Christine dans Deux

An Alternate Multiverse - A Phantom of the Opera Story

Nyasia A. Maire

© 2006

DISCLAIMER: See Chapter One
Chapter Forty-Two – This is a Lie!

"So, this is what it is to die." I think. "Funny, I never thought to die like this."

I feel calm ready to accept my death at the hands of the man I adore. And then, I hear laughter, very faint, but it is there. Laughter. Not Erik's either. And then I feel the lie of it. Erik would never hurt me. He loves me just as I love him.

"Wake up, Christine! This is a lie!" I tell myself. I fight an unseen power and raise my hand. I force my hand to slap my face. The crack of the blow shocks me and I open my eyes.

I lie on the floor of the storeroom and Erik is fumbling with my boot. I see the reason as he pulls it from my boot and holds it tightly in his hand, one of my knives!

"Erik! No! I live! This is a lie!" My voice is loud, powerful and commanding. It comes from everywhere and nowhere.

With a strength and determination I never knew I had, I force my body to stand. Then drawing on the power of our love, I take Erik by the hand holding my knife and pull him with me out of the room.

As soon as we cross the threshold, an angry scream curdles the air. I slam the door shut behind us.

The bang of the slamming door startles the shocked and submissive Erik into raging action. He begins to wrestle me for the knife not realizing it is me whom he is fighting. I do not want to, but I have no choice. I slap his face, hard.

His eyes close and I see his face is wet from a torrent of spent tears.

Oh so gently, I call to him both with my voice and through our soul.

"Erik? My dearest darling? I am not dead. You did not ravage me. Something terrible lives in that storeroom. It filled our minds with lies. At the last, I saw the lie. I knew you would never hurt me. Never! Erik, my love. Do not leave me alone. Please, darling! I love you, Erik. Please give me back my knife. Please open your eyes and see that I am real and alive and yours."

I can feel he is afraid to believe that I am alive. Afraid he might have to discover his sin all over again and lose me once more.

"Erik. You promised me we would be married on Christmas day. Are you going to break your promise to me? I thought you wanted to spend the rest of your life learning everything about me? Erik, I am here. All you have to do is open your eyes and open your mind."

I caress his cheek with my hand and with the other hand, take the back of his head and pull his mouth to mine. His lips remain cold and he gives me no response to my kiss. He cannot deny me. I part his lips with my tongue and I kiss him deeply over and over again.

"Erik? It is I. The one you have named, "Beloved." I am alive. You could never harm me. I know that you fear you could, but it is just a fear. I am here. I love you, my dearest one. I love you, Erik."

I return my mouth to his and pour forth every scintilla of love and tenderness I feel for him. I caress his cheek, neck, shoulder and chest as I explore the depths of his mouth with my tongue. I vividly remember our first kiss. The memory of that kiss still leaves me just as breathless with desire as each succeeding kiss has. The intensity of my one-sided kiss exhausts me. I am just about ready to take a short rest before trying again when I am surprised to find my kiss returned one thousand-fold. I feel his tongue pierce my mouth and entwine with mine. His hands grasp me tightly, yet tenderly, to him.

Our lips part and I open my eyes.

"Erik?"

He opens his eyes and there is fear there. Horrible fear and guilt.

"Erik? My love?"

"I have no right to your love." And he turns his face away from me.

"Dearest, look at me! Nothing happened in that room. The only thing that happened was a spirit made us believe horrible things. Its purpose was to make us take our lives. It can only lie. It cannot cause harm, but it can use tricks to have us harm ourselves. Besides, whether you think you have a right to my love or not, I still and will always love you. Do you not remember? You are my air without you I cannot breathe."

He turns to me. His eyes are dull and lifeless. His eyes bore into my soul and transfix me, "You would love a man who cannot control his passion for you?"

"Sir, I can ask the same of you. You would love a woman who cannot control her passion for you?"

"God help me! Yes!"

"Oh my darling! Please hold me. Tell me you love me. Hold me. I was so frightened for you. I feared you would not return to me."

Tears begin to run down my cheeks.

"Oh Christine! You are my beloved. I can love only you."

He opens his arms and I throw myself into his embrace.

"Promise me you will never again doubt our love. The reason we survive is I did not doubt. I knew you could never harm me. Regardless of the evidence of my eyes. I trusted our soul. You must believe in us. I thought you did, but a lifetime of rejection is hard to overcome, I suppose."

"I thought I had gone mad and raped and murdered you. I lost control and could not stop myself from taking you and I took you brutally. I …."

"Stop! You did no such thing. Look at me! Are my clothes torn? Am I broken or bleeding? No. Those things were not real. The specter made you feel those things. I felt them as well. I thought I was dying and in believing I would have truly died. Erik, do you understand what that means? It means that if I had died in that room, I would have been responsible for my death, not you. You, in truth, never laid a hand on me. When I saw the lie, the monster could not control me. I saw the truth. Thank God! I saw the truth just in time to prevent you from taking your own life."

He releases me from his embrace, but he does not release my hand. He steps back and he inspects me carefully.

"See, my dearest? Not even a hint of a bruise. My clothing is undamaged. You never laid a hand on me in that room. All of it was a lie. All of it!"

"Oh, mon chére cœur. I will never understand how …."

"Hush, dearest. Just hold me, please?"

He pulls me into the comforting circle of his arms. Snuggling my head into the warmth of his chest I find all the comfort I need wrapped in his arms and listening to the beating of his heart.

After a time, I say to him, "What happened to us in that room is my fault. You know that don't you? I need to protect your mind until I can teach you how to deal with being an empath. My cursed gift has become yours, true?"

"There is no room for blame here. What is; is. Our love placed us in danger's path. Our love saved us. That said, I do agree that you need to teach me how to shield myself from the onslaught of emotions. Being near Etienne was very difficult. His emotions for Christine are almost exactly how I feel about you. However, since they cannot express their love, he is very tense. They wanted us to go away, but at the same time they knew it was unwise for the two of them to be alone."

I laugh, "You forget, dearest. Christine just gave birth yesterday. Even if they gave in to their desire, Etienne knows he cannot have her so close after giving birth. It can cause complications. However, you are correct. Christine may have just given birth yesterday, but her body doesn't care and either does his. If they given in to one kiss, I doubt they will be able to stop there. This is exactly how I felt about you the first time we made love. I knew I shouldn't, but I couldn't stop my desire for you. I still can't. Even right now, I burn for you to make love to me. I know we can't make love to one another all the time, but that doesn't stop me from wanting it."

"Mon chére cœur, I feel the same as you. So, as much as I do not wish to say it, I will. We have to go now. Won't this hallway serve our purpose?"

"Yes, I am more than a little afraid of the château now. This is the second unpleasant surprise I have experienced here."

"Well, the château is more than 500 years old, beloved. I do not know all of its history. Perhaps, when we have time, we should ask my father about places like that room?"

"Most certainly. Well," I take a deep breath and let it out slowly, "are you ready?"

"Yes. It will be good to see Trystin and Madame."

We stand facing one another, hold hands and look into each other's eyes. I open the door in my mind.

A flash of lightning.

A dry clap of thunder crackles.