When Love Begins

Beauty Underneath

Erik POV:

I was getting everything ready, when I walked in on the boy. Gustaave, after Christine's father I assumed.  I had to make sure everything went off perfectly. I would frighten the boy, then use him against his mother. A mother's love is the strongest of all, or so I had heard. When I walked into the room, Gustaave was looking around in amazement. 

"One moment, little Vicomte, while I prepare our adventure."

"May I?" He motioned to he piano.

"Does the young vicomte play?" Surely not. His mother couldn't play, and I was sure his lousy excuse for a father wouldn't have taught him even if he did know how to play. Then the boy started to play a beautiful melody. It was simple, yes, but so compelling. He was making it up as he went! Suddenly, I understood everything. 

"This boy...this music...He plays like me! He's just ten years old..Ten years old!" It all made sense. Ten long years. "My God! Come with me. I want to show you something. I want to know what you think." All my plans had changed. I could never use him against Christine. He was mine. Mine and Christine's. I had a son! I wanted to show him everything, I wanted to impress him.

As I took him around my home, I watched him. He even moved like me, with all the grace of Christine. How did I not notice it at once? I must have been blind. He loved everything about my home. He thought it was beautiful! Watching him, I felt my heart burst with a love I had never felt before. There was something I had to do. I had to make sure he accepted me, all of me. He would accept me, he would embrace it. I reached up to take off my mask, and as I did so, a scream pierced the night.