Phantom Child

11. Do you trust me?

While writing about "All I ask of you" I was listening to "Why does she love me?". Quite ironic, don't you think?

The Phantom vanished, leaving me in complete shock. Joseph Bouquet was dead, the audience was panicking and the managers tried to calm everybody down. Though the opera house was filled by screams, only Erik's evil laugh was ringing in my ears. I should have known something like this would happen. I should have known it all along. Erik wasn't a monster, but he had a dark side of a killer. And that scared me.

Dazed, I tried to catch my breath and process everything. When I came back to my senses, I decided, that I had to find Erik. If he was about to go around causing more chaos, then he needed to be stopped. I stormed out, not even knowing where I'm going. A feeling in my heart led me onto the rooftop of the building. I didn't find the Phantom there; I found Christine. And not only her. Raoul, the Vicomte de Changy, was also there with her.

I hid in the shadow using Erik's trick with the cape - now that I owned one - and watched. In Christine's eyes I catched a glimpse of fear. If there was one emotion that she associated with the Phantom it was fright. It wasn't surprising for me at all, considering the events she had experienced.

Raoul, in attempt to calm her down, said:

"There is no Phantom of the Opera!"

I swear, I wanted to come out and show him how real he was, and how much of a threat he was to everyone. Raoul had once ignored him and the price was exorbitant. But Christine's answer kept me in my place:

"Raoul I've been there!
To his world of unending night
To a world where the daylight dissolves into darkness, darkness"

She clinged onto his shoulders with a begging look in her eyes and he pulled her closer, so she could lean on his chest. Christine almost cried:

"Raoul, I've seen him
Can I ever forget that sight
Can I ever escape from that face so distorted, deformed
It was hardly a face in that darkness, darkness"

She repeated as Raoul rocked her back and forth in his embrace. The comforting seemed to work as Christine suddenly stopped weeping and was just staying in the same position in Raoul's arms. Suddenly shee let go off him.

"But his voice held my spirit with a strange sweet sound
In the night there was music in my mind"

It was the melody of "Music of the Night", the song that Erik had composed for her. Whether she wanted it or not it had been engraved in her mind. The Phantom was haunting her thoughts no matter what she was doing. As much as she was scared, she couldn't free herself from the feeling, that his music had filled her with.

"And through music my soul began to soar"

The sweet sound of her voice once again enchanted the souls of everybody on the rooftop.

"And I heard as I've never heard before"

Christine added sadly and her voice overlayed with Raoul's:

"What you saw was a dream and nothing more."

I wished I could go there and show him that this is not a dream. It was a nightmare if anything; one that will last forever. Raoul was not aware of what the Phantom could do. He seemed to stay blind to the fact that what had happened down in the opera house merely minutes ago was not just a series of unfortunate accidents.

"Yet in his eyes all the sadness of the world
Those pleading eyes that both threatened and adored."

And yet, Christine showed a feeling for Erik. I didn't think she would. But a tear shed by her was speaking volumes.