A/N: Updating... heh... yeah... heh. I'M SORRY I SUCK AT LIFE.
Chapter 3
Having arrived at the stage, Christine found she was a little upset. Well, maybe a lot upset.
Her day had been going splendidly; Raoul had made himself look like a fool, she had spent time with Erik, she was surrounded by pre-performance hype, and she had received a hefty amount of money for merely wandering around with a spoiled noble. Couldn't be better.
Then of course, Buquet had come along.
"Why hewwo, sweat ting." Buquet grinned up at her, flashing a sloppy smile. He was obviously drunk.
As Christine usually did when she found something foul smelling and irksome in her way, she ignored him and continued on her way. Then, a greasy hand shot out and grabbed her leg, causing her to stumble forward before crashing gracelessly to the ground.
"I wassn done talkin'!" He had lowered his voice to be menacing, but it had failed miserably: he sounded like Batman going through puberty.
Feeling no fear, Christine gave him a winning smile, while reaching around her neck to unhook her necklace. The chain bore a rather large emerald (one of Raoul's favorite dress up pieces), and it was quite heavy. And hard. Oh yes, it was very hard.
Unsnapping the clasp, Christine swung the necklace like a whip, bringing the stone crashing down on Buquet's skull. With a resounding bonk! Buquet's eyes rolled up before he hit the floor.
Caring little, the future Prima Donna straightened herself out and swished around the corner.
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When the show had begun, patrons had been squirming in their seats in anticipation.
Now, that was not the case.
Carlotta flounced about stage with so many layers of fabric plastered on her that her movements were seen as quite an impressive feat. However, that did not change the fact that the stage shook every time she landed. Her pathetic attempts to display "seduction" of the servant boy were so horrendous that even Piangi seemed appalled.
Then, there was her singing.
The most recent slew of high notes had broken several patrons' opera glasses, causing great alarm and pain as small shards of glass exploded around their faces. The crystals on the chandelier also seemed to be vibrating at a nerve-wracking pace.
Groaning internally, Christine gave Carlotta a loving smile as she remained silent while Carlotta cackled on.
High overhead, Erik's musical senses had gone into overload.
Gah! Tonight had started out splendidly. Raoul made himself look like a fool, I got to spend some time with Christine, I have great pre-murder hype, and I received a hefty sum for wandering through walls threatening managers. Couldn't be better.
Buquet had practically been gift-wrapped for him too, which was a surprising treat. Despite the fact that Buquet bothered almost everyone, most people pitied his terribly ugly face that refused him female affections too much to care. Not that that had ever helped Erik...
The body was situated on the railing with noose round the neck. All it would take was one little push and Buquet's body would fall right over, snapping his neck and giving the managers quite a wondrous shock. Now, all he had to do was wait for Christine to exit the stage before he dropped the bomb. She had no need to see this, nor did he want her getting hurt by the oaf's soon to be corpse. Ah, if only he could watch the scene from Box 5...
All of a sudden, a bright blue blob of frills caught Erik's eye.
Raoul. Raoul was sitting in Box 5.
Erik saw red.
The last time Raoul had sat in Erik's precious box, it had smelled like fish for weeks, and that hadn't been the worst of it. The seat Raoul had been using -which happened to be Erik's favorite- had been stained so much that it now resembled a brown rather than a deep red. Erik had stepped in some disgusting pile of gooey beauty product. There had been an ant invasion because of all the food Raoul had managed to shove INSIDE the chair, and the stench of body odor still lingered in the curtains to this day.
It could not happen again. Never again.
Erik reached out involuntarily, hoping to wring Raoul's neck despite his distance; in the end, Erik ended up huffing and puffing, using all of his mental "force" to crush Raoul's windpipe.
Regrettably, nothing happened on Raoul's end.
However, one gentle nudge from Erik's arm did cause some things to happen on his end.
Buquet's body slipped over the edge, accelerating rapidly as it crashed onto part of the set with a resounding crash before continuing its fall, ending with a sickening snap.
Erik peered over the edge.
It didn't even bop Carlotta on the head... damn.
And then the screaming began.
Well, at least he could get some Opera Ghost magic out of this.
"Behold! She is singing to bring down the chandelier!"
Carlotta's screeches of terror continued to echo about the theater. Erik glanced up at the chandelier. Was it just him, or was it wobbling just a little bit? That rope didn't seem like it could hold much longer...
The managers sitting in Box 5 with Raoul began to shudder even more so than they already had been. Andre felt his pants grow wet as he lost control of his body in fright. That chandelier DID look like it was about to come down.
"Fir-Firmin?"
"Yes, And-Andre?"
"He went through with the cards. That was definitely a magi-magical lasso. And I th-think the chan-chandelier..."
At that moment, the rope supporting the chandelier snapped, bringing the whole mess toppling down in a waterfall of shimmering crystals.
