"She is out of danger's way, and she will have no need to consume your food after you announce your 'surprise'. Eat now, Erik." Nadir said, grabbing a tray and putting the kettle over the little fire that Erik had just made.
Yet, though despite Nadir's words being true, Erik simply turned away. "I am in no mood to eat."
"But you should rejoice! She is better!"
"She is better from something that I brought upon her."
"So did I. If I hadn't brought her to the tunnels, never would this have come to mind. Does that mean I should stop eating?"
"You could stand to lose some weight, in all honesty. You are indeed as fat as Piangi was."
"Before he was killed, that is." Nadir added, though not in anger.
"Yeah, before I killed him for the sake of Christine. The sake of the woman who cares not, appreciates nothing, blind to all I do and feel. It matters not, though. I wont be having to worry about her soon enough."
And with that, Erik left the kitchen, and went as far as he could from Christine's sight.
XXX
It was late day of the day after she had awakened, this Christine could feel. Though Nadir insisted that Erik had restlessly cared for her by night and day, it wasn't he that helped her now. Truthfully, she saw him but rarely. He cooped himself up in his old bedroom and hardly left it.
She, on the other hand, was still lying on the chaise. Twice Nadir got her up and helped her shaky legs to hold her up and to walk small steps.
Dread filled Christine's heart. Erik told her she'd like his surprise, yet she felt nothing but queasy over it ever since he first spoke of it. She prayed he'd hold it off, but with each passing hour she felt it get closer as her heart grew heavy.
Finally, Erik made his appearence. He looked well suited, and had a pocket watch in his hand; staring at it.
"Erik?" she said in a sweet, soft voice.
"Nadir tells me you are stronger and well." He said in a strange voice, not looking at her.
"I believe he is correct."
"Good, good. Then it is time that I bestow my surprise unto you." he said, then produced a large suitcase. "This is for you. You'll use it immediently. You'll go in your room and put in the suitcase what ever you want to keep. Whatever you do not value, keep here. Choose wisely, you will not be coming back if you forget something." he said sternly.
Christine's eyes went wide, and she could have swore her heart stopped. "What?" she said, choking on her sobs.
"You do not think I will let you come back, do you? When you return, you will finish preparations for your wedding of next week. If you come here with a ring on your finger, I will never allow you in. And if you come back with child, you would put an end to my existence. I pray you have at least enough care for me to not do so. Therefore, I suggest you take a good look around here, Miss Daae." She could tell it was difficult for him to keep the stern look upon his face and in his voice, for his eyes were red and watery, his words cracking and hard to come.
Yet he was nothing compared to her. Christine's face were already soaked with tears.
"Come now , cry not so! This is what you begged for! To leave and never have the displeasure of returning. My lair has been disgraced, but it does not allow mocking by any one living. You will get what you were willing to die for - you will go above ground again, and never lay eyes upon me. Now go pack, I have things to get done and a lair to prepare before the mobs come."
Christine's throat was restricted, making it near impossible to swallow, let along to cry out against his accusions. Instead, she obediently nodded, then got up. Nadir ran to her aid, helping her to her room, then coming back to Erik.
"Come, you must pack too. Like you said, the mobs..." Nadir said.
"I am not going anywhere. I stay here, with my organ in my home."
"But once she returned, there will be no stopping them from coming! You must leave!"
"No, but you must. I wont risk them thinking you are apart of this. You are my only friend left, I must save you from my own fate while I can."
"They will not kill you, you realize this? Not at first, anyway. They'll torture you until you wish you were dead. If the Vicomte has anything to do with this, it'll be ten times worse."
"Nothing is worse than what I am about to do, Nadir. Have you not understood that yet?"
With that, Erik walked to Christine's door and peeked in. He saw her, her clothes scattered all around her on her swan bed and her suitcase by her feet. Tears streaked down her light pink cheeks and down her neck. Her breathing was shallow. He worried if this wasn't too much for her, that she may have a relapse, but then his undeniable temper and anger replaced his concern.
"Best hurry, or you'll be walking in pitch dark back to your home tonight. I have planned it that you will meet de Changy when you are up there again. But if you really want to mope the day away to spite me, I don't mind. You have done worse to me." He said in a cold voice. She looked up at him in disbelief, then started to sob. He closed the door and walked to the kitchen, warming his hands.
"She'll be a few minutes more." Erik said to Nadir casually. "You ready to go as well?"
"I wish I wasn't. I rather stand here and do what I can to help you."
