CHAPTER TWELVE.
Christine POV
If my father ever answered me as soon as I asked, I didn't hear his reply. For a couple of days later I was attending the Masquerade Ball with Raoul for my first time.
I immediately noticed that we were the only people not wearing masks. It was obvious that Raoul had not gotten the memo.
As we pulled up in our carriage, I heard the sound of fireworks booming above my head and I jumped out as quickly as I could, to look at the bursts of red and green. I had only seen fireworks once before, at one of my father's fancier galas, so the charm was still there. Unfortunately, I could not watch the spectacle for long, as Raoul took my arm and led me into the gold-bedecked main parlour.
I looked down at my engagement ring that dangled on a chain around my neck.
"Think of it, a secret engagement." Raoul was not listening, gazing over at Meg who was dressed more scandalously than usual. I turned his head so he looked at me, letting his disloyalty slide.
"Look, your future bride. Just think of it," I whispered.
"But why is it secret, what is there to hide? You promised me." Yes, I had promised him, but I had also promised Father. He pulled my head closer and kissed me, but I pulled away.
"Not in public, please, Raoul, they'll see," I murmured, looking around. The walls had eyes here, and hopefully not the green eyes that I had thought of each day since the night I last saw them.
"Well, then let them see. It's an engagement, not a crime." It wasn't a crime for him, but it filled me with guilt to even think about the kisses I had shared with Raoul right before Erik's hidden eyes. It was surely a crime to break someone's heart.
"Christine, what are you afraid of?" he asked, taking my arm. I looked up at him. He wouldn't understand, he thought Erik a figment of my imagination. He would never believe that I longed to see a murderer's face.
"Let's not argue, please pretend. You will understand in time!" I told him as I pulled him onto the dance floor. Clasping hands with him, we waltzed around the room. As we passed Carlotta, I saw her raise her mask a little, as if she wanted to smack me with it. I'd like to see her try, I thought to myself, but the moment was gone.
As the music slowed, Raoul leaned in and kissed me again. He seemed to enjoy the sensation for, ever since our first kiss, he would keep necking with me and at the most inconvenient moments as well. Like now, in front of the whole company of the Opera Populaire. I chanced a glance at where Meg stood but she avoided my gaze.
The dancers had moved onto the stairs and were coming down in a wild procession. Each one wore a unique costume, some more extravagant than others.
One man wore a thick suit, which looked as though it was made of pompoms. I had to laugh at the sight of this huge teddy-bear-like man and looked around to see if any other funny faces would catch my attention.
I spotted a woman wearing a mask with one half painted black and one painted white, similar to Erik's mask.
A creeping suspicion seeped into the back of my mind. It seemed almost too perfect for him to slip into the festivities unnoticed. A masked ball, whose idea had this been when there was a masked murderer on the loose? They might as well have sent him an invitation.
But Erik shied away from the public, and only appeared to me alone. He wouldn't risk being in front of people, would he?
Apparently he would, for at the climax of the dancing, the lights died and a figure dressed completely in red appeared at the top of the grand staircase.
I felt my smile fall. I had wanted to see him again, but I knew that if he appeared, he would not be happy with me at all.
Erik did not wear his usual half-mask, but a full white mask with sculpted veins running all across it. In his hand he held a black leather case, used to hold scores. I wondered what it could be for, but forgot all about that when I saw the sword dangling from his belt. Erik truly meant business tonight.
The staircase cleared instantly, and there was a direct path from me to him. I felt Raoul press against my back and I looked up to see his face had lost all of its confidence, whiter than a sheet.
I looked back to Erik who strode woodenly down the steps, each footstep crashing in my heart like thunder.
"Why so silent, good messieurs? Did you think that I had left you for good?" he asked mockingly, with a little smirk on his face. He was actually enjoying this. It was entertainment to him.
"Have you missed me, good messieurs? I have written you an opera." He held up the black book that he carried.
"Here I bring the finished score. Don Juan Triumphant!" He threw it down at the managers' feet, the white papers sliding out of their positions. In the same fluid movement he drew his cutlass, glancing around the room with the same delight as a child at their first day at the fair, though I was certain most children weren't as violent.
"Fondest greetings to you all, a few instructions just before rehearsals start." Raoul squeezed my shoulder and fled the room, leaving me to fend for myself. Coward!
Erik, however, did not turn his attentions in my direction just yet. Instead, to my deepest amusement, he turned to La Carlotta.
"Carlotta must be taught to act, not her normal trick of strutting 'round the stage," he sneered softly, sticking his sword into her hat (which looked as if a bird had landed on her head) and jiggling it around a little. I smiled a little in spite of the mood, as Piangi stepped forward to defend his lady. This was not a very valiant effort. Erik simply stuck the sword against his paunchy belly.
"Our Don Juan must lose some weight, it's not healthy in a man of Piangi's age." This was amusing, but what he had said slightly startled me. If Piangi was to be Don Juan, didn't that mean I was to be his counterpart? The thought of his thick, sweaty hands around me, even if just acting, did not appeal to me in the slightest.
Erik had already turned to the managers who, for such boasting men, shriveled at the very glance of their tormenter.
"And my managers must learn that their place is in an office~" He swung the sword, which he had been using for a moment as a walking stick, in their faces, and they whimpered like dogs, sinking nearly to the floor.
"Not the arts." His gaze flickered to me, and he put away his sword.
"As for our star, Miss Christine Daae." I looked away from him, ready for the torrent of insults sure to come my way.
"No doubt she'll do her best, it's true her voice is good. She's knows though, should she wish to excel, she has much still to learn. If pride will let her return to me her teacher… her teacher." I found myself gazing back into his eyes just as entranced as I had been the first night we had met, and strangely enough he seemed to be under the same spell.
After all the torment I had put him through, he still was offering to take me back. There was a change in his eyes, the defenses that usually barricaded himself with had given way to emotion. He seemed almost vulnerable in his desperation, the longing evident in his stare. Suddenly I was not aware of the people in the room who constantly watched, wondering what was happening and why such a terrifying man had stopped in his tracks. It didn't matter where I was, or how many people were there. He was here and that was all I understood at that moment.
I stepped forward shakily, still not sure why he would forgive me so easily. He mirrored me, almost automatically. We stopped when there were no more steps to take, so I was just beneath his nose.
I caught sight of Raoul running along the hallway towards the ballroom out the corner of my eye, and saw him doing up his belt. He had left me to go to the 'John'. What a dashing man I had as a fiancé!
As soon as he noticed I was standing before Erik, he began to sprint, drawing a sword from his newly attached belt. This seemed to stir Erik from his trance, and he looked down at the diamond ring hanging directly in the middle of my bosom. Not so much of a secret engagement now.
To my alarm, he plucked the ring off my chest, breaking the chain for good measure.
"Your chains are still mine; you belong to me!" he hissed, and hurried up the stairs away from me. I knew this truce between us couldn't have lasted.
Wrapping his cape around himself, he disappeared down a hole in the floor with a burst of flame and smoke. I stared after him, wondering how he had managed to get the powder he had used to start the flame into his hand so quickly.
I couldn't ponder this long, Raoul rushed past me and jumped down the hole, probably thinking Erik had taken me along with him.
"No Raoul!" I cried, picking up my dress and running after him. I knew Erik would be merciless to Raoul, especially after our rendezvous. I didn't want to have to deal with my dead husband's will at sixteen.
Holding my dress to one side, I jumped into the hole after them.