POTO Chappy 2
"You think your rather brilliant don't you?" He said spitefully to her. "Coming to my stage, singing- , Ugh, just get out of my sight. I never want to hear you sing again, do you understand me?" He let go of her and shoved her back and turned away. "Wait." He looked over his shoulder. "I… I'm sorry Monsieur. I love to sing and Christine-" His hand over her mouth silenced her. "Never speak that name again." He snarled at her inches from her face.
She nodded and he let go, stepping back again. "Your lucky I let you live." She nodded again. "Monsieur, I apologize. Its just that I've wanted to speak with you ever since Chr- I mean since I heard about you… from others." She finished lamely.
"Oh yes, to see the Devils Child. Well now that you have seen, what are you going to do? Run to the rest of the opera and tell of how frightening he was? How hideous? How disgus-" This time he was cut off as she ran up to him and covered his mouth. His eyes widened in shock. "NO! Not at all! I- I don't think your horrendous. Yes you frightened me, but only because you shocked me. I respect you. Your abilities. Your power. You are the Phantom of the Opera. But you are also… human." She removed her hand and instead moved it to his masked cheek and caressed it. "I believe we all hide behind masks. Some more figuratively than others." She finished with a small smile.
With her warm hand on his cool mask he closed his eyes. This touch… how he had missed it. The times when Christine had touched him as such. Christine. This impudent girl was NOT Christine. He opened his eyes angrily and shoved her away. "Your impudence is beyond conceivable. If I ever see you again, I will kill you." With that he diassapeared into the darkness. Alicia fell to her knees and wept.
True to her word, she never spoke of her encounter with the Phantom. In fact she hardly spoke at all. Nor did she really smile either. Meg knew something was wrong but Alicia never left a clue as to what. So Meg did the only thing she knew to do. "Alicia, I have a surprise for you." Meg walked up to Alicia who was currently seated with her back to a large mirror in the dance hall. Alicia looked up as a woman in a white gown walked in. Christine De Chagny had returned to the Opera Populaire.
Instantly Alicia went rigid with fear. The Phantom would not appreciate this one bit. She looked at Christine for a second before standing quickly and saying "You must leave, as soon as possible, please, for your own safety." Then running out of the room she called out behind her, "I'm sorry Christine."
She ran till she crashed out onto the roof. She fell at the feet of a rearing horse and sobbed. She cried for the pain the Phantom had lived with his whole life. She cried for all the people who had broken hearts. She cried for her own shattered soul. "This is to much. This pain. I thought I had found love once. Until he left with another woman. Richer and prettier he said. I was beaten and left for dead. Is this all this world is? All that is to be expected? WHAT IS THERE?" She cried harder on her knees as the cold wind started biting her bare arms. "I only wanted to help him. Show him that there are people who care. I wanted to be there for him, but who will be there for me? When I fall who will pick me up?" She whispered softly to the falling snow. She shivered. "Everday, I feel nothing but the pain that man left on my heart. And I put on my mask. A smile. A laugh. All of it a lie. Except for when I sing. That is my onoly moment of truth. But who will ever hear it? Who will ever care?" She curled into a tighter ball as the wind whipped harder and she continued to sob. Suddenly warmth enveloped her. She looked up. In her blurry haze she say black, but then clearly, a white half face mask. Then everything was dark.