Christine dans Deux

An Alternate Multiverse - A Phantom of the Opera Story

Nyasia A. Maire

© 2006

DISCLAIMER: See Chapter One
Chapter Ten – Through the Phantom's Eyes

"Damn!"

"Pardonnez-moi?"

"Oh, sorry 'bout that. I'm a creature of habit. When I write, I need four things: my laptop, quiet, Diet Pepsi and a pack of Djarum Specials. I'm fairly certain I won't find three of those things here in 1870." I clear my throat, stretch, close my eyes and coax my mind into seeing Erik's truth. "Okay, here goes, this is just, well, the basic facts of what really happened. I'll flesh it out later."

"The tale of the Angel of Music and Christine Daae began nine years ago when seven year old Christine Daae came to live in the ballet dormitories after the death of her father. In those days, you wandered the opera house pretty much whenever and wherever you pleased. One evening you see a little girl her praying in the opera house's chapel and her innocence called to you. Her loneliness formed a sad, strange harmony with your own. That is why you noticed her. The Angel of Music was born of your second meeting with the girl. The second time you saw her she was singing her prayers. Her voice was the first thing you had ever encountered in your life that was pure and beautiful. An untouched purity sent directly by the angels to this earth. It was her voice that saved you, Erik. It was also her voice that destroyed you. And yet, it was that second encounter saved your life. That is the day your heart began to heal.

"You begin training her voice while wearing the persona of the Angel of Music. For years she would confide in you her hopes, fears, dreams, and you would give her comfort by allowing her to believe you were the angel her father promised to send. She told you of the boy, Raoul. At first, he was her childhood playmate, then sweetheart. On learning of his impending death, her father attempted to arrange a place for his daughter with the Comte de Chagny. His efforts ridiculed and rejected. He never told Christine of the Comte's actions. The death of her father left her penniless and orphaned. Christine tried to reach out to her sweetheart. She wrote a letter in which she laid her soul bare to him. She told him of her current sorrow and of her hopes for the future. She held out her heart to him in the sweetest way possible, as only Christine can do and received the cruelest of replies. Her friend and sweetheart coldly informed her that he had no interest in hearing from her. It was Raoul who maliciously told Christine of her father's efforts to obtain help for his daughter. He told her that the daughter of a fiddle-playing beggar was not even fit enough to be employed as a servant to the de Chagny's. He ended his letter with a request that she not write to him again. Her sweetheart had turned on her and snubbed her when she needed him the most. It was you, her Angel of Music, who comforted her through that heartbreak.

"When Christine was 16, the ownership of the theater changed hands and the de Chagny family agreed to become patrons of the theater. Christine first saw Raoul in the theater on the afternoon that the reigning diva of the Opera Populaire, La Carlotta walked off the stage during one of her infamous fits of temper. The new owners introduced Raoul to the theater company as the Vicomte de Chagny. As Raoul left the theater, he swept by the place Christine was standing. She hid behind Meg and so avoided him that afternoon. However, Christine, as La Carlotta's understudy, had to take her place on stage that night. Her spectacular performance won rave reviews, but as she sang, Christine had unknowingly placed herself on display before Raoul. He did not recognize his former friend in the beautiful young woman singing on the stage that night. If someone had told the young Vicomte that the diva performing was Christine Daae he would most likely have shrugged his shoulders and not remembered the girl. If someone had told him that the diva was Little Lotte, he would have laughed and told them that Little Lotte was a clumsy, shy, lanky, awkward and homely little girl. The beauty gracing the stage could never be Little Lotte! Monsieur le Vicomte's interests were very simple and to the point. Women were for one thing and then discarded. He knew he would have to marry one someday in order to have an heir, but that didn't mean he would have to cease his other activities. And at that moment, he was going to exercise his rights as theater patron and take that diva. He would make use of her until; he became bored with her and then move on to the next girl.

"He burst into Christine's dressing room after the performance and attempted to charm her into a tryst, yet she repeatedly refuses him. It is during one of her vigorous rejections of him that he suddenly realizes who she is. He then attempts to cajole her into going out to dinner by talking about the good old days. Christine outraged shouts at him to leave. Luckily, Madame Giry was walking by her dressing room, heard Christine shouting and went to tell you. The Vicomte threatened to have Christine put out on the street and black-listed with all of the opera houses in Paris. Christine felt trapped and desperate at the thought of losing her position. She continued to refuse Raoul's attentions, so he locked her in her dressing room meaning to return later and force his attentions on her when no one was there to hear or help. The one thing Raoul didn't count on was you, Christine's Angel who appeared before her and helped her escape via a passage hidden behind a mirror in her dressing room. You took her to your home and she spent a fortnight with you. You gave her everything she needed and made no demands on her except that she eat, sleep and allow you to continue giving her voice lessons. She asked you to help her learn how to read sheet music and anything else that would help her improve her voice.

"It was sometime during those two weeks that Christine and her Angel became friends. Christine never asked her friend's name or the reason he wore a mask. In her childish inexperience, she believed it would be rude to ask about the mask and she believed your name was Angel. To question your friend about such things would be the height of rudeness and Christine was a very polite child.

"When at last she felt it would be safe to return to the opera house, her Angel reluctantly returned her and sent letters to the new owners warning them of Raoul's treachery. You also sent a letter to Raoul warning him not to see Christine again."

My voice falters and I stop for a moment looking around me. For a moment, I feel confused, but then the world comes back into focus. We are still together. Still in Madame's Giry's room. I had found myself falling into the story I was telling. I could see the notes. I could hear Christine's voice singing and see Raoul trying at first to charm and then threaten Christine. I shake my head. My movement rouses Erik from his thoughts. I feel his eyes on me and return his gaze. His eyes are sad and thoughtful.

