The Crystal Rainbow

An Alternate Universe – Phantom of the Opera Story

Nyasia A. Maire

© 2007

DISCLAIMER: I do not hold the rights nor did I create any characters found in The Phantom of the Opera or Phantom, nor have I received monetary compensation for writing this story.

We color the world with the truth of our perceptions.
Without our hearts and our minds to interpret our senses, we perceive nothing.

A Fool's Book of Wisdom

Chapter Thirty-Two - Perceptions

Erik stood in the doorway listening to Christine and Nadir talk. With fresh eyes, he gazed at the woman to whom he had given his heart and found himself amazed at the changes he saw in her. The graceful poise of her body and the confident manner in which she spoke proclaimed to those around her that she neither wanted nor needed their approval. She knew her own mind and was not afraid to speak it. She exuded self-assurance in her movements and inner peace in her smile. She had come far from the withdrawn, suspicious girl of only months ago.

"And, for that matter," he mused, "I am no longer the lonely man that held the world at an arm's length, non? I no longer lock myself away behind a façade of anger and sarcasm. Never did I dare dream this possible. Oh, Christine!"

Christine paused in her conversation with Nadir and gave Erik a sidelong glance.

"But mon amour, we did indeed dream of the possibilities. In childhood, we lay the foundation of our lives whilst we slept. Now is the time to allow our dreams to take flight into the so-called 'real' world. It is only when we sufficiently confuse reality and dreams that we can remake our lives into the truth we wish to live."

Her voice sounded sweetly within his mind and her smile touched him with its warmth, giving his soul wings with which to soar to the heavens. Erik could swear that he could see bolts of crackling energy pass between them as their gaze met. When he looked into her eyes, a wave of power coursed through his body, causing his cock to lengthen, swell and begin its ascension to readiness. His breathing quickened and grew ragged. His pulse pounded and it resounded in his ears. His heartbeat raced and matched the throbbing in his loins. If he regretted anything, it was of the brevity of his time with Christine. He wished he had been able to take her one more time and show her the depth of his love for her. He wanted time to explore the strange feelings he had been experiencing in the aftermath of their lovemaking. Erik suspected that his latent magical abilities were now wide-awake and very much awaiting his command. He bit back a groan and willed his taut flesh to soften, but it was a half-hearted attempt. He reached out with his mind and cupped her cheek with a hand he formed out of his spirit. He felt Christine respond and lean into the insubstantial flesh he offered her.

"Oh, Erik! Roi de mon coeur! Seigneur de mon amour!¹ There will be a time for us, but not yet. Do not worry. All will be well soon. You shall see."

He gave her a short nod, and she returned her concentration back to Nadir.

His ears heard her words. His mind understood her words. But his heart did not accept them, for he could not help but feel worried for her safety. Helen was gone, taken away by a demon. Diamante was no more and in her place was Sabratha, a flesh and blood woman. Erik had always known that he was a sensitive and therein lay the source of his concern. The woman Sabratha held no power that he could discern. On the other hand, the stranger, the man, Cadmus, held great power within him. Erik sensed that the man's magic remained slightly beyond his grasp, at least for the moment. Whether the man did not know of his power and it only slept within him awaiting an awakening nudge or the reemergence of the man's soul in a borrowed body had addled his mind, Erik did not know. The one thing Erik knew was that once Cadmus brought the magic under his control, the man would be a truly formidable opponent. But would they have enough time? Erik had no answer to that question either. And it was that uncertainty that caused the doubt in his mind and drove him to worry over their situation. It seemed that everything depended upon the untried powers of his Christine.

After casting a cautious look at Christine, Erik began with a snail-like slowness to imagine himself wrapping a thick black cloak around his body. When she did not seem to notice, he drew the imagined hood over his head.

