The Final Goodbye
Dead- no surely they were all wrong. The phantom-her Erik couldn't be gone-forever. The finality of the day swirled around the young woman now sitting in a parlour on an old sofa with tears that had been streaming down her face gradually drying.
Slowly she gazed around the room. The wallpaper although pretty was not what she was expecting when she glanced around the room. Why was she not in her own parlour, with her husband and the tapestries covering the stone walls?
An unearthly scream echoed through the small Parisian flat adjacent to the famous Paris opera house. A woman clad in black hastened through the door rapidly followed by a young woman with blonde curls approximately the same age as the heart broken woman now screaming on the floor.
'Meg please tell me this is a nightmare?' Christine desperately clung onto her friends hands 'Erik will be collecting me soon. We need to get home, we had dinner planned. He wanted to discuss our new house' the blonde haired girl gently squeezed her friend's hands. 'Christine I am so sorry, but the events of today were very real. His friend Nadir has taken his body to his house on Rue de Rivoli. Tomorrow we will bring Erik home'
Madame Giry gently touched the distraught woman's arm. 'I think perhaps you would want to be with him?' Christine gently nodded her head 'please. I need to be with him until I have to let him go forever'
The older woman guided Christine back onto the sofa. Christine tried to shake the muzzy feeling in her head. She was now a widow and she should be ensuring her husband's body was ready for burial. Quietly she spoke to the other two women in the room. 'I should go home and change. There are things which need to be arranged' suddenly she was on her feet in a frantic burst of grief and energy.
'I think I will escort you to Monsieur Khan's house. Meg if you wouldn't mind going to the underground house and collecting what Christine requires. Please be careful and watch no-one follows you.' The commanding voice of Madam Giry took over the situation again. 'Christine I will hail us a cab and we will go.' The sad trio of women went on their respective journeys. Each in their own thoughts and grief. Christine when asked had no recollection of the short ride from the opera house to the flat where her now deceased husband lay.
Darius opened the door and gently bowed his head as he realised who was at his masters door. 'Madame Macon my deepest sympathies, Madame Giry I am sure Monsieur Khan will be grateful you have brought his dear friends wife to his door.'
After several hours sat beside Erik holding his hand and hoping that this was a bad dream and he would wake soon she had been persuaded that some rest would be of benefit.
Nadir had given her the use of the bedroom not far from Erik. Both he and Madame Giry-Antoinette had reassured her he would not be on his own. That she needed some rest. Christine could appreciate their kind words but every time she closed her eyes the events of the past twelve hours haunted her mind.
Closing her eyes she could visualise the day's events. Breakfast down in the 5th cellar, Erik discussing what he was planning on doing whilst she was at rehearsal. Checking on the house they hoped to move into in the next couple of months. His blueprints and designs he wanted to finish and send to prospective buyers. Mundane chores such as shopping, cleaning. Even the fabled phantom of the opera and his wife needed a clean house and food.
On the walk up to the theatre Erik had divulged that he was worried that Buquet was becoming a nuisance and too close for comfort. The sooner they moved to their new house the better. Before Christine had become his wife he wasn't bothered if he stayed in the dank cellars for the rest of his days. Now with a living wife he was desperate to be above. He admitted he probably would prefer to keep away from social situations, but wanted to be considered a normal man. Society and their perceptions be damned.
The theatre had been in rehearsal for Romeo and Juliet. The lead singers had been chosen and Christine despite Erik's protests was quite happy in one of the minor roles. Since their marriage she had convinced him that the best way forward was to allow her own ability to gauge which role she played in each production. In jest Christine had said a minor role would be better if she found out she was with child. She could stay more in the background with an expanding waistband. Erik's face had paled at that thought of that scenario but it was a realistic probability. More tears streamed down Christine's face at the thought that a child would preserve a memory of her Erik. In the couple of years since their marriage a child had never occurred. Neither had been too concerned and believed in if it happened it would be a blessing, if it didn't then it would be accepted. Now how she wished she had a child to hold in her arms.
Christine let the tears freely fall down her face as she recollected the shock and disbelief of Antoinette standing in her dressing room doorway. Her words shaking Christine to the core 'Christine you are needed on stage-now' thinking back she had been dimly aware of a distant commotion slowly enveloping the entire theatre.
Initially Christine tried to dismiss her foster mother as being dramatic about her rehearsal until she said the words 'it's Erik' Madame Giry looked with sorrow and grief towards the woman now trying to be brave, trying to ignore the large mirror in her room which led to home.
Christine was convinced the dressing room was clouding over and shrinking. Suddenly she found her feet and ran towards the stage. The corridor from there to front of house seemed to take forever. Those colleagues who had called her phantoms whore suddenly allowed her free access to the stage with their heads bowed in respect.
Suddenly she was aware of a hand on her shoulder. 'Erik…. 'She could see a small crowd on the stage. Most of them white as the phantoms mask. Christine slowly turned around. There beside her was one of the few people Erik had ever trusted. Nadir. The Persian. 'Christine I am so sorry. Go to him. He needs you'
The stage had never felt so large or foreboding as it did right now. The new electric light recently installed made everything starker Christine morbidly thought as she made her way towards him. Those nearest the dying man were offering little in the way of comfort but standing there in shocked disbelief that the opera ghost was a real human being. A man.
Christine turned back to glance at Nadir and pleaded that he came with her. 'Please Nadir both he and I need you right now'
Suddenly there were voices Christine was vaguely aware of. The managers were screaming to call the police, Madame Giry telling the managers and the rest of the stage to allow his wife to be with him.
Slowly she lifted his head and shoulders towards her. Desperately trying to block the rest of the world out. She just wanted to hold him, to tell him how much she loved him. His face always pale now took on a deathly grey pallor. Nadir subtly checked his pulse and found it was erratic and thready. Erik's breathing was slowing and becoming shallower. Her tears becoming a flood of emotion of grief and of revenge.
Erik could vaguely register that his fall was going to be the end of his time. They say everything seems to slow down in your last moments. He had always scoffed at those who said those words. Now…. He could appreciate every word. Frantically he hoped he would be with Christine in his last moments. Two years of marriage, ten years of friendship with the girl who turned into the most beautiful woman in his eyes. His wife, his Christine. There had been a brief moment a few years ago where it all could have ended differently.
The cold was closing in around him. Christine… where is she. Everything was now becoming hazy. Erik was aware of footsteps racing across the stage, of a warm caress, of words of love and tenderness spoken only to him.
'My angel. Remember me. Your poor Erik will love you always' these were the final words he wanted to speak but the words could not form. All he hoped as the blackness took over his mind and body that she was aware of the love he held for her.
Finis