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

[Saiyan Princess]

Andrew wanted so badly to cry because of what he had just done. He had stooped to an all time low. "Y-Yes, he's headed to Christine's d-dressing room." He admitted, feeling the tears as they now came. "How will we stop him? You aren't well at all, by any stretch of the imagination." He turned his head to see the four children that were still safe. "You cannot face him alone." The thought of betraying his blood made Andrew want to die right there, but his true family needed him. "What will you have me do?"

 

[Guile]

Erik let this information soak in. Christine's dressing room. He turned to head that way, then stopped. "I know I cannot, but I must." The memory of William, his eldest daughter's first love, came back to Erik. Oh, the pain his poor little girl had gone through at his death! Erik could not let it happen again. "You," he said, turning to face Andrew, his eyes never having looked more serious than this. "You will find Catherine. Take the children with you and, for the love of God, keep them safe and away from Raoul." Erik practically begged Andrew. "Go below - shut the gate and wait for my return. Forgive me, but I cannot have you fighting Raoul. I won't stand by and watch someone else die because of our quarrel. If anyone will die at his hands...it will be I." Erik had no intention of dying today, but the fear hung over him. There truly was no way he could fight Raoul by himself and win. But, what other chance was there? Perhaps Erik could trick him, outsmart him. He didn't know what he would do, but he wasn't going to put anyone else's life at stake - not anymore. "Oh...and if you see Christine...take her with you as well." Clearing his throat and looking down at the ground, Erik whispered one last request. "You will...you will tell them all that...that I love them, won't you?" It sounded like a dying man's last wish, and fear grew in Erik as he wondered if it really was.

 

[Saiyan Princess]

With everyone minus Christine, Catherine and Meg listening to this, Andrew nodded hesitantly. "Yes, Erik, but, please, do not let him win." Andrew pleaded. "He's not the same man he was when I was a boy. He hates everyone except Christine. Oh, God! He could never hate her! Not even after she left." Taking a deep breath, he brought one arm around Ali's shoulders and the other around Lilly's, guiding them to safety as the babies slept soundly. Catherine and Christine were just about finished with their scene together when Raoul decided that now he was going to meet in the dressing room. "She's gotten so much better. So very brainwashed, I might add."

 

[Guile]

"Thank you, Andrew. I will do what I can." Erik assured him softly before half running, half limping down the hall toward Christine's dressing room. He waited just outside the door for a few seconds, knowing Christine and Catherine were not inside, but knew the Vicomte would be there shortly. Then, he got an idea. He would wait in the shadows just outside the door. Surely the Vicomte would enter before the girls. Then, when they approached, Erik could tell them to go below with Andrew. Once he knew they were safe, and only then, Erik would enter and handle Raoul. So, backing up a few paces, Erik stood and waited in the shadows of the dimly-lit hall and waited.

 

[Saiyan Princess]

Raoul did indeed venture toward his destination and then, reaching it, he waited inside for the women. "Christine, I want to save you, dear." He told himself. "Please, come to me and you will no longer suffer any humiliation. I love you so much." He sat in an armchair, facing the door. The mother and daughter were unaware that anything was wrong as they talked and laughed about their lovely experience. "Absolutely amazing! Such a performance!" They kept going until they reached for the door. "Someone's here." Christine was looking at the shadows. "Show yourself."

 

[Guile]

At Christine's words, Erik stepped from the shadows. Before her or Catherine could say another word that would give him away, Erik put a finger to his lips to silence them. He waved them over a good ways away from the door before he explained himself. He couldn't have looked more frightened, more concerned. "Christine...it's Raoul." He knew the news might frighten either or both of them, but they had to know. "He's waiting in your dressing room right now. Andrew...Andrew told me about a plot. He said they plotted to take you all away after the performance." Turning to Catherine he assured his daughter. "He confessed to me, dear. Andrew wants no part in this." Erik spoke to both of them now. "I told him to take the children and go below. I asked him to keep the gate closed and only open it for you two and I. But..." this was the hardest part to tell them. "I won't be coming with you. Go below, please, and wait for me." If I return. He thought, fear coursing through him more than before. "I must go in and make sure he does not return here again." Erik indicated Christine's dressing room as he told them that he had to face Raoul. Alone.

