Chapter 19

The other side of the fence

Erik sat up; sniffling again before wiping his snotty nose on his sleeve the way a little boy might do when losing the handkerchief his mother gave him. Christine had to smile because in a way even though he had the mind of a grown man and the sex drive of one sometimes he did the most boyish things. She found it adorable and gently squeezed his outstretched hand before trying to stand up and stumbling a little. He caught her arm so she did not face-plant on the wooden floor and nodded as he gave her a little tug to try and help her to her feet.

Christine eased herself up and teetered a little as her children kicked at the same time, to let their mother know they did not appreciate her moving herself and be affect them, from their comfortable positions. He got up and wrapped his arms around her tightly, laying her flat against his heart before reaching down to pick up his bag. Christine tried to lift her own but she groaned because the kids did not like her bending over. This was common with multiples that she would feel like she was further along in her pregnancy than she was but she didn't expect simple things to be so hard.

It seemed that simple things like lifting her bag and staying awake were difficult for her nowadays. Christine marveled at how Erik had not run for the hills through this mess, even if they were on a boat he could have easily made himself scarce. He had done it well enough when he lived in his house by the lake. In that fortnight she had spent with him she had seen him only at night when there were twenty-four hours in a day. Christine barely noticed he was there half the time as he only appeared when he wished for her to sing and then would vanish nearly as quickly as he came.

In fact, now that she thought about she had seen Erik only a half a dozen times in that little house by the water. This was odd because the house had only three rooms, besides the kitchen and sitting area where his piano was, hers, a washroom and his own room, one of those she was never allowed in. The fact was that he had made himself invisible when he wished and could have surely done so again but here he was smirking at her in fact as he made a move to help her and she waved him off. Erik for his part wanted to help her but knew it would be best to give his wife her pride and not push her; also he found her stubbornness just a tiny bit amusing.

She tried again but Erik shook his head, and took the bag with the other two fingers of his right hand before grabbing her other hand and taking her outside. As they excited the door the sailor stopped in his tracks and stared at them. Christine turned and looked back, she noticed the man's stares and then grabbed Erik hard and kissed him full on the mouth. He gasped and kissed her back after a moment, caught up in the moment and oblivious to the audience. The sailor for his part was in shock as she removed his mask and took one of his hands to place it over her belly.

The sailor cleared his throat but Christine ignored him, if the man wanted to stare then she would bloody well give him something to stare at. She kept kissing her startled husband not caring if he did not kiss her back. She took her lovers mask off and heard the man gasp, but instead of Erik tensing he smiled all of a sudden and looked at the boy out of the corner of his eye. In that moment he knew what she was up to and loved her all the more for it. God his girl had spirit, she truly was a wildcat her actions daring the boy to question the love between her and her husband.

He stared as she wrapped her arms around her husband and he dropped the bags to wrap his arms around her in return. The kiss lasted a good half a minute before they had to pull away before things started coming off. Erik reached up and they stroked each other's faces, lost in their moment and forgetting that they were supposed to disembark. He remembered after a moment and gathered their things before nodding that they should head to the door Christine followed but turned to smile and wave at the sailor boy who was blushing at them obviously embarrassed by his rudeness.

Christine followed her love outside and immediately regretted it. As happy as she was that their journey was over she wished they had not gone outside to see the water. The pitching and tossing of the boat was ten times more potent when she looked at the swaying water. Christine's stomach churned and she leaned over the side of the boat and gagged. It was just a little at first, but then as so often happens she gagged again and the floodgates opened. Christine became violently sick and Erik put down the bags to hold her hair, he then wrapped his arm around her.

Christine looked up at the silver sky where the clouds rolled in like thick sheets to cover the ghostly pearl that was the April sun. Erik looked up at the clouds and reached over to the lost and found container where he found a pretty parasol with swans swimming on blue waters, which he presented to Christine and she took without question. She knew stealing was wrong but she also knew better than to argue with Erik and also if the original owner wanted it so badly than they wouldn't wait three months to come get it. So she shook her head and hung her new umbrella over her arm

Erik led Christine to the top of the deck, and watched the boat pull into a massive harbor of people that were sitting there. They were all different shapes and sizes, and most of all they were deformed. Erik frowned and pulled Christine close to him so that she leaned on his chest, and she hid her face in his chest. The performer in her was struck with a case of bad stage fright, and she leaned into him to be her dark guardian and shield her from this group of strangers who looked like they were the ones heaven rejected. Which they were not but this was the way they looked, horrible figures out of a child's nightmare. People with huge humps on their back, stumpy legs and faces that were so twisted they looked like gargoyles.

