I hope that you enjoyed getting to know the comtesse a little better. Now we resume the main story...

Chapter 23

Erik's POV

After we finished our music we both felt much calmer, better than we had in a long time. We came down to the solarium to wait for the others. They had much to do as they would be staying here for a while. Christian was off picking up some of the Comtesses' things, it would seem that she would stay with us for a few more days. She bid us farewell until dinner time emphasizing her age and her desire to take a nap. I cannot say that I was too upset since it gave me yet more time alone with Christine. We needed to keep talking to keep removing the last vestiges of our mutual bitterness.

When we sat down on a divan together, Christine gave me a smile. I could see an emotion in her eyes, as she gazed at me, which I had previously only seen when she was with the boy. Could it really be love? For a monster such as myself? She bestowed it upon me like a queen granting favors to her subject; I basked in the fact that she meant it for me. The change in her demeanor was remarkable given our previous encounters over the recent past, and even earlier today. She no longer looked at me as if I were about to devour her. Her fear of me had vanished. I felt like taking her in my arms and kissing her but I was warily cautious. I did not want to make her feel hunted and trapped. I thought about every mistake that I had made with her in the past and vowed to treat her differently this time.

To my surprise she reached towards me and whispered "Do you think that we have time for another kiss before the others come. It will help calm me down?"

I smiled at her warmly and placed my lips on hers, as was the case earlier, I could feel the warmth stir inside both of us. I longed to take her outside and show her the full ferocity of my feelings but I knew that we had to wait. I decided that I would end my agony as soon as I could and propose to her. If she rejected me again, I would probably throw myself off of the battlements; but she did promise me that she would do anything. Perhaps I would test that. I could not live with her in my Chateau, and not bind her to me. The torture would be too unbearable. It would take all of the courage I could muster, to risk that she would reject me once more, as she did in my lair that night. Had she sincerely chosen me already that night when we kissed? I pondered that thought and then asked her.

"The others will be here soon. Are you afraid to face them?"

She nodded yes. I smiled at her "Well we must look on the bright side; you are no longer afraid of me. If you can put that fear to rest, this confrontation should go very smoothly in comparison. The Girys' temperament is far more subdued than my own. Christine smiled back at me and told me.

"I am sorry that I feared you angel. I know that you are here to support me and that helps a lot."

Christine placed her hand in mine and I squeezed it gently for support. I could feel her tension ripping through her. I spoke to her with my gentlest voice; the one that I had reserved for her as a child when she was upset or sad.

"It will be alright 'mon ange.' They are your friends. They will be angry at first, as I was, but when they understand what really happened they will forgive you."

She turned to me and whispered "I hope that I can forgive them as well. They did not believe me and then Meg kissed you. It will be as hard for me as it is for them."

I told her. "I saw worse, I witnessed you kissing the boy and plotting with him against me and I have forgiven you. Let go of your anger and your bad feelings ange. They will fester inside of you and make you bitter. I know because I have held on to mine for so long they were the only emotions that I could let myself feel. Love was too dangerous for me."

She looked at me with tears in her eyes and told me "For me too ange, when I thought that all my friends would hate me forever. I shut all of them out, especially you. I did not want to feel love for you because it was laced with anger, regret and sadness. I hated myself for my shallowness and my betrayals of you. I hated you for leaving me without giving me the chance to explain what really happened. I hated Meg for doing what I should have done, and showing you that you could be loved. "

I put my arms around her protectively and hugged her tightly. "I forgave you for that already, just as you must forgive all of us. We have all done many things to one another that are better forgotten.

"I cannot help but to forgive you. You have meant so much to me. You have been my friend and guide and guardian ever since I first came to the Opera Populaire as a young orphan girl. You did so much for me, where I had only known Raoul from a two week interlude on the beach long ago. I thought that he was a handsome young prince back then, in my girlish dreams, and kept those memories of him inside of me. I used him as my ideal for my future husband. You could not live up to what I had made of him, neither could he. When I saw him stab you, my illlusions were shattered, he was no knight coming to rescue me from the monster; he was a man with a man's' fragilities. I betrayed him as well, not as badly as I did you, but I gave him the wrong expectations and feelings. As you told me earlier, if he saw you as a monster, it is because I put that impression of you inside his mind."

I looked at her with new respect and my love for her grew even stronger. Christine had finally become a woman not a girl any longer and she was even more beautiful than she had been both inwardly and outwardly. I knew that she would come out of this terrible trial in her life stronger for all that she had been forced to endure.

"You must forgive yourself too, not just the rest of us. I have come to see that you were still a child Christine. You had a child's dreams of angels and knights. You looked like a grown woman and I perceived you as such; but you were still a child. I can see that you have changed."

She brightened at my words "So you do understand me now Erik, better than I know myself." She told me. "You always knew how to comfort me before all of this happened. I still used your past words to me, to comfort myself, even when I thought that you had turned against me. It is why I realized the truth, that I had always wanted you and needed you. No one else knows me or understands me as you do. No one else ever cared to do so, especially not Raoul, only you."