 

[Saiyan Princess]

The women were both frightened indeed. "My brave husband, you will return to us." Christine hugged him tightly, forgetting about his pain. "Raoul won't stay for long. Not with me gone. Sooner or later, he'll give up." She started to cry as she walked away, with Catherine's arms around her. She was so confused. She loved both of them dearly, but there was something about Raoul that she found amazing. He was able to go out, Erik wasn't. He wasn't feared. Erik was. As she thought about this, they were home and Catherine was crying into Andrew's chest. "There there." He murmured. "He will come home."

 

[Guile]

Erik couldn't have cared less about the pain in his side. All he wanted was to hold Christine and never let her go. Yet, when she broke their hug and walked away with Catherine, Erik sensed something in his dear wife that broke his heart - confusion. Doubt. She was torn still, and Erik could tell. God, that thought made him loose all of his will to fight, but he still had to. Perhaps there was still a chance that she loved her angel and not the Vicomte. Erik shook his head, trying to clear it. He had to go in that room feeling as though Christine loved only him. For, if he went in without the strength that thought gave him, or if he lost it somewhere between going into the room and coming out again, he would surely die. Forcing himself to pretend he hadn't just sensed in Christine what he had, Erik threw open the door to her old dressing room and found Raoul sitting in a chair, waiting. "Ah, hello, my friend. It's been awhile, hasn't it?" He didn't want to stall, but what was he to do? Lunge onto the man? Erik would get himself killed if he did that.

 

[Saiyan Princess]

"Yes, very much so, sir." Something in Raoul was changing. It was as though the man was himself again, the same as his first journey through the catacombs. He wasn't expecting the Phantom of the Opera to come into the dressing room. "Free Christine. Where is she? Don't you have any pity? She can't stay! She needs a husband that can be out in the world with her!" Raoul didn't want to fight either. "Please, Christine needs light. I can give her that and more. Don't you understand?! She needs other people!" He wasn't going to degrade himself by getting on his knees to beg. "Please, sir, if you love her, you'll let her go!"

 

[Guile]

Erik wasn't expecting Raoul's sudden change in attitude. It was almost a little frightening. "Pity?" The word stung Erik's heart like a knife had cut him. "You beg for pity, but not for her. No, you beg for yourself! You're the one that wants the pity. You want me to have mercy on you, save you from this hell you're living - this aching pain in your heart every time you think about Christine and how she is not by your side. Well, guess what Vicomte? I feel it too! Christine is the only woman who has ever loved me! Everyone else has turned their back on me. She and the children are all I have in this world! You have family, you have friends. You have relations with people that I could never have! Christine loves me!" Which was not a lie, but he did not tell the whole truth. "Why won't you let her be? Let us be? We are happy together! We have a family together - a happy family at that. I take care of them, I do all I can to be a good husband and a good father. I don't see why I should ask them to leave and go with you. Right now you are asking me to choose between your happiness and mine." Erik had felt the tears coming for a long time now. They stung his eyes and his throat clenched up, making it hard to breathe. "I will die without her! Not that I expect you to care..." He put his hand to his aching head and took a moment to just catch his breath. "I give her what she asks for without complaint. I allow her time in the light, I do. I...I just can't bare to watch her leave me forever. She does love me. I know she does." His words had become a faint whisper.

 

[Saiyan Princess]

These words hurt Raoul. "If you keep her with you, I will take my own life." He told the truth. "For any way she chooses you have to win. Is that right?" His breathing was getting heavier with each breath he took. It was now increasingly difficult to stand. "Either she ends her days with you or you'll kill me, right?" He asked, feeling the sting now more than ever. "If she leaves, you'll become that madman again and then just take her back, right?" He still wasn't going to let go, but he was going to fight peacefully. "You're scared, Phantom. You know who her.choice would be."

 

[Guile]

"I did those things...I would do it again because I know of her love for me." Erik knew the Vicomte's words were true. He was scared. In fact, he was horrified. Erik would rather drop dead in this very moment rather than see Christine walk away with Raoul. "She does love me. If she hated me...if she absolutely despised the thought of being near me...maybe then I could let her go. But she doesn't." Oh, God, help me! The way she looks at me sometimes...the way she holds me, fusses over me when I'm hurt. That must mean she loves me, right? I know she still loves Raoul, but she still loves me too! I can't let her go! Erik started having flashes of all the things Christine had said and done to him - there were so many beautiful moments. She had to love him. But, why did she still love Raoul? Erik knew that he couldn't give her some things Raoul could, but he could give her love. Undying love. Isn't that what she wants? "You hurt our children. Alistair, Lilly...you beat them. You cannot lie to me, Vicomte. I know that you did! What woman would want to be with a man that hurt her children?" Then he added, a little more furiously. "I may be a monster shunned from society, but I've never stopped caring for them." Erik recalled Catherine's words of hate and the way she had punched him just hours ago. "No matter what they did...I never stopped loving them. And I never once hurt them intentionally."