There were some that were worse than others, some of them were merely scarred and others were so bad it made Erik seem as beautiful as her former intended. Christine looked at him; he was holding her tighter at the sight of them too. She shuddered and hid her eyes by staring at the deck, ashamed of herself because she believed herself to be over that impulsive reaction to deformities but this was scary. It was as if she had left the glittering lights of Paris for the mouth of hell where the poor wretches were ignored by the hand of heaven.

These were the Phantoms and the outcasts of her mortal world, the ones that people laughed at and mocked in the gypsy fares. Christine had thought that Erik was the only deformed person in the world in her naivety. But she was wrong and these people were worse, they had not even tried to conform to the polite societies of life but created their own in which they lived. There on their little island in a society all their own where those who were once rejected and the ugly were embraced and where mortal beauty meant nothing and was even disliked.

She looked up at Erik and noticed he looked pensive as well, as his hand closed over hers when the captain shouted to get off the boat. As the passengers disembarked Christine noticed that from the lower cabins came up, they were impoverished deformed people too. The normal ones like the good doctor were getting off and going to the ticket booth to buy passage to whatever final destination lie ahead for them, to do whatever it was destiny had in store for them. It hit her as she watched the freaks run or limp off and hug families who were waiting for them.

These rejected people loved one another, hugging and kissing and weeping openly as the people found acceptance in each other's arms. Christine had to smile as she thought for the first time that things would not be so bad. Soon she would be that wife with her children waiting on the doorstep for her husband to come home from work with his children in the wings. She smiled until the group on the docks turned their heads in her direction in a way that she found unsettling. Erik noticed them too and pulled Christine closer to him protectively.

He would have been at ease with the sight if she had not been there with him. No one would have noticed him, here he was just one of the many men here struggling to make his way in this world but she was the outcast here, her beauty was no longer a gift but a curse. What was worse was now as her husband he could be either worshipped for his accomplishment or exiled for marrying a normal woman. They stepped off the boat and onto the docs; Christine's hand trembled in his as the captain got off. Now they were truly alone, no one here cared about them and all they had was each other.

Erik kissed her head discreetly, feeling how tired she was and knowing the boat journey had been hard on them both. He took her hand and they began to carefully lead her down the busy street, passed crowds of people who were staring at Christine with looks that would strike her dead. Erik pulled her down the street and put her hood up over her head. Christine made no protest knowing her husband had his reasons but when he pushed her head down and made her look at the street that hurt. She cried as they went on, grateful for the noise of the docs so that he did not here her as he tugged her on relentlessly to the edge of the group.

She looked up when he released her arm and saw that he led her to an inn with a big sign that read Red Fish inn and Suits. It was a dusty old place, hardly the accommodations she had been used to as of late but she didn't complain. Erik knocked on the open door and –very rudely- did not wait for an answer before grabbing her hand again and leading her into the lobby. Inside it was cool and empty and he motioned for her to have a seat while he asked for a room. She obeyed him, grateful to be off her feet for a moment even though the cushion she sat on kicked up a cloud of dust and caused her to cough.

The walls were bare except for a picture of a man in a powdered wig and a couple of flags crisscrossing each other. Erik went to the counter where seated there was a fat man whose face was lumpy and covered in bumps. Erik sighed and rang the bell on the desk, and the man ignored them reaching into his pocket pulling out an overused match and the stump of a cigar. He lit it and inhaled on the stump so hard that he gagged on it. Some of the smoke came out in puffs when he choked on it and sprayed it all over his white bib-like vest. Erik rolled his eyes and rang the bell again and this time he looked at him, his facial bumps oozing puss and his eyes were watery.

"What can I do you for?" he asked in a scraggly voice.

"I am Erik Mansart, my wife Christine and I just got off the boat and we need a place to stay the night." He said.

"Yer wife eh," He looked skeptical, "Where she at?"

Erik turned to her and nodded his head and she slowly got up and she waddled over to the desk. The man looked down at her waist and then back up to her. The hood did not hide her beauty and his disgust was obvious. He reached across the counter and threw her hood back before spitting into the trash bin. Christine blinked, obviously never having had that reaction to her beauty before. She looked questionably at Erik who shook his head before looking back at the man who appeared utterly disgusted.

