Erik paced around his dimly lit lair, his fingers running through his hair with a nervous agitation. Christine had fallen asleep hours ago in his bed, and that's where he had left her. He wanted to be close to her, but he was confused as to why she wanted the same thing.
I have caused my precious angel so much pain... He thought to himself. She has been hurt so much because of me, yet she still seeks comfort by lying in my arms...
Erik let out a frustrated groan and walked into his music room. What he saw shocked him; the glass shards were gone, the broken roses put on display, and his music all organized back onto his music stand at the organ. Erik was momentarily confused, when he suddenly realized that Christine must have cleaned it all up the day before...before Raoul made his unwanted visit. The masked man blinked in shock, and suddenly slammed his fists down on a small table that was residing inside of the music room. "After all her kindness, I almost showed up too late! She could have been mutilated by that damned fop!" Erik mumbled angrily under his breath. He sharply turned around looked down at a drawer in his desk.
I promised I wouldn't do this again... Not while she's here... Well, maybe one time wouldn't hurt... I've caused her so much pain... I need to forget what I've done to her for a few blissful moments...
Erik sighed and slowly slid open the drawer, pulling out an IV of morphine. He bit his lip and stuck the needle in his arm, injecting the liquid into his veins and letting it course through him.
He closed his eyes and let himself relax as the morphine flowed through him.
"Angel?" A small voice whimpered. Erik's eyes quickly snapped open and turned around to meet the teary eyed gaze of Christine. "Angel... What are you doing?" She said, her voice barely above a whisper. Erik quickly took the needle out of his arm and threw it into his drawer, a slightly panicked expression on his face.
"I-I... I thought you were asleep..." He managed to stutter, but looked away when he saw the sadness in his Christine's eyes.
"I was, but I awoke to found you gone so I assumed that you would've been in here, playing music," the young soprano mumbled, trying not to sound angry.
"Well, maybe you shouldn't have assumed," Erik snapped.
Christine was taken aback by his change in tone, and she frowned slightly as she started to approach the masked man. "Erik... Why are you doing this?... How didn't I know?" She whispered, her emerald eyes starting to fill back up with tears.
"Because I haven't done it since you've gotten here," he quipped. "I'm fine, don't worry."
"Angel... You aren't fine..." She replied, her lip starting to quiver.
Erik took a deep breath and looked away, "I don't need a lecture, Christine. I'm perfectly capable of making my own decisions about what I put into my body."
"You can't continue this... Erik, you have to stop..." She said gently, taking his rather large hands in her tiny ones. Erik quickly snatched back his hands and looked over at her, his golden orbs clouding over in anger.
"Who do you think you are to give me orders? I will not be told what I can and cannot do," he snarled, angrily.
"Erik... Please... I can't just stand by and watch you destroy yourself..." She whispered, tears starting to make their way down her rosy cheeks.
Erik at first had the urge to reach up and dry the tears off of her face but he resisted it. He absolutely detested being told what to do and he wasn't going to sit there and let her reprimand him as if he were a child. "I already told you, I'm fine," he said firmly, but his voice had lost the edge that it originally had and it softened slightly as he watched his angel cry. Her cheeks were flushed, and her green eyes twinkled with sadness as tears flowed freely down her face.
"A-angel..." She whimpered. Christine felt her knees buckling, and she slowly slid down onto the floor, next to the piano bench where Erik was sitting. The masked man gasped lightly when the young soprano placed her head in his lap as she cried. "Please... D-Don't do this...I-I love you..." She sobbed.
"Christine..." Erik whispered, his features softening. She slowly looked up at him and clutched his hands in hers.
"Erik, please..." The young soprano whimpered. She pulled his hands closer to her and pressed a soft kiss to both of them. "Please, Erik... I need you. I can't stand by and watch you destroy yourself," Christine said softly.
She needs me? Erik thought to himself. She really needs me?
"I-I'm sorry..." he said quietly, his voice cracking slightly as he spoke. Christine gave him a sad smile and wrapped her arms around Erik, pulling him into her warm embrace.