 

[Saiyan Princess]

Raoul also remembered. "All of those were mistakes." He felt like crying now. "Phantom, this will be the last time we meet. I swear to you." He was crying now. "I'll never bother you or your family again, for when I get home, I will leave all of my possessions to Christine. I will then never see you or her again." He got up and walked past the Phantom, then down the stairs and out of his sight. "So long. Take care of her."

 

[Guile]

Erik was stunned. So stunned, in fact, that his tears stop coming from his eyes, though a few did continue on down his cheeks. At first, he didn't know what the Vicomte meant, then it hit him what he planned to do. Guilt consumed Erik, but what could he do? "Oh, God..." He ran his fingers through his hair and attempted to come up with a plan. However, the only thing his heart told him to do, through his jumbled mess of emotions, was to go to Christine. And, that's what he did. Stepping through the mirror, Erik made his way slowly home. He walked as if he were in a daze and, partially, he was. He was still shocked by how this had all gone down. However, the pain in his side that came with each step made it hard for Erik to become completely immersed in his thoughts. He waded through the water until, at long last, he stood at the gate. When he spoke, he even sounded as though he were lost in thought. The tears has left stains on his cheeks and it was obvious he had been crying. However, that was the only evidence of his contact with Raoul. "It's only me..." Erik managed to whisper, his mind still wandering, "you may open the gate..."

 

[Saiyan Princess]

Christine stood, excited that her husband was home. "Erik, oh, my darling Phantom of the Opera!" She splashed through the water just to knock him off his feet as Andrew opened the gate. The children followed suit and soon, they pinned the man down. "Oh, my darling, you took so long." She kissed, then noticed that his voice was somber. "Darling, what ails you? I promised your shoulder rub, right?"

 

[Guile]

Erik was so glad to see his lovely wife. In fact, she was so happy to see him that it almost hurt Erik. He knew he would have to tell her about the Vicomte. Oh, God! She'll want to go to him...beg him not to. She'll...she'll want to stay with him! Immediately, tears started flowing again, just at this thought that he was sure was true. "It's...Raoul. Oh, God..." Erik put his head in his hands and started sobbing. "I'm so sorry, Christine...I didn't want him to go and do something lie this." She'll leave me for sure... Though his sobs, Erik choked out what he had been trying to say. "He went home...he told me he was going to...he was going to kill himself." He sobbed harder, feeling he knew exactly what was coming. "I'm so sorry..." Erik just kept repeating this phrase, unable to bare what was inevitably going to come.

 

[Saiyan Princess]

Christine stood, almost immediately. "R-Raoul..." she got up. "Oh, God, Raoul!" She splashed her way back out and didn't look back. Married or not, she had to save her friend. "Raoul!" She watched his carriage pull away, then sank to her knees and cried. "Erik, tell me what to do! Please, I need your advice!" She couldn't just leave Raoul to die, but she couldn't leave the father of her children. She couldn't rob him of raising his son. "Erik, please!"

 

[Guile]

Erik felt his throat tighten, but the sobs continued to come as Christine stood and ran from him. This is it...God...this is how my life ends. For, Erik knew that without Christine, his life would be nothing. She was his life. He couldn't live without her. He understood her pain, but that didn't make his own any less horrible. Still, there was something inside Erik that told him he couldn't just let Christine go without knowing what was to become of her. So, he stood. "Catherine..." he addressed his daughter, tears still streaming down his face, "I will be back. Watch the children, please." He begged her to do this as he had already turned and started running off after Christine. Erik didn't know what he was expecting to find, but he sure wasn't expecting to see her on her knees crying. "Christine?" He ran to her side and knelt before her, wrapping his arms around her, not sure if she wanted him to or not anymore. "What are you...are you going to..." Erik didn't know how to get his words out. He was so confused and so hurt. God, how he loved her and wanted her to stay! But, oh how her tears killed him!

 

[Saiyan Princess]

She wasn't going to go. There was far too much in her relationship. She was married. "Oh, God!" She latched onto the man. "Oh, God, how I want to stay, but I want to help Raoul! Why am I being faced with this dilemma!" She never let go. "I just want freedom from this torture!" She kissed him. " Ease my suffering." She started to unbutton his shirt, but nothing more. "I know Raoul. He would never kill himself while I'm alive." She assured him through tears. "Oh, please make my suffering end!"

