Christine's POV

After Erik and I had gone our own ways to undress, I slipped off my garments and crawled into the hotel bed, snuggling beneath the blankets to wait for Erik. I had been so anxious to make love to Erik after ten long years, that I nearly tore my stocking while trying to pull it off. I snuggled against the warmth of the blankets, waiting for Erik as time ticked by. Where was he? I waited nearly ten minutes, before sitting up and looking towards the changing area he had gone behind.

"Erik?" I softly called his name, waiting for a response.

"Y…Yes, Christine?" why did his voice sound so nervous? Five minutes ago he couldn't wait to get in bed with me again, but now it seemed as though he had changed his mind.

"Erik, is everything all right?"

There was a long pause, and then his voice again.

"Yes, Christine, everything is fine."

"Why are you taking so long?"

There was another long pause, and this time, he didn't respond back.

"Erik, please answer me."

Though, instead of answering me, he came out from behind the privacy quarters, still dressed in his clothes. The only thing different was that his jacket was off and the first two buttons of his shirt were undone.

"Erik, what's wrong?"

My angel looked down at his feet, pausing for a few moments before grabbing his jacket and slipping it back on.

"It was a mistake coming here." He began. "Get dressed, Christine."

"Erik," I wrapped a long sheet around my naked body and hurried out of bed, rushing to grab his arm before he could leave the room. "Erik, what has gotten into you?"

When he was finally facing me, I noticed that he was crying.

"Erik, speak to me."

"I can't do this."

"What are you talking about? Back at Feltman's it was your idea."

"I need darkness." He cried. "There is too much light in here. Oh, Christine I'm so hideous… You've never seen me naked, and believe me when I say that you wouldn't want to either. My body is a train wreck, my flesh destroyed and scarred. I wanted to have you again so badly, that I didn't even think about what I was getting myself into. No, I can't."

"Why do you feel the need for darkness?" I questioned. "I know how you feel, Erik. I know what you look like even though I've never physically seen you naked. My sense of touch on that night ten years ago painted the portrait of you within my head. All the scars and strange feeling flesh that my fingers brushed upon painted a distinguished masterpiece. I didn't find you disgusting then, and I won't change my mind now."

"But for you to see me with your own eyes… Oh, Christine it would only make me nervous. I need darkness."

"No more darkness, Erik." I pleaded. "Please. Surely you want to see me before your own very eyes just as much as I want to see you."

I looked down at his shirt, already noticing the scars from where the two buttons had been undone. His collarbone was covered in them, so much, that I begged to see more. My hands were at his shirt now, taking the buttons into my own hands and letting them loose.

"Christine, please…" he pressed his eyes closed. "Don't do this."

I was already on the final button, when I took both ends of his shirt and folded the garment over his shoulders. My eyes widened, for his abdomen was a canvas of damage. His collarbone was covered in scars, scars that stretched all the way past his ribs and crisscrossed with other lumpy scars. Some places were uneven, making it obvious that flesh had been missing, those wounds stitched up by stretching parts of his flesh over lacerations too far away for such flesh to reach. God! How agonizing! There were burn marks in his chest, cigarette burns, even a horseshoe shaped brand indented in the right side of his chest; in the place right above his heart. It was so deep, that any deeper and his organs would have started to show.

"My god…" I shuttered. "What happened to you?"

"Cruel things." He cried. "Cruel and inhumane torture."

My fingers brushed along the brand in his chest, tears rushing to my eyes as I did so.

"They held me down." He cried. "Held me down and jabbed me with the hot horseshoe iron, until I could smell my flesh burning."

"Who, Erik? Who did this to you?"

"The gypsies."

"What about here?" I placed my hand over the dip in Erik's side, the same dip that seemed as though his flesh were missing.

"I had disobeyed my master. He taught me a lesson by skinning me alive… Oh, how it hurt me, Christine. After skinning me, he grabbed the other end of my side and stretched it over my wound, stitching it tight. Oh, Christine, it doesn't even look normal, does it?"

"And what of the scars?"

My fingers brushed over the protruding lacerations.

"All from the end of a bullwhip. Day after day, Christine…"

"I'm sorry…" I buried my face into his chest. "I'm so so sorry, Erik."

"There's more."

More? How could there be more? Oh, why had my angel suffered his entire life? Did he not deserve to feel at least a little love and compassion? I stood there watching as his fingers nervously shook to unbutton the three buttons that kept his trousers shut, letting them drop to his knees. His legs were pale and thin, covered in the horrible scars as well.

"Do you want me now, Christine?" he cried. "This unfinished obligation?"

"Erik, I haven't changed my mind."

"Not yet?" his eyes grew wide with anger, his hands bracing the lining of his black undergarments. "Well, then how about now?"

