Your Voice

Chapter 27

Once again, I hope you enjoy this chapter! Thank you so much for reading!❤️

Erik

I sit, curled up on the floor, my face buried in my hands. My eyes are red from crying all night and I can hear the faint thud of footsteps coming from the stage above me; the theater must have just opened.

Guilt stabs my conscience repeatedly like a blade. Her words echo in my mind and I feel like ripping my face off. Am I really that shallow? Did I actually stoop so low? I was so consumed by anger and grief - grief that should have been long gone - that I didn't think, I just lashed out my emotions on my innocent wife.

What is she doing now? Is she alright? Are her palms still bleeding, is her back still aching? Is she filled with bitter hate for me, or is she filled with bland disappointment? Or both?

Gustave and Melody - do they know what happened? Surely, Christine wouldn't tell them but what if Melody somehow crept down and saw us? Poor Melody, so young and pure, witnessing the vilest of all deeds. The thought of her wide, horror-stricken eyes watching from the top of the stairs makes me shiver.

I am weak, I tell myself. Instead of facing her, I ran from her like a coward. Christine deserves so much better than a coward. Maybe she did deserve Raoul; I'm worse compared to him anyway. Looking at the myopia of sketches of her plastered onto the walls of my lair, I remember her smile, the way her eyes flutter before she falls asleep, the shape of her lips whispering 'I love you'.

No one would listen

No one but her

Heard as the outcast hears

Shamed into solitude

Shunned by the multitude

I learned to listen

In my dark, my heart heard music.

I longed to teach the world

Rise up and reach the world

No one would listen

I alone could hear the music

Then at last, a voice in the gloom

Seemed to cry "I hear you;

I hear your fears,

Your torment and your tears."

She saw my loneliness

Shared in my emptiness

No one would listen

No one but her

Heard as the outcast hears

No one would listen

No one but her

Heard as the outcast hears

Christine

"Here- careful, there's a step." I lead Gustave down the steps. My body still aches from the fall but Erik is gone and someone's got to look after the kids. Before I woke up from my restless sleep, Madame Giry had already left the house, so the house was silent but I still hear him screaming at me. I try my best to dismiss the lump in my throat.

The children sat at the table, I prepare eggs and busy myself with making mugs of hot chocolate in an attempt to keep my mind off things. It's at dark times like these when I need distractions - like friends. I suddenly become aware that my best friend used to live in this house before she passed away. I become conscious that her abandoned room is only a few paces away from mine. I become aware that she is gone. Against my will, tears trickle down my face.