Reviews:
Thank you for all of the reviews. I am not a trained writer, but rather write from my soul, so please forgive me a few faux pas. It is very exciting to contemplate a different ending, it does something wonderful for the psyche.
Captain Oblivious: Thank you for your critique. I've done a spell change for future chapters. It will take some time to correct 1-10. Yes, happiness for Erik (spelled correctly) makes the author herself swoon. Thank you for your compliment, it makes it easier to go on.
Moonjava: Sorry about the crazy chapters. I think I finally figured out how to do it right!
Mendedways: Thank you for your kind words. I'll update today!
Pimpernelunderthecelticmoon: Sorry about the long chapters. I cannot seem to help myself. There is so much excitement about the story it just spills out. I'll try to make a few shorter ones, but alas, I've given myself up to the life of the story, it commands me now.
Chapter 11 The Confrontation"Raoul…" Christine gasped. She hid behind Erik's tall, tense frame, peeking out ever so slightly. Erik stood firm, and reached his arms out behind him to pull Christine up to his back. He glanced over to where his sword was lying on the piano. He knew Raoul would find no entrance as the steel gate was still soundly in place, and without knowledge of the whereabouts of the lever, he would never be able to breach the door.
"Christine..thank God I found you." Raoul said with fear but curiosity in his voice as if it were nearly a question. His face contorted, confusion in his eyes. She was hiding BEHIND that monster, and he couldn't imagine why unless she was bound…or injured. His mind racing with rage he began to shake furiously at the gate. "Christine, Christine, I love her, show some compassion, have you no pity, let me see her." With that Erik released Christine who slid back into the shadow of her room.
"The world showed no compassion to me!" Erik hissed back at Raoul with a fiery rage burning deep within him now. Thinking better of letting him leave and return with others, he thought it best to finish him now, and be done with it. "Be my guest sir..Monsieur I bid you welcome.." Erik switched the lever to lift the gate separating them, and began to move towards the lake and down into the water. "Did you think that I would harm her, why would I make her pay for the sins which are yours!"
In one swift motion Erik had slung a rope around Raoul's neck, reeling him in like an animal. "Call for your fine horses now, raise up your hand to the level of your eyes, nothing can save you now, except for this, Christine." Erik pushed Raoul back against the gate that had descended behind him. Lashing him to it with the rope.
Christine appeared from the shadows her face filled with horror at what she was seeing. Tears streaming from her face she couldn't utter a sound. She had chosen Erik, there was no need to kill, no need to deprive Raoul of his life. She loved him in her own way, not as a fiancé. He had been her childhood companion and friend. Her rejection of him was surely pain enough to suffer, but this he did not deserve, he had done her no harm, there was no need for him to die.
Erik spun around to see Christine. He saw the glimmer of tears running down the soft curves of her cheek, the terror in her eyes. Had he been a fool? Had Christine been the sacrificial lamb, and an adept actress as well? Had she been leading him to a trap herself, one that she and her precious Vicomte had laid for him? Doubt swirling in his mind, flashing back to the moments of inexplicable horror of his childhood when his mother had rejected him, pushed him out of the only home he ever knew and he was seized by gypsies that abused him. His rage rose to a boil, white lights flashed in his mind as he began to lose what little grip he had on reality.
He looked back to Raoul who was sturdily lashed to the gate, and then he placed a noose around his neck, pulling it taut. Looking back towards Christine, feeling all the desperation of the world descending upon him. "Start a new life with me, save your lover with your love, nothing can save him now.."
Christine's eyes darted back and forth between Erik and Raoul. Why the sudden change in Erik's heart? He had become a monster in a few minutes time. He needn't force her to love him, nor bargain with another's life, she had chosen him, and all but pledged her eternal love to him just moments before. She gasped.
Raoul would rather have been hung than to see Christine exchange her life for his. She was all he had dreamed of, and he had loved her nearly all of her life. He knew that should she choose to stay to spare him, his life was over anyway. He blurted out "Why make her lie to you to save me?"
Erik looked back in a fevered rage, his eyes burning with the intensity of a thousand flames. He pulled the noose a bit tighter, raising Raoul even more, pressing dangerously on his wind pipe. Christine shouted "NO!" As soon as the words left her lips she realized that Erik would misunderstand her intentions. Erik glared back at her. All of the compassion and love she had seen in his eyes was gone. In its place was the rage of a madman. His eyes were as wide and wild as a cornered beast.
Her mind raced and reeled. He had misunderstood. She neither wanted Erik to doubt her words or feelings, nor did she wish to put Raoul to such an end. She began moving into the freezing waters of the cavernous lake. "Poor pitiful creature of darkness, what kind of life have you known, God give me courage to show you that you are not alone." She was at Erik's side now, facing him. She lifted up her hands to reach his face and pull him to her. Gently kissing him.
He pulled back, more confused now than he had been before. Did she love him or was she trying to save Raoul? He always felt sure he knew the mind of his opponents well, in fact he prided himself on it, but in this instant, his mind whirled with doubt, hope, and fear. He looked down into Christine's eyes, feeling the warmth of tears running down his face. He was tired. Tired of the fight, of the agony, of the emotions that were racing through him.