He turned around so that his buttocks were facing me, lowering his undergarments so that his scarred rear-end was exposing. Not only were they covered in scars as well, but they were also missing flesh and plastered in burn marks.

"It is so hard for me to sit, Christine." Erik said, pulling up his trousers. "Such torture has come my way."

Erik bent down to grab hold of his clothes.

"Erik, don't…"

I grasped hold of his hand, pressing a kiss to his knuckle.

"You are beautiful, Erik. There is no need to hide from me any longer."

"Really?"

I nodded. "I still want you."

Erik's POV

My angel still wanted me! Oh, after so many years of being alone and wishing for her to be beneath me again, she still wanted to be that way! I had shown her every scar on my body in hopes of making her repulsed, or to at least see the expression displayed upon her face. But, oh, my Christine didn't shy away. She smiled after wards, leading me back over towards the bed. Once there, she lowered the sheet she had wrapped around her body and let me have my first glimpse of her. She was like a goddess, the beautiful angel I had always seen her as. Even when we made love ten years ago, my fingers trailed along her body and even then, she was flawless.

"Oh, Christine…"

My body became stunned as she kissed me, her passion just as deep and hard as when we had kissed outside of Feltman's. I leaned over her, pressing kiss after kiss to her neck.

"Erik, Erik, please…" she begged. "Take off your mask and wig."

I stopped kissing her for a few seconds, placing the garments aside and looking back down at her beautiful self. Oh, how perfect she was…And here I was, leaning over her like a monster closing in on its prey. I pressed my eyes closed, not being able to stomach the thought of her looking up at me. But a few moments of darkness, and I felt her finger brushing over my deformity, while her other hand brushed through my strands of graying hair.

"Erik, open your eyes."

And when I did, my angel was smiling at me. Oh, a smile! Here I was, exposed to her very being and she was smiling at me!

"Oh, Christine…"

I was so happy, that I choked back a sob as I pressed my lips to hers again, feeling her hands brushing over my scars and trailing down to the lining of my undergarments. My lips were too busy kissing her neck and collarbone to even notice that she was teasing the very lining of my last stitch of clothing. Suddenly, her hand groped me through my undergarments, causing every fiber within my body to wake and scream out in ecstasy. Ten years! It had been ten whole years since such fire and lust had coursed through my veins. Yes, I have pleasured myself when my loneliness became too much to bear, but to feel another human being beneath you was more pleasure than one could ever imagine.

"Oh, Christine…"

My sigh had caused her to grope me again, causing my body to jump as if I had been electrocuted. My hands snaked up her side, cupping her breast as my kisses continued to land against her flesh and pulsating arteries. I was burning, burning to feel every inch of her, burning to feel my body connected with her own. When my angel couldn't take another moment of me being on top of her, she flipped me over, her hands slipping beneath my undergarments and caressing my hardened core.

"Oh, Christine, yes, mon ange…"

She handled every inch of my body as if handling fragile glass, my body never tiring of her embrace. I pulled her close to me as she and I caressed one another. How interesting it was to be able to do this in light instead of in pure darkness. To be able to see every look of bliss, every ache of pleasure…Oh, it sent my soul fleeting for more! I groaned into her neck as she began straddling my lap through my undergarments. I couldn't take much more, for if she kept going at this pace, we would never get to making love.

"Christine…" I called her name and gripped her thighs, causing her to stop moving.

"Am I hurting you?"

"No," I chuckled, lying her down beside me. "It's been ten years, love… You're being too fast with me."

"Well then," Christine smiled seductively as she began pulling down my undergarments. "I suggest that we get to it then."

I pinned her arms above her head, looking her in the eyes.

"You're certain? No regrets?"

"Never, Erik."

I groaned against her neck, as I worked my way between her legs, joining us for the first time in ten years. Oh, how I felt complete! That part of me that had been missing for ten years was finally back, and for the first time in a long time, I felt whole.

"Erik," my Christine called for me as I thrust into her, our kiss never breaking.

"Oh, angel…Oh, yes…"

My Christine turned me over, straddling me as we continued to kiss. Bliss! Oh, such bliss! I had waited ten years to feel this again, and now that I was, it was even better than the first time. Never had I ever thought I would ever experience the joys of the flesh again, and yet, here I was doing just that. I took my time with her this time, refusing to leave any patch of flesh unkissed, refusing to leave her flesh untouched! Oh, how I burned for my angel.

"Harder, Erik."

I looked down into my angel's eyes, making tender love to her body and abiding to her every command. My finish washed over me like a tidal wave of passion, the climax my body had begged to feel for the past ten years. And even after, I continued to make love to Christine until she found her finish as well. Afterwards, we plopped down into the sheets, staring one another in the eyes as we concentrated on catching our breaths.