I cupped her face in my hands and met her gaze. "If you can learn to trust me, and to look past this terrible face of mine, I would stay by your side always and continue to give you comfort and understanding. You need only to let me inside of you as you used to; so that our souls can soar together as one voice once again. I sensed our strange bond when I first heard you sing. It was my fondest dream that you would sense it as well. Despite my hideousness, and your beauty, we can only be alive and whole when we are joined together."

I studied her intensely to look for any sign of disagreement, if she did, I would keep silent and not propose, at least not yet. What we shared was no ordinary sort of bond forged in the human heart, it was something more eretheral that neither of us could control. When she betrayed me, I would have done anything to be free of her; but I could never be free of her just as she could not be free of me.

To my joy she remarked "I feel exactly the same way. When you left, I looked ahead at the empty silent years ahead of me and felt dead inside, as if something vital was missing. A large part of me was no longer there. You are my angel, my other half."

A tear rolled down her cheek and I wiped it away. "No more tears for either of us Christine. No second thoughts or backward glances just let us be happy together from this day forward. If I die tomorrow, or live another hundred years, I want to bask in your love and you to bask in mine." I kissed her on the lips once again and tasted heaven.

At that moment, the others came in all at once, they saw us kissing passionately. Christine blushed and turned away from them in embarrassment. Nadir gave me a quizzical glance and the Girys stood there looking at us, frozen in shock.

I looked at Nadir first and told him "No, Daroga I did not kidnap Christine this time, she is here of her own accord. We were brought together earlier today by a strange coincidence."

They all looked at me expectantly I continued to tell them "Christine and I have cleared up many of our misunderstandings and I am now convince that she did not know ahead of time that the Vicomte was going to stab me. It would seem that our eyes and ears deceived us; we misunderstood what was in her heart."

Meg cut in "Erik, how can you be sure? I heard and saw everything; before that Christine confided in me both her love for the Vicomte and her fear of you. How can you forget that? Do you really trust her." She gave Christine a still angry glare. I squeezed my angel's hand once more. Christine opened her mouth to speak and I raised my hand to stop her. I explained everything to them on her behalf.

"Christine knows what she has done in the past and she has convinced me, to my satisfaction. That should be enough for both of you." I added with a little of the Phantom lacing my voice. I would suffer no direct attack on my beloved.

Antoinette Giry looked at both of us especially Christine, with sly calculation. We had longstanding mutual respect and she was not afraid of me, not even when I sounded threatening. She turned to me and told me "I have found that coincidences are rarely random Erik. I am surprised, after all you have suffered, that you would so readily take Christine at her word."

She turned to Christine and told her, in a frosty manner, "Forgive me Christine; I am pleased that you have proved to Erik that you had no part in Raoul's final plot to kill Erik. However I have been present during a number of conversations where you agreed to help the Vicomte either capture or kill him. I find your presence here to be rather suspicious, but if Erik has forgiven you then I must as well. You must have provided him with some new information that I have not been made privy to. Since all that we have heard in the recent past has been your desire to escape from Erik; It would be most helpful to all of us if you could explain your change of heart to us. I would like to be satisfied in my own right if you don't mind." She looked at me respectfully "I am sorry Erik but if you want us to truly forgive her we must hear the truth from Christine."

I held my hand up to cut off the discussion. I did not want to put Christine in too much distress, but Christine herself stopped me.

"It is alright Erik, I would expect that Madame would want to know the truth." She told me softly "Perhaps in her position I would want the same. I told them both some terrible things about you. They saw me plotting with Raoul against you as well."

She looked at both Meg and Antoinette and explained "I know what both of you think. You made it perfectly clear to me on several occasions before you left Paris. I had no idea that I would run into any of you here. You were all rumored to have fled to America. You were seen boarding a ship whose ultimate destination was New York. Had I known that you were all here, I most certainly would not have come anywhere near Alsace."

"And yet you are here." Antoinette observed stoically, betraying little to no emotion. "What brought you to Alsace? We would have thought that you would have either married the Vicomte or resumed your career. You had no reason to come here."

"I intended on returning to Sweden. It has been too many long years since I have been home, and I thought that I could get a fresh start there. I could not marry Raoul after what he had done to Erik. I couldn't sing anymore either. In my mind music was linked to Erik, I could not sing without his guiding presence. When Raoul stabbed Erik, he took my muse away from me. Not a single note could come out of my throat no matter how hard I tried to use it. I decided to go home, but did not have the funds to do it. I contacted Raoul to ask him if he knew of any Swedish noble families who might need someone as a governess, nanny or tutor or even a ladies companion. At first Raoul insisted that he knew no one in Sweden but later he told me that there was a distant relative in Alsace, who was a widow, and was looking for someone. I took the position hoping that I would eventually make enough money to go back to Sweden. I wanted to get out of Paris, and away from my memories there: away from all of you." She added bitterly.

"Yet you are here." Antoinette observed still betraying little emotion.

