This is my first PotO fan fiction..so lets just say I am slightly new at this. I greatly would appreciate some reviews, and I realize I need to work slightly more on description. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know!

This fanfiction is my origional work...but all of the characters are (c) to Gastone Leroux

Parts of the plot are (c) to both Gastone Leroux, and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Musical/Movie\

"Do not tempt destiny! Why do you search my soul for something I would hide as a sin?"

Let the Opera Begin...

Christine screamed, and clutched onto Erik's frame as they plunged down through the center of the stage.

"Christine!" Raoul, who had already climbed down from his theatre box, leapt to the stage. "Christine!" He turned, hearing the screams and cries of the audience behind him, to find that the chandelier was coming down upon him.

"Oh my God!"

"Its over!"

"We are ruined!"

Cries of panic, and fright swept through the auditorium, and the opera house quickly began to empty of its occupants. Flames licked away at the polished wood and satin seats, as well as the Phantom's own opera music.

Below the inferno, the Phantom roughly dragged Christine through the caverns. With a barely controlled rage, he ushered her into the boat and began to row furiously.

"Welcome to my Hell!" he spat as she crouched against the bottom of the boat in fear. "look around you, and learn where you will be chained as I have been imprisoned to this God-forsaken place."

They approached the shore, and Christine gave a cry of pain as he lifted her without his usual tenderness from the vessel. When he set her down beside a cavern wall she back up to it, and cowered as his raving ensued.

"I was abandoned! I was shunned and shamed! I am a loathsome hated creature Christine! Why!" he practically shook her, then his hands went limp on her shoulders, as he nearly fell for support, and barely whispered. "Why?"

Christine, who had been staring defiantly, breathed uneasily as Erik shook with sadness, rage, and regret. She stood as if she were made of marble, until his hand moved to the mannequin, and handed her the white garment. The look in his eyes got the point across, and she accepted the dress from him nervously before dashing off to change.

"Oh Christine…" Erik shook his head, and sat down on a protruding rock from the cave's floor. He fingered the engagement ring that Raoul had offered her sadly, hoping that there was a chance she would accept it willingly. He could not let her go again.

"Have you finally satisfied your bloodlust?" she demanded, having regained her courage, "Do you intend to keep me here for your further satisfaction?" He smiled as he observed her in her wedding dress...but it quickly faded at her words.

"The world created me for what I am, I only fight to survive." He moved towards her with grace and agility of a cat. She stared back trying to show courage, but was frightened beyond words as he stroked her cheek tenderly. He bowed is head as she turned hers from him.

"Oh Christine! I have never known love from a woman…even my own mother rejected me. She gave me my first mask, and it was she who sent me away…"

He placed the ring into her palm, proposing peacefully. She looked down, away from him, and felt a veil placed upon her head. After a moment of silence followed she answered him in a whisper.

"Your face, my poor Erik, is not your imperfection. It is your soul that needs to be saved."

She uncovered a mirror, and the two stood in silence for a minute, almost able to hear the cracking of the flame above them. Christine, fatigued sat down, and cupped her palms to observe the ring. When she looked up, she found Erik above her.

He knelt down. "Please Christine…" he whispered. "I love you." He nearly choked on the words, afraid of her answer, of what she would say.

Christine smiled sadly, tears flowing forth from her eyes. "I-I don't know Erik." She swallowed, as his expression turned withdrawn. "I can't…"

"You did for Raoul." He said coolly, pretending her answer had not crushed him as it had.

Christine bit her lip in attempt to stifle her a wave of oncoming tears. Where was Raoul? She shuddered, remembering him call to her on the stage before the chandelier had collapsed.

"Raoul!" she cried, realizing what could have possibly been his fate. Her entire body shook as she sobbed.

Erik felt guilt creep over him as Christine mourned for her lover. As much as he detested that boy, he could not help but feel sympathy for weeping Christine and rue the death of Raoul. Erik sat beside her, and tenderly encircled Christine's trembling frame, coddling her, and stoking her hair as though she were still a child. Christine accepted his embrace, taking comfort in the very arms of the man who had brought on her pain.

"Shhh…" he gently stroked her neck and back, as she grieved in the dull candlelight of Erik's home beneath the Opera house.

After a time, he brought fingers under her chin, and turned her tear-stained face toward him. His heart nearly stopped upon seeing her in such a state, and he could not bear her sadness. His eyes quickly welled with tears for her.

"I love you Christine." He sighed as he brushed a loose mahogany curl from her face, and grazed his fingers over her soft, pale cheek as though she were a fragile ornament, not really meant for his hands. She opened her eyes slowly, and stared at him sadly with a weak smile.

With utmost care and patience, Erik planted a kiss in her forehead, and then looked back to Christine. He was surprised and delighted to find she had not withdrawn from him. Hesitantly he kissed her again, this time lightly brushing his lips against her left cheek.

Christine did not speak, only looked down to the floor of the cavern.