ALL I KNOW OF LOVE
Erik and Christine are the creation of Gaston Leroux; the reference to Persia and some of its customs are derived from Susan Kay's book, "Phantom". All other characters and the backdrop of the story are the creations and property of GerrysJackie.
Some places and all names are fictional.
PLAYERS:
Erik – Gerard Butler - Perfect
Christine – The face and coloring of Zooey Deschanel (Failure to Launch, Elf) – and the body of Marilyn Monroe, except 3 inches taller
Gustav - Billy Connelly – Because I really like him.
Patrick Connelly - Paul Bettany – (A Knights Tale, Firewall, A Beautiful Mind)
Pascal – Mel Gibson's looks (slightly older with graying hair) with the cunning and cruelty of J.R. Ewing from " Dallas".
Madam Marie Forsythe – Miranda Richardson
James Lumpkin (the butler) – Daniel Davis (the butler from the TV show "The Nanny")
Kamilla – Georgie Henley (Chronicles of Narnia)
Duke Sergei Beauvais – Derek Jacobi (Underworld:Evolution)
Kaveh Hushmand – Oded Fehr – (The Mummy, The Mummy Returns) Thanks Mlle.Fox!
Use your imagination on all others.
This story has taken a while to develop, but I hope it has been worth it. I have several chapters already written, but I am taking my time. There is humor, drama, and romance in this story, so I hope you will enjoy it.
This rendition of Erik is one of a man who has suffered greatly in his life, at the hands of just about everyone in his life, but his spirit is still intact. He is less self-loathing than others that I have written, but he is very much aware of his self-proclaimed faults. He is dangerous and ruthless, but has had enough of death and destruction. Women are still a mystery to him, and he needs a strong, independent woman who is his equal in every way.
This Christine is not a drop-dead gorgeous woman, but her beauty is less assuming and soft…Erik will see it.
I will try to update twice a week, depending on how quickly I write chapters. I don't anticipate this being a particularly long story, but we'll see.
Enjoy.
CHAPTER 25
Saying good-bye to his grandmother, if only for a few weeks, proved to be a very difficult thing for Erik to do.
He had never bid good-bye to anyone he loved before – and he had loved his grandmother before he even met her.
Erik was in a world of his own making as the train carried them toward Vassadelle and the southwestern corner of France.
Sergei had come to sit with them and Erik knew he had to speak. He turned to Sergei and bowed his head in submission.
"I can never repay you for the gift you gave me by finding her."
Sergei wrapped his arm around Erik's shoulder and gave him a fatherly squeeze, "You have become the son I never had, Erik…I will gladly do anything for you."
Erik lifted his head and gazed into Sergei's sincere eyes.
"You owe me nothing…just having you as a friend and confidant is payment enough for anything I do."
His words caused a lop-sided smile to adorn Erik's mouth.
Sergei rested his head back on the cushion of his seat. He was silent for a few seconds and then he smiled brightly, and with his eyes still closed spoke jestingly toward the seat he knew Erik occupied.
"Oh, and it's fine with me if you need to borrow my train in about three weeks."
Erik heard the teasing tone and retorted likewise, "I wasn't going to ask."
"Of course you weren't."
"I was just going to steal it."
Sergei grinned, still not opening his eyes, and replied, "You and whose army…it takes a crew of ten to run this train."
Erik conceded with a comical sigh and a shrug of his broad shoulders, "Alright, you proved your point."
"I knew you'd see things my way."
Erik rolled his eyes at Christine and smiled. "He's impossible when he's proving something."
"I see that." She agreed.
Ж Ж
When they got home, Erik got the joy of telling his daughter that they would soon have a great-grandmother living near them.
"What's a grand-mère?" Kamilla asked with wide-eyed innocence.
Erik shifted her on his knee, realizing just how fast she was growing to big for them, "She is my mother's mother." Erik explained.
"Where is your mother, Papa?"
Erik swallowed the sting of regret that hung in his throat, "She's in heaven….with the angels."
Kamilla hung her head in understanding.
"You never knew her, did you?"
Erik pulled his daughter into his chest, giving her a big hug. His large hand smoothed her hair as he spoke.
"No Kamilla, I never knew her…." His words were soft and almost whispered, "…but I miss her so very much."
Christine had been watching the exchange between father and daughter and knew that Erik's heart was finally grieving for the mother he never knew.
For so many years, he had thought she had abandoned him…now he knew she had loved him with every breath she had taken.
