Music of the Night: The Phantom of the Opera Returns (Guile & Melody)

[Saiyan Princess]

William held onto his fiancee, as though, if he let go, she would disintegrate into thin air. "Bless you, sir. God is smiling down upon you." Christine wiped her tears of joy. "I am well. I just can't believe she was a little girl yesterday, laughing and chasing butterflies and now she's going to have her own little girl some day." She hid her face in his chest. "I'm losing my baby!" She whispered.

 

[Guile]

Erik held onto Christine as if he could take the pain away as long as he held her close. He kissed her forehead and listened to her talk about their daughter. "I know, my darling. I feel the same way." He pulled back, but did not let go of her, to look into her eyes. "We aren't loosing her." He promised. "We are simply going to share our place in her heart with William now." He smiled sincerely at his love and put his hand on her cheek, wiping away what tears were left.

 

[Saiyan Princess]

She choked on these tears. "I understand completely." Taking both of Eric's hands, she walked with him, blindly. She wasn't looking at where she was walking and walked right onto the stage. "I love it up here. It's a nice place to think." They had escaped the family and were alone once again. "Please, my sweet Eric, sing for me." She wanted him to be able to sing on the stage at least once. "I will gladly join in. Don't be scared, no one will harm you here." This was their chance and she wasn't about to let that slip.

 

[Guile]

Erik smiled at her, then looked out from where they stood on the stage. He was awestruck at the view and for a moment he wished he could preform on this stage with her in front of people. He knew, however, that it was impossible. Though, much like Christine, he wasn't about to let this moment - this opportunity to sing with his love where they both longed to be - slip away. He thought for a few moments about what he sound sing, then started up with a quiet, slower version of a song they both knew well. "Nighttime sharpens...heightens each sensation. Darkness stirs and wakes imagination." He looked out at the rows upon rows of seats and took a deep breath in, letting the moment surround him. He closed his eyes and imagined what it must be like to sing for an audience. "Silently the senses abandon their defenses..."

 

[Saiyan Princess]

She finally heard him sing at last and this angel's voice next to hers was enough to make anyone cry. "Slowly, gently, night unfurls its splendor...grasp it, sense it,...tremulous and tender. Turn your face away, from the garish light of day. Turn your thoughts away from cold, unfeeling light. And listen to the music of the night." She genuinely thought that her voice was an insult to his lullaby for her.

 

[Guile]

Erik opened his eyes at her voice joining in. He turned to her - pulled from his thoughts by her beautiful voice - and smiled. He went up and kissed her hand as she sang, his eyes never leaving hers, and when the verse was done he began to sing with her. "Close your eyes and surrender to your darkest dreams..." He walked behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist and held her body close to his as they continued, their voices growing louder. "Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before! Close your eyes, let your spirit start to soar...and you'll live as you've never lived before." As those notes hug in the air, he placed his lips on her neck softly before they continued the next verse.

 

[Saiyan Princess]

She stifled a soft moaning sound as his tender lips touched her shoulder. When she was told to close her eyes, she did. It was the most invigorating feeling ever. "Softly, deftly, music shall caress you.." her body went limp as she 'surrendered to her darkest dreams.' "Hear it, feel it, secretly possess you." She listened to herself singing. "Open up your mind, let your fantasies unwind, in this darkness that you know you cannot fight, the darkness of the music of the night." She let the music take her away from all reality at this moment. This beautiful, rare moment. My dearest teacher, protector and angel. Eric, Phantom of the Opera, if only you knew how true these words were.

 

[Guile]

Erik felt his heart beating faster as he ran his hands up and down her side and across her stomach. Her voice was beautiful, he knew, and he loved singing with her. Their voices together made him feel like nothing could ever part them. He sang the next verse soft and intimate - made the words he sang quiet so that she knew he was talking to her, even through song. "Let your mind start a journey through a strange, new world. Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before. Let your soul take you where you long to be. Only then...can you belong...to me." He kissed her cheek softly and closed his eyes, letting the moment surround them.

 

[Saiyan Princess]

As the words to the melody became true in all senses and respects, Christine literally felt herself being consumed into his web. "Floating, falling, sweet intoxication. Touch me...trust me.." she let him do as he pleased at that part, "savor each sensation. Let your dream begin, let your darker side give in...to the power...of the music that...I write..." she kissed him. "The power of the music of the night." She kissed him before he could sing the next part. She gave into his power at once.

