Chapter XXIII: Into the Underworld
As I descended the stairs, I found myself looking at that dark corridor which I had dreaded for so long. Now, more than ever, it sent shivers down my spine to walk along those locked doors, those empty rooms, hearing nothing but my own footsteps. More than once, I thought about turning around and going back, but then I thought about Raoul de Chagny and how utterly unprepared he was to face this danger, with or without his grandfather's revolver. If I could only find him, and find a way to make certain that Christine was not in any immediate danger, maybe I wouldn't have to confront Erik in his lair at all. I could stay with Raoul in the sewers, at a safe distance, possibly observing without being seen until the police arrived.
Such was my intention when I approached Christine's practice room. Raoul had left the door ajar, so I had no difficulty in getting in. The first thing that struck me as I entered was a strong, nauseating smell. I discovered that the sofa had been moved and the trapdoor was open. Peering down into the darkness, I could see a ladder leading to yet another open trapdoor. Making sure I could read the map in the weak light of my cell phone, I descended.
When I reached the sewers, I stopped and listened. Perhaps there was some way I could locate Raoul by listening to his footsteps. But there was nothing. Either he had already reached Erik's home, or he was progressing very carefully. Or else... There was a third possibility, which I preferred not to think about.
Suddenly I heard a squeak, and something brushed past my ankle. I had to bite my lips not to scream out loud. There were apparently rats here. Regaining my composure, I listened again. This time, I thought I heard voices far away - a man's and a woman's voice. I couldn't make out what they were saying or what direction the sound came from, but there was an unmistakable tone of fear in the woman's voice. A few more blurred sounds followed, and then, loud and clear, a shrill cry:
"Help! Somebody help!"
Christine's voice echoed through the tunnels. I knew then I couldn't just stand and wait anymore - the danger was too imminent. Screening the light from the display on my cell phone with my hands, I read the map carefully and then started feeling my way in the darkness, slowly and as noiselessly as I could. There were no more cries for help, but only a subdued sobbing, which frightened me even more.
It seemed like the tunnels were endless. On the map, it had all appeared so simple, but I was surprised by the distance I had to walk. Maybe, if I had been able to walk straight and at normal speed, and if I had been able to see rather than only feel the walls, it wouldn't have seemed such a long way. I think my perception of time was altered, too, by my agitation. Luckily, I could no longer smell the revolting fumes of the sewers, as my nose had got accustomed to them. My eyes, also, were getting used to the darkness at last, and I could vaguely discern the walls and the intersections of tunnels.
Finally, I turned around a corner and found myself looking at that last stretch of tunnel leading up to Erik's home. The tunnel didn't actually end there, but it opened onto a larger tunnel running at straight angles with the one I was in, so that Erik's front door was located near what appeared to be a three-way crossroads. The door was open, and a ray of warm yellow light emanated from the room within. I halted at some distance from the door, pressing myself against the wall and trying to see what was going on inside the room.
Christine was there, sitting motionless in a chair. Erik I couldn't see, but I heard his voice:
"I am sorry I had to do that, I am fully aware that it is not the conduct of a gentleman. You are not hurt, I hope?"
There was no reply from Christine.
"You must understand I could not have you running around in such a state", Erik continued, "you might have harmed yourself."
"What is it to you?" Christine finally answered, coldly. "You already have so much on your conscience. What is another life?"
Erik sighed and I could see him approaching Christine and kneeling by her chair.
"If it is your life, everything", he said. "I would never wish you any ill, Christine. But I cannot lose you. I can never let you run away with him, with that... that ignorant boy!"
Erik's voice had turned sharp and hateful as he spoke of Raoul de Chagny, and I felt a surge of anxiety when I thought of what might have become of Christine's friend, who was nowhere to be found.