"So, mon chére cœur, have you had to live your entire life this way? How can you bare being around other people?"

"It's been very difficult. I not only hear things, I'm also empathic. Being in a large crowd is horribly difficult because I not only hear what they're thinking or hear things that happened to them, I also feel what they felt as if it were happening to me. In a crowd I'm overwhelmed with all of those thoughts and feelings. If I stay too long in a crowd I get to the point where I can't move. It happened to me once. My husband saved me. He picked me up and carried me out of the theater. It took me three or four days before I could bear to be around another person again. He knew my gifts and respected them, but he never understood them. After that I learned how to protect myself in crowds by creating a wall around me. It keeps everyone out, but it's very lonely."

"At least you've been out in the world. My world is here. What is your favorite place? Is it outdoors or indoors?" He leans forward intent upon my answer.

My voice speaks telling me Erik is trying to divert me away from my story, but I hush my voice. He needs a break from his past, if only for this short moment. I will answer him and then continue with his story.

"My favorite place is outdoors. I love a place named, Yosemite National Park. It is a forest, but it has the most amazing mountains and rivers with beautiful waterfalls. One of the falls is named, Bridal Veil Falls. That is my favorite. Perhaps, someday, we can visit it. The three of us could go and we could walk the trails …"

My voice falters for I know my days of walking the trails of Yosemite are over, but I can dream.

"If needs be, I will carry you, mon chére cœur."

I smile at him and pat his hand.

With a sigh, I continue.

"But the notes didn't work, did they?"

He shakes his head. "No. I was too inexperienced in my dealings with people. I have learned much since then. At the time, I thought they'd read my accusations and with a sense of righteous indignation banish the Vicomte from the opera house. Banning him from the opera house would effectively remove any possibility of his seeing Christine. That is not what happened and herein lies the true tragedy. They didn't want to accuse him. His family is very wealthy as well as being a very old and well-respected bloodline. It would be of no benefit to drag the de Chagny name through the mud. The theater would lose the financial and social support of the de Chagny family. Their attitude was – after all she's just a singer, a dancer, an actress, a little nobody."

I nod my head. I can hear it all.

"So, after you brought her back to the theater Madame Giry and Meg tried their best to protect Christine, but everything fell apart during the performance of Il Muto. La Carlotta suddenly develops laryngitis during the show and has to walk off stage. The managers thrust the shocked Christine into the role. While she is being dressed, Joseph Buquet is drunk and walking about the scaffoldings over the stage. He stumbles, loses his footing. During his fall he becomes entangled in the scenery's pulley ropes and ends up hung above center stage. You had nothing to do with it, but Raoul swore out a warrant for you claiming he saw you in the scaffolding fighting with Buquet.

"During the melee that followed Buquet's death, Raoul grabs Christine and drags her up to the roof where he forces himself upon her. He leaves her alone on the roof after deflowering her. That is how you found her. Lying in the snow crying. Her clothing shredded, her virginity gone and her spirit dying.

"You took her to Madame Giry and she helped mend what she could. That was when the idea began to take shape in your mind. The idea of how to free Christine of Raoul. You spent the next three months writing Don Juan Triumphant. During that time Christine discovered she was pregnant, but the fates were kind and she miscarried shortly afterwards.

"Raoul forced her to accompany him to the Bal Masque where he announced that she had agreed to marry him. You were in attendance and decided to put your plan into action. You dressed as The Red Masque of Death and publicly announced the upcoming production of Don Juan Triumphant, which starred Christine Daae.

"Your plan was to take Piangi's place (Madame Giry went to Piangi and told him of the rape and he agreed to help) at the pivotal moment of the opera allow Christine to unmask you and then have everyone believe you kidnapped her, possibly murdering her. But everything went to hell.

"Raoul came up with a plan of his own. He hired a man to follow Christine everywhere and he overheard Meg and Christine talking about what a good man Piangi was and how he was going to help Christine by allowing Christine's Angel to take his place on the stage during the Point of No Return duet. The night of the opera, Raoul had his manservant rig the chandelier so he could kill you that night. He also had his manservant kill Piangi. Raoul himself threatened Madame Giry and Meg into silence afterwards. So, you took Piangi's place and you allowed Christine to unmask you in public because you knew that everyone would believe that a man who looked as you do would be capable of doing anything to a young innocent girl. You were willing to sacrifice your life to do what was right. But Raoul's manservant was slow in releasing the chandelier and Raoul didn't know you had rigged the bridge to act as your escape route. So, you did get Christine away from the opera house, but you couldn't save her. Could you? Raoul's manservant threatened Meg's life and forced Madame Giry to show Raoul the way to your home. She led him to a trap and ran away, but he escaped and found his way to your home. You and Christine were packing up some clothes and getting ready to leave Paris when Raoul surprised you. He tied you up, put a noose around your neck and told Christine that either she had to marry him or you would die. Rather than let you die, Christine went with Raoul, but before she left she gave you her ring as a sign of her unending friendship. You promised Christine that you would make no attempt at rescuing her. She had made a promise and if you freed her she would be breaking that promise. She said to you, Angel, I need to keep this promise. I need to be strong and not have you pay the price for my freedom. All will work out in the end."

"She's both incredibly brave and extremely naïve, but I thank her for not sacrificing you. Being a woman in this time seems very unpleasant. In my time, Raoul would not have been able to do what he did. Or at least, I'd like to think that."