 

[Guile]

Erik broke away from her kiss slowly and sang the last part in a soft whisper. "You alone can make my song take flight...help me make the music of the night." When he finished the song he placed his lips on hers and kissed her for many moments. Tears streamed down his face as he thought about how lucky he was to be holding her in his arms, kissing her - that she was even in his presence.

 

[Saiyan Princess]

She had tears in her eyes too, this was all too perfect. "I knew that you couldn't resist that song." She kissed his shoulder and felt weaker than normal. "That song is my absolute favorite, because I can sing it at any point and you're the only one I have ever and will ever sing it with, other than the children as their lullaby." She added.

 

[Guile]

Erik held on to her tightly, feeling just as weak at her touch. He laughed quietly. "Of course I couldn't - that's our song." He said smiling. Then he pulled back just enough to look in her eyes. "Did you really sing that song to the children?" He asked, the thought making him smile. How sweet it would be, he thought, if their children had grown up falling asleep to their parent's song.

 

[Saiyan Princess]

She stopped. That wasn't the only song that they fell asleep to. "They all know that song, and All I Ask Of You by heart. They can all sing those songs, quite well, I might add, because of their father. I'm only waiting for William to sing that with Catherine and their little ones now." She had an eagerness in her eyes and voice that was about as easy to fight as the 'darkness.'

 

[Guile]

Erik smiled at her excitement and kissed her lips softly. "That's wonderful, my dear. I'm glad our children know these songs." He chuckled a little bit - his happiness coming out of him in many different ways. He wondered, however, if they knew the story behind the songs. He couldn't bring himself to ask though - he was afraid of the answer that might come. He knew Catherine probably did by know, but the little ones? A part of him didn't want to hear that his children knew all about the way their father used to be.

 

[Saiyan Princess]

"Of course, Catherine knows all about it." Christine laid her head in her spot again. "The little dears, well, they don't know the full story, but some of it." She didn't really feel it necessary to burden young minds like that. "The way you were before is what attracted me to you so long ago." She blushed. "Now, it is still your music, but also your love of Catherine, Alistair and little Lillith."

 

[Guile]

Erik kept one arm wrapped around her and ran his fingers through her hair with his other hand. He didn't say so, but he was glad that the little ones didn't know too much about his old self. "That it is, dearest." He said in relevance to the song. When she confessed to being attracted to his old self - for the most part - he grinned. He bent his head down and whispered in her ear teasingly. "And when, Miss Daae, was it exactly that you found yourself in love with me?" He asked. He knew that he had loved her since he had first heard her voice - on the first night he saw her. However, her infatuation with him surely couldn't have started at the same time. Could it?

 

[Saiyan Princess]

"Let me just say that it killed me each time you would say that you had to leave me for that time. Or, of course, when my father would come to take me home and I would leave." She smiled still. "Thinking that you weren't a dream is what kept me going. Thinking that you would keep your promise and return the next time I was alone was also a factor." Her mind drifted back to their first conversation and the time her father passed on. "I was so scared." More tears streaked her cheeks. "I thought I was alone. Do you remember the first time you spoke to me? What you said to a little five year old? Or what you said when my father died?" She wanted to be sure that he did and that her memory wasn't wasted.

 

[Guile]

Erik smiled softly and held her close to him to comfort her. He remembered well the death of Monsieur Gustave Daae. It was heartbreaking, even for Erik as a boy. "I do, darling. I remember what I told you." His mind drifted back the death of Christine's father - that day that he passed and they carried his body from the House. He remembered seeing the girl for the first time - a beautiful little girl with tears streaming down her face. "I stayed in the shadows..." he recalled "but my heart was breaking - for you, for your father." He clarified. "I had never seen you before but I knew your father vaguely. A famous violinist he was, I remember overhearing from stage crew or some other such person. I couldn't bare to see tears running down your pretty face. The first thing I said was 'hush, now. Do not cry for him. He has not left you, just gone home to watch over you with the angels.' Then, I told you that you were not alone - that I would be here whenever you needed me." He wiped her tears away gently with his thumb and let his hand rest on her cheek.