Christine reached up and pulled him close once more, placing a more passionate kiss on his lips. He knew then, if he loved her, truly, truly loved her, he had to let her go. Raoul could provide the life for her that he could not. Raoul was not a bad man, and had done nothing but fought for her honor. Erik knew Raoul loved her, and was willing to risk his very life for her, just as he had himself. Erik's heart ached with the pain of what he knew he must do.
He pushed Christine away. She stumbled and looked back at him with wide curious eyes. "Forgive me, take him, go now, forget all you've seen." He began moving through the waters back towards the shore. "Take the boat, swear to me never to tell, of what you know of the angel in hell."
Christine looked toward Raoul whose' eyes were pleading with her to come to him. She rushed through the water, unfastening the ropes that had held him to within an inch of his life. As soon as his arms were free he grasped her in his arms pulling her to him with the force of a thousand horses. She was in his arms and they were free to be together.
Erik glanced back at the sight of the two embracing. His heart was breaking as if a sword had been driven through it. "GO NOW, GO NOW AND LEAVE ME." He shouted towards them with all the sorrow of the world in his voice. He pulled the lever lifting the gate once more.
Raoul had Christine firmly in his arms and began pulling her towards the boat. Christine was in shock. She could do nothing more than respond by complying to his movement. She was staring back at Erik, eyes wide and confused, mouth gaping open. Why had he rejected her? After all of this, after she had professed her love to him, told him she wanted to belong to him? Had he truly decided he wanted to be rid of her?
Raoul dropped Christine into the bottom of the boat and leapt in after her. Pushing the pole as fast as he could he thrust the boat into motion, wanting only to put as much distance between them and that monster as quickly as possible, lest in his rage he change his mind.
Christine sat frozen, gazing back at Erik standing on the shore. She raised her right hand to her waist and instinctively reached out towards him, pleading in her eyes. She knew she would never see the candlelight dance in his eyes, the soft lull of his music, or the sweet sounds of his voice in her ears. Her heart was breaking and she wished that she would die rather than face the unrelenting agony of life without her angel.
She could hear the puff of Raoul's breath as he pushed with all his might trying to move the boat rapidly through the dark waters. The glow of the cave was dimming, and the dark was surrounding them now. Once again all she could hear is the rush of the water beneath the boat, as she had before. But now rather than being filled with hope and anticipation, she was dying inside. The man in the boat with her was not her love. He was nothing but a man. He had chosen her, been good to her, but staring at his frame now, she felt nothing. Her love lay back in the dark caverns of the lake. She was moving away from it now, but could feel its' tug as surely as if it were the very center of the earth, of all eternity.
Raoul pulled the boat up to the shore, scraping the bottom on the jagged rock. He reached down and pulled Christine up into his arms, embracing her as if he could never let her go. Christine did not respond, her arms lay limp at her sides, feeling the very life draining out of her. Raoul released her, looking down and asking "Are you alright, are you injured, did that thing hurt you?"
She looked down at the ground. Taking in a deep breath, slowly raising her eyes to Raoul. His pleading eyes nearly undoing her. She had to tell him, she could not bear to live her life as a lie. He could offer her all the comforts of the world, but that is not what she longed for. Her soul required something that neither money nor luxury could supply. Above all things she must be true to her soul. That is what her father would have wanted for her.
Xxxxx
Erik listened until he could no longer hear the movement in the water. "You alone could make my song take flight…" His heart heavy, his body drained, his limbs crying out in pain. He staggered under the weight and intensity of it all. His clothes wet and heavy, his heart burst and laid open to all the ravages of humanity.
He slowly pulled himself toward the first draped mirror, smashing it with two swift blows. "It's over now the music of the night.." He walked past the broken shards of mirror, into a small dark room. He lit one candle and fell down to the floor on his knees.
Reaching out for the singular toy he had in his youth, he wound the key on the side. Carefully sitting the music box back in place. He looked on with such sweet sorrow as it began to play its mournful tune. Erik let the words of the music escape from his lips "masquerade, paper faces on parade, hide your face so the world will never find you."
It had been his sole companion as he lived in the shadowy darkness of the caverns far below the Opera House. A monkey playing the symbols, had been the only face he gazed on many days of his life there. He knew he would have to leave now, or face certain death in the hands of the hunters who would surely follow now that Raoul knew where he was.
Erik hung his head tears flowing freely in his loneliness for there was none there to see him at his weakest, or to offer him comfort. The tune of the music box slowing. As it stopped, a pitiful cry rose from his chest, and he began to sing "No one would listen, no one but her, hears as the outcast hears…"
He drew in a sharp breath, sensing someone else was there with him. He was on his knees, glancing around with his eyes to see if there were any weapons to defend himself, alas there was none. Perhaps it was best he thought to himself, why prolong this suffering?
He sensed that the person was very near. Rather than fighting or trying to flee, he would face his executioner bravely, and with dignity. He turned and his eyes widened, for what he saw was not what he had expected, but hurt rushed into his heart all the same surely as if he were struck a fatal blow.