Let The Dream Descend

Fight for me

Christine awoke in her rather large bed and rubbed the sleep out of her pale, green eyes. She slowly looked around the dimly lit room, taking in her surroundings. The young soprano should have been used to it, she knew, but as her eyes adjusted to look around the charming room, she was reminded once again of how different it was compared to the rest of the house. Suddenly, a piece of paper caught her eye. Christine quickly got up and scurried across the room to retrieve the seemingly insignificant article. The young soprano looked down, and her stomach dropped as she recognized the handwriting as none other than the perfect manuscript of her childhood sweetheart.

Another one? She thought to herself. This is the third this week.

As the week progressed she had begun receiving more and more notes, requesting her presence at a gala or on a walk in the park or whatever Raoul felt up to that day. And of course, Christine had to go along with it to protect her angel. He liked to introduce her to his friends of high society, and always seemed to flaunt her before them as if she was some grand prize he had one. She was beginning to get sick of it, but if she ever spoke out, Raoul would strike her and tell her to be silent. Christine resorted to using makeup to cover up different bruises he had left on her body, and it tore her apart to keep lying to her angel. She snapped out of her thoughts and read the note.

Little Lotte,
Meet me in the garden behind the opera house at precisely 11 a.m.
Until then,

~Raoul

The young soprano groaned and crumbled up the paper in her delicate fist, angrily tossing the note onto the ground. She stormed into her closet in a less than pleasant mood, and put on a dress. Not caring about her appearance for her date with Raoul, she didn't bother to look glance at the dress' appearance.

Christine went back outside of the closet and hurriedly pinned half of her hair back, leaving the other half cascading down her back. When the young soprano looked in the mirror, she was disgusted by what she saw. She hated the fact that she looked fine on the outside, save for a few marks left by Raoul, when she was slowly falling to pieces on the inside. She sighed and applied makeup on her bruises, checking her appearance once more before walking out into the hallway. Christine took a deep breath and went into the music room where she found Erik, who was angrily pounding on the weary keys of his beat up organ.

"Erik?" She called hesitantly, not sure if she should disturb him or not.

He turned around, his frustrated demeanor instantly changing once he saw his Christine standing in the doorway. He relaxed, and a slight smile creeped onto his masked face as he looked over Christine. "Yes, my dear?" He asked softly.

"I-um, I'm going to go out for a little bit," Christine said timidly, messing with her hands as she spoke. She hated lying to her angel, she really did, but she didn't know what else to do.

Erik sighed softly, looking down at the keys of his organ in silent contemplation. After a moment of tense quietude, he spoke once more, "Again? This is the third time you have gone out this week...I am starting to feel like you do not wish to be here."

Christine shook her head vigorously, stepping towards Erik to place a gentle hand to his shoulder, "Of course not, angel."

The masked man tensed, but relaxed slightly as he reached up to take hold of her hand, his thumb grazing over the flesh gently. "Where are you going?" He queried softly, looking up at her with gleaming golden eyes.

"I'm...going to see Meg," she mumbled, avoiding his gaze by leaning down and gently pressing a kiss to his forehead.

He nodded, not fully convinced that she was telling the truth. "Alright... Do you know when you will be back?" He asked, bringing her hand to his lips to press a soft kiss to her tender skin.