"And be killed? Not in my lair, you wont. I haven't shed your blood here yet, and I don't plan to. You will go home to your little apartment across town where I found you before any of this happened, and go living your life after mine is over. I request one thing of you though, that you must promise me you'll do."
"Yes?"
"Watch out for her." He said, nodding to the door. "Who knows? If I get real lucky, she may even feel a fleeting amount of remorse for my death."
"You know she loves you Erik, in her own way."
"She tried to kill herself in a lake than rather be with me one more day!" Erik exclaimed.
"She loves you." Nadir repeated, softer. He watched as the anger in Erik's eyes melted. But then Erik turned and awaited for his love by the organ. He played a few notes, looking at a paper in front of him. Nadir recognized it as the piece of work he was working on before Christine had come.
Finally, broken hearted, Christine emerged from her room, holding the suitcase. She walked up to the organ, awaiting direction. Nadir quickly left for the kitchen to give them privacy.
"I'm packed." she said in a hoarse whisper.
Erik nodded, standing up briefly. "As soon as Nadir comes back, he will show you the way through the tunnels as I have just instructed him in doing. If your fiancé is not at the theater when you reach ground, Nadir shall order you a carriage and take you to the de Changy estate. You will be taken care of until you step foot inside the house that is his."
Christine was about to nod when she cried out, "If this is really to be our last meeting, we can not part like this! I can not leave you and let you be forever and eternally mad at me! I care to much for you to let you do so. I know my recent actions may be unforgivable, but please know they were not based upon the intentions that you are convinced of! Do not look upon me in hatred, my Angel, I could not bare it."
Erik looked away, doing his best in keeping his emotions in tact. "I am not your angel, I am death's. I am a horrid man, not the one you chose to see growing up, and as you stand before me now."
She shook her head. "You are anything but. No on in this world could know you as great as I do; I have been through the good times and the wretched with you - if I say you are good, it must be true."
"I wish it were not. Can you not be angered by me? Must you look at me with those pleading eyes as if I am doing wrong instead of good at last?" How could he let her go if she kept looking at him like that?
Yet she just stared at him as tears threatened to overflow once more.
"If you can not be mad...then let me make one request. Or perhaps I could tell you what I am really hoping for and then perhaps you may think I am wicked."
"Tell me all." She pleaded.
"I ask of you just one thing...to you find it one day in your heart to...to miss me when I'm gone."
"What else do you wish to tell me?"
Erik's eyes darted around as if he wished for escape, yet then he sighed and looked upon her. "When he's holding you...know that every time it's killing me. Remember me, then let my memory be the reason that you can not fall sleep in the dark of night. Every time you feel his touch, I pray to God this one last time that it won't ever be enough, because perhaps I've touched your heart so deep inside that I shall forever remain there."
With these words ending, Nadir walked in to see Christine looking stunned at Erik. Whether that was good or bad, he could only fear Erik had gone to far. "Come Christine, night has already fallen."
Erik looked away from her, opposite the hidden tunnel that Nadir stood by. Christine felt trapped between two worlds. When Erik made to sign that he acknowledged her any longer, she walked to Nadir, though she kept looking back.
Nadir pulled away the long scarlet curtain from the dark hole she was supposed to plunge herself into. Nadir, sensing her fright, went in first.
"Follow me closely." He warned, the curtain falling behind them, the lair sealed off from them. A tear was shed for this as her heart felt heavier than the suitcase in her hand.
"Miss me...for I love you so completely."
Christine stopped walking. Had she just heard Erik speak those words, or was it her imagination at play as she fumbled in the thick darkness?
"We must press on." Nadir, a foot or two ahead of her said. She nodded, knowing that she may never be sure.
XOXOXOXO
When Nadir and Christine reached ground level, they found themselves at the back of the opera house, though here it was early morning instead of twilight like they had thought in the lair. Nadir helped a still fumbling and weak Christine to the front, when she then spotted a very dirty Raoul, all alone, on his hands and knees, his chest heaving. She screamed out to him, tried to run yet her illness had prevented that. She fell upon her knees, but Raoul was there in a flash to scoop her up in his arms and protect her.
And of course he wanted to charge down to the cellars to kill her captor. She pleaded that this was impossible, that he had fled five days ago, and they only now found a secret way on how to get out. She said he must be clean up past London by now.
Nadir heard this as he was walking away, and silently thanked her. He knew that she somehow managed to possess care and love, even if it may be small, for Erik.
Raoul brought Christine home and had her looked at by professional doctors, but every one said that whomever cared for her while she was taken captive had done everything right, and there was nothing left to do but let her own body come back to full strength again once more.
