Chapter 2

Erik's POV

I still couldn't believe it! Christine, beautiful Christine had actually kissed me. It had been a few hours since then but my brain just couldn't comprehend the fact that she had kissed me. Well, technically it was only on the cheek but still her beautiful lips had actually touched me. Never in a million years had I dreamed of this happening. When her lips had touched my cheek I felt something like an electric current run through my body. After I left I had wondered, maybe even hoped a little, if she had felt the same thing but I wasn't going to get my hopes up. How could someone like her have any feelings toward someone like me? But still the seed had been planted and there was no way of stopping it.

I was sitting at my organ finishing up a song for my opera 'Don Juan Triumphant' trying to kill some time before I had to meet Christine to see what she had decided about our lessons. After I had completed the song I was getting all of my papers in order when I happened to glance down and see the song I had played last night. I hadn't meant for anyone to hear it let alone Christine. Had I known that she was there I would have stopped immediately, this song was very personal. It was about how everyone even my own mother had judged me just for my face. No one wanted to see what was underneath, to get to know the real me. But Christine, Christine was different when she had seen my face she didn't scream or look disgusted as others had. She had looked straight at me as if I were a normal man not some freak. I didn't really know how to handle it I was so used to getting treated differently for my face. My own mother hadn't wanted me and she told me on a daily basis. One day she had told me that she wished that she had never given birth to me and that no one could love a demon like me. She had told me that her life would be far easier if I wasn't in it and that I should just leave. So that's what I did I left without ever looking back.

Eighteen Years Earlier

All I had wanted was to go outside. Was that to much to ask? All the other kids and their mothers played out in the sunshine. Why couldn't I? That's what I had just got done asking my mother, what a mistake that was. I was allowed out of my room which happened rarely because mother couldn't stand to look at me even with my mask on. But when I was I would just stay out of mother's way and sit by the window which was upstairs at the end of the hallway. Today, as there usually was, children were playing with their parents in the sunlight, but mother said that I was never allowed outside that no one would ever want to be my friend. But I thought today might be different I had been extremely good and was careful not to bother mother, maybe just maybe we could go outside.

I made my way down stairs to find mother in the living room reading. My mother was very pretty. I didn't look like her I had her eyes but that was about it, she always told me I looked like my father but she didn't talk about him much. I walked over to her but she didn't acknowledge me, she usually didn't.

"Mother?"

She jumped and dropped her book. She looked at me startled at first but her expression soon changed to one of anger.

"Erik! What have I told you about sneaking up on me?"

"I'm sorry mother. I just had a question to ask you."

"What is it?" she sounded annoyed, probably because I was bothering her with my presence. Now that I was about to ask my question I couldn't seem to get the words out.

"I…I…I was wondering if m…m…maybe,"

"Hurry up! Just spit it out!"

I took a deep breath "I was wondering if maybe we could go outside?"

I was relieved that I had gotten the question out. I had expected her to say no and send me to my room I hadn't expected this. She seemed truly surprised at first, then irritated, and finally ended on furious.

"You want to go outside? Like all the other normal children?" she emphasized the word normal. I instantly regretted asking her anything. She slowly go up out of her chair and made her way towards me.

"You actually think that I would want to be seen in public with a little demon like you?"

I started backing out of the room. "I'm sorry mother I just saw all of the other kids playing with their parents and I just thought,"

"You should be sorry! Sorry that God punished me by giving me a disgrace, a good for nothing little brat! You're the reason my life is a mess! Its all you fault, you made my beloved Charles leave me, you are the reason that I don't have any friends because I don't want them to know that I have a monster for a son!"

My eyes welled up with tears but I wouldn't let them fall. I could be ugly and mean too. I stopped backing away and stood my ground.

"I'm the reason you life turned out the way it was? Well God must have wanted to punish both of us because he gave me you for a mother!" I screamed at her. I didn't even see her hand before it was too late. She slapped my hard across the face, so hard I fell to the ground and I tasted blood.

I looked up at her with a mirrored expression of her own, an expression of hate. She pointed at the door and was deadly quiet.

"Get out. Leave and never look back."

So I did, I picked myself up of the floor turned and put one foot in front of the other never looking back. When I stepped out the door and the sun hit my face for the first time I had expected this moment to be happy and full of joy. Instead it was filled with hate and misery. What was I supposed to do now?

