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Guard Me and Guide Me

Seven months had passed since that disastrous night, and Christine had thought these months with Raoul would be the happiest she had been in a long time. After about the third day she realized she had made the wrong decision and she felt empty. Her heart had been left with Erik and the only way to retrieve it would be to go back and be with him.

Christine had noticed almost immediately a change in Raoul after the night of Don Juan and the fire. He seemed to be short and cold with her daily and even colder at night. He drank all the time and was never home saying he had important business to tend to but always managing to come home completely intoxicated. Raoul also verbally assaulted Christine and always made her feel self conscious of herself in public and around him. He would always tell her what to wear, how to act, and scold her if she failed his expectations. Christine was silently breaking, but staying strong on the outside, never letting Raoul get the better of her. It had been so long since she had music in her life and every day wished things had been different. Little did she know things would be different soon.

It was a night just like any other when Raoul came home, drunk as usual, and stalked off to find Christine. Unaware of Raoul's return, Christine began to undress for bed, humming a soft tune in the process. She had barely slipped her dress off when Raoul came barging into the room reeking of whiskey and cheap cigars, with a crazed animalistic look in his blood shot eyes. She tried to reach for her dress but he was too quick for her and grabbed her tiny wrists.

" Raoul, let me go! What are you doing?" Christine whimpered. She didn't have to ask somewhere in the back of her mind she knew what he was there for and she was determined not to give it to him by any means necessary.

" What am I doing? Why Christine darling I'm taking what is rightfully mine. Come, give your fiancé a kiss!" He snarled and pushed her backwards making her fall on the bed.

" No, God no, don't do this Raoul. Let me go! No!" she screamed as he got on top of her and ripped off his shirt. She struggled beneath him but to no avail for he was too strong. She knew she had to wait for the most opportune moment to strike. He had lessened his grip on her hands as he kissed her roughly and she knew she had to act quickly. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a small vase on the night stand beside her and silently grabbed it without him even knowing. He had begun to deepen the kiss letting go of her hands completely and she struck him on the back of his head with all of her might. He swayed on top of her and fell to the side sprawled out on the top half of the bed.

Christine sprung out of the bed and out her bedroom door as fast as she could. She couldn't control herself and tears slid down her face dampening the top of her night gown. Down the stairs she flew to the front door flinging herself out side to the street. She ran down the quiet Paris streets to the one place she could ever feel safe, The Paris Opera House.

She bolted up the stairs, through the old charred doors and tripped into the foyer scraping her knees and face in the process. Her crying was soft and persistent never showing signs of letting up. Christine curled up into a ball on the ash coated floor crying for hours until no more tears came. She had cried herself to exhaustion and she just wanted to find somewhere to shield herself from the cold winter night. She slowly got up hoping to find a room that had not been damaged to sleep in and with that set off to the dressing rooms which were in the far corner of the opera house.

Not paying much attention to where her feet were taking her she ended up in front of the one place she had not hoped to end up. Her old dressing room door was rotted and burned in most places and seemed to send out a message of warning to anyone who might want to open it. She didn't know how long she stood there debating wether or not to go in er mind saying no but her heart screaming yes. Finally her heart won and she pushed the door open, jumping at the menacing groan it gave her in return. The site that followed her sent chills up and down her spine, her dressing room was in shambles and her mirror shattered revealing the dark passage to Erik's haven. She noticed one mirror still intact at her vanity and went to examine herself timidly. She gasped in horror at the girl staring back at her. Her chestnut curls were limp and hung around her face, her eyes were red and puffy from her crying, and she had soot everywhere. Her night gown was filthy from all the soot on the floor she had been laying on and her wrists were badly bruised from Raoul's grasp. While examining herself in the mirror she noticed out of the corner of her eye two gleaming white shapes in the chaos behind her.

Curious, Christine went and picked them up from the all the rubble. An almost inaudible gasp came from her lips when she realized just exactly what those pieces were. It was Erik's mask but shattered into two pieces. Horrible thoughts filled her mind, had the mob actually found him? She knew there was only one way to find out and went through the mirror running down to Erik's haven. Christine knew she could never forgive herself if something had happened to him and she quickened her pace. Even when she came to the lake it didn't stop her and she waded right through it to the other side. She saw that the portcullis was raised halfway but misjudged the height in the dim light and hit her head, but even that didn't stop her. So she started off again this time a little more dizzy then before and found the shore. Putting aside her pain she looked around and saw that everything was just as she had left it but no Erik. Frantically she searched the music room, his room, and the kitchen but he wasn't there. She knew there was one more room to search, and it was her own.

She quickly went to her room, white spots now clouding her vision, and heard his voice on the other side. Christine was becoming more excited with each passing minute which increased her dizziness and fatigue and she finally reached the door pushing it open.

"Erik it's I Chris . . . " Christine stopped mid sentence to take in the picture before her very eyes. Erik was there by Christine's bed his hand on a very pregnant Meg's stomach and his mouth open in shock. It was too much for Christine, all of her pain and dizziness she pushed aside came back and washed over her. Finally she succumbed to the darkness, plunging to meet the floor, but not before Erik caught her. The last thing she saw as she drifted out of consciousness was Erik's soothing face.