Epilogue
Three Months Later
The curtain has just closed on the final performance for me, Rom, Eric, and the rest of the cast. We are waiting to go out for curtain call and I am wiping tears out of my eyes. I have cried during the final scene in every performance, and no matter how in character I am, I always think of my last moment with Ethan. Everything has changed since that moment. It started with Eric and Mimi announcing that they are together. After that, Rom and Eric realized that they actually didn't really hate each other. Eric and I became friends after I apologized for thinking that he was stalking me. Occasionally he still teases me about it, but only in a friendly, brotherly way. Rom and I also went public with our relationship, which was a little pointless, seeing as everyone had already known. The reviews of our show were spectacular, some of them even saying that Eric, Rom, and I were the best in each of our roles in the history of the show. I find that slightly hard to believe about myself, but I know Eric has a real future playing the part. In fact he has already signed a contract to be part of a cross country tour as the Phantom. Mimi will be going with him as Carlotta and Christine's understudy.
As for me and Rom, we've decided to move back south, closer to both of our families. We've both had a few really tempting offers, so we know we'll be fine. Meaghan is, of course, staying in the city, she has been officially "discovered" in the modeling world and suddenly everyone wants her for some ad or fashion show. I'm really proud of her, but I know I'll miss her when I move.
It's been a long three months for the cast, but the final show is still a sad event. As we wait for the stage manager to call us up, we laugh and exchange memories. My thoughts travel to Ethan, who is now in a psych ward specifically for people with backgrounds like his. I don't know if he will ever heal, but I believe that he will eventually become a better person.
We are called up for our bows and all together, the three of us holding hands, we run onstage. We split off; Eric steps forward first, bowing to thunderous applause. Then it's my turn and the applause grows louder. When Rom steps forward he doesn't take a bow. Instead, he gets down on one knee and pulls a little box from his pocket.
The audience has stopped clapping; now they're all just waiting to see what will happen. Rom looks up at me, smiling broadly at the look of pure shock on my face. "Lissie," He says, his microphone amplifying his voice so the whole audience can hear him. "I have loved you since we were in high school, unfortunately I didn't realize it until I was watching you walk away. I was given a second chance, and I won't let it happen again. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?" I was speechless, except for the only word that could possibly be used in response to a speech like that.
"Yes."
It wasn't until later that I was able to look at the ring. It was a simple gold band set with two small oval diamonds with a slightly larger, round diamond in the center. Engraved on the inside it said: love me, that's all I ask of you.
Final Author's note
When I started this story, and all through the process of writing it I had a few main goals.
1. Make Raoul a likeable character. So many fanfiction authors make him evil or stupid. While these stories are usually very good, they don't really reflect my personal opinion. I have always been a Raoul fan, because the thought of a stalker was just too creepy for me. I liked Christine and thought she deserved better.
2. Make a Phantom who was just plain creepy. This is why I built up Eric as the 'Phantom' for so long, I wanted the phantom to be mysterious and dangerous, so I had you get to know (and almost like) Eric, while Ethan was being creepy behind the scenes.
3. Make a modern version of the Phantom of the Opera where the characters actually realize that their lives are paralleling the story. It never made sense to me that some fanfiction characters don't even briefly think that their lives are following the story.
4. Write a story where Christine ends up with Raoul. The story ended that way for a reason, and I respect that, so I didn't want to change it too much. I knew that to make people actually okay with the R/C twist, I would have to change Raoul a little so that's what I did.
You guys have all been spectacular through this whole thing and I have loved reading your reviews. Thank you so much for sticking with me and I hope I succeeded in the things that I hoped for. As always I love to hear what you think so please, if you have any suggestions for future stories, let me know. Special mention goes to Alexanne as my most loyal reviewer and Artemis Sherwood for being my first reviewer ever. Thanks again. *C.E.L