Wow! I cannot believe how many people are enjoying my first story! I cannot tell you all how much it means to me! However, I do regret to say that with school coming up, and I going back on the 25th to finish my last year of high school (SENIOR year baby!) updating might becoming a weekend thing.

To anyone who is wondering/asking me I WILL be following the 2004 storyline and ending this story in a fashion of the 2004's ending and might I add that it will of most epic proportions.

Please continue to review the story and/or chapters that I upload! Because you know what that means, my most loyal readers, more chapters are uploaded!

Your obedient servant,

PhantomsAngel1870

Chapter 14: The Graveyard

Christine awoke more refreshed than she had felt in a while, after seeing her Erik acct the way he did last night hurt her heart and it hurt even worse because she did not know what she could do to help him. But knowing her strange angel, sometimes it was the smallest things she did that he loved, therefore she sat beside him and leaned on him to let him know that she was not going to leave him in the state that he was currently in.

As she sat up in Erik's bed she began to think about what had transpired last night. She remembered watching the stress take its toll on Erik and how he crumpled in his chair was self-evident that he needed some help. Even though Christine gave all the love she could give she knew that he needed more than just that, he needed guidance. So as she sat there she prayed to God begging Him to give Erik help in the best way possible. It wasn't seconds later until she heard him praying as well and then it happened.

Christine felt the air of the room change, it was still the same cool temperature that the lake permeated but there was a new glow in the dark, and she knew that it could only be her father. As Christine allowed her body to relax against Erik's leg she basked in the moment of feeling her father all around her once again. She could feel his love and warmth encompass her and she felt as ease with the situation at hand because she knew that her father was going to take care of Erik.

She heard Erik grow silent as she felt her father's presence in the room and she took advantage and closed her eyes to feel closer to the two men who mean the world to her. But as she spoiled herself with this she felt her body relax and fall into the most comfortable sleep she had felt since her parents were still alive, and that brings her back to this point.

As she sat herself up in the red satin covered bed she looked over and saw Erik sitting at his desk with his flawless side facing her. Christine looked closer at the extraordinary man before her and saw that there was a single line of tears coming out of his eye and Christine's nurturing side immediately told her to go and comfort her Erik as he had done for her all those years. So without a second thought or hesitance she got out of his, their?, bed and placed her hands on his shoulders.

Christine watched for some kind of reaction and when she saw none come out of Erik she began to slowly massage his shoulders. As she felt some of the tension loosen in his shoulders and neck she heard a soft moan escape from Erik's lips and she smiled because she knew that she was helping him. That's all she ever wanted to do. So for a while she continued on in her job of relaxing Erik and once she felt his shoulders and neck relax she continued down his back and finally his arms. Once her ministrations were completed she could tell that whatever was stressing him was somewhat soothed for now.

Christine sat back down on the bed trying to figure out what she was going to do with herself for this day when Erik came and sat down next to her. Because of the newly added weight right next to her on the bed Christine felt herself unintentionally being pulled against Erik's side, not that she minded at all, and relaxed herself there. After a while of silence Christine pulled herself up a little to look at Erik.

"Erik? Are you alright?" Christine asked as she saw his eyes perk up to hers as she spoke his name. His deep blue eyes swarmed with a vast amount of emotions before he shook his head and the blue eyes retained the stoic quality once more. Christine heard Erik clear his throat before he began to talk.

"No I mean yes I am alright, as you put it. I am actually trying to find the best way to tell you something that I discovered last night, and I am not sure how you will handle this new information. There is so much that you do not yet know and I am afraid you will not like what I have to say." Erik said sadly near the end, oh what he would give just to have Christine not angered with him after the end of this conversation.

Christine watched him curiously and decided to place her hand on top of his. At the touch she saw Erik looked up at her and Christin knew that she had to choose her words very wisely.

"No matter what happens, what is said or done, I will always be here for you. I will not stop loving you because of secrets you have yet to share with me. Never forget this Erik," Christine vowed to the man before her. She saw hope and love glimmer and shine in Erik's eyes and wished for that to never go away.

Erik sat there, still slightly hesitant to come forth and share the news of the information that he had been seeking to discover for a while now. How can I explain to her how I had heard her father tell me all of this information that will forever change all of our lives? How will she react to that? What will she say when she finds out that I know, well knew, her father. Oh dear god, then she will ask more questions and then she will find out that we are betrothed. I never wanted her to find out about that, I wanted her to share her life with me because she wanted to, not out of some need of obligation for her father's last request. But I will need to warn her about my mother—no, she is not my mother anymore. I do not care if she birthed me. She is no longer of any relation to me now. Now she is just Elisabeth.

