The Phantom's Lullaby c4 (Reunions)

[gallifreyireland]

The Phantom's Lullaby Chapter 4- Reunions

synopsis: "With his past, how could the future be any less than agonizing? And yet, she had kissed him. Twice. In that moment, it had almost seemed like she wanted to stay..." Alternate ending to ALW's PoTO, but with references to Susan Kay's Phantom. E/C
disclaimer: I don't own Phantom of the Opera or its characters. Nor do I own any songs quoted in this fic.
in this chapter: Erik cleans a mess, explains himself, and freaks out a little.

Reunions

The state of his lair was disheartening. There were tattered fabrics strewn about, broken furniture, and papers of all sorts littered the floor. The only consolation for this destruction was the sight of his nearly-untouched organ. He had no idea why they had decided to leave it alone amidst the ruin, but he was certainly thankful for it.

Of course, there was no way he would be able to take the thing with him. He sighed as he realized that he would probably never compose there again. He recalled countless hours spent seated at that bench, trying to get a song just right. Those times when everything seemed to be falling apart around him, and he buried himself in Don Juan Triumphant- letting all of the pent-up emotions drain onto his red-ink-stained pages.

This cavern held his entire life.

As he searched the wreckage for compositions or sketches of value, he began humming a new melody- a song for his new life with Christine. It helped to keep his spirits up even as he dug through the ruins of his life. The humming led to whistling, and this carefree musical expression made him stop and chuckle at himself. Look at the mysterious Phantom of the Opera whistling while tidying up a mess. Oh how the mighty have fallen!

Erik found a leather notebook and filled it with the papers he gathered and then ventured to his bedroom to gather a few changes of clothing and two extra masks. I’m nothing if not prepared.

As a final precaution, he checked the small kitchen down a side tunnel. He had never kept it fully stocked- he often forgot to eat for days on end- but decided it was worth a try. He found an almost-stale loaf of bread, a handful of tea leaves, and two bottles of his favorite wine-Cabernet Sauvignon- which he realized were too expensive (and frankly, too fantastic) to leave behind.

Once his bags were thoroughly stuffed, he set off through the labyrinth to his hidden stable for Cesar. It shared a stone wall with the much larger stable of the Opera Populaire, with a thin opening running along the very top. Cesar had always been quite adept at stealth, and because of his silent nature, Erik knew it was safe to grant his beloved horse this bit of fresh air and light.

After greeting his equine companion (and getting a friendly nudge of welcome in return), Erik saddled him up and loaded him down with bags.

“You know, Cesar, I haven’t had the chance to take you out for a run in quite a while. Lucky for you, I’m in a hurry to get back to the cottage. Someone very important is there, and I mustn’t keep her waiting long. It would be downright rude.”

He chatted amiably with Cesar as he led him to the false wall around the corner. There, what appeared to be a solid wood wall from the other side was actually a heavily-fortified door. After Erik checked to make sure the Opera stable was empty, he unlocked the many bolts and led Cesar out into the shade of the structure.

He was just coming around the corner of an alley when he ran into Madame Giry.

“Antoinette? What are you doing here?”

“Erik! I’m so glad to see you about and looking well,” she smoothed her skirts and cleared her throat before continuing. “I was actually hoping I would find you here. We need to talk.”

“What about? I really should be getting back…I’ve been gone longer than I originally intended.”

“Is Christine staying with you?”

His face became hard as he tried to figure out her intentions.

“Erik, you can tell me. I’m only worried for her welfare. I haven’t heard from her since…” She looked down, uncomfortable with discussion of the disaster. From the look on Erik’s face, he didn’t want to talk about it either. “…and the Vicomte has been visiting to beg me for information nonstop.”

Erik scowled. “That fool.”

“I just want to know that she is safe, and that she is happy,”

“What, you think I kidnapped her? No, she came with me voluntarily…which frankly, I’m just beginning to believe myself. It is certainly more than I could have hoped for.”

Madame Giry’s face relaxed, and she smiled. “I’m happy for you Erik, really. I know this will be good for you both. I always had a feeling…”

Erik made a funny sort of snort-like noise in his throat. “Yes, the wise Madame Giry knows all…” He chuckled before sobering somewhat. “But thank you, Antoinette. You’ve been a good friend and a wonderful parental figure for Christine. I don’t know how to thank you for everything you’ve done for us both.”

“Just take care of her, Erik. She is like a second daughter to me.”

“I will. I promise. I will be a better man for her.” His voice was determined and the air was still as his words set in.

After a moment, Erik saw a strange look flutter over Madame Giry’s face. Despite his apathetic feelings towards humanity in general and his voluntary isolation of late, Erik had always been quite adept at reading people. He could see the intentions behind their words and could discern facts about someone just from a few cursory glances that others wouldn’t discover even after years of acquaintance.

Madame Giry was hiding something.

“What is it?”

She opened her mouth to speak, but something passed over her features again and she closed it. After a beat she started again, seemingly on a different subject than she had originally planned to speak about.

