I do not own Phantom of the Opera, sorry if that disappoints you.
"Hitting Miss Giry won't help her get any better," said a voice from the doorway. Christine knew before she turned around that it was Erik. Meg was laughing and coughing so much that she forgot to scowl at being called "Miss" instead of her first name.
"How much of that conversation did you hear?" Christine asked in a strangled voice.
"None," Erik replied, "except I heard you shout." Christine sensed the smile under the mask, but she supposed that he could be lying all the same. There was an awkward pause before Erik walked over to the bed to give Meg more medicine. She drank it with a scowl.
"I'm sorry it's bitter," he said. He turned to Christine. "Would you like a lesson now?"
"Yes," she replied. When she stood up to leave, Meg's smile dimmed a little bit.
Erik's bemused air vanished entirely once he sat at the piano, but it was a change that Christine anticipated. She felt better now that she had singing to concentrate on, and she hoped that the incident could be forgotten easily. When she was done, she sat on the piano bench with Erik and drank a cup of tea to soothe her throat.
"What you talking about earlier?" he asked innocently. It was exactly what she was afraid of.
"None of you business," she replied a little too harshly. "Sorry. How are you feeling?" She tried to change the subject as quickly as possible.
"I'm fine," he answered shortly.
"Everything seems a lot more crowded now," she offered, trying to get him to talk to her. He had to be feeling something now that Meg and Madame Giry were living with them. There were too many sudden changes for him to be unaffected.
"I guess so," he said without really answering her. His short answers were frustrating her, but she didn't let her irritation get the best of her. If he didn't want to talk, she wouldn't force him, so she finished the last of her tea quickly.
For the next few days, Erik, Christine, and Madame Giry tried to avoid getting in each other's way. Meg was in bed for most of the time, so she didn't see as many of Erik's eccentric habits as the others did. Erik's reluctance to eat, habits of playing his organ early in the morning, and long stretches of solitude were commonplace to Christine, and it was strange to see someone else find them so odd. Her world hadn't extended very far past the boundary of the lake for weeks, and it was a reminder to her just how peculiar her entire arrangement with Erik actually was. There was something completely unfamiliar about getting warning glances from Madame Giry when she was with Erik.
Christine went into Meg's room one morning when she found something frightening; Meg had taken a turn for the worse. Her already pale skin had a greenish hue to it, her face was pinched in a pained expression, and she was suddenly more covered with sweat than she had been before. She was still asleep, so Christine quietly crept in and laid her head on her friend's forehead. Meg was burning hot, even though her fever had been relatively mild the night before. Her breathing was also labored, and it seemed to Christine that each breath was an effort.
She went to get Erik or Madame Giry, and she found Erik in the hall.
"Erik! Something's wrong with Meg!" she said in a soft, but distressed tone.
"What happened?" he asked.
"I don't know, but she looks awful."
He went to see Meg and he mixed some medicines together with an air of severe determination that Christine had only seen in him a few times. He spent a good deal of his time in the sickroom after that. He stood silently just inside the door. To Christine, he looked like a black and white statue holding a vigil over Meg. Madame Giry tried to busy herself with menial tasks around the house; it seemed she was avoiding Meg's bedside somewhat. Christine sat right next to Meg, holding her hand and talking to her softly just to fill the enormous silence. The atmosphere had suddenly become unbearably thick and tense, and Christine felt strangely isolated. She knew that Erik's intentions were to cure Meg, and Madame Giry was just worried about Meg. However, she couldn't quite get rid of the feeling that they were all cut off from each other even though they were all living under the same roof. Christine didn't know if she could take all of the strain for much longer.
Something for her had to give, and she began to have nightmares. It had taken her a while to get to sleep; she had been worrying not only about Meg, but she was still fretting over the implications of Meg's question from the day that Erik walked in on their conversation. It should have been easy to answer, but Christine wasn't even sure what the question meant. There was something about it that frustrated her. Somehow, sleep eventually claimed her weary mind.
Christine found herself a lonely, sad little girl sitting by herself on a gray cliff above the sea at Perros. Her knees were pulled up to her chest, and she looked down at the water despondently
"Where's Daddy? What happened to Daddy? Where did Daddy go?" she asked aloud to the air. Her voice rose with each question, but the only response was the rhythmic crashing of the waves down below her. Because no voice answered her, her cries grew more and more frenzied. Terror began to creep up on her until she was possessed by the fear of being alone. When she felt that she could stand the fright no longer, a voice finally spoke to her. It sounded like it came from the sea and she recognized it as her father's voice.
"When I'm in heaven, child, I will send the Angel of Music to you," the voice boomed.
"Daddy?" she called.
The voice changed; it sounded like Meg.
"Do you want to?" it asked again and again. "Do you want to? Do you want to?"
Her hopes dashed, Christine buried her face in her hands and cried. After some time, it was unclear how long, Christine heard another voice repeating her name over and over again, Raoul's voice. She looked up through teary eyes, but she saw no one. The voice shifted and changed until it was Erik's, and she heard it distinctly behind her. She saw a little boy behind her-Raoul. He was speaking in Erik's voice, and Christine ran over to him. As she approached, Raoul's face distorted until it looked exactly like Erik's. Christine screamed. Everything went black around her, and she was falling, falling through the darkness.