A/N: Thanks to my beta, Olethros.
Episode 5
By: Elektra
Daaé-Garner Residence
"Giant sewer snake eats dog…" Christine read the headline of the tabloid in Erik's lap as she sat beside him on the couch. "I've heard of alligators and crocodiles in the sewers, but a giant snake?"
"With more than one head, apparently," he muttered.
Christine shook her head. "What will they think of next?"
"Well, I rather like this one…" Erik flipped to the next page, "Recording artist CAM goes into hiding," he shrugged, "Last I checked, I never came OUT of hiding."
"Yeah you did. Remember last week?"
"That should not have counted."
"Well, it did." Christine frowned, "And the phone hasn't stopped ringing." She leaned back, "We need to change our phone number, Erik."
"At least no one has attempted to show up at the house,"
"That might have something to do with the spikes you set down on the driveway, and that creepy recording you made scaring any sane person away," she replied. "You've pretty much assured us that we'll never have any guests either,"
Erik shrugged, "I can retract the spikes when you take the car to work and back, what makes you think I cannot retract them when we have company?" He shrugged, "Well, provided they call us first."
"Speaking of work, I have to go."
Erik frowned, "To sing with Oren again?"
"Erik… we are performing together. What else am I supposed to do? You were so hesitant about doing it, and he's got talent…" she sighed and threw her hands up. "Never mind. I don't have time to go over this with you. I'm going to be late."
Christine stood up and headed out the door.
Populaire – after the performance
Oren was taking the last bit of makeup off his face when he heard the voice in his head again. He did not know to whom the voice belonged, yet he could not help but heed it when it spoke.
Your love is in trouble…
"My love?" Oren asked.
Yes, you know of whom I speak. Your sweet nymph…
Oren's eyes went wide. "Where is she? Please, I must go to her!"
There was a quiet chuckle before the answer came. Oren desperately rushed out of the dressing rooms, intent on saving his beloved.
"Please, Eurydice…" he begged softly, "Please wait for me…"
Populaire showers
Christine sighed blissfully as she closed her eyes and let the warm water pour down on her. How she loved little private moments like this.
The peaceful moment was disturbed when the shower door suddenly flew open, causing Christine to scream and grab her towel to cover what she could. "Ms. Christine…you… you are OKAY!" Oren gasped breathlessly, standing before her as the water rained down on his black and gold hair, soaking his clothing straight through.
"Of COURSE I'm okay. GET OUT!" she screamed.
"I… forgive me… I thought… someone told me you were in trouble…" Oren tried to turn away, but found he could not take his eyes from the woman before him. He took a step forward as if wanting to touch her, but Christine backed against the tiles, her grip firm on the small towel, which did not cover as much as she hoped.
Oren stopped, realizing he was doing more harm than good. "I… I am so sorry."
"Not as sorry as you're GOING to be!" A voice growled as strong bony fingers dug into Oren's shoulders, pulling him out of the shower and shoving him against the wall.
Oren looked up to see two yellow eyes glaring from beneath a black mask, a pale jaw clenched tightly. "Mr. Erik?" he gasped.
A hand came up around Oren's neck, squeezing tightly, "What the HELL were you doing to my fiancée?"
"I… I thought she was in trouble!" Oren protested. "I… did not know… I was only trying to-"
With an almost animalistic roar, Erik threw Oren halfway across the room, the younger man landing hard on the ground.
"Erik!" Christine cried out. "Stop!"
Erik did not heed her, "Are there not enough women groveling at your feet?" he hissed at Oren, "Must you go after MINE?"
Before Erik's fist could fly towards Oren's handsome face, he felt two little hands grasp his arm. "DON'T! Please!"
He froze and turned his head to Christine, "He violated your privacy!"
"I don't think he meant to," Christine, now wrapped in a robe, tried to explain. "He … he looked just as confused as I was." She glanced over at Oren, who was looking rather pathetic, soaking-wet and cowering from an angry Erik.
"I am so very sorry, Ms. Christine," Oren offered meekly. "I truly did not wish you any harm."
"DON'T talk to her!" Erik snapped.
"Erik! Calm down," Christine commanded as she pushed past him and reached a hand out to Oren. He seemed hesitant to take it, his eyes glancing nervously at the frightening figure hovering beside her. "It's okay. Get up and dry off."
He took Christine's hand like a frightened child and she assisted him to his feet. "I … I really am sorry…"
"No worries," she replied with a smile.
Sensing Erik moving behind her, Christine quickly stepped in front of him, pressing her back against his chest to prevent him from getting any closer to the young man in front of her. "You should go grab yourself some towels,"
Oren nodded, then glanced back at Erik nervously. "But…"
"Erik is a bit protective," she explained quickly, "He understands it was just a mistake though," she tilted her head back to look up at him, "Right?"