"Christine", Erik went on, almost pleadingly, "you do not have to be afraid of me. I could make you very happy. I have made a new mask, one that looks almost like a real face, I could wear it at all times and you would never have to see me! And you would have everything you asked for - I would live only to serve you. Every day, we would sing together, and make music the world up there could never dream of! We would be in a heaven all of our own - can you imagine it? Oh, Christine... do you think you could learn to forgive me, perhaps to care for me a little as I care for you?"
"Erik, untie me, please, it hurts", Christine said weakly.
Erik shook his head.
"You know I can't do that", he said.
So this was why Christine wasn't moving in her chair, even though the door was open! This was why she had cried out for help a while ago! Well, I thought, it wouldn't be long now. Hopefully, the police would be here soon, Erik would be brought to justice, and Christine would be free. All I hoped was that they could continue talking calmly like this for a little longer, and that nothing more dramatic would happen.
The moment I had thought this it became clear that my hopes were in vain. Suddenly, a gunshot rang out in the dark tunnels. Erik rose to his feet at once, alert like a cat, and with a final glance at Christine, rushed out through the door. I pressed myself as closely to the wall as I could, holding my breath and trying my best to calm my pounding heart. But Erik didn't run in my direction. He flew noiselessly down one of the other tunnels, evidently familiar enough with the acoustics of the sewers to know where the echoing sound had originated. When he had disappeared, my first thought was to run to Christine and free her. I even took a few tentative steps in the direction of the door, but before I could go any further, there was the sharp sound of another gunshot, followed by sounds which might indicate some kind of struggle, and finally a blood-curdling, triumphant laughter. It all seemed to be so close that I dared not move another step. And true enough, within a few seconds two figures appeared approaching the doorway. First came Raoul, walking with an uncharacteristic stiffness, and then, only a few feet behind and with something metallic gleaming in his hand, came the ghost-like figure of Erik.
"My dear", called Erik in a clear, casual voice. "May I introduce you to M. de Chagny, a late visitor. I found him lost just around the corner, shooting at rats as it appears. How clumsy of me not to have given him any directions, after all, I was half expecting him!"
"Raoul!" cried Christine with horror in her voice.
"Christine!" replied Raoul eagerly. "Are you all right?"
Erik shoved Raoul into the room, and I could see that the revolver Raoul had brought with him had now somehow come into Erik's possession.
"My door is, as you see, always open for you, young Monsieur", said Erik suavely. "Now, please step inside, as the spider said to the fly."
Raoul could do nothing but follow Erik's orders. When he saw Christine helplessly tied to a chair, he immediately rushed to her side and untied the knots with frantic energy. Erik just stood patiently beside them, the revolver in his hand. When Raoul had freed Christine, she rose and clung to him in a desperate embrace.
"Christine, are you injured?" Raoul said. "How long were you tied up like this by that monster?"
"I am fine", Christine said with a trembling voice. "Erik only tied me to the chair a little while ago, because I threatened to kill myself if he didn't let me go."
Raoul looked at Erik with flaming eyes. Erik still said nothing, but pointed the revolver at Raoul to show him that any attempt at escape was useless.
"Erik", Raoul finally said, "that is your Christian name, isn't it?"
"No", Erik replied coolly, "but it is the name I have chosen for myself".
"Surely, Monsieur Erik", Raoul continued courageously, "you must see that Christine will never love you if you keep her here against her will!"
"I don't intend to", Erik said chivalrously. "I mean to let the lady choose for herself."
"What do you mean?" Raoul said, stunned.
"She may choose between her own freedom... and the life of her boyfriend!"
Where was the police? Why weren't they here? I was starting to believe that they had dismissed M. Ivanovich's story as the ramblings of a delusional old man, and that they weren't coming at all. If so, there was no help to be found. Christine and Raoul were at the mercy of this lunatic, and I couldn't move for fear that Erik might detect me. This was his turf, and he held all the cards. And he knew it.
"Well, Christine?" Erik said. "Will you stay with me, or shall I put your little friend here out of his misery?"
"Erik, no, please don't do this!" Christine sobbed.