Erik sighed and looked at Christine, he knew that she is the only person that he could trust in this world and now he had to entrust in her some deep and hidden secrets of his past. But what would be the best way of doing this? It had all started so many years ago and so many things had happened in that time span that he needed her to know but he couldn't talk for that long. So in the end he decided to hand her the small worn leather journal and told her to read it.

"Please Christine, this is all I can offer you for now as an explanation. There are things in this journal that I could never speak aloud and so I have to forfeit the storytelling to my younger self all the years ago. If you have any questions please do not be afraid to ask but please refrain from asking them until you read the entirety of this—my childhood." As Erik finally let the leather bound remnants of his childhood completely slip form his fingers Erik watched as Christine held it carefully but tightly as to never let it leave her grasp.

Erik nodded once, his formal gestures never left him, and began to leave the room. As he made it to the doorway he barely heard an audible, but quiet, "thank you" come from Christine's whispered lips. He kept himself from turning around and finding sanctuary in her wonderful arms but forced himself to continue looking onto the lake. He realized that he must have been holding his breath because he let out an audible gasp and whispered laced with agony, "oh Christine" as he left her to her reading as he found what sanctuary he could at his organ.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Christine watched as Erik walked away after handing her a journal of his from his past. She looked at the leather bound cover and saw initials: E.D.. She guessed that the first initial E was intended to be shortened for Erik but she was still unsure what his last name was. That was her first question that she had for him, well she has had it for a while and has been holding it back as to not anger him, and with this inquiry she decided to open up the mysterious journal and begin he descent into Erik's childhood.

The first entry that she opened up to was dated to February 7, 1850. Christine looked at the perfect calligraphy writing before her and began reading the first entry.

My dearest friend,

Today is my ninth birthday and one of the maids has bought this for me. You will be my dearest and closest friend because everyone else is afraid of me. I try to get them to understand that just because my face is of likeliness of the devil, it does not mean that the devil has reached my heart. But they always shift their eyes away and mother refuses to hug me, she is afraid that my face will smear against her skin and cause her own body to be marked by the devil.

It is too cold for me to wander around the grounds outside like I usually do to stay away from all the people in the house. I prefer the animal's company to the one of humans because they do not judge too quickly like everyone I have met so far. My papa is always in his office and I never get to see him anymore—but when I do see him he always pats my head and smiles down upon me, I wish he was here right now.

I wish I could be normal for my mother, I want to be handsome so that she would be able to love me again but I fear that this abomination of a face that I have will prevent me from ever find a true love. Earlier I had gone out into the hallway to seek the kitchen to obtain something to eat because I had not eaten since the night before and my mother had caught me.

She had immediately pulled me back in here and spanked me and whipped me with father's belt for stepping outside of my room. I am afraid to go out there, my dearest friend, but I know that I need to face my fears if I am ever to stay alive in this personal hell of mine.

Sincerely,

Erik D.

Christine was unaware that she had begun to cry while reading the depressing entry that her Erik had written in this journal at only nine years old. Nine years old! To make sure that her tears did not ruin the fragile papers in front of her Christine quickly wiped them away and tried to make sense of everything. It seemed completely irrational that his mother would react in the way that she did when faced with the fact that her child had a facial deformity. She knew that if she were to bear Erik's child that she would love the little babe whether or not it was physically deformed. For a moment Christine caught where her thoughts were leading and blushed for a moment as she thought about having children with Erik.

Her instincts told her to immediately seek out Erik and embrace him and never let him go. But her rational side told her that she was completely sure that Erik would interrupt her behavior as a sign of pity and that is something that neither of them wanted from other people, they both just wanted love and she knew that she was going to give him so much love that it will make up from all the indiscretions of the people from his past.

Christine sighed shakily and continued on in her reading, after reading about six months' worth of entries about his various inventions, adventures, musical discoveries, architectural designs, magical talents and the punishments that he suffered daily from his mother along with every other page containing small to large amounts of blood spots Christine finally began to understand the man in the other room. However a new entry caught the attention of Christine and she stopped and read it a couple of times before making any accusations.

The journal was dated on April 5th, 1951 and the coincidences that Christine discovered shocked her more than she believed was possible.