Erik narrowed his eyes and wrapped his arms around her from behind. His grip was a little too tight for Christine's comfort, but she let it pass.
"Yes… well…" Oren suddenly held a hand out, "It was nice to meet you, Mr. Erik,"
Christine could have sworn she heard a growl escape her fiancé's throat as he simply glared at Oren's innocent offering.
"Uh…well… I… I am very sorry for this misunderstanding. I… I meant no harm. Have a good day, Ms. Christine," he offered a small nod to Christine and quickly left.
"Bastard," Erik hissed.
Christine craned her neck to look up to him, "The man made a mistake, Erik. He's not a pervert."
"The man snuck into your shower!" He snapped.
Christine turned in his arms to face him, a small smile on her lips. "You've snuck into my shower on occasion."
Erik angrily pushed himself away from her, "That is different!" He then narrowed his eyes, "Unless you wished to do with him what you do with me!"
Christine frowned, not liking his insinuation, "Don't you even go there!"
"Well why not, Christine?" Erik asked snidely, "He is far more appealing to a 22-year-old woman than a living corpse ten years her senior, no?"
"Erik…"
"And his sings so 'oh so wonderfully' too. A voice to make a woman swoon." He continued.
"Stop it!"
"Am I lying? Are you not attracted to him? Every other female here seems to be! How are you any different?"
Christine did not appreciate what he was accusing her of, "Jealousy is making you ugly, Erik!"
Erik let out a cold harsh laugh, "Oh sweet angel, I do not need jealousy to make ME ugly! It is all very natural!" He yanked off his mask and tossed it to the floor, his voice growing low and dangerous, "Tell me, Christine – when I love your body, do you wish I had another face?"
Christine's hand flew out, connecting soundly with a skeletal cheek. "Don't even think of coming to bed tonight!" she quickly ran out of the room.
"CHRISTINE!" Erik shouted out. With an inhuman roar, he spun around angrily, his gloved fist shooting out to shatter the mirror on the wall.
"Oh my. What happened here, Mr. Ghost?" a voice spoke up behind him.
Erik grabbed a large sharp mirror shard and turned to the intruder, holding the point at his throat.
Loki's eyes went wide and he leapt a few feet back, putting a hand to his neck protectively as he looked up at Erik's unmasked face, "You ARE Death!"
Erik looked at his hideous reflection in the mirror shard he still held.
Christine was right – jealousy had indeed made him one ugly monster.
Sewers - later
Erik leaned back against the slimy tunnel walls and caught his breath, the anger still burning within him. He had found his way to the sewers without anyone noticing, leaving Loki far behind to muse upon what had happened to put the Opera Ghost in such a state.
It was then Erik realized he had left his mask on the floor of the shower room.
Funny how it didn't seem to matter at the moment.
Don't even think of coming to bed tonight!
Christine's words came back like the literal slap in the face she had given him before running out. She had been so angry with his reaction, so angry that he took his own insecurities out on a foolish boy who really knew no better. This was the first time Christine had asked to sleep alone since they had moved in together.
Erik never realized how much it would hurt.
He wondered if Christine felt this lonely on nights when he shut himself away in the basement to work obsessively on a new building design or musical composition. Did she long for him to hold her those nights he wasn't there, just as he knew he would long to hold her tonight?
"Oh, Christine…" he whispered quietly to the chilly tunnels. "Forgive your jealous Erik?"
A low growl answered him in response.
Erik quickly pushed away from the wall, looking around for the source of the strange sound. He heard a splash to the left, and his extraordinary eyes focused on a shape slowly rising out of the murky water.
It was serpentine in body, but far bigger than a normal snake. At least ten feet high… or rather, its HEADS were. Nine of them, on long scaly necks, with eyes that could freeze the blood in any normal man's veins.
Luckily Erik wasn't a normal man.
Before Erik could take the offensive, the creature suddenly wound its tail around one of Erik's feet, clinging to him as the heads attempted to bite his flesh. In his left hand, Erik still held the mirror shard he had torn from the wall. He allowed his anger to work for him and violently cut the heads coming at him. He imagined each head was Oren's. The image of the boy beside Christine in the shower as she desperately tried to cover up would not leave him alone.
As he continued to hack, he started to notice two more heads grew in place of each one he cut off.
He hacked at those as well, only to find more of the same.
He pulled away and tried to regain his bearings. No, he couldn't let his anger get the best of him right now. He needed to think. However, considering there were over two-dozen angry snake heads hissing at him, it was not as easy as one would believe.
He had seen something like this before… but where?
Erik suddenly recalled seeing pictures of this creature in various mythology books.
The Hydra! He realized. Eight of its heads were mortal, and one immortal.
Erik reached into his duster to grab a stake, then reached into his trousers to grab the lighter he often kept when he composed by candlelight. He quickly set the wood ablaze and burned the stumps of the heads he cut before they could grow back. He knew, however, the stake would not last long.