 

[Guile]

Her words couldn't have brought more joy, or more sorrow, to Erik's heart. She wanted to stay! Oh, but she was so upset! Erik ignored his pain, thinking only of his wife, and held tight to Christine. He let her start to unbutton his shirt and understood why she stopped, but wished she didn't have to. Erik kissed her back ever so passionately. And, when that kiss broke, he started to place more kisses all over her face, down her neck, on her shoulders even. He wanted to lavish her with kisses in the hopes that maybe it would help her pain cease, if only just a little. Through the kisses and his tears of joy, Erik spoke to her softly. "Oh, Christine I will. I will do whatever you ask of me." Then, he stood, once again ignoring the pain, and picked her up in his arms. It was a struggle, and a painful one at that, but Erik managed to do so. Unable to keep his lips off of her, Erik kissed Christine's lips the whole time he was carrying her back inside. At last, they came to her dressing room. He entered with her still in his arms and laid her carefully down on the bed. He did not have the strength to carry her home just yet, he had to let his body rest for a bit before he did. And so, Erik lay beside Christine and wrapped her in his arms. He only intended to lay there with her and comfort her, knowing that was what she wanted most. She wanted her pain to stop, and Erik hoped that just holding her tight would help do this, if only slightly.

 

[Saiyan Princess]

Christine knew that Erik was hurt and that now wasn't the time to try and push him further than that. "My love, I have no regrets." She assured him, frustration coursing through her at the thought of not being able to enjoy being a woman right now, because her husband was hurt. "How much longer must I wait, darling?" She questioned as she looked up. "We have so much to get done. Remember, your daughter's wedding is approaching." She wanted to give him something to focus on.

 

[Guile]

Erik could sense Christine's frustration and he instantly felt guilty. "I'm sorry, dear. I know you're frustrated." In all honesty, Erik was frustrated with himself. What man doesn't long to be with their wife, especially when she wants to be with him? "I am too." He chuckled at this. "It's not everyday that a man finds himself in the company of a woman who wants...well, you know what I mean." Erik winked at her playfully and held her tight, placing a kiss on her forehead. "I promise it won't be long. Give me just a few days." At the mention of Catherine's wedding Erik smiled. "Oh, yes, it is! How silly of me to forget." Erik hadn't forgotten, rather, it had simply slipped his mind.

 

[Saiyan Princess]

She smiled at his tease. "A few days or a few thousand years!" She laid her arms out flat against the bed, emphasizing how exhausted she truly was. "And, believe me, it won't be often that you have a woman like this. Just every day as long as I have you." She kissed his cheek. "Tell me you love me." She begged. "Tell me how much I mean to you though you tell me every day." Reaching up, she took his mask off. "You really must stop wearing this thing when around us. We love you just the way you are."

 

[Guile]

Erik chuckled at Christine - at how beautiful she was, especially when she was teasing him. He was taken aback only slightly when she reached up and took his mask off, though he let her do so without a fuss. "I know you all do I just...I can't get over the fact that you do." Propping himself up on his arm, Erik leaned over Christine and kissed her lips soft and tenderly, yet at the same time passionately. "Christine, I love you." His words were soft and he didn't need to be asked to say these things - he wanted to anyway. "You are my world and I could not live without you. You are the light that makes my days brighter." Closing his eyes, Erik kissed her again and then again. "Christine, you are my everything. You're all I ever wanted out of life. If I were to die right now I would die a happy man, the horrors of my past having been made right because of your love for me." Smiling at her he added, "but don't fret, my love. I refuse to die tonight. That would be rather selfish of me, as I've promised you at least one more night together that I, unfortunately, cannot give you tonight. Therefore, I must live." Erik sighed, jokingly, as though this were an inconvenience.

 

[Saiyan Princess]

"Oh, dear. Such a shame." She couldn't stop grinning. "And, I was so hoping to be able to breathe my own air." She held the damaged side of his skull. "Now, let me tell you how much you mean to me." She also propped herself up on an elbow, facing him. "Now, before I tell you what I have to say, let me tell you that I was supposed to reveal these at our wedding." She gave a dramatic pause. "You are what makes my world spin." She smiled. "You have blessed me with happiness and love, music and dance." She kissed him yet again. "You always will have my heart and I will always be yours and yours alone." Unable to keep herself back, she started kissing his neck. "Every day, I wake up with you next to me, and let me say this, it makes me so happy to have you with me every night, from dusk to dawn."