 

[Saiyan Princess]

Christine heard a violin playing in her mind and saw this scene unfolding. It looked like Lilly, but it wasn't her at all. Christine Daae was in the Opera House one night with her father, Gustave Daae, sitting in a seat below in the audience, while he played on the stage. The melodic tones of the string instrument were heavenly to the young tot's ears. Raoul sat in the seat next to hers as they listened. Monsiuer Daae's face, was pale and he looked sickly, but he would never let this show, especially not in front of Christine. "Raoul, look!" She saw the lights dim. This was an exciting part for her, for it gave her the opportunity to listen instead of watch. When the lights came back on, everyone stared in awe at the body of Christine's papa, slumped over on stage. "NO! NO, PAPA! PAPA! ANSWER ME!" He would wake up, but his time would be short. The vision changed to the child in the arms of a nurse as the body was taken away from the bed. "PAPA!" She fought to get to him.

 

[Guile]

Erik's mind whirled as he was drug back in time to that moment of fate. He remembered the commotion in the House as he heard people running around and yelling Monsieur Daae's name. He had managed to slip into the room that Daae was in while the man lay silently in the bed alone. He had gone up to his bedside and looked at him lying there - his chest rising and falling slowly. He had barely any time in there alone before he was trapped - he heard footsteps coming towards the room and he hid in the shadows as best he could. He watched as a nurse and a little girl came in. They were there for only a few minutes before he heard the girl weeping. Erik had been confused - he hadn't known that the man had died at first. Then the nurse held Christine back as she screamed for her father as someone came in and carried his body away - then he knew. Erik withdrew from his memory and clung to Christine tightly. He couldn't stand her screams repeating in his mind - the wails of a distraught orphan that had just lost their last parent.

 

[Saiyan Princess]

Christine came back as well. She really wanted to skip to the part where she was alone that night, in her bed, but not sleeping. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought you back to that horrible memory." She truly felt guilty about all of this. "That should stay in the past." She remembered that part anyway. Flashing back to it, she saw the weeping, pale, frightened, thin child that was her over thirty years ago. "P-Papa..." she still whimpered. "Papa, I'm scared!"

 

[Guile]

Erik couldn't answer - as much as he hadn't wanted to he was drawn back into the memory of the soft sobs of a young Christine. He listened from behind the mirror of her room to her cry out for her father. That was when Erik could no longer stand the pain in his heart and he risked everything - his security, his anonymity - to speak to her and hopefully comfort her. "hush, now." He had said through her sobs. "Do not cry for him. He has not left you, just gone home to watch over you with the angels." At that moment he remembered thinking about his own parents. He wondered if they were dead - he never knew the answer to that question. "You are not alone, child." Then he had said something he never expected. "I will be here for you, whenever you need me. Just call for me and I will be there."

 

[Saiyan Princess]

The child searched the darkness of the room for this voice. "Are you the angel that my papa promised me?" She spoke softly, but was filled with hope at the same time. She would age a few years and would often speak to the disembodied voice. "Why won't you show me what you look like? People call me awkward and strange when they see me talking to myself...teacher." She smiled when she called him this. "They think I am mental."

 

[Guile]

Erik hadn't known what to say - he was in too deep to back out now, and he didn't want to disappoint the child. "Yes, child. I am just that - the angel of music." He paused when she asked him why he wouldn't show her what he looked like - a silence had surrounded them for a minute or so, but it seemed like forever before he spoke again. "I cannot show you what I look like now. It would be improper. I suppose I will just have to speak to you when there is no one around." He had said and accompanied it with a soft laughter that had surrounded the room. "I can teach you to sing." He said after a few moments. Perhaps, he had thought, giving her something to do - something to benefit her - would take her mind off of her newly deceased father, for the most part.

 

[Saiyan Princess]

Being so young, this Christine could easily be fooled in such a way. The teenager sounded so reassuring to her. "Yes, sir. I understand." At the mention of him teaching her to sing, she sat up straighter and nodded, not knowing if she could be seen. "I would love that very much." Christine giggled in excitement, and the vision faded to the present. "You were such an exquisite instructor." She said playfully, as though he wasn't any longer. "I would nearly jump for joy when I heard you for the first time each day. I was so eager to start my daily lesson straight away. We barely had time for good mornings." She let herself fall against him. "When you finally held me at what, eighteen? Twenty one? I'm not sure, but that was the moment that I knew that you were definitely him." She moved the hair from his face. "Turn your face away from the garish light of day, turn your thoughts away from cold unfeeling light...and listen to the music of ....the.... night." She sang that verse alone.