Before she could finish, she paused, slightly shocked. The two occupants stared at the intruder. The girl in the doorway stared back, but only at Erik. Her eyes went wide, the whites overtaking the blue, and her face turned ashen.
"You found the ghost," Christine said quietly.
The moment seemed to stretch into eternity, and yet wasn't nearly long enough to allow her brain to catch up with what was happening.
Her tutor - the Ghost -
Minutely, all her mind could register was tall and black. She was certain that if he turned sideways he would have disappeared altogether, but at present, he was so very there.
Even his face was covered in black.
"Christine," Giry suddenly said, her voice just shy of frantic. She shot a wary glance in the mans direction. "You really shouldn't barge into a private office in this way."
"I was just leaving," the man murmured quickly, as equally quiet as her exclamation a few seconds' earlier. He gave Giry a furtive look before he made to sweep past, his movements as fluid as spilled ink.
Unthinkingly, Christine placed a hand on his arm, grabbing a fistful of his crisp coat in the process. He turned his attention to her completely, the full power of his eyes on her. They were gold, and narrowed, like a cat's. She dropped her hold, suddenly petrified, and took a step away from him. His eyes softened, an emotion passing quickly, and then he was gone.
Christine's heart beat a painful rhythm against her breastbone. The commanding voice she had come to know had been equally commanding in person. But whereas she found the Voice to be impressive and awesome, she found the person to be terrifying. She directed her frayed attention to Giry.
The older woman looked equal parts sympathetic and concerned. "You should not have come barging in like that, Christine," Giry repeated, as if regretting Christine's actions for her.
"Who was that?" Christine asked, her voice loud in the tiny room.
Giry sighed, then resumed her seat. "I couldn't explain even if I wanted to, so let us say that it's complicated. And not your business." Her hawk-like gaze sharpened to a point before softening in parental familiarity. "What did you come in here so hastily to tell me?"
But Christine's mind was elsewhere. Frightening or not, she needed to trail after him. She needed answers. "It's not important," she said on her way out the door.
"Christine!" Giry called out behind her.
She walked quickly down the hallway, feeling more like a greyhound than a girl, but didn't stop, not even when the bottoms of her feet began to pinch. The initial shock was peeling away from her brain, and she was left with a whirlwind of conflicting emotions.
The floor was shaped like an 'L', so there was little way to lose him. She doubted he had darted into one of the other offices, so he must have fled outside.
Only as soon as she stepped outside, she knew that she had well and truly lost him. She resisted the desire to stomp her foot.
In the midst of her brewing, she felt the sudden weight of a heavy hand upon her shoulder, and started. She turned, half-expecting to finally confront that masked man. Instead, she confronted a reproachful Madame Giry.
"Christine, you will come back inside and explain yourself. Now."
Christine nodded, silently acquiescent.
They walked in silence back to Giry's office. The older woman shut the door behind them, locked it, and gestured for Christine to sit. Giry took her own seat behind the desk.
"Begin," Giry said simply.
After Christine gave her side of the story, Giry was silent a moment. Then, "Does Meg know?"
Christine shook her head.
Giry clucked her tongue. "I'm not sure if I'm happy about that or not. That you had been doing this without anyone being the wiser…" Giry frowned. "Christine, it was very foolish. Unlike you."
"I did tell someone," Christine postured, feeling the need to defend herself.
"Oh?" Madame Giry lifted an eyebrow. "Who?"
"My friend. His name is Raoul Chagny."
Giry's eyes widened. "The senator's brother?"
Christine grimaced, sheepish.
The older woman looked at her sternly. "Christine, I've told you time and again to be wary of these Washington men-"
Christine sat up straighter in her chair. "It's not like that, Madame, I promise. He's still in school. He's just worried about me. He's not like...that," Christine finished lamely, her neck growing hot.
Giry sniffed. "Fine," she complied, "But we're still talking about the fact that you've allowed a strange man to corner you. What do you know about this man, Christine?"
Christine was dimly aware of the fact that Giry was turning this around on her, but was too intimidated by the exacting Dean to do much about it. "Nothing, Madame. Only that he is very knowledgeable about music and voice. But he knows very little about me, too!"
Giry muttered to herself, loud enough for Christine to hear, "I very much doubt that."
Christine's frown deepened, and felt herself grow bold. "Why was he in your office when I walked in?"
Giry lifted her gaze from her desk and trained it on Christine. "That is my business, Christine. Now run along. I do not want you contacting that man again, do you understand?"
Unsure about how she felt at the moment, she decided to go along with the older woman's demand. For now. "Yes, Madame."
Madame Giry had been pacing nonstop since Christine left her office an hour ago. She had summoned Nadir Khan right away, resolved upon finding out everything she could about Erik, and why he should have an interest in Christine.
Nadir, for his part, looked baffled, and just a tad bit uncomfortable being in a room with a woman who was roving about and saying nothing at all. He had a difficult time tracking her, and had instead decided to look to the ceiling, as if for Divine Guidance.
She suddenly stopped pacing and turned to look at him. "Well, you'll want to know why you're here, then."
"It would be nice, yes," Khan replied, the slightest bit of sarcasm in his tone.
Giry pursed her lips.
Well, she thought, No use beating around the bush.
She cleared her throat. "How does Erik know Christine Daae?"
Nadir furrowed his brow. "Pardon?"
"You heard me." She crossed her arms. "They encountered each other, just now, in my office. He stormed off, and she trailed after him. They both were completely caught off guard." She crossed her arms. "Something is going on. You will tell me."
Nadir seemed to tense up, but his voice remained calm. "Madame, I can promise you that I know nothing about this. I did not think Erik had any contact with anyone at Cartier."
