Chapter 9:

The Passion's Climax

"July 9th ,1920.

After these weeks of pondering, I still don't understand why I did what I did in May of those years ago. A witch, what does witchcraft matter? I would've died valiantly. I would've gone down with the knowledge that I was always truthful and never a deserter. Life is precious, but what does it mean when gained by lies and deceit? Hopefully I will die soon, and purify my soul.

I am sure that soon I will perish, perhaps another day or two, of course, as you know, I've been starving my body, to try to fulfill my spirit. I think I'll go for a walk. If I can."

It was the dark of night, around midnight. Christine had been thinking about the promise she made to Raoul's spirit that past week. She'd found that she'd rather die for the good name of love, and certainly she was dying (Christine was always one to keep a promise). After having starved herself for the past ten days, her body was a twig ready to break. She was severely emaciated, and barely had the strength to stand lately.

Christine tried to stand, to go on her walk, and fell. She spread her arms out and tried to push herself up, and again failed. She figured by pulling up with her father's coffin, she'd be able to stand. She tried, and with much difficulty, (she was gripping the coffin so tightly, that her veins were protruding and her hands were pounding) she pulled herself up.

Christine stood at the gate of the mausoleum, and gazed out into the night. She was pondering. A little thought before going on her final excursion into the world. "I wonder what it will be like to leave the world. I don't know what will happen to my soul in the passage from world to Heaven. Will I be purified of my sins, or do I continue my life as on Earth. All I know is that once I get to Heaven, I will be with my dear Raoul again. He shall forgive my deserting, for I will have returned to him, and showed him my fidelity to him." She creaked open the gate, and (leaning on the wall as not to collapse due to her weak and brittle bones, and muscles that could barely hold up a mouse's weight) gently stepped onto the stairs. Suddenly, she heard a stir from inside the mausoleum. She whirled her head around, but saw nothing. "Should I think it a rat, as it likely is, or should I think it a sign from a spirit? My life has become a whirlwind of magic lately, it surely is a spirit trying to communicate with mine!" She let her muscles give in, and fell to her knees. She softly whispered "Raoul?" , while trying to crawl inside the mausoleum. All she heard was the calm quietness of the night. "Whatever, or whoever, it was must not have been Raoul" she thought "or he would have spoken to me." She clawed her arms up the wall to lift herself up. She walked out of the cemetery, but not before stopping at Raoul's grave. She knelt, or fell rather, before it and put her face up to it, and stroking it, she stated "You will forgive me" almost in a begging tone. As she said this, she heard another stir from behind the graves. She figured she must have been dreaming it, as there was nothing there the first time. Though she thought this, she was so ill, that she wasn't in her right mind, and walked about the grave to try once again to find the source of the noise. Frustrated, she said "Once again, nothing is there. Although, if I hear this noise once more, I shall know there is someone trying to distract me!" Although quite distracted, she was determined to take her final walk. As she passed throught he gates, she wondered "Perhaps this is Raoul, perhaps he doesn't wish to speak with me for he doesn't trust me. He doesn't think I shall keep my promise to him. As I promised him on our wedding night that I should never be tempted to leave him again, and I broke that years ago, when I left him in his dying days. Oh, if I could just take all that away, I'd, I'd... Oh I don't know anymore, I can't think straight anymore! Oh Raoul, take me to your glory!" She walked into the woods, the moon made an eery glow, a calm serene glow on the ground through the trees, as if something ominous was looming. She thought of the strange things that had happened to her the last time she'd ventured out in the woods. She thought about that time when the wall appeared out of nowhere, and then, out of nowhere, she hears "Christine", in a melodic tone. She turned her head about, looking behind the tree, in the tree, everywhere, and she saw nothing. "It must be that my mind is dying, I am hallucinating things. Raoul is angry at me, he has made this point to me, he needn't have to force it in, he's not like that." She started to walk away, when out of the corner of her eye, she saw something etched into the wood on the tree. She turned slowly, taking mighty breaths that made her chest tighten in pain. When she saw what was there, a great sigh of relief came from her. She saw a face carved there. She looked at it, getting closer until her nose was barely a centimeter from it, and tried to see it in the dim light. It took her about five minutes to figure out what it was, and when she did, she screamed in fright and ran deeper into the woods. "Raoul, why must you do this too me! I understand that you are upset, but please, I understand! Leave me be!!!!"

She ran screaming through the trees. Tripping and stumbling, she looked back often, breathing short and heavily. Her heart was beating so that it burned her chest, and she felt her lungs wilting. She found a clearing and stopped for a moment to rest. All was calm now. Christine was regaining use of her lungs as she thought of the silence now surrounding her. Their was an owl hooting in the background, and the wind was rustling the leaves. Out of this calmness, an earsplitting high-pitched screech came from behind her. She turned and saw a flying rat scratching at her face. She threw her arms up and wildly flung them about, trying to ward off the ghoulish creature away from her face.

"Christine! Christine!" screeched the evil thing.

"Raoul, forget me, please. I know that deep within your heart, you still love me, and if you cannot let go of your rage, than in lovingness, forget me, and leave me be!!! I beg of you!!"

She ran through the woods to the gate of the cemetery, while still flinging her arms around hoping to discourage the possessed bat. She ran through the gate and slammed the door, which caught the bat, and an awful crunch was heard, as the bat broke in half.

"Oh, how is this happening, why? Oh beautiful death, smother me with the goodness that can only be received through your charity; whether with you I be redeemed or not." She was sitting by her grave, as her head was beating on her from the inside. She then heard from around her: "Your faith has been challenged, and you have lost. Goodbye Christine."

"Alright, I leave you rest at peace" and she cried, lurching back and forward with her grief and regret.

She crawled to her mausoleum and pulled herself to the coffin of her father, and whispered to the wood: "Oh dear father, the angel of music did not protect me, why did you lie to me father?" All of a sudden she heard: "To long you've wondered in winter, far from my fathering gaze..."

"I am dreaming, I am dying so nothing can be as it seems.

"I am here Christine. You can hear your angel inside your soul. Do not fear for your guardian has arrived to redeem you."

"Amgel of music, guide and guardian, grant to me your glory!"

"Pitiful creature of darkness, what kind of life have you known? God give me courage to show you, you are not alone!" Christine felt a hand stroking her shoulder and her hair. She fell into the arm supporting her, and then all went black.