I was ten years old at the time. I couldn't believe that I had actually left, I still couldn't, don't get me wrong I was very independent for my age I mean look at what I grew up with for a mother. But still a ten year old couldn't work, I was found by the gypsy's soon after that but I didn't want to dwell on that part of my past. I needed to go meet Christine and if I left now I would be right on time. I put my music up, put my hat and cloak and made my way towards the surface.

Christine's POV

If you would have told me that when I got up this morning that I would know that my angel was really a man in a mask. I would have laughed and said you were crazy, but here I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. I was laying in bed thinking about what had happened last night. First, was that Raoul and I were reunited. I couldn't believe that after all these years he still remembered me. We had spent a summer together when father and I had lived at the house by the sea. My red scarf had been blown into the water and Raoul had rescued it. We had spent the rest of the summer playing on the beach or listening to my father play the violin while we read to each other. I had always hoped that Raoul would come back to his family estate when summer came around again but he never did. I had missed him dearly but I had soon forgotten about him. What with us moving and then father got sick.

I rolled over and looked at the clock on the table it was only 5:30. Had it really only been an hour since Erik had brought me back? It seemed like ages ago. That was also the second problem. Erik, what was I going to do? He had betrayed me since I was nine years old. I should be angry and hurt; I was a little bit but not enough to cut him off out of my life forever. He had been there when no one else had, when Carlotta or one of the other chorus girls had picked on me something would always happen to them. There was one time when Carlotta had called me a little toad and that I would never be more than a ballet rat. All because I had accidentally ran into her. I had been very upset and told my angel what had happened. He told me to stop crying and that everything would be ok. The next day Carlotta's dressing room was full of croaking toads. It took some of the stage hands hours to catch them all. The rest of the day anytime Carlotta walked by people would make croaking sounds, she had gotten very furious and refused to sing. Later I had asked my angel if he had done this but he told me that he knew nothing about it, but I knew in my heart that he had done it for me.

I was still in some what of disbelief that my angel was an actually human being. Erik's voice had always seemed unearthly to me that there was no way it could be human. What I truly didn't understand was why I wasn't angry. The only emotion that I could some up with when I thought of Erik was anxiety because I would get to see him again. I looked at the clock it was 5:45 I only had fifteen minutes before Meg would be knocking at my door to get ready for rehearsals. Maybe I could tell Meg what had happened surely she would understand. But I quickly dismissed that idea, don't get me wrong I loved Meg like she was my actual sister but she was sort of a blabber mouth. I didn't want word to get spread that my tutor was the infamous opera ghost. I was rolling back onto my back to maybe get a little sleep when I remembered that I had kissed Erik's cheek. A silly grin crossed my face he had looked so surprised. I had been surprised also but I had done it without thinking. I knew that Erik had feelings for me, very strong feelings because last night he had shown me a mannequin in a wedding dress that looked exactly like me. It was so real in fact that I had fainted. When I had woken up I hadn't remembered if what had happened was real or a dream. You see Erik's voice always entranced me it had since I was young. His voice was the most beautiful thing in the world, nothing could compare to it.

A knock at the door distracted me from my thoughts. After the knock Meg walked in, she always knocked then opened the door. Sometimes she wouldn't even knock at all just barge right in.

"Ugh, Christine you're still in bed?" She sounded annoyed, but I knew not to take it to heart Meg was NOT a morning person.

"I was just about to get up when you came through the door." I got out of bed. Not that I wanted to, I would have much rather stayed in bed and think.

"Well hurry up and get dressed, I'm starving!" Meg turned to leave she was almost to the door when she turned around. "Oh, mother said to meet her after rehearsals she said it's important. I'll meet you in the galley." With that she left.

Madame Giry wanted to speak with me; I wondered why she had never requested I see her in private before. I shrugged my shoulders; I was pulling my dress over my head when suddenly a thought hit me. Maybe she knew about Erik. She always had a knowing look on her face when ever she mentioned my "tutor". What if she knew where I was last night? Maybe that's what she wanted to talk about.

