A/N: Sorry for the severe lack of updates. :o I lacked inspiration for a long time, so I had to go back and re-read Leroux's novel... but I didn't want to read it online again like I did the first time, so I went to Borders and picked up a copy about last week. I'm currently reading it again, so I have some inspiration now! (yay) This is jumping out of the chronological order (I hope you don't mind). Sorry... without further ado:

Raoul's POV

No, no, none of these girls are Christine... where is she? I saw her perform onstage tonight as Siebel... oh, God, will she even look at me this time?

Does she even remember me?

Ah, what a wretched, tragic thought! What a terrible, cursed, most likely truthful idea! She may not remember me, the little boy who went into the sea to fetch her red scarf. I remember the water was so cold, and I was soaked... my governess was not happy, and I had gotten quite a lecture afterwards, but... Christine appeared to be an absolute angel. I was enthralled in her beauty...and she had given a cry that sounded so innocently and perfectly despairing, my little heart had been so moved... I was merely a boy; now, I am a man, and I cherish her beauty and her innocence more than ever...

Oh, Raoul, you are pathetic! Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic! What makes you believe that she is still that same little girl at Trestrau? She may be in love with another... ah, I daren't think it! I mustn't! It would be like daggers to my heart!

Why is she taking so long? Perhaps I missed her! But, no, she always comes this way... patience...

Oh, I can wait no longer! I must find her; I must confess my heart's complete devotion to her! I am consumed with love--

Wait—I see her eyes—are they hers?--yes! Two aesthetic pools of celestial glory! Ah, my soul! Her eyes shine like divinely shaped sapphires... At last! Oh, God in Heaven!

Blessed, blessed, blessed day! She has seen me! I've caught her eye! I must speak with her! If only these ballet rats would get out of my way!

But... wait... wait! Christine! Christine!

Oh, endless, wretched sorrow! She looked right through me, as though I were but a ghost, and kept walking. Oh, unfeeling girl! Perhaps she did not see me... but it was too obvious! I know she saw me! I could have sworn I had seen a shining light in her eye that had said, "I know you, Raoul de Chagny!"...but she does not know me! Oh, poor me!

Perhaps she simply did recognize me...or did she choose not to recognize me? Oh, dear Lord, maybe I have offended her in some way! What have I done to offend her so mightily? Did I not recognize her sooner? Is she afraid I don't recognize her? Perhaps I am not trying hard enough to please her? Oh, dear Lord, let me just speak with her once, and know for certain that she still loves me!

Oh, my heart fills with complete dread and horror! What if she truly does not remember me?

Oh, don't be silly, Raoul. How could she forget all those days we spent, dancing and playing and listening to her father's fantastic stories of Little Lotte and the Angel of Music? Didn't she remember how I told her that I would never forget her? I remember how innocently she blushed--what a fair shade of crimson! I regretted it much afterward, for our classes were so different, I could not ever hope to marry her...perhaps that is why she is indifferent to me. Oh, but if she only knew how much I love her now! I am so madly in love, I would follow her to the ends of the earth, even if I had to crawl, and then once I had found her, I would beg her to marry me!

Alas, poor me, for she has locked herself up in her dressing room and it is said she desires to see no one. Is she ill? I hope to God she is not!

Oh, Christine... oh, my poor heart... you have spurned me again today, crushing the little shred of hope I had of speaking to you today! Even more cursedly, I must leave soon, for my brother is returning with Sorelli.

Tomorrow, Christine—I vow this to myself and to you, my little angel!—tomorrow, after the performance of Faust... I will speak with you, and demand with all the courage I have to muster your memory for my sake to recall me, still just a wretched boy tormented with love...