. Well let me tell you, we are not going to stand for this like we did for Il Muto! Are we Piangi?"

Piangi looked startled at being brought into the conversation. "No absolutely not."

"SO!" She screamed at the managers. "You can take your production of Faust, and go ahead an shove it right up your..."

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Bellowed Madame Giry. "If you do not want to take part in this production because you have to much of a craving for the limelight, then perhaps your place is not here, and Piangi..." Piangi looked over at Madame Giry. "Good luck at finding somewhere else to perform. I am sure you will do very well."

These last few words startled Piangi. He was expecting them to beg him to stay even if Carlotta had to go. He gave them a swift nod.

"Right," Said Firmin. "You heard the lady. If you're not happy with the casting, which, I might add, hasn't been decided yet, then you can leave." Christine thought that this was rather brave of Firmin, who she had always imagined to be very naïve when it came to dealing with Carlotta.

Carlotta had a look of deep disgust on her face, then got up abruptly, grabbed Piangi, and they both stormed out of the dining room together. A loud cheer from the rest of the room helped to send them on their way.

"What are we going to do now?" Said André in a very worried voice. "No leading male, oh well, at least that bloody woman is gone, you win some and you lose some I suppose..." His voice trailed off sadly.

"Don't worry, messieurs. I will begin auditioning for a new leading male immediately. Who knows? We may even find someone that is better than Piangi."

André looked as though he seriously doubted this, but did not think much more on the subject.

Firmin turned to Madame Giry. "Thank you Antoinette, that would be much appreciated." He turned to the rest of the people in the room. "Well, we will have scripts for all of you in due course. In the meantime, get well rested for the rehearsals."

With that, he and André turned and left the dining room and headed towards their office. The excited murmurs started up again. Everybody was talking about the same thing. Who was going to replace Piangi?

"Carlotta is gone. Oh I could sing!" Cried out Meg. Everybody in the room murmured their agreement.

"Go ahead." Said Christine. "It must be better than hers. Mind you, anybody can sing better than that toad!"

"Here's to Christine." Said Madame Giry suddenly, raising her glass. "The official Prima Donna."

Erik, who had been standing in a concealed passageway behind a portrait, couldn't help but give a very wide smile. It was a good feeling to know that the toad had finally left the Opera Populaire, hopefully never to return, though he knew that he couldn't count on that.

"Come on Christine, let's go for a walk." Said Meg, rising from her chair.

"Where to?" She asked.

"Oh... I don't know, to the roof I guess." With that, they left the dining room.

They walked past the manager's office on their way to the roof. Christine couldn't make out exactly what they were saying, but it sounded like they were discussing the cast list for Faust. Eventually, they reached the roof, Meg breathed in the cool night air, and they both went and sat down near the edge of the roof.

"Hey, look over there!" Said Christine, pointing to some figure across the street from the Populaire.

"Is that Carlotta?" Asked Meg, though she didn't really need an answer to know that it was indeed the Toad and Piangi.

"What do you think your Mother is going to do about a replacement for Piangi?"

"Oh I don't know, I suppose she will just hold a load of auditions, or just pick some random person up off the streets and force him to sing." They both looked at each other, and started to laugh.

"Kind of like... kind of like the way she forces you to dance eh Meg?" Said Christine, trying to catch her breath.

They sat there laughing for what seemed like a lifetime. Meg had laughed so much, that she had actually fallen backwards onto her back. This made her laugh even harder than she had been before. Eventually the two friends calmed down enough to begin a conversation again.

"Right." Said Meg. "Now you are going to tell me about what's going on between you and Erik."

"Am I?" Said Christine. "When did I say that I was going to do that?"

Meg looked at Christine, trying to decide the best way to get her friend to tell her about this. After a few minutes of deep concentration, she finally said…

"Oh fine, don't tell me. I just thought that if you were a friend then you would..." Her would-be sorrowful voice wasn't enough to convince Christine at all. In fact, they just looked at each other and began to laugh again.

Erik watched the two as they continued to laugh, tears streaming down their faces from laughing so hard. He just wished that Meg would leave so that he could talk to Christine on his own. When he at last realised that she was not going to leave, he walked up behind them, catching a bit of their conversation.

"You're in lurrrrrrrve with Erik! Christine has a crush for the Phantom." She said in an annoying sing song tone.

Erik couldn't help smiling, then he walked up besides Meg and silently sat down next to her. Christine had obviously seen him. Meg however had not seen him.

"You want to hug him..."

"Uh... Meg." Said Christine, jerking her head towards Erik, Meg wasn't paying attention.

"And kiss him."