My dearest friend,

I write in you once again. It is raining deeply outside and I am now of ten years since my birthday of February seventh. I have seen my mother's stomach grow progressively larger over the lengths of these past eight months and I have been extremely curious to know why but I knew that it would be bad of me to ask such things of her, my tutors have told me to never ask a woman of her age or of her weight—both are considered extremely and highly rude.

But as I sit here on my small and simple bed I cannot keep the screams from my mother out of my head. I have tried several times to place my head underneath my pillow and to play my music but nothing is ever loud enough to engulf the screams of my mother's pain—she may hate me but I do not like to see her in pain.

Wait, my dear friend, I hear crying now. My mother's voice is easily recognized but now it is accompanied by a higher pitched and smaller voice. What is it that is screaming so loudly and such off key?

A maid has just ran in here out of her breath, to which I handed her a glass of water and I waited until she was done with it, and heard her inform me of the baby that has just arrived. I stood there for five minutes I am guessing in complete shock, my friend.

I know of babies, what they are and how they work but I am still unsure as to how they are made. I asked the maid if I was allowed to see the baby and the maid looked at me for a second before pardoning herself to discuss the matter with my father and mother. I was surprised to see my father come in and escort me himself to see my new baby brother. I had never seen my mother so happy before and it was self-evident how much more she loved this baby more than she could ever love me.

My father had led me to what he called a crib, but in my mind it looked more like a cage, that held the newest addition to our family. He told me that I was now a big brother and it was my job to protect the little one now, I nodded to my father. I reached down to touch one my baby brother's round cheeks when my mother came out of nowhere and grabbed the baby screaming at me to not touch her Raoul.

I am so sorry.

Sincerely,

Erik D.

Christine accidentally let the journal fall out of her hands as the shock hit her. Erik D…DeChagny! Oh dear god that means that he is in fact Raoul's brother! Oh my goodness I would have never guessed, but dear god why was I never informed of this by Erik or especially Raoul! He should be aware of such family matters and it was terribly wrong of him to keep such things from me. But God if he knew that I knew about the Phantom of the Opera and frequently visited said Phantom, who knows what horrors I will face from Raoul's hand. But if Raoul knew that the Phantom was his legitimate brother then all charges that Erik has on him could be cleared.

Christine continued to think about her plan to help Erik. She despised Raoul more than she ever had now because she knew that he had been keeping very large secrets away from her for a very long time, even when they were children! She shook her head, still fuming with anger, and continued to read on in Erik's life. She read about how he had to watch Raoul grow up from a distance to ensure that his mother would not lay a finger on him for even breathing the same air as Raoul, he watched how his mother showered Raoul with gifts and voluminous books—now she understood why he despised Raoul so much as soon as he heard his name. It was all beginning to make sense now.

A year passed on Erik's journal before another shocking revelation was founded on May 15th, 1953.

My dearest friend,

I know not when I shall see you again for I have decided that living in this mansion full of money and looks is not the life for me anymore. It was never the life that I would have chosen. I long to be in the world full of music, laughter, dancing, designing, and bringing happiness to those less fortunate than I. It seems that I have long passed my stay of welcome in my own home and I now leave it all for my younger brother Raoul. I regret knowing that I shall never get to know him as an older brother should—a mentor, guider, protector, friend…but nevertheless he shall make plenty of those soon enough.

It seems that my mother has taken no notice of me not being around as frequently as I had in the past and I have taken this opportunity to slowly prepare myself for the journey of finding someplace that I shall call home. Do not fear for me, the journey may be long and tiresome but there is a welcoming home out there for me, I shall find this home that I am destined to be at somehow or another and I will welcome it with open arms.

I shall leave tonight around midnight to start my trek towards the city of Paris where it is said that one will find an abundance of opportunities for talents that I have seen to possess. It is my goal to go work for the well renowned Opera Populaire and slowly walk myself up the ladder until I am the owner of the grand palace for music. Once I own the Opera Populaire I shall make it twice as extraordinary as it currently is.

Sincerely,

Erik D.

Christine wanted to know what happened after that, did he make it here perfectly? Where there any more of his journeys that she was unaware of? As she turned the page she noticed that it was the end of the journal but there were a few loosed leaf papers that substituted for those that were not sewn into the binding. She curiously looked at the date which was significantly longer than those of the papers that were bound into the journal and read the first letter that was closest to the last date in the journal

The paper was dated to be July 19th, 1858 and it did not possess his normal greeting, Christine knew that things must have happened to have caused that to stop.

I am under the opera house, and safe. Antoinette told me that it would benefit if I write out how I am feeling but I am confused as to how that will help me? It will only cause the wound to reopen if I ever have to read this again, but for her sake I will appease and do as she says.