Gustave's POV

I wasn't sure how the bad dream had started, but the next thing I knew, I was being drowned. I awoke, gasping for breath and finding hot tears streaming down my cheeks. I hated that nightmare… And ever since Meg attempted to drown me at the pier nearly a week ago, sleep wasn't something that came easily to me. What if it happened again? What if I really drowned? I wiped my eyes and headed towards Mister Y's bed. In the hall, his grandfather clock struck five in the morning. The sun had yet to come out, but I was glad that morning was quickly approaching.

"Mister Y?" I was at the bed's side now, hoping to find my mother and Mister Y sleeping beneath the covers. "Mother?"

When I pulled back the blankets and noticed that the bed was empty, my heart stopped within my chest. Where were my parents? Where had they gone off too?

"Mother?" I shouted out her name, my voice echoing off the walls. "Mister Y? Papa?"

Never had I ever called him that before, but I wasn't about to give up searching for them. What if something bad happened to them? What if they had gone out and drowned by the beach? The sudden thought of such a horrible thing happening frightened me to no end. I worked quickly, putting on my shoes and jacket. I needed to find them before it was too late! I hurried out of Mister Y's home, running down the flight of stairs and outside into the darkened city. I ran to the gates of Phantasma, slipping inside and calling out for my mother and father over and over again. Oh, where were they?

"Mother!" I was nearly to the beach now, a rumble of thunder echoing in the distance. "Mister Y! Please, answer me!"

What if they really did end up on the beach? What if they fell into the water and a wave carried them out to sea? Oh, I was so frightened! What would I do then? What would I do without my parents?

"Mama…" I dropped to my knees, looking in either direction in hopes of finding any trace of where my parents had gone. As the thunder continued, I looked towards the beach to find a figure emerging from the water.

"Mama?" the figure was most definitely a woman with long hair. Oh, it had to be her! I ran towards the figure, calling for her over and over again.

"Mama, is that you?"

But I stopped as soon as I realized that this figure was not of my mother, but of Meg! She was in her bathing suit, walking up the beach soaking wet. When she noticed me, her eyes became fixated on only me.

"Gustave," she began in a voice that was as sweet as pie. "What are you doing out here so early?"

I backed away from her, still frightened that she would attempt to drown me again.

"Don't run." She warned, coming towards me and grabbing my arm. "It's all right."

"Leave me alone…" I sobbed. "Please…"

"I'm not going to hurt you, Gustave." She assured. "I just want to help you."

"Leave me alone…"

I managed to fight my way out of her grasp and begin running up the beach.

"I know where you mother is!"

I stopped running, turning to face Meg once more. But could I trust her? Could I truly trust Meg after she nearly drowned me and killed Mister Y?

"You do?" I nervously asked.

She was at my side again.

"You are looking for her, right?"

I nodded, ready to run at any given moment.

"Come with me, Gustave." She said, holding out her hand. "I will take you to her."

"Where is she?"

"She's close by."

It began to rain, so hard that I didn't have a choice on whether to trust Meg or not. And so, I interlaced my hand with her own and began walking up the beach with her. I could only hope that she was telling the truth and leading me to my mother and not to my death. But why did she know where my mother was? And where was Mister Y?

"So, have you heard the news yet?"

"The news about what?"

"Oh, so they haven't told you?"

"Told me what?"

"Gustave," Meg stopped us from walking and looked me in the eye. "I'm not supposed to tell you this, but your parents are planning on leaving for Paris."

I gasped. "What? When are we leaving?"

"That's the thing, Gustave, they're going without you."

"No…No, you're lying. They wouldn't leave me here."

"They left you alone this morning, didn't they? Where are they, Gustave?"

"I thought you knew…"

"I do." She assured. "They're boarding the ship now."

"What? You're lying."

"Am not…They couldn't stand you any longer…They thought it be a better life without you. Tomorrow, Mister Y's home will be condemned and you, without a place to live. You're an orphan now."

My heart stopped within my chest.

"Stop this!"

I broke away from her grasp, not wanting to believe a word she said. Why would my mother leave me? Why would she go back to Paris?

"My mother loves me…" I cried.

"Your mother only cares about Mister Y… She left you, Gustave! Both her, and your sorry excuse for a father."

"No!"

I broke away from Meg and ran towards Phantasma. How could my parents leave me? How could they leave without a single goodbye? I was heartbroken, heartbroken and an orphan. What was I going to do now?

"Mama…" I fell to my knees, sobbing and looking at my father's park. Everything was gone now…I was on my own, own my own and with no place to call home. Why would my mother and Mister Y abandon me? Perhaps I had been a mistake, a mistake and a burden towards my mother all these years, and now that she was back with Mister Y, she didn't need me anymore. Either way, I missed her with all my heart.