A Whole New World Chapter One, a phantom of the opera fanfic

Disclaimer: Again, I do not own it. Clear? Clear. And the song doesn't belong to me either, it belongs to Madonna.

A Whole New World

Chapter 1

Don't look back
Keep your head held high
Don't ask them why
Because life is short
And before you know
You're feeling old
And your heart is breaking
Don't hold on to the past
Well that's too much to ask

This Used To Be My Playground by Madonna

Everything was ready: her things were packed, the carriage was waiting. Raoul was speaking to the servants, making sure the house was ready for selling.

Christine was sad that they had decided to sell the house. With the years spent there, she had grown to love it. Despite the hard times, the house still held good memories. Last few months were probably one of the happiest in her life. She was safe, there were no shadows looming in the dark corners of her mind… Or at least she wanted to believe that. And she was more than determined to actually make her beliefs true.

Yes, she still thought of him. Very rarely, but thought. She was sure that the memory of him would stay with her for the rest of her life; that his song would never leave her head, no matter how much she loved Raoul or how much he wanted to make her forget. She would just have to live with that.

"Christine? Where are you?"

Raoul's steady steps approached and Christine turned to look at the door. He opened the door and smiled at her.

"Are you ready to go?"

"Yes, I am," she replied with a smile.

Together they walked out of the room.

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They sat in silence. Christine was looking out of the window, Raoul was looking at her. My beautiful angel. I will keep you safe, my love.

No matter what it takes, I'll keep you safe.

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Their dinner at the inn they were staying at was a silent affair. Christine was tired and Raoul's thoughts were occupied by his business in Paris. Christine went to sleep soon after dinner, but Raoul stayed up to write few letters. After a while, he, too, went to sleep next to his future wife, nothing troubling his mind.

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It was still early when Christine awoke, so she was quite surprised to see Raoul already up.

"Is something wrong?" she inquired.

"Good morning! No, nothing is wrong, why do you ask?" Raoul smiled at her and bent down to kiss her forehead.

"No, nothing, I just… I was surprised to see you up so early."

"Oh well, we should go to breakfast now, what do you think? And after breakfast we can leave as soon as possible."

Christine smiled.

"That sounds all right to me."

"Good. I'll leave you now, so you can get dressed," Raoul replied and left the room.

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After breakfast, they packed their things. They were ready to go when the old innkeeper came to talk to them.

"'Tis very nice that ye decided to stay 'ere. We don' see such beautiful young lassies very often…" the old man said, making Christine blush.

"But I 'ave to warn ye. The weather is getting worse so 'tis not a very good idea to leave now. It looks as thou' we will see snowstorm before the end of the day."

"Oh, we have fine horses, I can assure you. I'm sure we will be fine. Thank you for worrying, but we really want to be in Paris by Friday, so we must hurry," Raoul replied.

The old man nodded, said goodbye and left the room.

"Are you sure we'll be fine?" asked Christine, slightly worried.

"Don't worry. As I said, we have good horses and an experienced driver, so we have nothing to fear," Raoul assured her.

One of the servants took the bags and carried them downstairs. Raoul and Christine followed right behind. Raoul led Christine to the carriage, made sure all their bags were on and climbed in, sitting down next to extremely worried-looking Christine.

"Don't worry," he assured her again, "there is no snowstorm yet and with our luck there won't be either. Better think about that: soon, we're in Paris. You can see that house I have. It'll be your new home! And think, soon we're married and you become Vicomtess de Chagny! And think of our future children…"

Christine laid her head on Raoul's shoulder. As she listened to him describing their future children and the house they were going to move in to, a smile crept onto her face. They were going to be so happy! And softly, her eyes started to close…

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Christine woke few hours later. The snow had started to fall, so they had to drive slower because it was hard to see anything. It was now past noon, but the light was dim, thanks to the snow. And as Christine sat there, unmoving (she didn't want to wake sleeping Raoul), she noticed how more and more snow started to fall. She remembered what the innkeeper had said and was very worried. Did they have good enough horses to take the carriage through snowstorm? There wasn't a place they could stop at; they were practically in the middle of nowhere.

Suddenly, the carriage jerked. Christine grabbed the handle on carriage door to stop herself from falling to the floor. Her actions woke Raoul, who, too, had to steady himself and put one arm around Christine.

"What was that?" Christine asked him, frightened.

"Don't worry, I'm sure it's nothing," Raoul replied to her and even managed a small smile. But in truth he wasn't sure exactly whom he was assuring: Christine or himself.

The carriage jerked again and before they could get over the shock, it started to move quicker and quicker until it had reached the speed usually thought impossible for carriages.

They raced to what they thought was certain death. The speed got higher and higher, until she was wrenched out of Raoul's protecting arms, out of the carriage, into the soft white snow now splattered with blood.

The last thing Christine remembered before passing out was the sight of the carriage: it was completely wrecked and smashed by a big three, and next to it laid the body of the carriage driver.

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That's the first chapter… I'm sorry because there's no Erik, but I'm afraid it will take some time before he makes his first appearance. Christine will not, I repeat NOT be found by him.

Please read and review!