A/N – I started re-writing this phic a few days ago. I have combined some of the first chapters to make them longer, and have added some more depth to them. I am now going to attempt to take this story further. Thank you everyone for all your support to date.

Chapter 8 - No Going Back Now

The following morning when I awoke, I initially revelled in those first few seconds of the new day, when you still feel the innocent bliss of sleep, and when you cannot recall all of the previous day's madness. Then I remembered. I am betrothed to Erik. We are to be married. I shuddered at the thought.

I was immensely regretting my decision yesterday, and yet, I had no other choice. Perhaps I can convince Erik to let me out of my promise to him? I wondered. If he really loves me, surely he will let me go once he sees how upset I am. Yes, that will be my plan.

To that end, I turned over and tried to go back to sleep, but it was completely useless. After several hours of lying in bed, simply staring at the ceiling and alternating between crying at my fate and feeling a glimmer of hope, there was a knock at the door.

"Christine, are you awake?" Came Erik's whispered voice from behind the door. I did not answer him.

"Christine?" He called again, this time slightly louder. I still did not answer him, and he seemed to disappear for some time, as I did not hear from him. I had dozed off again, when there was a louder, more insistent knock at the door.

"Christine! I am worried. Please answer me!" Came Erik's frantic voice. I did not understand why he did not just come through the door. Even though I had locked it the previous night, he certainly had a key, because he had used it to lock me in the night before.

Still I refused to answer. Five minutes later, I heard the key turning in the lock, and Erik bounded through the door.

"Christine, are you well?" He demanded, having seen that I was indeed alive, and was in fact staring at the wall, my breathing normal. I still did not answer me. Erik grew more agitated by the second.

"Why do you not speak to me?" He insisted. I continued to stare at the wall. I was not visibly upset, I did not cry or plead or beg. Instead, I said nothing. This seemed to be the one thing which upset and angered Erik the most.

"How dare you ignore me!" He hollered at me. He came across to the bed, put one knee upon the bed itself, and proceeded to shake me by the shoulders. Still, I said nothing! His incessant shaking was jarring my bones, and weakening my resolve, and yet still I managed to say nothing to him. He threw me back against the pillows and raked a hand through his hair.

"What sort of childish game are you playing, dear?" He asked, his voice icy. I simply turned around so that I was facing the other wall and away from him. He stalked out of the room and slammed the door, and then to my horror, he locked the door from the outside! I was trapped inside that prison of a bedroom again! I couldn't help myself, for the thought of being trapped again simply was my undoing. I ran to the door.

"No, Erik, please! Unlock the door! I will talk to you! Please, Erik, please!" I screamed and pleaded. The first tears had now begun for the day.

Several moments later, the key turned in the door, and it opened, revealing a very livid Erik. We stared at each other for several moment, after which time he simply walked away. There was nothing else for me to do except cry, which I did until I was exhausted. I collapsed on the bed again and dozed.

When I awoke, I did not know how much time had passed, but I could smell something delicious being cooked within the little house. It never ceased to amaze me how well Erik could care for himself down here in this dungeon. He had every comfort available to him down here, except of course for daylight.

After my extended sleep and my outburst earlier, I felt extraordinarily exhausted. I decided to bathe, and spent a great deal of time relaxing in the oversized tub. When I emerged, I dressed and fixed my hair. I then went into the small living room. Erik appeared from the kitchen and informed me that lunch was ready. He walked over to me and offered me his arm in order to escort me to the table. I refused, and walked over to the table myself. I heard his soft sigh behind me, and did not know whether it was a sigh of annoyance or of sadness.

I found that I was ravenous, but I did not want to eat, as I wished to continue making Erik feel guilty for keeping me down here in the possibility that he might let me go. To that end, I pushed my food around for five minutes or so. "Is there something wrong with the food?" Erik enquired, for he had of course been quietly observing me during that time.

I put down my fork. "I am not hungry". I declared. Right at that moment, my deceptive stomach let out a wild growl to contradict me. Erik's eyes flashed beneath the mask, and I did not know whether he was amused or furious. I decided that I had definitely been caught out in a lie, so there was nothing for it but to eat the food. Following the meal, Erik soundlessly brought me a cup of strong tea, which I drank gratefully. It soothed the dull ache in my head.

I was brought back to reality by Erik's sharp words. "I need to make the preparations for our wedding. I wish for us to be married as quickly as possible, perhaps in the next 5 days. I will only be gone for approximately one or two hours. Is there anything that you require from above?" He asked me. I nodded, my heart sinking to the bottom of my chest at the thought of our wedding being organised.

"Yes, please Erik. My freedom." I said simply. Erik stared at me for several seconds.

"My dear, you are the one who chose your fate. I gave you the opportunity to go along with your boy, but instead you chose to stay with me. I am afraid that now I simply cannot allow you to be released from that obligation." He informed me. I burst into tears.

