The Affair

Chapter 8 *

Erik had waited in Christine's room, he couldn't help but to be upset by her previous reaction to seeing him, but she'd been gone for hours now. He paced around the room, confused as to where she could have gone. He realized he was told to stay away, but that wouldn't keep him from her. He felt obligated to keep her safe, he needed to love her and her absence of her bed in the middle of the night completely worried him.

He leaned against a dark corner of the room and folded his fingers tightly together, he couldn't help but to feel that something was wrong. He didn't know if he should set out to look for her. He closed his eyes, trying to think back to when she first found him. He remembered that she'd smelled of liquor. He contemplated whether Christine had been drinking or if her husband was an alcoholic. He attempted to snap himself out of his toxic thoughts, remembering that he was told to leave her be. He knew he needed to respect her, however, felt it was hard to stay away. He stood from the corner and walked through the glass mirror, just as he slid the mirror closed, his gaze was ripped back to the room as the door was pushed open.

"Christine-" he whispered and quieted himself when he saw Madame Giry walk through the door.

Madame Giry held Christine up into her arms, helping her along. She brought her to the bed and helped her sit, "Honestly, Christine, I am getting too old for this." she went over and closed the door.

Christine looked at her, she swallowed hard and took a couple of deep breaths before she began to let her emotions out. She lied face down into her pillow and let sobs escape, "I can't do it anymore. I can't continue lying to myself and everyone about my son and about Raoul. I- I can't-" she held onto the pillow tightly.

"Shh, darling, keep it down, you'll wake everyone up." she spoke softly, "Everything will be alright, forget about Gustave. No one will find out and you can tell Erik when you're ready. He's waited long enough, what's a few more days?" she moved the hair out of her face, "Dear, I'm terribly worried about you," she watched sadly, "Look at you, you're a mess. Your dress is all ripped and your face is cut up, what happened to you? Did you fall?"

Her breathing stuttered and she continued to flood emotion into the pillow, "Raoul's an alcoholic, he told me he'd s-stop-" she tried to explain, "He lied, he lied to me- he's still drinking- I could smell it, and then I condoned it-"

She looked at her, concerned, "He did this to you?"

"No- No... after some, we talked and I... I was so mad, I just needed time to think," she wiped her face, "I left the carriage and I walked back- I thought someone was following me so- so I ran and I tripped-"

"Well, perhaps you should get cleaned up, take a bath, alright?" she kissed her forehead and pushed the hair from her face again, "I'll go check on Gustave."

Erik watched Madame Giry leave. He felt his heart become heavy in his chest, Christine was hiding something from him? Why? What was the point? He watched her helplessly as she cried, he wanted to reach out and make it better, but he couldn't. He knew he couldn't and he felt horrible for his love.