"Please... Try to stop this... I can't stand to see you like this..." she whispered in his ear as she continued to hug him tightly. Erik sighed and nodded, instinctively pulling Christine closer against his body for comfort.
"I'll try..." he whispered, knowing that he couldn't deny her anything.
Only for her... He thought to himself. I'm only doing this for her. She's the only thing that matters, and she can't be stuck with me if I'm always using morphine to make my problems go away...
"Thank you so much," Christine mumbled sincerely, resting her head on his shoulder. Erik sighed softly and gently rubbed her back, wishing he could keep her in his arms forever. "We probably should talk... Let's go sit down, we'd be much more comfortable there," she said softly.
He nodded hesitantly, and Christine slowly detached from him, much to Erik's displeasure. They stood up and Erik slowly took one of Christine's hands in his own. He looked down at her to make sure that she was okay with it but she wasn't looking at him. Even though they had shared physical contact before, Erik was still extremely cautious, since Christine was so innocent and modest. He always wanted to make sure that what he was doing wasn't making her uncomfortable. The only thing she was doing was looking down at their hands with a small smile on her face.
The two of them walked into the living room and plopped down on the cozy sofa in the center of the room. Christine sighed softly and leaned over, letting her head rest on Erik's shoulder. "May I ask you something?" She softly queried.
Erik nodded, "Of course, my dear."
Christine slowly sat up, taking her head off of Erik's shoulder so that she could see him. "Erik..." She whispered, taking his hands in hers again. "Why do you do this to yourself, my love?" she asked softly. Erik smiled slightly as she called him 'my love', but his smile quickly faded as he realized that she was expecting him to answer her question.
"I've had a really rough past... And sometimes it's easier to let myself succumb to the morphine, then to have to deal with anymore pain..." Erik sighed, knowing that they were about to have a conversation that Erik had wished to avoid for as long as humanly possible.
"What pain? What has recently that would want to cause you to do that to yourself? Have I done something?" she asked, her eyes filled with a certain sadness that made Erik want to fall to his knees and beg her to never give him that look again. Watching his angel in so much pain, especially over him, was complete agony to Erik.
Erik slowly reached out to touch Christine's cheek, gently stroking the soft flesh with the pad of his thumb. "My dear... I hate watching you get hurt... Whether it's physically, by the insolent fop... Or if it's mentally, because of something stupid that I have done or said. It hurts me to watch you and I just needed to escape that pain... I can't bare the pain of my past, in addition to the hurt that I'm causing you..." He whispered, still gently stroking her cheek.
"Tell me about your past, angel... Why was it so horrible?" She whispered, placing her hand on the cheek that wasn't covered by a mask.
He sighed softly. "It all starts with why I wear the mask... I'm sure that you've been curious about that," he started.
Christine nodded her head slightly. "Yes, I have been rather curious about that..." She mumbled nervously.
"It all started when I was younger and I was born with a terrible deformity..." He started.
"Get up, you worthless freak!" Madeline Destler screamed at a five year old Erik, who was weeping on the floor of their abode.
"M-mother, please..." Erik begged, knowing what was about to happen.
She kneeled down next to Erik, where she proceeded to mercilessly beat him. Madeline snatched Erik up by his hair and pulled him to her bedroom. She yanked the mask off his face carelessly, causing Erik a great deal of pain as she did so. She turned him around so he was facing the mirror.
"Look at yourself! Look at how much of a hideous monster you are!" She screamed at him. "Why can't you be beautiful like your siblings?"
Erik let out a horrified shriek as he examined his reflection. He quickly turned around and tried to bury his face into his mother's dress so he wouldn't have to look anymore, but she pulled him off of her and shoved him to the ground.
"You don't even deserve the life you have! You are a good for nothing beast!" She shouted as she stormed out of the room.
Erik lied on the floor, his golden eyes producing countless amounts of tears. "Erik is sorry! Erik is so sorry!" He whispered, even though his mother couldn't hear him.