"You can stay but not 'er." He said.

"But sir…" Erik started.

"No 'buts' her kind are not allowed here, now if she was any kind of good wife she would let u stay here and go outside, provide for her man y'know."

"Come Christine we are leaving." Erik said and she nodded.

"Yeah keep walking ya normy!" The innkeeper shouted.

Erik's eyes flared and he turned to Christine grabbing her hand and pushing her gently towards the door. He then turned around and with raging eyes walked toward the innkeeper, whose eyes were growing larger and larger with fear by the second. Erik did not say a word but simply picked the toady man up by the collar, slammed him into the wall and strangled him. He made a choking sound and groaned as his head cracked against the plaster. Christine screamed and pulled at Erik's arms but that did nothing and he slammed his head against the stone so hard he lost consciousness. Erik smirked, dropped him to the ground and clapped his hands together to dust them off before kicking him one more time and walking away.

He took Christine's hand wordlessly and led her outside to the street where it had begun to rain in the dreary April morning. Erik slammed the door so hard that the doorknob came off, just then it began to sprinkle and he grabbed her hand as she opened her umbrella and placed it over her and Erik. They walked on together, him telling her to stay close and her obeying him without question. As they went on they passed this group of three men, all horribly disfigured twice as bad as Erik. Her husband pulled her closer, and one man turned to them and whistled loudly,

"Keep walking." Erik said not liking the way they were looking at them.

Christine didn't like it either; one of the men was horribly hunched with a hump like a mountain. He was so hunched that the monstrous Quasimodo would seem like a normal man. Another man was mangled in the face so badly that it looked as if his mouth was going to come off. The third man was skinny, and had piercings all over the warty oozing lumps in his face like the innkeeper but younger…he had beady eyes and spiky black hair resembling grass. But the most striking thing was how huge they were, all looked to be over six feet with bulging arms looking as though they could break limestone.

"Hey man!" he shouted at Erik.

It was the pierced man, he had a high-pitched squeaky voice and ignored Erik's not hearing him. He came up behind them and grabbed Erik by the shoulders in a friendly way pulling him away from Christine. Erik looked up at the man and nodded, taking off his mask and pretending to be friendly though his eyes kept darting to Christine worriedly as the other two men undressed her with their eyes. The pierced man noticed his friends staring at her and licked his lips openly before turning to her husband again and winking with a gap-toothed grin of yellowing teeth.

"Hey man nice girl!" he said in a falsely admiring tone.

"Thank you." Erik smiled, "She is lovely isn't she?" he asked turning to Christine with a proud little smile.

"She sure is," croaked Hunchback behind Erik. "How much you want for her?"

Erik turned to the man, "Excuse me?" he asked.

"How much?" he asked again.

"Much?" Erik repeated.

"For your normy?" he looked at Christine licking his lips.

Erik's eyes widened, "She is not for sale." He said and grabbed her hand

"Aww, c'mon… share!" the second man shouted distracting Erik.

Erik went over to Christine and began to pull her away and into his arms, Just then the third man came up and grabbed Christine out of Erik's arms, She screamed as Erik was held by the second man, a huge hulking brute of a man whose face was crooked and lips looked like they were about to come unhinged. He was breathing hard as he slobbered on her and ran his slimy tongue over her neck Erik struggled against them but those hulking muscle men restrained him as the one tore the bodice of Christine's dress open and looked lustily at her breasts before he squeezed one of them.

Christine whimpered and struggled violently, "Erik!" she screamed, "Help me!"

Crooked Jaw slapped her, "Quiet you!" And when she looked at Erik her nose and upper lip were bleeding.

Erik's eyes narrowed and he felt his control slip; he did not notice anything else but that man hitting his wife. He let out a roar and used the men's weight against them, the blackness and rage giving him superhuman adrenaline. Erik threw them against the stone of the street and hit them once, twice, a third time and then a fourth. Pierced man was bleeding and Hunchback screamed as Erik snapped both his arms back and they snapped viciously behind him. Christine screamed too as she heard that dreadful snap and saw Erik put her tormenter quite literally into a wall. He dragged him out of the stones bleeding and dropped Hunchback on top of the Pierced man.