Erik could have sworn he had never seen anything so beautiful as that chandelier falling to the ground before the crystals exploded into powdery dust.
Well, besides Christine of course.
Christine! Was she offstage before the body fell? Oh please, oh please...
Erik hurried down a nearby ladder before slipping into the wall to find his beloved.
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Raoul was furious. Now Christine had not only spoiled his pampering rituals, failed to adequately express her utter devotion to him in front of enough of his friends, and been just irritating overall, but now she had actually ruined an OPERA.
Yes, yes, it might have been the Opera Ghost who had done it, but Raoul considered anything that could be blamed on one blamable on the other.
He needed to find her, NOW, and she needed to explain.
Raoul turned to the managers and slapped each across the face before leaving with a huff of indignation. The nerve of these people!
The frilly blue suit fanned out behind him, leaving the appearance that he had an excellent cape in addition to his perfectly styled hair.
It was a combination of those two ridiculous appearances that alerted Christine to his presence.
"Raoul! What do you want?" She wasn't in the mood to deal with his crap, so the sooner done, the better.
Raoul was stunned. A mere WOMAN, talking to HIM, the god of beauty, that way? Absurd! She had some explaining to do. "Come on, get up to the rooftop so you can explain this to me. God, you just HAVE to go and ruin my perfect days. You gave me tons of stress! I'm going to get wrinkles!" Raoul's ending sentence turned into a wail of distress.
"Fine. Let's go."
The pair navigated their way through large crowds, and as they ascended the stairs to the roof, a pair of golden eyes followed them from a hole in the wall.
"Gah! I knew there was something more between them! Why else would they go off to the roof now, when there's no one around to catch them." Erik began climbing his own set of stairs, racing at a frantic pace to beat the "lovebirds" to the roof.
Despite Erik's best efforts, Christine and Raoul arrived there before him.
"You stupid little slut! You can't even do your job right! You didn't even scream my name in horror that we would be separated from each other forever when that chandelier came crashing down. Why are you so damn selfish? Vain little-"
Christine couldn't believe her ears. "I'm selfish? And VAIN? Have you even LOOKED in a mirror lately? Oh yes, you have. You had to style your hair to perfection to get that thick hardened look to it. It looks like you soaked that disgusting ponytail in plaster. Yet, for all the staring at yourself in a mirror you do, you don't seem to get the message that you're absolutely filthy. I swear, you make your own filth. Don't talk to me about being selfish and vain, idiot."
"Ha! As if you know the first thing about being beautiful. I DO look at myself in mirrors a lot, and I'll tell you, I look AMAZING. I am SO beautiful. I could get any girl -or guy- that I wanted."
"Oh yes, let's not forget about the guy part. Honestly, I'm playing the beard part perfectly, it's YOU who stumbles making moony eyes at any guy you see. Honestly, if it moves and doesn't have breasts you start batting your eyes at it!"
Raoul's temper flared. "You know what? I don't need you. You're just a burden to- What was that?" Raoul grew perceptibly more nervous as a rustling came from a nearby corner.
Erik had just pulled himself out through a window by the Apollo's Lyre statue. Unfortunately, Christine and Raoul had stopped talking, and he had been paying too little attention to notice whatever they had said before. His efforts had been focused on more important things, like preventing his intestines from being squished.
Concealing himself behind the statue, he made no noise, waiting for them to resume their conversation.
Raoul leaned close to Christine, his eyes practically popping out of his head. "Christine, what do we do? I can't let the whole world know that I'm-"
"Oh really? You were ready to scream it to the world a matter of seconds ago. What was it you said? That I was a burden?" Christine murmured back.
A large stack of bills was pushed into her hand. Her lips curved into a smile and she looked back at him. "Well, all we need to do is convince whoever's listening of our undying love."
"Say you love me every waking moment, turn my head with talk of summertime... Say you need me with you, now and always... Promise me that all you say is true -that's all I ask of you." Oh, you know, not asking much at all from this slob...
"Anywhere you go, let me go too -Christine, that's all I ask of you." Even to Raoul it sounded pitifully obvious that he did not share the sentiments he claimed to.
"I LOVE you SO MUCH, RAOUL. You're such an amazing LOVER and I want to be with you FOREVER and EVER, maybe we'll even GET MARRIED and HAVE CHILDREN. What do you think about that?" Christine shot Raoul a glare to continue the charade.
Erik didn't need to stick around for that.
With a strangled sob, he pushed his way back into the window. He had always known that Christine could never love him, and it disgusted him to know that she chose Raoul over him.
Christine and Raoul, you will curse the day you did not do, all that the Phantom asked of you...
A/N: School ends tomorrow, so I promise a speedy update. I wrote this in only a few hours, so I'm sure I can pop out the final chapter super soon. As usual, please drop a review with any constructive criticism or other comments!