"But, Erik…..I….you….you forced me to stay! You said that you would kill us all if I did not stay with you! What other choice did I have?" I screamed at him. He looked momentarily taken aback at my outburst. Then his entire face changed, and he pulled me up from the chair to my feet.

"You made your choice and now you shall live with it!" He thundered at me, and then let my hands go, which he had been clenching to his chest, so that I fell to an ungraceful heap on the floor. He then turned and stalked from the room. I heard him open the front door to the little house, and then close it again. I could not get up from the floor, and instead lay down, sobbing into the rug for what felt like an eternity.

***************

Some time later, I calmed myself and was able to determine that Erik still had not returned. I then realised that he had not locked the front door!! I flew towards it, not caring or thinking of my unruly appearance. It opened easily when I turned the knob! I bolted outside and looked wildly at the lake, which was bathed in candlelight, presumably to light Erik's return home. I took one of the candles and decided that this was my only chance to escape.

I waved the candle about madly, looking for the trap-door through which I could drop into the tunnel to the Rue Scribe side of the Opera. I located it quickly, looked around twice to make sure that Erik had not yet returned, and then I dropped through it. As I slipped through the trap door, I accidentally released the candle in my hands, so that when I fell to the ground, I was bathed in complete darkness.

I tried to ignore the wave of panic that arose within me, for this sparked my usual fears of being enclosed. I had never felt such panic at walking through these tunnels – usually that was because Erik was with me, guiding me so that I did not become lost, and we had light to assist us. Now, I was in a tunnel, one which had many offshoots through which I could become completely lost, and I was utterly without light or assistance.

My first thought was to simply sit down on the damp floor and wait for Erik to come and find me, for it would not be very difficult for him to do so. Then I remembered that this was probably my only chance for escape. There would be no escape once we were wed. I leapt up from the damp ground, ignored the coldness that had begun to seep through my bones, and took off down the tunnel as fast as I could in the inky blankness.

I had to feel my way along the wall for the offshoot tunnels, so that I could locate the correct one which led me to the exit. I knew that some of the others were dead-ends, and I tried not to think about those which led into the torture chamber. The walls were also damp, and occasionally I cut myself on pieces of stone which jutted out, as if specifically designed to hinder my escape. I knew that my hand was bleeding relatively significantly, so I reached into my pocket and withdrew a handkerchief, which I wrapped tightly around it. My hand throbbed, but I tried to ignore it.

I cried out in earnest when I felt what I was certain was the correct turning into a new tunnel. I was exhausted but refused to allow myself to stop. I must be so close now! I had been travelling in the tunnels for approximately 20 minutes, and I knew from past experience that the entire journey usually took approximately 25 minutes. Whenever Erik used to bring me down here, I would check my pocket watch for the time when he met me at the Rue Scribe entrance, and then would again glance at the grandfather clock in Erik's home as soon as we arrived.

I was beginning to feel an intense brightness of spirit, for I had nearly escaped the monster! I kept going along my path, feeling better and better the closer I got to the exit. Out of nowhere, a trapdoor opened, and I felt myself falling through the air for what seemed to be an inordinate amount of time. The last thing I remembered before everything went black was seeing my own startled reflection a thousand times over.

*************

When I awoke, I found myself back in the bed in the Louis-Philippe room in Erik's house. My head throbbed and my mouth felt like sandpaper. Erik was no-where to be seen. My eyes filled with tears at the many realisations that hit me at once. Firstly, I was back in Erik's house. Secondly, my escape attempt had utterly failed. Thirdly, I must have fallen into the torture chamber! Last, and certainly not least, Erik would be absolutely furious with me.

I tried to sit up in bed, but was overcome by a feeling of nausea and dizziness. I sank back into the pillows. I reached up to touch a sore spot on my head, and found that there was quite a large bump appearing. On my hands were cuts that had obviously been bleeding, but someone had stemmed the flow of blood and cleaned the cuts. In that instant, everything throbbed. I began to cry yet again, and chastised myself.

Did you really think that you would be able to escape? Silly, foolish girl!

While I continued in my wallowing, Erik chose to burst through the doorway. In his hands, he held a wedding dress, which, if my mind was not so fragile and I was happy about my impending marriage, I would have been ecstatic to wear, for it was simply stunningly beautiful. On his face was an expression that I could not even begin to describe. It frightened me to the point that I tried to cower under the bedclothes to escape his wrath.

"I have made the arrangements for our wedding. We shall be married in exactly two days time. Here is your dress. I will come for you at 5:00pm. Be ready." He addressed me as if I was a stranger rather than his betrothed. I supposed that he was very angry with me. I was expecting him to yell and scream and cry at me, but he did none of those things.

