Erik awoke groggily after he heard some shouting in the hall downstairs. Somebody shut that drunken sot up he thought drowsily to himself as he shifted in Christine's bed. He didn't want Christine to wake now that she was sleeping peacefully.
Erik's ears perked up when he heard Marie's voice raised back at the intruder, "You cannot go into her room unannounced in the middle of the night, and certainly not in the state you're in! Monsieur le Vicomte, come back here!" she shouted.
Erik heard loud footsteps coming up the stairs towards the bedroom door. He knew the door was not latched since he had been the last person to touch the handle since Christine came in. Just as Christine stirred and murmured, "What's going on, Erik?" Raoul noisily opened the door to her bedchamber.
Raoul held a lamp high, brightly lighting the room as he stood in the doorway. He seemed confused to find a larger than expected collection of limbs on the bed. Christine's head appeared over Erik's shoulder and she shrieked a little.
Raoul stared after her, swaying slightly. "What's going on?" he shouted. "What is this impropriety?" His voice escalated with every word. Christine could see Marie standing helplessly in the hall behind him shaking her head apologetically.
"I'm sorry, Christine, he wouldn't stop," she stammered, then shooed her maid away to fetch someone else.
"Raoul what are you doing in here?" she demanded now completely awake and attempting to scramble from her bed around Erik's alert body.
Erik stood up quickly and smoothly from the sheets, pressing his hands down against Christine's shoulders for her to stay in it. He stood solidly between Raoul and Christine, not knowing what he was possible of doing when he was drunk. Raoul carried a short blade at his side, and Erik was no fool; he knew Raoul could use it.
"You're drunk, M. le Vicomte," Erik stated as he turned the bedside lantern higher. Raoul's own source of light was swaying madly as he couldn't keep his balance.
"What the hell are you doing in bed with her?" Raoul roared at him. "If you've touched a singled hair on her head, if you've violated her…"
Christine flinched and despite Erik's blockade, got out of bed and said back, "You need to leave Raoul. Just go, now!" Her bloodshot eyes shot back and forth between the two men, terrified now for both of them.
"I will not leave until someone explains what the fuck is going on here!" Raoul yelled.
"Do not use that language here monsieur," Erik warned, his hands were up in a gesture of warning.
"Christine, how could you do this? How could you sleep with this man? The maid told me when I asked what she knew of it and she said you were sleeping together!" Raoul swayed and caught himself on the dresser. His words slurred together the angrier he became. "I didn't want to believe it, but then I find you like this," he gestured toward them both.
Christine bit her lip and stood by Erik's side. "We haven't done anything, Raoul. Whatever you might have heard…"
"I just saw you together! You're here in bed together. What have you done to her?" he demanded of Erik. "Is that why you whisked her off to the countryside? So you could fuck her at your leisure?"
Erik's face burned and burned. He wanted so badly to shut that hole in the middle of Raoul's beautiful face with his fist. He wanted to forever silence that boyish timbre with a slice of his knife for ever insinuating Christine was anything less than honorable.
Christine stepped around Erik to defend her and him, "We haven't done anything! He hasn't spoiled me, not that it's any of your concern," she shouted. "And in case you haven't noticed, we are fully dressed!"
This fact had obviously escaped Raoul's attention because he looked them both over to account for the articles of clothing a fully dressed person should be wearing. "As if that matters," he retorted. He pointed a finger icily at her face, "So, is this what you wish to be; the whore of a monster?"
Christine's face fell. She felt as though he had punched her in the stomach for those words took all the wind from her chest. Even Erik was unable to move for the rage it caused him at hearing his beloved called such a filthy word by a man whom he knew supposedly loved her too. He found his voice though.
"I should kill you for calling her that," he threatened. His fists were balled at his sides so tightly to prevent himself from striking that he felt his nails cutting into his palms. His body shook with rage and he knew that if the boy did not leave the room soon he would not be able to stop himself.
"Be my guest, she's already delivered the first blow," Raoul slurred. "Christine, only hours ago you said you loved me." His rage suddenly turned to sadness, "You kissed me. You said you loved me," he repeated as though those words could erase the truth he saw before his own eyes. Christine stood by Erik's side, not his. She had shared the bed of this monstrosity and told him to leave. It was more than he could bear.
Erik's world slowed and constricted down to a single pinpoint of focus as he heard the words come from Raoul's mouth. His ears rang from the blood pressure dropping so suddenly and he thought he would faint from the shock of it. She kissed him. She said she loved him. Suddenly all her behavior since she returned to her room made all the more sense to him. Why else would she be crying and ask for his forgiveness?
Christine's panic erupted as she turned and saw the blank stare on Erik's face. She never wanted Erik to know, she feared he would never understand that she loved them both, however differently.
"Raoul, please," she pleaded. "Just go." She felt the tears streaming down her face again and wondered absently how long she had been crying.
Raoul gave one last look between his masked opponent and the girl he loved. He spat wetly at the floor by her feet. "I hope you are happy with your lot. Don't come back to me when he's had his way with you and leaves you in the gutter where you belong."
Christine felt the last punch to her soul acutely. She watched Raoul turn from the room and he stumbled down the stairs, shoving someone out of the way who had come running to help. She heard the stranger's shout of indignation, then the front door slammed loudly as Raoul left into the night.
Christine stared at the open empty doorway awhile before she realized Erik was still standing there, unmoving.
"Erik?" she asked timidly.
She placed a small hand on his shoulder. He violently wrenched it away from her as he broke out of his stupor. When he turned on her, she had never seen such emptiness in his eyes. "Erik, please let me explain…"
"You kissed him?" his voice was hollow. It sent chills up her spine and she felt like there was truly a ghost standing before her.
"Yes," she said, unable to deny it now.
Erik's eyes closed to slits and when he opened them again, they were wet with tears. He began to gasp for air. "Why Christine?" his hands feebly opened toward her, "How could you do this to me?"
"Erik please, I can explain," she said, wondering if he even listened.
"Is this a game to you? Was it your intent all along to play me along then leave me?" His voice cracked and she was almost unable to understand the end of his question.
"No, it was nothing like that Erik," she held out her hand toward him again, but he stepped back, shaking his head.
"All this time you were in love with him. You let me believe you cared for me. You let me think…"
"Erik, I was kissing him goodbye."
Erik turned around to leave.
"Erik wait!" she shouted. He stopped. "If you want to leave, I won't stop you but please at least hear the truth."
As much as he wanted to run from that room, he stayed there, still praying that the tiniest spark of his life that was left to him would not be stamped out by her words.
"I went with him to tell him goodbye and explain how I felt about you," she began, relieved he had not left. "When he wouldn't listen, I left. He tried to stop me and he kissed me." She saw Erik's shoulders hunch at the admission. "I slapped him, Erik. I slapped him so hard it hurt my hand and I stormed away after I told him to leave me alone."
Erik's voice was like ice, "And at what point in this whole secret rendezvous did you tell him you loved him?"
Christine accepted the poison in his voice as she deserved it. "I couldn't part ways with him like that. He had to know how I felt. He had to understand that I love him but not in the same way he loved me. When I kissed him, I was kissing him goodbye, knowing that it would be the last time I saw him."
When Erik didn't move, she saw the smallest glimmer of hope that she might redeem herself and get back what Raoul had carelessly destroyed in a matter of seconds.
"He obviously misunderstood. That must have been some kiss you gave him," was Erik's cold reply. "Goodnight, Christine," he hissed crisply then strode out of the room.
Christine collapsed in a heap on the floor, feeling the painful thud of her knees hitting the solid wood through the thin rug. "Erik, come back," was her mournful cry, but it was too late. Erik was already gone.