For the past three years I have been in the care of a caravan of gypsies. As I remember writing when I was younger I had promised to make it to Paris to start my career in music. Well along the way I was stopped by gypsy's and taken aboard as one of their attractions. For three years the only purpose I served was to frighten anyone who dared to look upon "The Devil's Child". Javert, my "master", beat me every day and when I thought he wasn't around I began to sing because it reminded me of home and I had much rather wanted to be there instead of this cage I am in. This cage that held nothing but a small pile of hay and a bag for me to place over my face.

So for three years I made Javert money and traveled all over the continent. One week we stayed in Paris and I saw a girl, who later I knew to be Antoinette, show me kindness and help me escape after I finally found a way to dispatch of Javert. We both knew that she would not be able to be with me constantly so I was greeted to her closest and most trusted advisor, father figure, Gustave Daae.

For the next four years Gustave mentored me when he could, leaving his daughter in the care of their neighbor. He brought me food, water, clothes, books, instruments and sheet music. Anything that I needed was taken care of and in return I decided I will pay him generously no matter how much he refuses. Sometimes when he would kindly refuse it and place it in front of me I would sneak it into his jacket pocket and he wouldn't notice it until he returned home. I want to repay the man that helped me regain some sense of the small amount of humanity that was left in me.

Christine flipped the paper over which held a letter dated December 24th, 1859: the day of her father's death.

I do not know what I shall do now with my life. Antoinette has only just now returned from the countryside after the passing of her husband, and I am not too sure that I will warmly embrace her back into my life now, and Gustave has passed into the next life. Without Gustave here to guide me anymore I do not know what I can do with myself.

It was too hard to bear to walk into his home late that night, sitting next to the fever stricken man and listening to him talk about this Angel of Music that he had always told his daughter, Christine, about when she was frightened or sad. He looked me deep in the eyes and made me promise him that I will take care and watch after his daughter. After I swore my life onto the duty it seemed to make Gustave relax a little bit, and the poor man looked drained of almost all of his energy.

Once more he looked me deeply in the eyes, I almost feared that the gaze would pierce whatever was left of my soul, and told me that he wanted to give his daughter away to me. He understood that the two of us have never met but he knew from the start that there would be no better and truer match in all of Paris. He told him that he had watched me carefully and he felt that his daughter would be completely safe and loved in my care. I thanked him, for that was all I could do at the moment. All too soon I heard someone walking towards the door and hid in the shadows.

I saw Antoinette sit down with a girl who must have been around twelve—if this was his daughter then we would have an eight year age difference! But I guess this will not be so bad once she grows up. I continued to watch the exchange of words between the father and daughter and soon a feeling protectiveness came over me, I am not sure how or where it came from but I feel a need to watch over this younger girl that I barely even now. Nevertheless, I vow to watch her and protect her and soon I hope she will come to love me and look past my horrible face to judge me for who I really am, not what I look like.

Christine cried more than ever now, silently though as to not alarm Erik, because when she was little she had always thought that her father had sent her the Angel of Music, and now it seems that she couldn't have been closer to the truth! Her father may not have sent her an actual angel but when she was given Erik it was more than what she would have ever imagined in her time of grief.

As she thought back to all the days she had been at the opera house she realized that he was always there to protect her, no matter what she went or did she was never harmed despite the constant warnings of danger from Madame Giry, the corps de ballet, and the managers. If she was sad candy would appear on her bed beneath her pillow, and if she was shining with happiness she would find a red rose with a black ribbon that was later used to show how pleased he was with her.

Christine didn't realize how much he was a part of her life all because of her father and now she knew what she desperately needed to do. So with a new found determination Christine walked gracefully to Erik who she found hunched over, deep in thought on a new work he was writing. Christine watched him for a while before clearing her throat to announce her presence in the gentlest way she could think possible without frightening him too much.

She saw Erik jump slightly at the disturbance, and she softly laid her hand on his shoulder. He turned slightly and looked at Christine, she could tell that he was frightened because his eyes gave it all away. Christine smiled softly and held his hand as she leaned down to ask him the one question that she decided was the most important.

"Erik, can I please go visit my father in the cemetery?".

Who all thought the question was going to be something else? If you have your own questions about anything you read today feel free to message me/review and I will personally answer any and all of the questions.

How is Erik going to react to this question? How is Christine going to cope the next time if she sees Raoul? How is Erik and Christine's relationship going to be now that she knows everything?