Silence fill the room. Giry continued to stare daggers into Nadir, while he looked back to the ceiling, his two individual eyebrows attempting to fuse together.
Nadir shook his head absently. "This doesn't make sense." He observed her. "You think that they are familiar with one another?" It was more of a statement than a question.
"Christine confirmed it. She admitted that he has been giving her singing lessons secretly for a week."
"How do you mean, 'secretly'?"
Giry rolled her eyes. "Christine said that she had heard a man's voice speaking to her inside one of the practice rooms. They became acquainted, so far as two people can become acquainted without being in the same room, and he instructed her. Apparently this has been a ditch effort on her part to prepare for an audition." Giry shook her head, amazed with Christine's naivety. It was with a spectacular lack of common sense that the girl had engaged in such an activity! Her poor, trusting heart would get her into deep trouble one day.
Of course, Madame Giry refused to let that happen. The girl was not her flesh and blood, but that hardly mattered.
Feeling vindictive, and frustrated, she added, "Does your friend make it a habit of leering at college girls without their knowledge?"
Nadir lifted one eyebrow, the gesture adding a note of sophistication to his looks. "Madame, even if I felt the urge to answer you honesty in the face of such an absurd question…" He trailed off, looking a bit lost. "I could hardly say."
They looked at one another, each at a loss. Nadir broke his gaze off and stared at the floor, as if trying to understand.
"How did he seem, when he left? Angry?"
She pouted, thinking. "Not angry. Very surprised, certainly." She blinked. "Maybe even...embarrassed?"
Nadir shook his head. "That is very unlike him. He does not...attach. Not ever."
Giry's eyes suddenly became glassy with fear. She fell into her chair behind the desk, and steepled her hands, placing her chin upon them. "What does this mean? What does he want from Christine?"
Nadir looked alarmed. "Madame, please. This could be nothing."
Giry was not so sure, but perhaps he was right. It would be unwise to jump to conclusions without knowing more. After all, they had only been in contact for a week. How much of an attachment could a man form on a young girl in that time, especially without being in the same physical space as her? Men needed so much more of that, and knowing Christine, Giry was certain the girl hadn't done anything to entice him inappropriately.
Another thought occurred to her. "You've been patrolling the campus, as well as him, yes? You must have heard the latest student gossip."
Nadir sighed. "Yes," he said, as if conceding something, "I too have heard rumors of this Ghost of yours."
"Rumors that your friend seems to have stirred up." She narrowed her eyes.
He crossed his arms defensively. "If people are gossiping about Erik's nightly habits, that is hardly his fault. He is doing his job, Madame. Patrolling the campus is a part of that."
Giry nodded. "I understand that much." She leaned back into her chair, sighing again. "It does not help that the students gossip incessantly. This talk of the Ghost might have been inevitable."
Giry watched Nadir straighten a little.
"This girl, this...Christine Daae." Nadir paused, his brown eyes wide. "Who is she?"
The hallway was deserted. The sun had set hours ago, and her last class had ended long before that.
She had been sitting in the music building for what felt like an eternity. Every door was firmly shut, and not one soul had passed through the doors in nearly an hour.
It was the second night in a row that Christine had come to the practice room, waiting for any indication that her tutor wasn't gone for good. And for the second night in a row, she had planted herself outside the door to their practice room, sat on the floor, and hugged her backpack to her chest to ward off the feelings of dread.
Yet whether the dread was in the case he did or did not come, she couldn't say.
Why is this starting to feel like one giant mistake? she thought miserably.
She knew waiting around for him was an exercise in futility, but she had to try. The incident of their surprise encounter had left Christine's stomach in knots. She hated that their first meeting had been so abrupt, and that he had immediately fled.
Why had he run off? She knew the answer, of course; it was rather obvious. He had hid his identity from her for the better part of a week because he wasn't interested in being known. She was a pet project, a passing fancy, surely. Remaining anonymous made it easier to disappear once he was bored with her and realized just how potential-less she was.
She deflated. Thinking this way surely classified as wallowing, and she was fully ready to enter into that endeavor.
If not for her audition.
She looked down at her phone and sighed again. Only twelve hours away, now.
Logically, she knew he had probably done all he could in a week to prepare her. Rather than be sad, she should feel grateful she had received some help rather than none. She would make the most of it.
But what if she had done something wrong, something to anger him? Could that be the reason he hadn't come back?
He had seemed invested in her when they began, almost to the point of insistence.
Perhaps Madame Giry had said something to ward him off.
The dean had been less than forthcoming about him when Christine asked, and had outright demanded Christine stopped interacting with him. She hadn't the slightest clue how they could possibly know each other, but that they knew each other gave her some measure of reassurance. But why forbid Christine from seeing him? She had always known somewhere deep down that he wasn't someone to fear.
Despite their strange situation.
Despite the similarities to the school's ghost.
She wasn't altogether positive that he and the Ghost weren't one in the same. He had moved so quickly, his movements having all the grace of a wraith. She would have thought him some spectral thing had she not grabbed a hold of him before he ran off.
And that look in his eyes when she had…
Almost as though he were afraid of her.
Maybe it had something to do with…
She stopped that train of thought, not wishing to assume anything. He was obviously a private man. That much was apparent.
If only she could have some closure, some indication that this was truly the end of their working relationship.
But she knew better than to expect anything. People left, and sometimes you didn't get to say goodbye. That was just a part of life. A part of moving on.
She got up off the ground and patted down the wrinkles in her pants. She needed a good night's rest for the following morning. She would put thoughts of him, and their strange relationship, behind her.
She was determined to make him proud. To pay back him back. Even if she was to never see him again.
A/N: Thanks for reading, all! This one was a bit of a filler but there's more action to come! And more interactions between Christine and Erik. Stay tuned!