Thankfully for Crooked Jaw he saw the carnage and had the good sense not to push his luck the way his friends had. He backed up when Erik advanced on him, dropping Christine roughly to the ground and running off in terror to hide from this masked madman powerful enough in his rage to take on and best the three of them. Erik went to Christine and gently lifted her to her feet where she held onto him for a long moment, weeping and trembling like a child tormented by the monster under their bed. Erik wrapped his arms around her and held her for a moment as she cried all over herself and him before looking at him.

Erik's heart broke and he tried to pull her to her feet but she stopped him saying, "I want to go home."

He shook his head, "We cannot go back there you know that…I am a wanted man."

She turned angry on him suddenly, "Why?" she asked and he had no answer, "Why?" she asked again.

"Why what?" he echoed.

"Why did you do all those things!" she shouted, "Why couldn't you just come out and introduce yourself rather than kill all those people!"

"Oh yes Christine I could just walk up to you and say hello I'm in love with you. Do you hear yourself?" asked Erik trying to remain calm.

"That would have been better than what you did pretending to be the Angel of Music! Then kidnapping me and now this…"

"If I had done that, introduced myself as nothing more than an aging composer you wouldn't have loved me when the Vicomte wanted you as well." Erik pointed out.

"It wasn't the money Erik don't you get it!" she shrieked.

"No I don't so please explain it to me!" Erik snapped at last raising his voice. "Please tell me what he had that I didn't if it wasn't the money was it the looks?"

"No it wasn't the looks either Erik I am not that shallow or heartless that beauty is all that matters to me." She said softly.

"You sure fooled me." Erik sneered, "As I recall my face was so distorted and deformed that it was hardly a face."

Christine rolled her eyes, "Oh come off it Erik, you know damn well my running from you had nothing to do with your looks."

"Really…" Erik coughed sarcastically.

"Yes really, I kissed your face that night it's not your face that's the problem." She said.

"Then what was it? You still have yet to tell me." Erik said.

"You scared me… your emotions were so intense I didn't know what to say or do with you…and Raoul was… He was safe…" she said.

"Oh…" Erik said looking ashamed.

"Now this, I'm scared again and now it's worse because I am pregnant and I don't even speak English. I am scared… we have been here less than one day and I have already been attacked…" She was crying again.

Erik shook his head and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her head as he realized what he had trapped her in. She did not know what to do, and although it was clear that she loved him very much and he had unknowingly and unwillingly punished her. Christine had given him her unconditional love but he had selfishly done to her what her kind had done to him. He had trapped her in his freakish world and now she wanted to go home but couldn't because of him and the vow she had made out of her foolish love for him.

She did not blame him for being the way he was but righty blamed him as he had taken her away from the perfect life she had once had and condemned her to this. He did not know what to say to her because she was right to be scared and if he were her he would be too, she looked down at her torn dress and tried to cover her exposed breasts. He shook his head and pulled her close as he noticed it was raining. He lifted her chin and kissed her soothingly before turning his face to the raining sky.

"Come on angel let's find somewhere to sleep tonight where you won't get sick." He said and turned her towards a street lamp where shop windows were dark.

Christine shook her head and followed her husband as the rain soaked her even with her umbrella. They walked and walked all night, until Christine felt her legs giving way underneath her and her eyes being weighted down by exhaustion and her children kicking endlessly because they wanted to rest and were punishing her for the over exertion. Erik caught her when she dropped to her knees on a stoop of a candy shop with an apartment above it and attached was a loft. Erik shook her shoulder but she just moaned and flopped on him.

"Chrissie angel you have to get up, we can't sleep here." He said feeling how soaked she was underneath her clothes.

"Mmm…Erik no… I'm too tired." She mumbled laying on him to be more comfortable.

"I know angel but we can't lay on someone's property." He said trying to lift her.

But it was no use Christine was already in such a deep sleep that her body was dead weight and when she fell on him she snored loudly. Erik sighed and curled up next to her and wrapped his arms around her soaked shivering body and just listening to the sounds of her sleep in this freezing night. Wishing he had something to keep her warm. He held her that night and finally felt his own snores coming up from his throat as his body gave into sleep. Just then the lights turned on inside and the door opened and a voice called gruffly out to them.

"Hello, who goes there?"

A quick note: Hey people wow drama huh? Hey my birthday is in two days so how bout telling me how I did?