Let Your Fantasies Unwind

Chapter 26

Sunday update!

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We finish our meal as quick as we can eat, dress up nicely (as in, Erik dresses up as he is when Christine first sees him...and the audience too), and then we head up. I see Erik starting to tremble.

"Are you okay, Phantom?"

"I am a little nervous."

"What for?" I already know.

"She hasn't seen me before, so this'll be the first time, for her end." I find his hands, and hold onto them for a moment. "But I know everything will go well."

"Don't be too sure of yourself."

He shrugged my comment off, and we continue on up. He walks down a different path.

"Where are you going?"

"This is the path that leads to her room." He says simply. "Want to see?"

"Sure, but then I'm going to go watch."

He walks me down the path, and as we get closer, I hear the music and singing going on.

"We never said our love was evergreen, or as unchanging as the sea, but if you can still remember, stop and think of me. Think of all the things we've shared and seen. Don't think about the things which might have been..."

Erik looks at me, and we go up to his box. I stop before we get to the box. Erik looks back at me.

"What is the matter?"

"Just listening."

He nods and looks into his box. He turns around immediately and glares at me.

"They're in my box!" he whisper-yells, and drags me off somewhere else.

"Who?"

"The new managers," he uses the word negatively, "and their new patron, Raoul Vicomte de Chagny." He snarls. "Why my box?"

"It has nice sound and a good view of the sta-" I get cut off by his hand covering my mouth.

"We shall go somewhere else to listen, then."

He drags me up to the area around the chandelier. Christine's voice filters nicely above everyone else, and Erik relaxes. I look down at the occupied box, and Raoul is smiling. I can see him mouthing words.

"What a change! You're really not a bit the gawkish girl that once you were. She may not remember me, but I remember her."

"We never said our love was evergreen, or as unchanging as the sea, but if you can still remember, stop and think..." she drags out the 'of me' part of the song.

Everyone immediately cheers after she finishes her note. She bows and her eyes float above to where we are.

"Bravi, bravi, bravissimi." Erik uses his ventriloquist skills to tell her that. Her eyes light up. "Come on." He turns to me.

We head down to her room and wait behind her mirror.

"Shouldn't I go?"

"Not exactly. Go get the dry ice, and put it in a big container filled with water. Also, go grab me a rose. Go!"

I run off quickly down the path. I get to the house, find a rose, and run back, giving it to Erik. I dash off again, finding the dry ice, putting it in a bucket and then filled it with water about halfway. The bucket slows me down, but I get there in time to hear Christine.

"Things have changed, Raoul!"

I set the bucket down and the dry ice starts his process of creating a thin cloud. I see Erik get enraged.

"Insolent boy, this slave of fashion, basking in your glory! Ignorant fool, this brave young suitor, sharing in my triumph!"

I see Christine turn slowly. "Angel, I hear you. Speak, I listen. Stay by my side, guide me. Angel, my soul was weak, forgive me. Enter at last, Master."

Erik's body expression soften. "Flattering child you shall know me. See why in shadow I hide. Look at your face in the mirror, I am there inside!"

'I wish I were on the other side to see that in real life! This is one of my favorite moments!'

"Angel of Music, guide and guardian, grant to me your glory! Angel of Music, hide no longer! Come to me, strange angel!"

Erik pushes me away, meaning for me to go away. "I am your Angel of Music. Come to me, Angel of Music."

I get out of the hallway so Christine doesn't see me. 'As much as I would love to confuse her, this isn't the time. Maybe later, but this all has to happen.' I smile to myself. "Whose is that voice? Who is that in there?" I whisper Raoul's lines.

I hear, "I am your Angel of Music. Come to me, Angel of Music."

"Christine! Angel!"

The beginning notes of the title song somehow starts to play. I look around to see if I can find a button, or switch, something that can activate maybe a music box, but I find nothing. I see Erik and Christine heading down the path, and decide to keep a little ahead to listen, but not be seen by them.

"In sleep he sang to me. In dreams he came. That voice which calls to me, and speaks my name. And do I dream again? For now I find the Phantom of the Opera is there inside my mind."

"Sing once again with me, our strange duet! My power over you grows stronger yet. And though you turn from me to glance behind, the Phantom of the Opera is there inside your mind!"

They get to the lake's edge with the boat. I hide behind some column and watch them go across.

"Those who have seen your face draw back in fear. I am the mask you wear."

"It's me they hear."

"My spirit and my voice, in one combined. The Phantom of the Opera is there, inside your mind." Erik sings as Christine sings the other half, "Your spirit and your voice, in one combined. The Phantom of the Opera is there, inside my mind."

"He's there, the Phantom of the Opera. Beware, the Phantom of the Opera." I mutter, and then find an alternative way across the lake.

"In all your fantasies, you always knew that man and mystery..."

"Were both in you."

They join again. "And in this labyrinth, where night is blind, the Phantom of the Opera is," Erik sings, "there, inside your mind." As Christine sings, "here, inside my mind."

"Sing, my Angel of Music!"

"He's there, the Phantom of the Opera."

He mutters, "Sing."

She starts to incline to her whistle note. Erik helps her out of the boat, and takes several steps back to let her sing.

"Sing." He walks around her, takes off his cloak, setting it on something, and smooths his wig. She continues. "Sing for me!"

"Sing my Angel of Music!"

"Sing for me!" she gets to the whistle note. "I have brought you to the seat of sweet music's throne, to this kingdom where all must pay homage to music...music. You have come here, for one purpose and one alone! Since the moment I first heard you sing, I have needed you with me to serve me to sing, for my music, my music."

He looks around the room. I step in quietly, and he sighs, and turns back to her.