Later that same night, Erik snuck out of his house. He was sick of his mother and the current abuse that he had to deal with. He wondered around the dark streets until suddenly, a pair of rough hands grabbed him. "Oh, what a sick little freak you are..." He manically whispered in Erik's ear.
"No! Please, let me go!" Erik screamed as he tried to break free of the strong man's grasp.
The man chuckled madly. "I don't think so... You'll be the most prized possession in my freak show... People will come from all over to see you!" He said as he carried Erik back to the traveling circus, where he would spend the next eight years of his life, getting beaten and tortured.
"Then, one day, Madame Giry happened to find me and she rescued me. I've been living here ever since," he mumbled.
Erik looked up at Christine who had tears in her eyes. "Oh, angel..." She whispered. She flung her arms around his neck and buried her face into his chest. "That's absolutely horrible! You didn't deserve any of that..." She whispered into his chest.
Erik sighed and gently played with a few of Christine's curls. "Now you see why I wear the mask..." He said softly.
"Erik... You don't have to be scared that I'll judge you..." She whispered. She tentatively reached towards his mask. "May I... May I see it?" She asked softly.
Erik shook his head. "Christine, I don't think you understand what you are asking for here," he said softly.
"Angel... If you think my feelings towards you will change because of something like this, then you are sorely mistaken, my love," she said softly, placing her hand on his unmasked cheek.
"Christine... Please, I don't want to lose you... If you see my face then you will recoil in fear and leave me... I can't watch you leave," he mumbled, looking down.
"Angel, we're to be married, I promise that nothing will ever turn me away from you..." She said softly, tilting his face back up so that he was looking up at her.
"Christine, no. It's not happening. I can't watch you leave me!" He said, starting to feel uncomfortable.
"Erik, I love you more than anything. Please, trust my love. Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, will ever make me recoil in horror from you. Angel, I can't live without you... Your face won't be an issue for me," she said reassuringly, a small, comforting smile on her face as she caressed Erik's cheek. "It'll be okay... I promise."
Erik sighed softly. "I love you, Christine," he said softly, wanting her to know it just incase she would no longer allow him to be with her any longer. "You can remove my mask, if you must," he said quietly, taking her small hands in his and clutching them tightly, growing even more nervous as the seconds passed. "You may leave once you see my face... But please... Don't scream. I don't think that I could live another day on this earth if you screamed."
"I won't, I promise..." She whispered to him, pressing a soft kiss to his forehead.
Erik bowed his head and closed his eyes, waiting for her to take his mask off of his face and scream in repulsion, the same way that everyone else had done once they looked at his odious face.
Christine took a shaky breath and placed her hand on the cool piece of porcelain. She sighed and slowly pulled the mask off of him, revealing his horribly disfigured face. She slowly examined his face. She had to admit, it was slightly frightening at first glance and it was much worse than she had imagined, but it wasn't as bad as he probably thought it was.
"Erik, you can open your eyes... I'm still here and I'm not going anywhere..." She said in a soothing tone of voice. "Does it hurt?" She asked softly. Erik slowly shook his head, his eyes still tightly shut. Christine nodded and took his face in her delicate hands. She leaned up and started to place soft kisses to his twisted flesh.
Erik gasped at the sudden contact and his eyes popped open. Christine continued to place soft kisses to his face, pressing her lips to every single divot and crevice on his face. "Erik, it's okay..." She whispered to him. Erik slowly looked up at her, the same sadness in his eyes that would reside there if he was a small child who had just been reprimanded.
"You truly are an angel, my Christine," he mumbled to her. A small smile formed on her face as she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling her into her warm embrace. After a few moments, the two broke apart. Erik sighed softly and located his mask, putting it back on his face.
"Angel... You don't have to wear it anymore. It doesn't bother me..." She said with a small smile.
Erik nodded. "I know... I just need to get used to the idea of not having to wear it..."
Christine gave him an understanding smile and nodded her head. "Alright, angel... Take as long as you need."
Erik smiled at her. "Thank you..."
Christine smiled and nodded her head. "Anything for you, my angel..."