It did not need to now, though. One head was left.
Dropping the burning wood into the sewage water, Erik whipped out his rope and wrapped it tight, snapping the creature's neck with one hard yank.
It collapsed before him, unmoving.
Erik stumbled back, catching his breath before he fumbled for his phone and quickly dialed the first number on his list. "Antoinette?" he asked when he heard the familiar voice pick up, "You may want to send the Guild's cleaning crew down into the sewers beneath Hartford and Maine." He flipped the phone shut and glanced back at the dead thing at his feet.
Well, at least this creature had been good for one thing – allowing Erik an outlet for his anger.
Somewhat.
Daaé-Garner Residence - later
Christine opened her eyes to see a bouquet of a dozen red roses on her night table. She blinked slowly and stared at the present. "Erik?"
She felt the bed depress behind her, realizing Erik was sitting down. He hadn't slept beside her, she was sure of that, but how long had he been standing there?
"There was a reason for my anger. Though whether my explanation will be to your satisfaction, I do not know,"
Christine closed her eyes and let out a soft breath, "Go ahead. If I like your explanation, I'll decide whether I'll let you back in."
"I am selfish." He answered.
Christine let out a harsh laugh, "Selfish. Jealous. Bad-tempered…"
"Please, let me finish."
"Fine. Go on."
"The point is - I want your body to be for MY eyes only. No one else's. Not even accidentally." She felt him slide a little closer, "He desires you, Christine, and I am not being paranoid. I saw it in his eyes. As much as you insist otherwise, you are an incredibly attractive woman."
Christine opened her mouth to protest, but Erik continued, "Oren may be a foolish man, but a man he still is. He probably didn't even realize how obvious he was being." Erik was quiet for a moment, then spoke again. "I will never understand how you could want me the way you do, thus I grow jealous when another man – a handsome man – takes an interest in you."
She sat up and turned to face him, brushing his hair out of his eyes. "I can't keep reassuring you that I love you more than I already have. It's exhausting." She took a deep breath and leaned back, "You've put me up on a pedestal that's beyond my reach, that you thought was beyond YOUR reach. But I can't live up to that, Erik. I'm only human. I have basic instincts, just like everyone else."
She raised her head to meet his eyes, "And I have a secret. Something even Meggy thinks is weird and crazy… but …" she traced his harsh features with gentle fingers, "I don't want a handsome man. I want this horrible face," She slid her hand beneath his shirt, trailing her fingers over the raised skin on his back, "I want this pale scarred body."
"Christine…"
"Physically. Emotionally. Always. What other people find unsettling about you, I find appealing." She leaned back again, keeping her eyes on him, "Maybe I just needed to tell you that straight out."
He brushed a golden ringlet from her lovely face, "Beloved... " he stopped, at a loss for words.
Christine lay back down and stared at the ceiling. "Call yourself a freak all you want, Erik. Just know that you're my freak, and I like you that way." She glanced over at him again and offered a small smile, "Heck, if you were normal I probably wouldn't be attracted to you anymore."
Erik tried not to show his surprise, "Perhaps I should cancel that appointment with the plastic surgeon then…"
"You're kidding, right?" Christine asked worriedly. He said nothing. "Erik! You didn't really make an appointment-"
"No." He answered, "To be honest, when I was a child, Madeline tried to get a few of her customers – plastic surgeons – to see what they could do. Apparently I didn't have enough to work with." Erik lay down beside her, "But if you're attracted to this corpse of a face, then I will never change it."
He was silent a moment, then spoke again. "May I come back to bed now?"
"I suppose…"
66 Laramie Dr.
So you did not save your Eurydice after all…
"She was not in trouble," Oren replied. "I invaded her privacy."
It is her lover keeping her from you.
"He seems rather… protective of her,"
Perhaps you should get him away from her.
"How could I do that?"
A well-aimed gun always works. He is a difficult man to convince to do what he does not want to do.
Oren grew angry. "I would never take a life! I am not that kind of man!"
You are not a man at all, are you… Orpheus? Last time I checked, Ancient Greece was ancient for a reason.
"You do not know what you are talking about!" Oren protested. "I… I am just a normal person."
There was a cold laugh following this. You must be kidding me! Do you wonder why you hear me so well, Oren? I am INSIDE you, fool! I am seeing everything through your eyes. I am seeing everything in your head. Your past, your present. EVERYTHING!
"No…" Oren cried out, "Go away! Leave me alone!"
"Oren?" Martine knocked on Oren's door. "Are you ok?"
Oren quickly opened the door, "In my head! He's there! He says he wants his body back!"
The voice continued to laugh, and Oren bolted out of the room and down the hall as if he could leave it behind, but the voice had no intention of giving him peace.
End of Episode 5