“Erik, the last time the Vicomte came to see me, he finally told me what happened that night. In your home, between the three of you.”

His eyes narrowed. “What lies has he been spreading?”

“I don’t know if he was telling the truth or not, but I can recount the story as he told it to me. Maybe you can fill in some of the gaps…”

xXx

Raoul de Chagny was sitting on the edge of his seat, nervously bouncing his leg as he waited for me to join him in the sitting room.

“Vicomte, what a pleasure to see you. Again.” I kept my tone as polite as I could, but in truth I was growing weary of his constant visits.

He looked up as the subtle iciness of my words washed over him.

“I’m sorry to drop in again, Madame. I am just worried about Christine’s welfare. Surely you understand?” I saw the genuine concern in his eyes and sighed as I sat across from him.

Unlike this boy, I knew that wherever Christine was, she was perfectly safe. I knew you would protect her with your life, even though I wasn’t sure of the circumstances leading up to your situation.

“Yes, of course. But I can assure you, Vicomte, I do not know their whereabouts.”

He ran his hand through his hair and straightened his cravat.

“As you’ve said before. I believe you, Madame, it’s just…I don’t understand. What would possess her to go back? She just jumped out of the boat with that look on her face….” His bewilderment was clear in his voice and his eyes.

“Maybe it would help of you told me what happened down there. From the beginning.”

---

After you left me on the stairs, I continued on but didn’t pay close enough attention to where I was going. I fell into some sort of trap and for a moment, I thought I would surely die. My determination to find Christine and rescue her from that madman is all that kept me fighting. I was finally able to turn the release and the gate holding me underwater lifted. It was so cold down there, I don’t know how that man…thing could stand it. I was soaked to the skin and trembling when I found my way to the portcullis- the only thing separating me from his lair.

They were locked in some sort of discussion, by the look of it. They were standing very close, almost close enough to touch, and Christine was staring up at him with an intensity that entirely excluded me and everything else in the room. She seemed aware of nothing but him: I would have said she was in a state of trance, save for the look in her eyes. That look…it wasn’t one of fear, but I couldn’t think to classify it otherwise.

It was he who moved first, turned around and so afforded me a first glimpse of his horrific face. It was disturbing, to say the least, the duality of it. One side perfectly normal, almost handsome even, the other…I shudder to think of it. He addressed me for the first time-

“Did you think that I would harm her? Why would I make her pay for the sins which are yours?”

He had lifted the portcullis to allow me entry, only to bind me to it as it closed again. He wrapped that damn noose around my neck and rigged it so that he could torment me with its tightening and loosening at will. He told Christine that she must choose between us…I told her to let him kill me. I couldn’t stand to see her throw her life away just to save me. I closed my eyes so as not to see him deliver the ending blow…

But she didn’t answer him. I opened my eyes to find Christine staring at his face, rapt. And then- my God, it hurts to even say- she kissed that monster. Right in front of me. She said she wanted to show him that he wasn’t alone …She kissed him twice. Twice! Even I, her fiancé, she gifted with only a few chaste kisses on the cheek. But that monster….!

That voice of his. Even from what little had been directed at me, I could sense its power. Somehow he had hypnotized her, held her captive with his words. He made her believe she actually wanted to stay with him!

Then, he let us go. I couldn’t comprehend why he would do such a thing after he had finally tricked her into staying, but I took my chance and we escaped. I actually thought it was over. I thought we were safe! And then Christine…she uttered some nonsense about this being ‘wrong’ and she just jumped into the water! I was frozen in shock; I couldn’t make myself stop her.

It seemed like hours- though it had only been minutes- when the mob found me down there, still staring at the spot where she had been sitting in the boat.

One of the men asked me if I’d seen where the Phantom had gone…I could only shake my head in mute horror. I assume he only let us go so I would be tricked into a state of calm, giving him a chance to steal her away from me once more. Somehow he must have been controlling her still with that damn voice of his!

---

I wasn’t sure what to say to him, for I couldn’t be sure that what he told me was the complete truth. I tried my best to console him and then shooed him from my home at the first opportunity…

xXx

Madame Giry kept her gaze locked on Erik as she finished recounting her story. His eyes were molten, but his face as inscrutable as always.

“It seems the boy hasn’t been embellishing completely, though I can assure you I was not using my voice to influence Christine’s decision. Her…affections were as much a surprise to me as they were to him.”

He looked decidedly uncomfortable as he began his recollection of events.

XxxX

Her silent determination was plain on her face.

I'd totally dismantled this child… taken her to pieces in my crazed determination to make her heart tick in harmony with my own. I'd taught her to sing like one of God's own angels, I'd loved her more than anything else upon this earth… but my love had destroyed her, reduced her to a pitiful creature barely aware of her own actions… made her as mad as I was myself.

As I watched, she slowly lifted her arm towards me. With trembling hands she caressed the distorted side of my face. Her fingers crept hesitantly across the ruined flesh, her touch so gentle…afraid she would injure me, I suppose. She needn’t have worried; the nerves on the right side of my face have been nearly dormant for the entirety of my life, registering only slight irritation at the chafing of my mask.

