I Belong to You (Phantom of the Opera Fanfiction)

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

It was a rather chilly Thursday evening, and Christine was busy having her daily phone conversation with her boyfriend.

"I'll see you tomorrow, baby," Robert said while holding his cell phone to his ear. He waited for Christine to return the words.

"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow," Christine said, her cell phone pressed to her ear. A peaceful smile adorned her face.

"Have a good night."

"You too."

"Bye."

"Bye." Christine ended the call and sighed, basking in the happiness that Robert always brought to the surface. And after the voice lesson she'd had earlier in the day, she was definitely in need of such happiness.

After a moment, she sighed again, but this time it was layered with stress and exhaustion. Mr. Destler, why did you have to ruin everything? It was the umpteenth time she'd had that thought. But her thoughts on the situation were inward and nothing more. She hadn't told anyone about what had occurred, not Robert, not her parents, and not even her best friend, Meg. Though she wished to share the story and get some advice, something inside her wouldn't let it happen.

I have to get my mind off it. It happened, yeah, but I'll never see him again so it doesn't matter. Christine's eyes were sad as she stared up at her bedroom ceiling. Their voice lessons had always been so special... It was because of Erik Destler that she had the best voice in her school choir, and it was because of him that she knew exactly what she wanted to do after high school. It was only October of her senior year, yet she already knew what she wanted to major in- vocal performance.

Closing her eyes, she recalled their first voice lesson, which had occurred one year ago to the day.

"106 Suttler Drive," Christine mumbled while looking at a mail box that held the number and street name. She drove up the driveway admiring the house she would soon be entering. It was a tastefully decorated two-story. Everything looked to be well-kept, which had the ability to calm her nerves. She was soon to have her first voice lesson with a man she'd never met before, and she was nervous.

It was her high school choir director, Nadir Kahn, and his piano accompanist, Marie Giry, who had recommended this man named Erik Destler. Supposedly, he was the best of the best, but not many people knew of him. In fact, he only had five voice students. Christine knew why that was, though. She'd been warned that the man wore a mask that covered the entirety of his face. Initially, that information had freaked her out, but Mr. Kahn and Mrs. Giry had immediately told her the reason behind it. The man suffered from a facial deformity. They didn't go into detail about it, but it did lessen her worry to know that the mask was there for a specific reason. Her emotional response to the information was a feeling of pity. Christine pitied the man she'd never seen before.

She'd also been warned that he was incredibly strict but that she shouldn't dwell on it. He was a perfectionist. Mr. Kahn seemed to think that, with a voice as good as hers, Erik Destler wouldn't need to be strict. Christine wasn't nearly as confident as her choir director..

Pushing aside her apprehension, Christine approached the front door and rang the door bell.

When the door opened and the man was revealed before her eyes, she could only stare. He gave off a serious, graceful air she'd never seen in anyone before. He was tall, over 6'4, she was sure of it, and he was dressed impeccably in a black suit. His hair was nearly black and slicked back in a proper way, but none of those things were what she was really paying attention to. Oddly, when she looked at his face, it wasn't his mask that she first saw. It was his eyes. They were a piercing goldish color.. She'd never seen eyes like his before. After assessing his appearance, she inwardly described it in one word- intimidating.