A/N: I would like to apologize for the long wait for the update on both of my stories. I now have a beta, although I am not quite sure how that works hehe. I have been really busy lately so I hope you can all forgive me.

I would like to thank all my reviewers! I love you all! Hands you brownies

Christine crept out of her room. It was night and Madame Giry and Meg were waiting for her downstairs. They decided it would be easier to leave at night than to tell Raoul. Christine left a letter for him on her pillow explaining everything. She hoped he would let her start a new life and now go after her.

Madame Giry and Meg were waiting patiently for Christine, together the three of them climbed into the carriage that the older Giry had ordered earlier that day. As the carriage started moving Christine took one final look back at the life she could have had, at the life she knew she would never regret leaving.

Erik woke, his head pounding. He felt as if a blackness had settled around his heart. Of course he had always felt empty and miserable, but this. This was agony at it's worst. He had lost the only thing he ever loved, the only thing that gave him hope to a fop. She had exposed his weakness to the world (Even Erik can over exaggerate a bit). He had ripped his heart out only to step on it. He should hate her. But he didn't. He still loved with his entire being.

He would never be able to forgive himself, she had come back yet he had turned her away with his cruel words. Even if she did deserve them, there could have been other times to talk. If he would have shut his mouth he could have had her. She would have been his forever. He would have a life of happiness to look forward to. Now all he had was darkness, like so much of his life. He would die alone and bitter, he was sure of it.

Surely Christine couldn't love him, he pondered sitting up on the bed. That would be impossible. How could anyone love an angel in hell? Sure the boy was a fop, but he could promise her a future of security along with the finer things in life. All he could offer her was darkness and …well, music. There was so much more that his Christine deserved.

So much he was sure he would never be able to give her.

Raoul got up the next morning, a smile on his lips. Today he would tell Christine she needed to decide on a date for the wedding. Then he would send her to town to decide on a dress, and other garments they would need for the wedding. There was much planning to do, and no time to be wasted.

He waited for Christine in the dining room, sure she would show up any minute. But then after 15 minutes he knew something wasn't right. He walked to her room, and knocked on her door. There was no reply.

"Christine, are you in there?" When there still wasn't a reply he opened the door and discovered the room empty, the bed made.

He noticed something white on one of her pillows. He walked over and saw that it was a letter addressed to him. He unfolded it carefully and began to read.

Dearest Raoul,

I am sorry to leave you like this. But you see, I know I cannot love you the way you deserve. I love you as a friend Raoul and nothing more. I was too foolish to realize what my feelings truly were up until recently. Please do not believe I led you on. You are dear to me and always will be, but I cannot allow either of us to get into a marriage where neither of us will be happy.

You deserve to be with someone who loves you and cherishes you the way a wife should. That girl is out there some where Raoul. Allow yourself to find her, she will be lucky to have you. I can never thank you for all that you have done for me, I will remain in your debt forever.

Know that I have left on my own free will. I am with Madame Giry and Meg. Together we are going to start a new life. I must ask you not to come looking for me. Raoul, I know you and I know you are reading this, thinking I was lured away in the middle of the night. That is not the case. Rest assured I am all right. When the time is appropriate I will come in contact with you and we can talk face to face.

Sincerely,

Christine

Raoul read this over at least five times. The words just didn't make sense. Christine was gone? And of her own will? This did not make sense. He sank down onto the bed, feeling overwhelmed, he sat there blankly staring at the wall in front of him. Then he broke down, for a man of his age he had only ever cried as a small boy when he had cut his knee open when he fell off of his horse. Now a grown man of twenty-five, he collapsed on his side on the bed, his body shaking with sobs.

He had lost his Christine, he could feel it in his heart that she no longer was his. That she never was to begin with.

Christine had traveled with Madame Giry and Meg to the outskirts of Paris. It was a lot less expensive to live here and Madame Giry was able to find them a simple room inside a boarding house. It turned out she had saved money for quite some time in fear if something should happen and she would lose her job. She wanted to be able to provide for herself and her daughter and now she was glad she had saved as she had.

After a week, Madame Giry had inquired at multiple places if a ballet instructor was needed and was now waiting for one of them to hire her. She was good. She knew that. Surely someone would hire her, even if it did take time.

Meanwhile Christine and Meg were waiting for the older Giry to get a position somewhere so that with her help they could both join the chorus there. The days passed by slowly, Christine could not get her mind off Erik and the Giry's could see that she was troubled.

'Where could he be?' She asked herself day after day.

'What is he doing? Is he still mad at me? Will he ever forgive me?' The questions had no end, sometimes Christine was sure she was close to losing her mind. But she had been right. She would never be free, he would always haunt her. The only way to save her mind and heart was to be with the one man who she both feared and loved more than any other.