The Perfect Solution

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.

Mirror

I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
What ever you see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful –
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is a part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.
Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes.
Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
In me, she has drowned a young girl, and in me, an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.

Sylvia Plath

Chapter Thirty-Seven – The Eye of a Little God

Christine lay on a large bed with her eyes staring sightlessly ahead of her. As she approached the bed, Antoinette realized the girl's mouth moved in silent conversation. A tear ran unknowing down her cheek, as her attention turned to the room's other occupant. Erik Destler sat on the bed next to his wife desperately clutching her hands in his. With his head bowed, he rocked his body back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth.

Antoinette's hand flew to her chest and she took half a step back, but stopped as she quickly recovered her composure. She walked to the man's side and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. He turned to look up at her and Antoinette squeezed his shoulder gently. She gasped as he released his wife's hands and wrapped his long arms about her hips, drawing her to him. He buried his face against her waist and cried. The startled woman stared down at the sobbing man, her hands held up in the air in shock. After a moment, she placed her arms around the man.

"Hush! Hush, now! It will be all right, Erik. Everything will be all right."

She only hoped her words were true.

♥ ♫ ♥ ♫ ♥

"It is so dark! Why is it so dark? And, that voice! Mon Dieu! That voice … so harsh, so ugly, so hated! Who is that? Wait, I know that voice. Oh, no!"

Christine shuffled carefully along in the pitch dark. She cautiously skated one foot forward and then the other with her arms outstretched, grasping for purchase with anything solid. Her breath sounding harsh and loud in her own ears. Even though she could see nothing, the young woman closed her eyes, tilted her head and listened. She wished to catch the import of the murmured words echoing and bouncing about her.

"Vandal! Thief! Liar! Murderess!" The ancient voice hissed.

"Which level of hell is your destination, Madame? What punishment awaits you?" It croaked.

Placing her hands defiantly on her hips and raising her chin against the darkness, Christine replied.

"You cannot frighten me with your empty threats. You have no power over me any more."

A low growl ran through the air surrounding the woman in an angry embrace.

"Ma petite belle, I have power over you … have you forgotten? I am you!"

Violently shaking her head in denial, Christine turned and twisted as she tried to locate the source of the voice.

"No! No, you were never me, you used me!"

"As I recall, you were quite willing. After all, did I not protect you from all of your enemies just as I promised?"

"You lied! I had no enemies other than the ones you created in my mind. Too late, I discovered your deception. You are the serpent, the promise of the apple and the shame after the fall from grace. You are abomination. You found an innocent, a defenseless child and lied to her, but you can lie to me no longer. I know better now. I am stronger than you know."

"You may know better now, but you are an innocent no longer. Your innocence can no longer protect you."

Christine's body stilled immediately. She stood tall, her shoulders straightened and her chin lifted in answer to the voice's challenge.

"You do not frighten me. I lost my innocence honestly and without shame. You are not me! You deceived me. I was but a child when first you came to me. You are the one that lied and I gave you my trust blindly. I will do that no longer."

The voice cackled and Christine wondered how she had ever trusted that thing, that hideous hag. She blinked into the darkness, her eyes still seeking light in the ebony blackness. And, then Christine cried out in surprise as a light suddenly shone down upon her. The light, brighter than any light she had seen before and a blue-white in color, stunned her for the briefest of moments. The woman narrowed her eyes and waited.

Silence permeated the area allowing Christine time to settle her nerves. She crossed her arms in front of her chest. She continued to wait. After an interminable time, the woman impatiently began to drum her fingers against her elbow. More silence and waiting. Soon, her foot began a solitary tap dance, accompanying the staccato beat of her fingers.

"No. Impatience is exactly what the hag wants. It will cause me to make a mistake, to act in haste or emotionally. I will not fall prey to that trap ever again. Calm. I must be calm. This light … what is this light. Is it from the hag?"

The woman allowed her defenses to drop slightly and allowed the light to touch her soul.

She gasped.

"It is not the hag! This light protects me from her."

"Angel? Is that you? Angel?"

As if in answer, sweet music flooded the air around her. The hag let out a cry of fury and desperation, but Christine held onto the light, drawing it deep within her soul.

"Angel of Music, I need your guidance now more than ever before. Help me to find my way back into the light. Help me to find the path back to my husband's side. Bring me back to God's good graces. Help me, please! I no longer wish to wander in winter. I need to live in the warmth of the sun and the light of love. No more do I wish to remain hidden in darkness. Help me to find forgiveness!"

A voice echoed all around her, but it was not the hag. The voice sounded familiar and comforting as an old, but beloved blanket as it surrounded her.

"My child, your sincere desire and you asking for forgiveness is all that was ever required. I am most pleased to inform you, Christine, you are forgiven."

The voice caressed her and the light held her tightly in its loving embrace as she heard the screeching protests of the hag.

"No! You cannot have her! She is mine! She is mine! She is mine! She is …."

Her screaming voice suddenly cut off as a low, booming voice responded sternly.

"Lilith! Begone! I cast thee back into the regions of hell. I send you back to lie with your demon children, the incubi and the succubae. Begone and trouble this woman-child no longer. She has asked and so it is that the Lord doth grant. I say it this final time, begone!"

Christine saw the hag's face whip about the edges of the light, circling faster and faster, until her face seemed to surround her in one constant blur. The only thing recognizable, the open mouth screaming her anger with fangs bloody and dripping with gore. She buried her face into her hands.

"Oh! Mon Dieu! I shall pray each and every day that I am worthy of the forgiveness you grant me. Thank you!"

The woman sobbed and it seemed that the light took the form of a pair of wings, which lovingly wrapped the small woman's body in their embrace.

♥ ♫ ♥ ♫ ♥

"Mon Dieu!"

The startled exclamation brought Erik out of his embrace of Madame Giry's waist. He turned and found Christine bathed in a light brighter than any he had ever witnessed. However, as he stared at Christine, he realized that the light did not surround her, but emanated from her.

"What in the world?"

The man began to turn to his wife with outstretched arms, but his actions quickly halted by the woman standing next to him.

"No, Monsieur! Wait! Do not interfere! Something important is happening. Look! It is the Angel of Music! Can you not see him?"

Author's Note: Sorry everyone for the unusual delay! I planned on having this chapter up and ready on Friday, but Trystin's Wii System arrived and I had to set it up for her, then I took her and her best friend to Disneyland yesterday. (We have Annual Passes.) I made the mistake of forgetting the key to my mobility scooter, so I walked/dragged my carcass around Disneyland and California Adventure for 8 hours. The girls had a blast, but I'm pretty much a basket-case now. I can barely raise my arm to type. Dragging my body around is hell on my bursa, so tomorrow I'm off to the doctor to have it injected. Also, did I mention that my left hand is swollen and sore from gripping my cane? Oh well, walking behind the two girls, watching them with their arms draped around one another's shoulders makes it all worth it. I shall treasure that memory always. I rested all day today and I wrote the last 500 words of this chapter, but I need to go ice my shoulder. Sorry, I can't write everything I intended to have in this chapter, but I promise the next chapter will be most pleasing!

Thank you everyone for your wonderful reviews … DonJuanTriumphs and The Lonely Child are the only two reviewers that I could not respond to personally, but as soon as my shoulder cooperates, I shall most certainly respond personally.

Please feed the kitty – read and review!!! --ny