But her touch…that I could feel. It scorched through me, deep into my core.

A moment longer she stood, like a terrified swimmer on the top of a dizzying cliff, contemplating a plunge that was utterly beyond her courage.

"Pitiful creature of darkness, what kind of life have you known? God give me courage to show you, you are not alone!”

Stunned, incredulous, scarcely able to believe in what I heard and saw, I wrapped my arms around her slim waist and held her there, almost trembling.

And then suddenly I was no longer the teacher, but the pupil… for her arms were around my neck, her caressing hands an insistent pressure against my skull, drawing me forward with unbelievable strength into her embrace.

When her lips closed over mine I tasted the salt of tears, but it was impossible to say whether they were mine or hers.

Deeper and deeper she swam down into that embrace, dragging me relentlessly back up with her into the searing light of day. She kicked away the crutches of hate that had sustained me so long and made me stand with helpless wonder while her hands once more sought my face and drew it down to hers.

A long, long time she held me, as though she could not bear to let me go, and when at last we drew apart, we stared at each other with silent awe, dazed by the intensity of what we had shared.

It was finished then; of course… that kiss ended everything.

I knew I could not kill that wretched boy. I could no longer allow myself to ruin the happiness she so deserved.

I told them to take the boat and leave, told them to forget me. I watched as he pulled her into the boat and they started to coast away. Numb, I stumbled back to my room, apathetic of my fate. I sat there, ready for death…

And then I heard her voice. She had come to save me once again.

XxxX

“She really has saved my life, Madame. I’ve never had a reason to better myself, but now I can’t imagine being anything less than admirable. I’ll never stop trying to deserve her.”

Madame Giry seemed touched by his sincere words; she blinked back tears before composing herself once more.

After a moment of deliberation, Erik pulled her into a tight embrace.

“I really should go,” he said as he pulled away. “She has been waiting since early this morning. Goodbye, Antoinette.” There was a note of finality to his voice.

Madame Giry seized his arm as he turned to leave. “Wait, Erik. There’s something else I have to tell you…”

xXx

The trees whipped past dangerously as Erik hurtled through the forest on Cesar’s back.

Erik had never really known the sort of connections that other humans tended to rejoice in. The only family he had ever known- his mother- had made it painfully clear that she did not consider him a son. He left at the first opportunity, never looking back, and had been wandering ever since. This was the first time he had chosen to be alone. Afterwards, the loneliness was thrust upon him.

For a very brief time, in Italy, he had thought that maybe he could be loved after all. That his existence was not a mistake and he would finally know what it was to be wanted. But trouble seemed to follow him wherever he went and ruined that chance as well.

After the hell that was Persia, with very few bright spots to carry him through, he returned to his home country weary of the ways of man.

He was now used to a very solitary existence. Once resigned to live out his life below the kingdom he had helped to create, a weight had lifted from his shoulders. No more trying to fit in with the society that so obviously hated him.

But it seemed that he was destined to be pulled out of that resignation, back into the light of day.

He found companionship in the form of Antoinette Giry, who became a sort of sister to him. By extension, he felt quite protective of little Meg Giry, for the simple fact that anything bad happening to her would hurt Madame terribly. Meg treated him with open distrust at first, which slowly mellowed into cautious affection. And Christine…she pulled him out of his depression like no one else could.

Three people. Three people in the whole of the world who he cared for and who somehow cared for him in return.

His only other friend, he thought dead long ago.

He thought wrong.

Another ghost that refused to rest.

XxxX

There was no warning before Erik burst through the door. Christine cursed her stupidity. Had she not heard heavy footsteps earlier? In her excitement she had flung herself to the door to welcome him without thinking about the fact the he was very nearly silent wherever he went. Hearing an approach at all clearly indicated that it couldn’t be her beloved angel, simply because of the fact that he was too careful to create such noise.

She had been sitting in uncomfortable silence all morning, wishing for Erik’s swift return. Their guest had refused to chat until Erik was home, and since she did not have the resources for any hospitality, the only thing she could offer was a glass of water while he waited.

The strange man claimed to be an old acquaintance of Erik’s, but with his strange dress and distinct accent, she was loathe to trust anything he said.

Erik’s eyes immediately darted to her when he entered, checking to see that she was safe. She jumped into his embrace, wrapping her arms around her neck.

He placed a quick kiss in the fragrant curls upon her head, murmuring assurances before pulling away and finally turning to look at their guest. Christine clung to his side as Erik addressed the foreign man.

“To what do I owe this distinct honor? I am certain it is quite rare to be graced with a visit from a dead friend. I must be important.”

Christine was surprised to see the trace of a smirk playing about Erik’s mouth as he spoke. Friend? I was not aware he had any acquaintances beyond the Girys…

The dark-skinned man’s face crinkled into a wide grin. “You haven’t changed a bit, Erik.”

Erik extended a hand in greeting and they shook.

“It’s nice to see you again, Nadir.”


Chapter 5---->