He took the time to tell her and Giorgia a story with Christine embellishing on several points. They bade both girls good night with a kiss on the forehead and left the room.
"Come down stairs, I haven't heard you sing and play in so long…"
Erik arched a brow at her seductive tone and smiled, "How would you like to hear a composition from my latest opera, 'My Beloved Immortal'"?
Christine, looking quite intrigued, agreed enthusiastically and took his hand as he led her down the staircase and toward the conservatory.
They passed Beth and Kaveh as they were headed to their respective rooms.
"Where are you two lovebirds headed?" Beth asked with a wink.
"Erik is going to play and sing for me…a new song he wrote for the Opera Sergei asked of him." Christine answered.
Erik turned and looked at them, "Come and join us…it should prove to be very liberating…I wrote the Opera with Christine in mind as the main female lead and myself as the ugly leading man."
Christine swatted him on his arm and ridiculed his self-abasing comment with a stare, "You are the farthest thing from ugly that there is…don't ever say that."
Erik chuckled at her demanding and assertive tone, "Yes dear…" He lifted his eyes back to Kaveh and Beth, "…forgive me…the 'devilishly handsome leading man.'"
She smiled at his play on being amiable; she knew he was anything but. His eyes twinkled with gold specks and Christine got the distinct impression that he could read her thoughts.
He continued toward the conservatory and everyone followed, including James.
Erik turned toward them and nervously twisted his hands together. He waited for them to be seated and then spoke a few words.
"This piece is the love theme sung by the male lead at the climax of the story...I will expound on that afterwards..."
Erik glided onto the piano bench and floated his long fingers across the keys. He was facing them, and his eyes drifted shut as the melody found its avenue through his genius…
"Come into these arms again...
and lay your body down
The rhythm of this trembling heart...
is beating like a drum."
The hauntingly dark strands of the music took the listeners into another world...a world of blood red passion and deep sorrow.
"It beats for you...it bleeds for you..."
It knows not how it sounds.
For it is the drum of drums...
it is the song of songs
"Once I had the rarest rose
that ever deigned to bloom.
Cruel winter chilled the balm,
and stole my rose too soon.
A chill coursed through Christine as she realized that the character had lost his love and the agony threatened to consume him.
"Oh loneliness...oh hopelessness...
to search the ends of time...
for there is in all the world...
no greater love than mine.
"Love...still falls the rain.
Still falls the night...
be mine forever.
"Let me be the only one
to keep you from the cold.
Now the floor of heaven is laid...
its stars of brightest glow.
"They shine for you...
they shine for you...
they burn for all to see.
Come into these arms again...
and set this spirit free." (1)
His voice resounded off the walls, although his volume was not loud and boisterous…it just seemed to surround and inhabit everyone and everything.
Everyone listening experienced the shiver that ran up their spines and all knew that they were in the presence of greatness.
When the song ended, there was astonished looks on each face, but the words had clearly served their intended purpose.
"Erik, I've never heard anything like it – so dark and haunting…." Christine commented, "…so tragic and piercing...what is the opera about?"
Erik smiled, acknowledging that her words were the exact reaction he was hoping to gain. "The hero…" Erik creased his brow, rethinking that term, "…no hero is not the right word; we'll go with 'dark' hero, is Lord Adrian Montague. He is a powerful vampire who challenges the foundations of his kind by falling in love with a beautiful, innocent, all-to-human maiden named Lillith."
"How dapper, talk of vampires is everywhere – many believe they exist." Beth whispered, fascinated by the storyline.
Christine had read The Vampyre, a tale by Lord Byron; in fact, her father owned an original copy of the novel.
"Tell us more, Erik…this is fascinating!" Beth exclaims.
Erik gave an elegant, sweeping bow, "Alas, dear sister, I cannot. You shall have to attend the opening night at the Opera Populaire in Paris."
Beth pouted, hoping to sway him in some way, "Erik…when is opening night?"
He smiled and chuckled lightly, "The first day of October."
Beth gasped and pouted even more, October was five months away.
He leaned in, pulled Christine into his tender embrace, and whispered, "I will tell you this much, their love costs them both dearly – in the beginning…" He smiled mischievously, "…My Beloved Immortal is full of deception, betrayal, passion, pain – everything that makes a house a home."
"Sounds like my kind of opera." Kaveh remarked with a wicked grin, and everyone agreed.
(1) "Love Song for a Vampire", sung by Annie Lennox, from the movie "Bram Stoker's Dracula", 1990
TBC