"Erik, I….." I began, but did not know whether any words could fix this awful mess I had created. I had ruined the very fragile bond that had formed between us when I had decided to stay with him, and he had informed me that he would not live for very much longer.

"Do not say a word. I do not want to hear a single word come from your treacherous mouth. I do not want to see you or hear from you until you walk down the aisle to marry me. I shall be gone for the next two days, however should you require any assistance, I will ensure that the Daroga looks in on you occasionally." He then bowed to me and left the room.

I felt truly and utterly alone. Erik had left me here for two days by myself. Two days, in which time I had to overcome my injuries and prepare myself to be married. I felt none of the normal joy that brides feel when they are to be wed. I did not look forward to setting my hair, to beautifying my face, to putting on the lovely dress. I did not want to do any of it. In that moment, the only person that I wanted was my father.

I thought I would cry a thousand tears following Erik's departure, but strangely I found that all of my tears had dried up. I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening resting in the comfortable bed, only rising several times to use the amenities and fetch myself some food and water. Erik, even in his fury, had prepared several different food combinations and left them on the kitchen table for me.

The next morning, just after I had finished bathing and was beginning to feel slightly better, there was a knock at the door. I started slightly, having never seen or heard anyone call on Erik or knock on his door.

"Who is there?" I called tentatively.

"It is the Daroga. You should be expecting me." Came the reply, and I recognised his voice in an instant as being the same voice of the man that was trapped in the torture chamber with my darling Raoul. I rushed over to the door as quickly as a sore head would allow, and unlocked the special mechanism that Erik had installed. I opened the door and was greeted by the sight of a tall, swarthy man wearing a turban upon his head, who bowed as soon as he saw me.

"Mademoiselle, it is a pleasure to finally meet you. Are you well? Has Erik hurt you in any way?" He began to interrogate you. I knew that I did not look overly well, and I saw the Daroga immediately glance at the bump upon my head. He approached me quickly and took my hand into his.

"Erik has sent me to assist you. He has asked me to check to see how you are feeling, and whether you are recovering from your injuries. He said that you took a fall. Is that correct?" He asked me. I looked at him, dumbfounded. He obviously assumed that Erik had hurt me.

"Monsieur….Erik did not inflict these injuries upon me. I…I tried to escape, and I became lost, then I fell through a trapdoor into the torture chamber!" I informed him quickly. He looked closely at my injuries, and then nodded, apparently satisfied that they were consistent with my explanation.

"Please sit down. I will prepare some tea and bring it in, and then we can talk." He ushered me into the sitting room, where I gratefully sank down into one of the chairs. He obviously knew his way around Erik's home well, for he went in the direction of the kitchen, and returned several minutes later with two cups of steaming hot tea. I gratefully accepted one. I hesitated before asking the question that was in the forefront of my mind.

"Please tell me, Monsieur…is Raoul well?" I asked the strange, foreign man who was being so kindly towards me. He looked sympathetically towards me, and patted my hand.

"When we left here, he was not well. I had regained my strength, but he had not. Erik and I had to carry him from the Opera. I gave him your letter, and then he left in a carriage. I have not heard from him since then." He told me. My heart constricted, for I had felt certain that Raoul would try to elicit the Persian man's help in rescuing me.

"Did he….say anything about me before he left?" I asked timidly. The Daroga looked at me with compassion.

"My dear…" He began, and then hesitated. "The very second that you vanished from the stage of the Opera, he enlisted my help to recover you. I assisted him by bringing him down here into Erik's domain. I was foolish and should not have risked his life by doing so. However, I was struck by the depth of his adoration for you. He did not have a care for his own safety, he simply wished to save you. So, I brought him down here. Rest assured, he was very brave, however you must be aware that after the ordeal in the torture chamber, he was very, very weak. He did not speak a word after he regained consciousness."

I drew in a breath. I had already known that Raoul was worried for me and wished to save me, for I had seen him in Erik's torture chamber! I wanted to know how he was now, whether he was going to attempt to rescue me again, or whether he accepted what I had written in the letter. But I realised that I was not going to receive those answers from this man.

"May I ask you a question?" The strange man asked me. I nodded. "Why did you agree to remain with Erik?"

It was not a question that I could answer easily. Why had I decided to remain with Erik, even when he had given me a further opportunity to leave him? I did not know the answer.

"I….I fear I cannot answer you, sir. I feel such an immense depth of gratitude to Erik, for he has given me my voice. He has been my inspiration for so long. And yet, he also frightens me greatly. At the same time, I pity him….." I trailed off.

How did I feel about Erik?

I did not know the answer to that question either. One thing I did know, however, was that I was to be married to him the very next day. I had already hurt him so many times before. I had given him my promise. He had given me the opportunity to renege on that promise, and I had again chosen not to. I would not disappoint him now. I would force myself to go through with the marriage.

There was no going back now.