"Then don't make me!" replied Erik, violently.
"Christine, never mind me", Raoul said. "I don't want you to make such a sacrifice for my sake. I'd rather take a bullet."
He tried to put on a brave face, but a deathly pallor revealed how frightened he was. Christine sank down in the chair once again and buried her face in her hands. Erik stood by her side, ready to fire, his gaze not leaving Raoul de Chagny for a moment. It was a hopeless situation. A few minutes passed in silence, each nightmarish second seeming like an eternity, and we all waited with bated breath. Finally, Erik lost his patience.
"I have given you plenty of time to consider", he said sharply to Christine. "Now, I want to hear your final answer."
At this point, I think both Raoul and I were prepared for anything, even for the worst. The only thing we weren't prepared for was what actually happened. Christine started singing. Rising from her seat and turning to Erik, she reprised her lullaby from earlier that evening, the song that, in The Rake's Progress, Anne sings to her betrothed after he has lost his sanity and she visits him in the gloomy asylum:
"Gently, little boat,
Across the ocean float..."
While she sang, she touched Erik's thin hands and arms. Then, very tenderly, she moved her hands up towards his face and gently, lovingly, removed his mask. I was too far away to get a detailed view of what he looked like, but I could tell from Raoul's reaction that it must be a terrible sight. However, Christine just went on singing, seemingly undisturbed. She caressed Erik's forehead, his cheeks, his jaws and, as he started sobbing violently, brushed the tears from his eyes. When she had stopped singing, she turned her face up towards his, and with a sigh of "Poor Erik!" leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. Erik stiffened awkwardly in her embrace, as if he had never experienced such tenderness before. When Christine finally let him go, after nearly half a minute, Erik collapsed onto the floor, his whole body shaking with sobs. She knelt down beside him, holding him in her arms and rocking him like a baby for a long time, until he had calmed down. Then she rose, and as she did so, Erik too started singing - a voice broken with tears and full of sorrow, but still the most beautiful voice in the world. It was another part of that same scene in the opera, as if he, like Christine, used those lyrics and that music as a shield to be able to express emotions which would have been too intense to bear if they had put them into words entirely their own:
"O merciful goddess, hear the confession of my sins.
In a foolish dream, in a gloomy labyrinth
I hunted shadows, disdaining thy true love;
Forgive thy servant, who repents his madness,
Forgive Adonis, and he shall faithful prove."
Christine replied him on cue, but with utter sincerity:
"What should I forgive? Thy ravishing penitence
Blesses me, dear heart, and brightens all the past.
Kiss me, Adonis: the wild boar is vanquished."
And Erik sang the final line, leading up to the last duet of Anne Truelove and Tom Rakewell:
"Embrace me, Venus: I've come home at last."
As they proceeded to sing the duet, I saw at last clearly what had been the bond between Christine and her Angel of Music. When they sang together, nothing else seemed to exist. Their voices blended perfectly and created harmonies of such remarkable beauty that I could easily understand why Christine had faltered in her decision to leave Erik for good. They must have sung together like this on countless occasions, but the intensity in their voices now made it clear that they both knew this would be the last time:
"Rejoice, beloved: in these fields of Elysium
Space cannot alter, nor time our love abate;
Here has no word for absence or estrangement
Nor Now a notion of Almost of Too Late."
After the duet had ended, Erik turned abruptly to Raoul, returning the revolver to him.
"Go", he said tonelessly. "Take her with you. There is a hidden exit some distance to the left down the tunnel. It opens on a small street, but you will find your way from there. Just go now."
Christine seemed to hesitate for a moment, but Raoul took her firmly by the hand and led her towards the door. When she had reached the doorway, she turned around one final time before disappearing with Raoul into the darkness, and in an unsteady voice spoke a few lines, which I recognized as a quote from the opera:
"In this earthly city we
Shall not meet again, love, yet
Never think that I forget."