I was fixing my hair in front of the huge mirror in my dressing room when I thought of something else. Erik had taken me through the mirror to get to his lair last night. I also remembered when he brought me back last night that I could see into my dressing room from behind it. That means that he has watched me doing god knows what in here. I had always wondered how he knew that I wasn't paying attention sometimes in his lessons. Maybe he was watching me at this very moment. That thought made me very self conscious. "Erik are you there?" I said looking into the mirror. After a while with no answer I turned away from the mirror. "Of course he isn't there Christine. He is probably trying to get some rest." I muttered to myself. It was probably true Erik had to have been up most of the night since I had been asleep in his bed. It was the only furniture that I had seen last night other then the chairs that was next to the organ.

I was opening my door and about to step out into the hallway when I ran into something very solid. I would have fallen had it not been for the strong arms that had caught me.

"I'm terribly sorry I didn't see you the-" I lost my train of thought for when I looked up I was staring into a pair of very beautiful blue eyes. I didn't realize it was Raoul until he spoke.

"It's perfectly fine Christine." He said with a chuckle. "I had hoped that you would be up I was wondering if I could escort you to breakfast, since you skipped out on me last night for dinner." He looked a little perturbed about that.

I removed myself from his grasp, took a step back and straightened my hair. "Yes Raoul that would be perfectly fine. I'm terribly sorry about last night."

I took the arm he offered and we made our way down the hall. As we were walking down the hall I couldn't help but peak up at him through my lashes. Raoul was very handsome; he had dark blonde hair, piercing blue eyes, straight nose, full lips, and a strong jaw. He looked down and smiled. I turned away and could feel my cheeks starting to get hot, embarrassed that I had got caught staring.

"So," I said trying to think of something to say, "What are you doing here so early?"

"Well since my family is the new patron and I am acting on their behalf I was trying to get the feel of the place. See how things are run around here and talk to Monsieur Andre and Monsieur Firmin about the upcoming opera, things like that."

"Oh, how interesting." Not really it all sounded very boring. When we arrived at the galley I spotted Meg sitting and chatting away with all the other ballet girls. When she spotted me she got up and made her way towards us.

"Hello Christine and who do we have here?" She said looking at Raoul.

Raoul always the gentlemen immediately bowed and introduced himself. "I'm Raoul Vicomte de Changy," he grabbed her hand and kissed the top of it "and you are?"

Meg blushed and curtsied "I'm Meg Giry. It's a pleasure to meet you."

I turned to Raoul "Thank you for escorting me Raoul but I'm afraid I have to hurry up and eat I really need to get to rehearsals."

Raoul looked down at me, his eyes really were breathtaking "Of course Christine," he bowed again and took my hand just as he had done Megs and kissed it, "I hope to see you later. It was nice meeting you Meg."

I stood there and watched him walk away, he turned once waved and smiled at me, I waved and smiled back. Then he turned the corner and was gone. Seeing Raoul brought all of my problems flooding back through my mind. What was I going to do? Maybe I could skip rehearsals today and go to the roof to think. But I knew that that wouldn't be possible I was sure to get a scolding from Madame Giry and you do not want to be on her bad side. Meg elbowed me in the ribs and I lost my train of thought.

"You didn't tell me he was so handsome." She sounded annoyed.

"Who?"

"Why Raoul of course! Christine what is the matter with you? You're not acting like yourself this morning.

"I'm sorry Meg I just really have a lot going through my mind right now."

She looked at me curiously "What do you mean?"

"Nothing. I don't want to talk about it."

"Ok, Christine if you ever need to talk I'm here for you."

"I know Meg and thank you."

I gave her a hug. Meg was like the sister I never had and I was the same for her. When my father had died Madame Giry had become something of an adopted mother to me. When I meet Meg we were instantly friends, you couldn't find one of us without the other.

"Meg do you have any idea what your mother wanted to talk to me about?"

"Sorry Christine but I don't know. She just told me not to forget to tell you. She said it was very important."

"I wonder what she could possibly want to talk about?"

Again my night with Erik came to mind but I pushed it away. What could she possibly know about Erik? Meg started telling me about the latest Opera House gossip and my thoughts about Erik and Madame Giry were instantly swept away.

AN: Thank you guys soooo much for the reviews,likes,fav., etc. This is my first story I'm actually going to continue (hopefully... just kidding). Anyway sorry this took so long but I'm currently babysitting my nieces and nephews while in the mist of moving. I'm going to try and update (I'm writing chapter 3 as this is updating) sooner but don't get angry if I don't. Oh, if you seen misspellings or anything like that, I'm also currently beta-less :( so if you know anyone that wants to beta or if you want to pm me. Thanks again