Christine continued "By a weird coincidence the Comtesses' carriage broke down near here. Erik was nice enough to stop and help her. She was on her way to get me in Strasbourg. Since she could not do so, Erik sent a coach to pick me up and bring me here. At first, neither of us knew that the other was here; but this morning, Erik was told that I was here, and he confronted me."

She turned to Meg "When I saw you kissing Erik, I was terribly jealous. At first I hated both of you. I was mad at you for both trying to take Erik from me and for giving him the love that I had denied him."

Meg retorted "I was not trying to take Erik away from you. You told me many times that you wished that he would let go of you so that you could be with Raoul. You gave us all the impression that you hated him, and then I saw with my own eyes what you and Raoul did. Perhaps you did not want Erik dead after all, but you did not want him near you either. Erik almost killed himself after all that had happened. I found him on the roof looking very sad. He started stepping towards the edge of the roof but I stopped him before he could harm himself. If he had done so you would have had his death on your conscience."

Christine turned to me in shock and asked me softly "Is what she said true Erik? Did you want to kill yourself?"

I replied truthfully "I saw little point in continuing to live. At the time I believed that you wanted me dead and I knew that most of the world would be glad to see the Phantom become a true ghost. It was tempting to please everyone, including myself, and end my suffering once and for all. Before I could do it, Meg found me and reminded me that Raoul had left the Daroga in my mirrored maze." I looked over to Nadir apologetically "I knew that the stubborn old goat would somehow survive and was in need of rescue. As tempting as it was to leave the traitor inside of the maze, I could not bear to see my old friend die."

Nadir smiled smugly and told me "Thank you for that doostam. I stayed alive because I would never allow sag like you to best me with one of your devices. I would burn with you, in your Christian hell, before I would give you that satisfaction."

"A few more hours and you would have been dead Daroga. I saved your life once again." I told him.

I turned back to Christine "Meg saved my life that day, and in the lair as well. I will always be grateful to her for all that she did. If not for the strange bond that you and I share between us, I would have pursued Meg's love with all of my heart."

Meg smiled at me "You saved my life as well Erik. I shudder to think of what Buquet would have done to me if you did not intervene."

"That man was very dangerous to say the least. I had to scare him away from several others before you. If not for my promise to the Daroga, I would have gladly taken his life for all that he wanted to do with innocent girls such as Christine and Meg. He deserved to die for what he did." I told them.

Antoinette cut in "Erik, I would like to tell you that soon you will not be a wanted man in France any longer. You will be safe from threats from the Vicomte and others. Meg and I both made sworn statements describing what happened in front of a notary in Hamburg. We have sent them on to Paris, to the gendarmerie. I was wrong to hide behind your coattails Erik. You almost died for both my daughter's reputation, and for my actions. If you had I never would have forgiven myself for my selfishness in allowing you to do so."

I looked at her in surprise and told her "Why did you do that? You might want to return to Paris and the same conditions would be there. I am safe here on this side of the border. No one would have connected me with the Phantom. I have done everything that I could do to appear completely different than him."

"Yet, you know us, and the Daroga and now Christine. You wear a mask as well. You would have always had to look behind your back and wonder if someone wouldn't figure out who you really were, and bring you back to France to feel the kiss of Madame Guillotine. I could not carry the guilt any longer for keeping the truth suppressed. The Daroga assured us that I would not be in danger of arrest if I confessed what I had done. I was defending my daughter." She told me. She looked at Christine and then back at me.

"You had lost too much already trying to repay what you believed to be a debt to me. I have never considered that in helping you to escape from that horrible cage, and that terrible gypsy man, that you owed me anything in return. I did what any decent person should have done. You were only a child and did not have to endure what you did."

"Many so called decent people saw me displayed and did nothing to stop it. You were the only one to care." I replied reminding her of her unique compassion for my past situation.

"I would do it again if I could Erik. I have never regretted helping you, not even when you terrorized the Opera House." She told me.

I felt her warmth and accepted it.

"I would gladly give my life for either you or Meg. You have both been great friends to me, even if sometimes I forget to tell you. I only ask you both for one last favor "Please accept Christine. She has made mistakes, as have we; it is time to forgive and forget all that we left back in Paris."

Antoinette and Meg both agreed "Of course Erik. As you said if you have forgiven her then it is enough for us." I wondered whether or not they really forgave her but I could not read their minds. If they tried to hurt my angel I would defend her to them.

I turned to Christine "What about you can you forgive the Girys?"

She nodded her assent "Of course. Madame you have always been a mother to me, and Meg you are my best friend."

They all embraced. It would be a while before they regained all that they had before, but I knew that they were on their way.

Just then the door opened and Christian stepped in. He looked around the room and his eyes suddenly stopped and focused on Meg; to my amusement, I could see a flash of attraction and recognition hit both of them immediately. Meg blushed but could not tear her eyes away from Christian. It reminded me of how I felt when I first heard Christine sing. I hoped that their romance would go more smoothly than ours, but then again Christian was quite handsome both inwardly and out. He wore no masks to hide his ugliness because he had none, at least none that I could see.