"Ah, oui! That should keep her from hearing my thoughts. I need to consider our situation and confront my fears in private. Christine does not need to know of my doubts, as it will only add to the burden she already bears. I must gather my thoughts and banish my uncertainties. I do not wish to see her at the forefront of this confrontation as it places her in certain danger. Yet, I cannot allow my feelings to cloud my judgment. I must remember Helen's lesson of perceptions: that which we perceive with our eyes, lies. To perceive the truth, we must look deeper. We must look into the soul. Perhaps if I share that with Christine I shall not worry as much. Something tells me that it is important for her to hear those words. I remember how insistent Helen was that I take that lesson to heart. Who knows? That one bit of knowledge may be the key that opens Christine fully to her powers. I cannot hold anything back from her. Knowledge is power, and she needs every bit she can gather so she can be ready for the upcoming confrontation with Xavier. After all, Helen always says that there are no coincidences. No coincidences, indeed. So could it be that fate drives our lives? It boggles the mind to think of our lives as nothing more than pieces playing on a celestial chessboard. Could Christine's need be the reason for my deformity? That does give me pause. If I had an unblemished face, I would not have run away from home, I never would have met Helen. She would not have taken me into her home and taught me the ways of magic. She helped me realize that I must not allow my twisted face to warp my soul. Without Helen's love, I would not be who I am today. Or, I could still have been deformed, run away from home and met someone other than Helen. I cannot even begin to imagine what horrors I could have known if my life had followed that path."

His eyes widened as a sudden realization hit him.

"I am at peace with my life. I never thought I could feel this way, but I do. Especially after the way my life began. And it is thanks to Helen, Nadir, Christine and even Edgar. I never thought to find their love and friendship that dark and stormy night. I never even hoped to dream of it, but here I am and here it is. Since I now have Christine, the only thing I need to make life perfect is to have Helen back safe and sound. I wonder if Christine could use the letter portal to bring Helen back …."

He found his quiet musing interrupted by the feeling of eyes upon him and he looked up to find four pairs of eyes staring at him. He pushed off the doorframe and stepped into the room, wrapping his arm about Christine's waist. He pulled her close to him, reveling in her warmth and the pleasure her nearness caused him. He nuzzled his nose into the crook of her neck and breathed deep of her body's natural scent, which caused him to feel almost intoxicated. He looked up when he felt the room go silent.

"What?"

Christine shook her head and chuckled softly as Nadir snorted in disgust. Erik pulled Christine tighter to his body and almost groaned aloud when Christine ground her backside against his aroused manhood.

"Really, Erik," the distressed older man snapped. "Now is not the time for you to moon about like a lovesick schoolboy. We need to do something. Who knows what that creature intends to do to Helen? It might even decide to turn her!"

Erik and Christine's eyes turned as one to meet Nadir's, and he gasped. Their eyes held complementary flames of amber and umber. The older man took an involuntary step back as he placed his hand on his chest to cover his pounding heart. He panted for a moment and then took a hesitant step toward the couple. He looked intently into first Erik's amber and then Christine's umber. He gasped.

"Allah, protect us! What have the two of you done?"

His eyes darkened and his lips curled into a snarl. He turned away and threw his hands up into the air.

"Oh! This is perfect! It seems that our only hope is now demon-possessed as well. Ha!" He gave a short bark of laughter. "I guess there is no reason for me to stay here any longer. I can expect no assistance from either of you. And to think that I was fool enough to believe that I could trust you, Erik, well, I guess that just goes to show the more fool am I. Argh … well, mon ami, adieu et bonne chance!²"

The sarcastic tone of his words hung heavily in the air as he leaned forward and spat derisively on the floor just in front of Erik's feet. The furious man began to thunder toward the bedroom door, but halted when Erik, with Christine still in his embrace, blocked his path. Nadir spun on his heel and strode to the window. He thrust the sash up with a savage force until it would open no further. He placed his hands on the ledge and began to pull his body onto the windowsill. Christine gasped and Erik's eyes darkened, but before the rapidly deteriorating situation got any worse, a soft voice began to speak.

"Things seldom are as they seem. Monsieur, you should not judge by appearance that which you do not truly understand. Do not judge with your eyes, but with your heart. Do not think, but feel. Close your eyes. Tell me, Monsieur, what does your heart tell you? How do your friends make you feel?"

Nadir paused and turned his head back to the room. All eyes turned to the small woman with flaming red hair. Wrapped as she was in the comforter from Helen's bed, it lent her small frame the air of a lost child. Her wild curls seemed to float about her head, bouncing as if caressed by an unseen wind. Her hazel eyes were soft and her full lips turned up in a gentle smile. Cadmus released her from his embrace and she took a tentative step towards Nadir.