"Meg." She said, even louder, jerking her head towards Erik again.

"And have s..."

"MEG!" She positively shouted at her.

"What?" Asked Meg, looking very confused. Christine pointed towards Erik. Meg looked round. "OH JESUS!"

"No, I'm Erik." He said with a cheeky grin.

Meg looked very apologetically at Erik, who seemed to understand. That didn't stop her however.

"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

"Don't worry about it." He said. "After all, I don't have my Punjab lasso with me at the moment. Do I?" Meg gave a very nervous laugh. "Could I have a word with you please Christine?"

"Ummm, sure." She replied. "I'll be back in a minute." She said to Meg.

"I'm going to bed. So take as long as you want." She gave Christine a small wink. Christine nudged her in the ribs.

"I'll see you in the morning." And with that, Meg crossed over to the door, went through it, and made her way to the dormitories.

Erik got to his feet and then helped Christine get to her feet. They stood there in silence for a few moments.

"I just wanted to say congratulations. I mean, with Carlotta gone you are the official Prima Donna. I thought that was a very noble toast of Antoinette's." He gave Christine a warm smile. Then his expression changed to one of worry. "You didn't tell..."

"No." She said, before he could finish. "She's just trying to taunt me. Chances are she will go into a right state if she knows."

"Oh well, I was just checking because...well." He looked down at the floor. "I'm not sure I want... well... anybody to know just yet." To Christine's surprise, Erik blushed.

Christine couldn't help but wrap her arms around Erik, who immediately wrapped his arms around her, running his fingers through her silk-like hair… For a long time they just embraced each other. She eventually pulled away from him and stared into his blue eyes, feeling as though she could drown in them. Then, not sure why she did it, she leaned in and kissed him.

This took Erik by surprise completely. He had never been kissed before. It was a strange feeling. It seemed to last for a lifetime. Neither one of them seemed to want to pull away, until a distant noise brought both of them back the their senses.

"I must go." Said Christine. "I'll come and see you as soon as possible."

She left the rooftop. Erik just stood there in a complete state of shock. He put his gloved hand up to his lips and traced them with a single finger, replaying the last few minutes of his life. He had just kissed Christine. Something he had wanted to do since... oh it didn't matter when. All that mattered to him now was that he was in love with Christine, and she was in love with him.

Erik made his way back down to his lair in a very dreamy state, which he was jogged out of briefly thanks to a different short-cut that he had installed in another entrance to his lair.

He went into the kitchen and made himself a cup of tea, trying to clear his mind, but now that he thought about it, did he really want to clear his mind, did he want to forget the softness of Christine's rosy lips, or the taste for that matter. He licked his lips, trying to relive what had just happened.

Eventually he managed to bring himself back to his senses enough to drink his cup of tea. He stared at the dregs at the bottom of the cup, still thinking about Christine. It seemed that he could at last be happy, after a lifetime of wickedness.

He made his way to the bedroom, got undressed, then tried to sleep, but he couldn't. There was no way that all of these thoughts that were currently going round in his head were going to let him do anything as simple as 'sleep.'

Porsche came in through the half open bedroom door, sensing that Erik was distressed about something. She leapt up onto the bed, and Erik started absent-mindedly stroking her.

"Go and check on Christine." He said quietly to the cat. "I'll be OK." With that, Porsche jumped off the bed and headed out of the door.

Porsche found it surprisingly easy work to get across the vast lake. The trick was to walk along the narrow ledges that were at the side. Porsche hesitated for a while however when she got to the spiral staircase, she had seen Erik operate the mechanism before, but she was a little nervous of doing it herself. Eventually she managed to kick the mechanism into gear, and she started rocketing towards the top of the staircase. Her fur was standing on end when the platform finally came to a halt. It took her a few moments to recover before she started trotting along the passage towards the mirror.

-

Christine was lying down on her bed, thinking. She had managed to kiss Erik. She couldn't believe it, even though she wanted to. She licked her lips, as though trying to tell if Erik's had been there a short while ago. There was a sudden click from the other side of her room, followed by a loud 'meow'.

"Hello Porsche." She said, as the cat jumped up onto the bed beside her. She started to tickle her behind the ears, making her purr softly. "You should be making sure that Erik is OK, not here with me." The cat gave a soft meow. "Why do I get the feeling that he would say the same thing about me?"

She smiled to herself, and then tried, without success, to sleep. Tomorrow would see a new day dawn on the Opera House. The day that it was finally rid of La Carlotta and Piangi. The last thought that she had before she finally drifted off into an uneasy sleep, was of Erik, holding her close to him, running his fingers through her hair.