AN: Thank you to everybody who reviewed the last chapter! Your continued reviews are always appreciated This chapter is relatively short, but the next one will definitely be longer! I had to edit this chapter really quickly, and I honestly had some issues with writers block while I was writing it, so I apologise in advance for any mistakes.
Enjoy! And please review!
I stood on the other side of the other door, listening intently, as my beautiful, compassionate angel slid to the ground, releasing heartbreaking sobs. I sat down, pressing my ear to the door and laying my hands against the cold, metal barrier between us.
"Oh Christine," I whispered so quietly she wouldn't have a chance of hearing me.
Soon I heard her pulling something out of her bag, and the sound of the buttons of her cell-phone being pressed.
Please be calling Meg, please be calling Meg…
"Raoul!" She cried, her words like a dagger being twisted into my heart. "I need you!"
Without listening to another way, I leaped to my feet, storming through a passage and climbing into the boat I had docked on the shore of the lake.
"Of course she needs him Erik!" I yelled sarcastically, my voice echoing through the entire cavern. "You told her to get out, shattered her delicate heart and physically harmed her… Obviously she needs someone to protect her right now! Mind you, it's not like that fop is great protection…"
"It is human nature Erik," I scolded myself. "When in states of intense grief, people always cling to things that are familiar, in this case the fop."
I fell into silence as the boat reached the shore, my mind instantly picturing what had happened on the shore only minutes before.
Christine diving into the water, frantic to get away from me…
The pure terror radiating from her body as she struggled to get away from me…
Her shivering figure cowering on the shore as I tried to reach out to her…
Her telling me to get away from her…
Her crying, tormenting over how alone she was, and reliving her father's death all over again…
And I was the cause of all of it.
All of her torment, heartbreak and agony was because I couldn't control my temper around her.
Shaking, I stepped out of the boat, stumbling and falling to the ground. My body couldn't move. My limbs were paralyzed, completely stricken with grief. My head felt as if someone was beating it with a stone, and pain coursed through my heart as if it had been stabbed with a dagger.
"What kind of man are you Erik?" I began to cry. "You are a horrible being, so monstrous that you can barely pass for a human… You destroy everything you touch, and are incapable of properly loving anything."
"Stupid, stupid Erik," I sobbed. "You should have known better than to treat Christine that way. You love her Erik, but you still hurt her, and now she'll never love you."
I wept for hours, until the familiar darkness that I reveled in finally had the mercy to take me.
I lay on that shore without moving for twenty-four hours, drowning in my grief and self-loathing. If I wouldn't have lost my temper, I could be spending time with Christine now, but she had inevitably gone back to that fop. Throughout my years of life, I had studied people immensely, and it was an obvious, but terrible, reaction to everything that had happened to her.
After an entire day of wallowing in self-loathing, I pushed myself up and shakily walked into my house. I couldn't bear to go into the room Christine had slept in, so I stole into my music room.
Grief poured onto the piano keys, channeling from my soul as I always did when I played. The music that filled the room told stories of despair and heartbreak, its music sounding like empathy to my ears.
Music always understood me. It understood my thoughts, my emotions, my life, no matter how complicated it may be. In this Hell of a life, it was my one true companion.
"You are alone in this world Erik." I spoke forcefully to myself. "Other people cannot be relied on. If there is something wrong in your life, either take out the person causing it, or move on."
I ate a quick meal and rehydrated, my body being used to not being fed and hydrated properly for long periods of time.
Quickly, I dressed and stole into the outside room, making my way to Christine's apartment. I scaled the backside of the building and crept along the ledge, planting one of my homemade listening devices to the window sill and climbing back down.
Then I simply sat in my car, and waited.
Within minutes, I heard the sounds of Christine waking up.
"Morning Raoul," She said groggily, and my fists clenched the arm rest of my seat. He had spent the night?!
"Morning babe," He yawned. "How are you this morning?"
"Pretty good actually," I could hear the faint smile in her voice. "Meg! Wake-up if you want some breakfast! We are going down to the café!"
"Okay!" Meg yelled, "Wait for me to get dressed!"
"It's just the café… You don't have to dress like you're going to a fashion show!" She yelled laughingly.
I was a little bit startled. Christine seemed to be doing remarkably well, considering the torrent of grief she had been experiencing only two days earlier. Had the fop actually done something right for her?
I shook my head, that couldn't be it.
"Thank you Raoul," Christine whispered. "For everything yesterday."
Damn.
"I would do anything to make you happy Christine." Raoul said charmingly, and I could picture Christine's face blushing at the affection.
"No Christine!" I muttered. She needed somebody so badly that she had forgiven the fop easily, and was now overlooking over any flaw he had. It was infuriating.
"Well," Meg's chipper voice sounded. "I'm ready to go if you are."
"We're ready." Raoul said happily and I heard the door open and close.
Quickly, I climbed out of the car, pulling the hood on my black jacket forward so it shadowed my face. After the three of them began walking down the street, I followed about twenty feet behind them, not wanting to be detected.
When they entered the café, I waited a few moments, then stole inside and sat at a table where I could easily see them, but where their eyes probably wouldn't find me.
"So," Raoul said quietly, but my keen hearing was still able to hear him. "Have you heard anything from the phantom?"
"No," Christine whispered.