"Come, Monsieur. Do not lend aid to our enemy by leaving here. If you go alone to confront the beast, you will not save your lady. You may only place your own life in peril. Come; let me prove to you that your perceptions are incorrect. That the thing you fear is false. Surely, you do not wish to provide succor to the beast with your anger."

She lifted a small well-shaped hand and beckoned to Nadir. He sighed. Releasing his grip on the window, he dropped back to the floor. Sabratha's smile grew wider and she nodded slightly.

"Merci, Monsieur. The thing you see between your friends is a very special bond. Born of magic and the deepest love, it is a rare thing, but it is not evil. It is exactly what we need to triumph over the beast. For is not two greater than one? The beast is unaware that there is one to stand against him—now think how the surprise of two joined in power can lend aid to our cause."

She paused, tilting her head to the side as if listening and then returned her attention to Nadir with a wide grin.

"I do believe that a very close acquaintance of yours is on the way here and he brings help with him. So hold and be at peace, Monsieur. Hold your despair in abeyance, for while it may now seem dark, the dawn is not far off. And with the new day comes hope. Not all is lost, not yet, and Helen still lives. I can feel her." Her eyes took on a soft, dreamy look for a moment before snapping back into sharp focus. She chuckled softly and shook her head, obviously amused by whatever it was she saw or heard. "The beast does not intend to touch her. It left her with one it thought newly turned so she could become its first meal. The beast originally planned to use me for this purpose and I would have been helpless to foil its plans. Helen, however, is far from helpless. In fact, I do believe the beast is in for a bit of a surprise from our Helen, for it knows her but little."

Her head tilted further, her cheeks flushed and she giggled softly.

"And, when all is said and done, our Helen, she is a lady, is she not? We all know how decorous and modest our Helen is, non? One might even go so far as to say that to compare her shyness with that of a shrinking violet would be most appropriate. Would you not agree?"

Sabratha's wide eyes feigned an air of earnest innocence as she spoke, but a small smirk that tugged at the corner of her mouth told of her true feelings. She bit her bottom lip to tame her smile, but surrendered the farce when everyone, including a reluctant Nadir, began to snicker. The dark man shook his head and with the same air of restraint, responded to Sabratha's jest.

"Oh, yes! Our Helen is quite the lady, so demure and restrained. It is a wonder that we cannot hear her swearing from here."

The chuckles evolved swiftly into full-blown gales of laughter at Nadir's comment. Erik drew Christine close to his chest and breathed his words softly into her ear.

"That was a close thing, was it not? Sabratha has a gift. It appears that she knows just how to handle people in order to keep emotions calm. I do not wish to contemplate what could have happened if Nadir had gone off alone. That probably would have played right into Xavier's plans. Certainly, it is simpler to pick off people one at a time than an entire group. We are stronger together than apart."

He burrowed his nose into the crook of her neck, breathing deeply of his beloved's scent, and sighed.

"Oh, Christine, mon amour!"

Erik started slightly when Christine's response resounded within his mind.

"Ah, mon ange, our strength certainly does not lie in our numbers, but in each of our gifts. However, until each of us learns what they can do alone, you are most certainly correct … remaining together is the wisest course of action."

A trumpeting bray interrupted the lovers' conversation. A shrill neigh drew the room's occupants to look out the window into the moonlit yard where a triumphant Edgar pranced about with a shadowy figure sitting astride his back. Suddenly, Edgar reared up on his hind legs and screamed. The creature on his back threw his shaggy face to the sky and laughed.

Christine scowled, walked to the window, her hands akimbo and called out the window.

"Leshii Basajaun! Behave yourself! It is my hope that you are here to lend us aid in the task before us. However, if you intend to thwart us with your tricks, I must inform you that I shall not allow it. I have no need for you to be here at all and you know it! It is to the favor of both of us that we join forces. So, come, get down from Edgar's back and stop torturing him this instant! We have desperate need of palaver. Come, Lord of the Forest! Let us sit together, share a good meal and make plans to foil the instrument of the night."

¹ "Roi de mon coeur! Seigneur de mon amour!" – Translation: "King of my heart! Lord of my love!"

² "mon ami, adieu et bonne chance!" – Translation: "my friend, goodbye and good luck!"

My thanks to my new story editor, "Parthenogenesis." A truly wonderful man!