Christine could hear Erik following her, but she didn't slow down. She had a head start, but Erik was bigger than her and she was certain he'd catch up to her in no time.
"Christine please!"
He was getting closer, and she was panicking. She saw another room, this one with the door ajar. She turned for it and ran through the door.
"Not in there!" he yelled.
She could smell food in the room somewhere, but didn't know why - it looked like another old storage room, this one with old costumes.
"Christine get out of this room this instant!"
She dove deeper into the room, heading for the very back of it.
Erik stumbled a little, watching in despair as she ran.
"Christine! Please don't!"
At the very back of the room, there was a small closet. She had only a second to glance at the sign posted on it with the writing in big red letters - but Christine couldn't read, so she didn't see the warning not to enter.
This closet door was also ajar, and she ran right in.
Erik wailed loudly as he saw her go it. He knew what was behind the door, knew what terrible fate awaited her behind that door.
"No, no!" he rushed after her.
He was scared out of his wits, his anxiety making his feet unsteady and his head spin. He intended only to run to the very edge and pull her out, but at the last second, his footing slipped and the momentum kept carrying him forward.
He fell into the water basin with a splash.
Christine hadn't known that just a tiny bit into the closet the floor receded deeply, a trap set by the rat catcher. The recession was fitted with a deep basin of water, far too deep to climb out of.
But Christine was very small, not like the rats who populated the opera house, and she had been able to stop just in time before falling in, clinging to the baseboard of the floor inside the little closet, just around the edge of door where Erik hadn't been able to see.
She shook out her fur, trying to get the water droplets out that had splattered on her from Erik's fall. She stared down a moment, but she realized there was no way Erik could get out - she was safe from him.
She tried to get her shaking nerves under control, to calm her heart which was beating in her throat. Her brow furrowed as she studied the room, realizing what it was. What a terrible room! A torture chamber! There was a piece of food hanging high up over the water, no doubt to lure poor unsuspecting creatures to their watery graves.
Erik's relief at seeing Christine hadn't fallen in was short lived. He could see no way out of the water - the edges of the basin were too steep to climb.
He swam around and around in circles, trying to figure out what to do. How could he get out? There was no way.
He gnashed his little teeth. Was he not the smartest rat in the entire opera house? And yet even still he couldn't save himself from this!
He kicked his shoes off, untied the ribbon of his cape, anything to help him swim for longer. But what was the point? There was no escape from this. It was all over now.
Christine turned and fled the closet, the room too terrible to stay in. She was finally free of Erik. He couldn't get out, couldn't force her to stay in his house, couldn't hurt her. She'd never have to worry about him again.
She stopped in her tracks, suddenly overcome with too many emotions she couldn't even name.
He couldn't get out.
She turned back to look at the closet.
After hesitating a moment, she crept back to the closet and peeked down into the basin.
Erik was swimming in circles, his big red eyes blinking fast, looking this way and that. Was he crying? His circles began to falter a little. He couldn't swim forever, and when he finally stopped-
A tear ran down Christine's cheek.
He had lied to her and kidnapped her and threatened her. A few moments ago she would have considered anything that could have stoped him from chasing her as heaven-sent. She would be within her rights to walk away. No one would fault her for that. She could turn and leave and find Raoul and go home and put this all behind her. Except-
He was her angel. Maybe not anymore, but she had loved him at one point. Could she really just let him die?
But she knew that if she helped him out of the trap, she would be his prisoner forevermore. He'd never let her leave, he'd said so himself.
She warred with herself over what to do. Then, finally, with a trembling chin, she made up her mind.
She turned and left the closet.
Erik struggled to keep his head above the water. His eyes were stinging, his lungs were burning, his legs were going numb, water kept going in his mouth. He had no hope left. Christine hated him, and he was going to die.
His eyes slid closed, his little paws slowing down.
All of a sudden something else splashed into the water - a long, thin piece of wood with a number of ribbons tied to one end, the former magic wand of a fairy princess.
It was just long enough to reach the bottom on the basin and to also rest on the edge of the top of he basin.
Erik summoned the last of his strength to swim to it and climb up it, dragging himself up out of the basin and into the doorway of the closet.
Just beyond the doorway stood Christine, looking at him with sadness and compassion.
It took his mind a few moments to process it all. It made no sense, but there was no other possible explanation - Christine had saved his life.
He began to weep into his paws.
"Oh, Christine..."
She knew if she had just left she would never be free of the terrible knowledge of what had happened here when she did, never be able to close her eyes without seeing the image of him with that pitiful look in his red eyes as he swam in smaller and smaller circles until he slipped under the water. She knew she would wake at night and hear the whisper of his song on the breeze and she would always be chilled by that. He was frightening and rude and ugly, but he had also been her teacher, her friend. And now - her captor, it would seem. Would he take her back to the house and keep her prisoner? She thought it likely. She'd never see Raoul or Philippe again, never sing on a stage again, never feel the sunlight on her fur or the breeze in her whiskers. She could have been free of Erik and returned to her lovely life, but she had made the choice to stay. And maybe that was the wrong choice, but it was her choice and she had made it.
"Christine, no one has shown Erik such kindness... no one has shown him any kindness in his whole life- and then- and then Christine saves his life... Even after she has seen his horrible face! What mercy! What wondrous kindness! Oh!"
His weeping words brought Christine to tears. Had no one ever been nice to him? Not even once? And all because of how he looked?
She closed the short distance between them, reaching her paws out to place on either side of his strange cheeks. She lightly pressed her forehead against his own.
"Poor, unhappy Erik," she murmured through her own tears.
He reached his hands up to place them on top of hers.
Her tears ran down his horrible, hairless face and mingled with his tears, which dripped down his whiskers and pooled on the floor, joining the water that puddled off of him from the trap basin.
How long had he been alone? His whole life maybe? She couldn't imagine a life so lonely, with no human to give him food and shelter, no friends of his own kind to talk to. No wonder he was a little crazy, no wonder he didn't know how to act. She didn't think that made it okay, but it did help her understand why he was the way he was.
She had been so frightened that she wouldn't be able to find anything to fish him out of the trap with, terrified that she would be too late to help him or that whatever she found would be too heavy for her to carry back to the closet. He was cruel to try and keep her in his house, but he didn't deserve to drown, at least she didn't think so.
"Christine, you came back for me... I will take you back to your boy, my dear, right now if you wish it," he cried.
She pulled back, surprised.
"Do you mean it, Erik?"
He nodded.
"You are free. I swear it. You can go back to Raoul any time you wish," his heart felt like it was shattering into a million pieces (she would never come visit him again! Not after how he treated her!) but he knew it was the right thing to do.
It took her a moment to fully comprehend that she was truly free to return to Raoul, but once she understood that he was serious, her face lit up.
He was about to beg her forgiveness for ever saying otherwise but before he had a chance to do so, she leaned over and kissed his cheek.