"Good," Raoul scoffed, not at all quietly this time. "That man is a monster Christine."
"Raoul," She said half-heartedly. "He's not some evil being…"
"He hurt you Christine." Raoul argued, leaning into the table. "How can you stick up for that thing?"
"He did teach me for a while before he did that," She argued sharply, but her tone quickly turned wistful. "My voice really took off with him…"
"You aren't going back to him are you?" Raoul said sharply and rage began to stir in my stomach. How dare he tell Christine what to do?
"Of course not Raoul," She sighed. "I just wish you wouldn't be quite so hard on him."
"Well I wish you wouldn't stick up for him." He retorted, but then his voice went soft. "I just worry about you going back to him… And when you stick up for him…"
"Raoul," She smiled, reaching up a hand to stroke his face "I'm not going anywhere."
"But…"
"I choose to be with you." She stated simply, and paused for a moment, a slightly pained expression momentarily crossing her features. However, she quickly masked it, smiling at Raoul. "It's not like the phantom and I could ever actually be together."
My whole world came to stop. Without another word, I stood and walked silently out of the café, returning to the area by the theatre where I had parked my car. Over and over, Christine's words kept running over in my head.
"It's not like the phantom and I could ever actually be together."
"It's not as if I didn't already know that," I argued against the agony that was twisting through my heart. Something made it feel worse, hearing that admission from her lovely, pink lips.
I peeled out of the parking spot I was in, speeding down the road as fast as I could with the traffic congestion, heading toward the Southern limits of the city.
I drove for nearly seven hours, until I reached the forested countryside that harboured my house. I had built it years ago as an escape from society, an extravagant house completely hidden in trees, with no metropolitan areas close to it, but I hadn't actually visited the building for years.
My car pulled into the over grown driveway, and I fished the dusty old garage door opener out of the bottom of the center console where it had sat for several years. After parking, I entered the foyer of the house.
A thin layer of dust coated everything, due to the years of negligence, but other than that everything was exactly as I had left it.
Deep black tile covered the entire floor, and the black walls were adorned with several paintings by Salvador Dali, adding a touch of colour to the room. A small chandelier was the dominant feature in the room that was otherwise absent of furniture.
Although the décor was similar in this house to that of my other home, the biggest difference was how open this house was. Unlike the long corridor that segregated all the rooms in the underground house, the entire ground floor of this home was almost entirely open.
Smiling to myself, I fetched some cleaning supplies from one of the closets, and began to wash, dust and clean ever surface in the house.
I was just beginning to clean the floor when I heard the door open. I growled in frustration; I had too much to do for him to be pestering me.
"Nadir!" I yelled. "I am very busy, and should very much like it if you would leave."
"It's nice to see you too Erik!" He chuckled, walking into the room despite me telling him to leave.
True to his usual, peculiar style, he wore a grey, pinstriped suit and a bright orange dress shirt. A bright blue bow-tie was secured at his throat, and he still carried the extravagant cane that he had brought with him from the Middle-East. To top it all off he wore slick black dress-shoes, where you could see a bit of his bright blue socks.
"What do you want?" I grumbled, glaring at him.
"Why are you here Erik?" Nadir ignored my question. "You haven't been here in years."
"I had some business to attend to." I said sharply.
"Erik," Nadir looked at me skeptically. "What happened with Christine? You and I both know that she has everything to do with the 'business' that brought you here."
"It's none of your business Nadir." I spat.
"Well I saw her a while ago, and she seemed incredibly distraught, so you may want to be careful not to upset her." He spoke softly.
I jerked around to face him. "When did you see Christine?"
"A little while ago." He grinned, knowing he finally had my full attention. "I gave her a ride home. That's why I've been trying to contact you."
"You gave her a ride?!" I sputtered in shock, "How do you two know each other?"
"We don't," He answered simply. "I was at dinner at Daniel, and when I went outside there was a young couple sitting in a Jaguar screaming at each other."
He stopped for a moment, thinking. "Well, actually it was more the girl screaming at the man who was driving. He didn't really get a word in."
The corners of my mouth twitched up as I struggled not to smile. That sounded like Christine. "Go on."
"So anyways, she climbed out of the car, crying, and he drove away so I offered her a ride home. It wasn't until I dropped her off at the theatre and asked her name that I realized she was your Christine." He finished.
"Nadir, do you always give random young girls rides home from restaurants?" I asked mockingly.
He looked at me seriously. "You didn't see her face Erik… I wasn't going to just leave her on the sidewalk crying."
"Actually I did see her face," I retorted. "Why do you think she asked you to drop her off at the theatre?"
"Then you know why I wouldn't have just left her standing there. Really, you should be saying thank-you to me, and be glad she didn't get in some other stranger's car!" He exclaimed.
"Thank you Nadir." I said sincerely, "But I really do have things to do, so if you would leave me in peace it would be much appreciated."
"Okay Erik," He sighed, "I drove seven hours out here just to tell you that I ran into Christine, since you haven't been taking my calls, and now you're sending me home!"
"Goodbye Nadir!" I chuckled, escorting him out the door.
"Goodbye Erik!" He called, and sped away in his black Mercedes.
Chuckling to myself at Nadir, I grabbed the mop and broom and began to clean the floors.
Every surface of the house had to be perfect… Christine would be arriving soon.