A Love Already Blossomed

Chapter 16

"Hello," said a cold voice, one colder than the snow floating around them. It pierced the night roughly like a large, newly sharpened sword cutting through black velvet. It sent chills up Y/N's arms.

"Hello, Philippe," she said, her heart dropping. "I didn't expect to see you here." A large ball was forming in her throat and she had to keep her eyes from filling with tears of sadness. Where was Erik? She searched frantically around the roof, her eyes not once meeting Philippe's cold ones.

Philippe beamed, showing his horribly managed teeth. God, even Erik had better teeth and he lived underneath the opera house! "That was sort of the point," he stated, still smiling as if his was the best idea ever created. "I just saw you walking in here one day and I thought you might be here. Do you just come here for fun?"

"Ehm..."

Philippe laughed his horrible, snorting, hiccuping laugh. "No, it's alright. I don't need you to answer that. This isn't an interrogation."

Y/N laughed a fake, airy laugh. "Oh."

"God, I love it when you laugh."

Y/N stared at him blankly, beads of sweat forming at her hairline. Philippe smiled and sang softly. His voice surprised Y/N. It was somewhat decent, but nowhere as beautiful and amazing as Erik's.

"Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime. Let me lead you from your solitude. Say you need me with you, here, beside you. Anywhere you go I am going to go. Y/N, that's all I ask of you," he sang.

Y/N stayed silent while he pulled a box out of his pocket. Her composed face slipped into a face of dread and disgust. He opened the box to reveal an overly large, shiny ring which had two rows of diamonds and a ruby in the middle that formed a circle. Next to the diamonds on either side were white, hazy jewels and next to those were rectangular sapphires. (The picture of the ring is above.)

"Marry me," Philippe said with a hopeful, dominant twinkle in his eyes.

A silence hung in the air, a silence in which Y/N said nothing and did nothing except for breath and show the worry, disgust, and dread on her face. Philippe broke this silence by sliding the ring onto her left ring finger and putting the box back into his pocket.

"Philippe wai-" Y/N was cut off by Philippe's lips pressing onto hers. She stiffened, widened her eyes and let out a sound of surprise, a very noticeable 'mmph'. She put her hands on his chest, trying to push him away, but to no avail. He took this as a sign to deepen the kiss, which Y/N deeply hated, so she let out squeals and more sounds of surprise, none of which were heard by Erik, who was softly sobbing behind the gargoyle.

It didn't take long for Philippe to pull away and grab Y/N's hand, dragging her away. She protested loudly against this, but Philippe didn't seem to care or he just didn't hear, because he kept pulling Y/N along with him down the stairs and to the backstage of the opera house.

When they left, Erik let his sobs out of his mouth, sounding like some sort of wounded animal. He gripped the rose which he brought for Y/N, a rose with a black ribbon tied around it with a shimmering ring in the ribbon. The ring had a dark garnet in the middle and two pearls on top of it. Around the garnet, gold was formed to curl elegantly around the jewel. The words 'My Angel' were engraved in the gold in graceful script. (Again, the picture of the ring is above.) On the rose was a piece of paper tied on the stem with string. The paper was written on in black ink and in Erik's beautiful handwriting. It said: 'Will you be my Angel of Music?' (His writing is about the same as the text I used to label Erik's ring in the picture.)

Erik clutched the rose firmly in his grasp as he imagined Y/N married to another man. He imagined a life without her, without her love, without her presence. A life without her was not a life at all. Rather, Erik's life would be a haze, a nightmare which he could never fully escape. His life would be nothing without her. He would be nothing without her.

Tears violently rolled down Erik's cheeks as he dropped down onto his knees and onto the snow-covered roof on which he was standing. He sobbed harshly, holding the delicate flower to his face.

'How could I possibly think that she would marry me?' he asked himself. 'I'm a monster, a-a lifeless, horrible being who... who doesn't deserve my lov-'

His thoughts were interrupted by a heavy sob that made his body fall forward in despair.

'I loved her,' he thought. 'I loved her...'

Rage pooled in the very bottom of Erik's heart, spreading like honey until it covered every inch of it and was racing in his veins. Erik breathed quickly in and out, grabbing a harder hold on the rose, this time clutching its thick bundle of petals. He looked up to the sky, as if asking God, or whoever was up there, why it had to be him every time.

Erik was now breathing quicker through his mouth, his eyes slightly rolling back and closing due to the anger bubbling deep inside him. He let rage envelope his body and let himself crush the rose under his steel grip, causing four petals to fall to the ground. He immediately stopped. He could not let himself do this. He could not let rage control his body again, he wouldn't. Not again.

Erik held the rose tenderly as if to apologise and cried, cried until he felt as if his eyes went dry.

'I love her,' Erik thought. 'If I truly love her, I will let her love whomever she wants to, as long as she's happy. I don't care as long as she always wears that gleaming smile which breaks the darkness of my heart, which brightens my day every day, which is the reason my cold, dismal heart is still beating. I love her. I will tell her when the time is right, but for now, all I want to do is to see that smile and to see those eyes which made me fall more deeply in love with her.'

Erik got up from his spot on the ground, wiped his tears from his face and from his now shining brilliant blue-green eyes and descended into his lair, his dark and cold lair, which was only to be lit by the love of his life, his pupil (student), his Angel, Y/N.

~

A/N: It's been so long! Sorry this chapter was sad. There will be happier ones (maybe one... I'm not telling) to come. I hope you liked this chapter and thanks for all of the views! Until the next chapter.