Days passed. Raoul would take Christine on carriage rides and to the park on lovelier days. Every once in a while, she could spot Nadir watching her, though concealed and far away so no one else noticed. She didn't have to wonder why he did this, for she knew already; it was because of Erik.
Strange enough, as the days went by, though toted on constantly my nurses and maids, Christine grew undeniably lonely again. She found herself thinking back to the lair, which she managed to save after pleading with Raoul to let it be; after all, Erik would not return and he was once her Angel whom dwelt there.
Though she seen Nadir often, the two never had any opportunities to speak with one another, so she didn't know how Erik was faring these days. She found herself wondering about it often.
The words in which he spoke upon their last meeting did indeed haunt her each night. She'd dream of him and the lair when she could sleep, think of his memory when she could not. Every time Raoul took her in his arms, she felt a void and a stabbing in her heart, knowing Erik must be feeling similar. Raoul's hand on her arm felt more like wind breezing against her skin rather than the warmth of his palm. She felt awkward and almost guilty around him, as if Erik's haunting words that were kept secret was something that she was actually hiding from him.
The wedding day was put off. Raoul told her when she had regained all strength and recent events were put out of her mind, they would then be wed. But as days passed, still she did not feel better nor whole again.
Finally, she could take her insanity no longer. Through the day she spent her time devising her plan. Late afternoon was spent writing the longest, hardest, and most painful letter ever written. And at nightfall, she ordered a carriage.
XXXXX
She stood at the gates that he had lowered, most likely for her and not the mobs. She watched him, the dark figure, that paced back and forth in front of the fire. 'He must be in deep daydreams.' She thought, "for him not to hear me and notice me yet.' Really, she took pains for her to be loud. She scraped her feet, kicked a stone, fell against the hard iron bars.
Finally, she called his name, or rather sang it out. His head jerked over to her direction. He ran in haste to her, grabbing the bars, looking confused, anger, hurt...defeated.
"Why are you here? Did I not say it clear enough that I would not allow you in my presence?" He looked quickly at her upturned hand and saw a silver band there. "I said you were not to come if you bear a ring or a child. I see you indeed have a ring, and of the latter, I can only find out soon enough. Why do you come?"
Christine shook her head patiently at his anger and smiled. "You can be a fool at times, you know that, Erik? You jump to conclusions and assume everything before I can say the opposite."
"You came to insult me in my lair?"
"No."
"Then why? You are forbad to be here, which means I'm not the only fool standing here."
"Indeed, you are at this moment. I do bear a ring on my wedding finger, as you saw. But looker closer, and perhaps it's beauty will melt the cold and anger in your heart."
His gaze traveled from her warm brown eyes and to her offered hand, now palm down. His eyes grew wide in amazement as he found himself staring down at a silver band with circular diamonds. It was not the Vicomte's ring she bore, but his own.
"How did you..." He fumbled, losing his composure.
"You said to take all that I wanted. I took the white dress you gave me on my fourteenth birthday, and I took the ring, for it was purely you, and I needed at least something of you to survive, though it not be fair to Raoul. The truth is, I never was able to give Raoul my whole heart, for I didn't own it all for me to give away. Long ago you took a large part of it and claimed it yours. Through everything, you never gave it back. I wanted you to for so long, but you never did. Now I don't want you to give it to me...but to take the rest. I know now that no one may have my heart, for it is not mine to give any longer. I know I have no right to wear this ring without your permission, but perhaps you could grant it?"
Erik looked back in to her eyes, his own full of pain. "Why, Christine? Why did you jump into the lake?"
"I never tried to kill myself to take revenge or flee from you, Erik. I just wanted you to be with me, to take notice that the one person you love and the one who returns it stands in front of you. I could not tell you in words, for the matter silenced me. You never seemed to catch my hints. So I wanted to catch chill from the water, thinking you'd help me back to health, and perhaps realize that your dreams can come true if you just take the blindfold from your eyes. It was an accident that the illness went as far as it did. I never meant to worry you so, nor hurt you."
He shook his head. "You have no permission to wear that ring-"
A gasp came from Christine in hurt, as if he had slapped her. She had just poured out her heart to him!
He grinned. "Who is the assuming one now? Let me finish, Christine, for I shall never have the nerve to say it if not now." He pulled down a switch that made the trellis lift up. They now stood only a foot apart, staring at each other. "You have no permission to wear the ring...unless you will have the man with it."
Christine gasped again in surprise as tears sprang to her eyes. She knew not what to do, but she jumped upon her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her cheek against his shoulder.
"What made you come back, Christine?" He whispered in her ear.
She grinned before saying, "Because I missed you."
Fin