"Christine! Christine, wake up!" Raoul shook Christine. "Wake up!"

Christine groaned. "Yeah?"

Raoul sat back. "Oh, thank God." He sighed. "I thought I'd lost you!"

"No. I'm here."

Raoul looked her in the eye. "Christine, you need to tell me about Erik." Christine turned away. Raoul grabbed her chin and pulled her back to face him. "I need to know."

"I know. It's hard." Raoul hugged her close. Christine twisted the ring on her left hand. "A little over three weeks ago, I dreamed of a masked man who offered me singing lessons. I thought, 'hey he's just a dream, what harm could it do?' Oh, God how I was wrong. He never was 'just a dream'. I wish he was. I wish I could just wake up and shrug him off like a bad dream, a figment of my imagination. Well, he taught me to sing and, well, there is no such thing as a free lunch. He took my soul in return."

"Oh, God."

"That's not all. He – he killed Piangi. He murdered him as a warning to stay away from you. He wants me as his wife. I'm sorry, Raoul. I love you and I don't want him to k-hurt you. I never meant to -" Christine sobbed into Raoul's arms.

"I know, I know, sweetheart."

"What are we going to do?"

"We're going to get married."

"What?!"

"Yes. We're going to go to the court house and we're going to get married right now."

"Wha-Why?"

"Because I love you and I'm not afraid of that ugly bastard." He pulled out a huge Edwardian ring out of his jacket pocket. "I was planning on proposing to you last night... but..." He knelt beside the bed. "Will you marry me, Christine?"

"I – I - I will, Raoul. Let's get married."

"Today."

Christine hesitated. "Yes, I guess today is as good as any day."

---------((0))

"Oh my God, Meg! I'm getting married!"

"When?!"

"Today."

"Christine I'm gonna kill you! You're getting married and you can't even invite your best friend since diaper days to the wedding?"

"I'm so sorry Meg. It just happened so fast! He, like, just proposed to me. I don't even know what I should wear!"

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you didn't wear anything at all."

"Meg! Not helping!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know that prom dress from junior year?"

"You mean the white one your mom made out of curtains?"

"Yeah, that one."

"Duh! I remember that I used to get teased because it looked so much like a wedding dress."

"Well, it also didn't help that the theme was 'A Night in Vegas'."

"Oh my God. I can't believe I agreed to this."

"It's Raoul. You can't go wrong."

---------((0))

Don't do this, Christine...

She shook her head. I want to marry Raoul, and I will.

Don't do this...

Christine massaged her temples. Raoul snapped his phone shut. "Are you O.K., my dear?"

Christine smiled. "Yes, I'm fine," she lied.

"They're ready for us." He took Christine's arm and led her down the aisle towards the magistrate.

"Do you, Raoul de Chagny, take Christine Daae to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, until death do you part?"

Raoul pulled out a wedding band. "I do."

Stop!

"And do you, Christine Daae, take Raoul de Chagny to be your lawfully wedded husband,"

You belong to ME!

"to have and to hold,"

MINE!

"in sickness and in health,"

ERIK'S!

"for richer or for poorer,"

NEVER HIS!

"until death do you part?"

LAST WARNING, CHRISTINE!

"I do." She slipped a plain gold band onto Raoul's finger. Her scars burned like fire.

NO! YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!

"You may now kiss the bride." Raoul leaned in to capture Christine's lips in a tender, caring embrace.

"I love you, Christine."

"I love you too."

All at once the pain subsided.

---------((0))

Raoul rubbed lazy circles along Christine's lower back. "I thought you had scars," he pondered.

"I do. Wait... they're not there anymore?"

"Nope."

Christine looked over at his face. "I love you Raoul. Never forget that. I love you so much."

Raoul was already asleep.

---------((0))

Ropes cut into my skin as I sat up. I tied to a chair! I looked around and saw my room in Erik's house. It was dark. Dead, shriveled roses lay strewn all over the floors and bed. Their rotting stink filled my nostrils and I gagged. "Erik! Erik! Let me go! Erik!"

"Really, my dear, you will ruin your voice if you keep on screeching like that." He was calm. Too calm. It seemed like a dangerously thin mask concealing his fiery, ugly rage.

"Like, Hell! Let us go. We were happy."

He turned abruptly from me. "Yes, I suppose that that is all Erik can cause – pain. But, Christine is very good at that too." He sounded despairing. "Christine completed the ultimate rejection of Erik. She flushed his ring down the toilet and married Erik's enemy. She shunned Erik. She even rejected his roses."

"Your roses? You scarred me!"

Erik didn't even listen. "You left me, Christine. No more. No more." He laughed. I crossed myself. "Oh Christine, don't you know that God doesn't exist down here? There is no one to hear your prayers."

"Erik – where is Raoul?"

"You inquire about your lover? I have him. Oh yes, I have him. You have a week. Or, rather, he has a week. See, I set this tray before you. Look at the two cups. The silver cup holds white wine. The gold cup holds red wine. Drink the silver cup and your lover stays here forever with me. Drink the red wine and he goes free."

I reached towards the tray. "Wait! You have a week. Do not make your choice so hastily. For if you drink the cup of red wine, you stay forever as my wife."

"But -"

"Until death do you part, my dear. Until death do you part. You would no longer be bound to your boy."

"Oh, God."

He was angry now. "I told you, God doesn't hear your prayers here."

I sobbed. "Can I see Raoul?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

I sighed. He was acting like a child. "Erik, let me see Raoul, now."

"No." He turned on his heel and strode out.

I moaned. "What have I done? Oh, God, what have I done?"

---------((0))

Erik crawled back into my room as the last of the candles lighting it were burning out. "Erik is so sorry. So very sorry. But, Christine must understand. She must. Please, will Christine come sing with Erik? She has a competition coming up." He sounded so hopeful. I should have said no. I should have. But who am I to say no to music?

"Of course, I'll come sing with you."

"Erik is going to untie Christine now. She mustn't try to run."

"I won't, Erik."

"Here you go." He helped me up. He touched a raw spot caused by the ropes. "Oh, Erik deserves to die for hurting his Christine. He loves her so."

"It's O.K." I was too tired to protest. He led me towards the music room.

---------((0))

Well, damn. End of the pink, fluffy romance. I wonder what POTO would've been like had Raoul and Christine run off after that night on the roof. Would Erik have chased them? I don't know. Sounds like another fanfiction to me. It's yours if you want it. I can't get any inspiration off of that idea.

Enjoying the sun and warmth we haven't felt in 115 days,

Raven Sharpe

(posted 03-19-10)