Too Dark to Even Try (Beneath a Moonless Sky fanfic)

The First Confrantation

  Disclaimer: so sorry for the long wait. Please enjoy, comment, and vote!

Christine felt as though the world had fallen out of orbit.

He was here, there, standing but a few feet from her in all his mysterious splendor.

Christine gasped, placing a hand on her mouth to stifle it.

Erik wore fine clothing as if to go to a business meeting. Even in Paris he had not dressed so expensively. His face remained unchanged. He looked just as he had when she had last seen him, as if time itself stopped around Erik. As if he could bend time, perhaps. And that half mask covered the rest.

  "Twelve years..." She murmured. "Twelve years...I should have known  all along! This...this...whole plan...it radiates your stench!" Anger and pain blazed in her eyes. "How dare you!"

  Erik's face reminded calm.

"Oh, Christine..." He stepped towards her. "My Christine..." He purred lowly. Erik's voice was every bit suave and seducing as it had been when she was a young, innocent chorus girl. Something fluttered in her abdomen and the strings somewhere under her left ribs pulled.

"I do not belong to you," Christine shook her head feaverishly. "I am not your property."

Erik clicked his tongue softly, and reached for her cheek.

The feel of his calloused fingers against her skin made her snap.

"You monster!" She cried, slapping His hand away. "You evil....horrible...." Tears poured from her sockets. Gasping for breath, images of her standing alone on the pier, waiting for her lover who had already left clouded her minds eye.

"How could you do that to me?" Came her course, raspy whisper.

Erik's eyes turned sad, but he grasped her around the waist and pressed her to him. His warmth and nearness made Christine feel faint, and she did not perceive the strength or willingness to break free.

  "I have regretted my choice ever since I stepped onto that ship," he groaned, his lips dangerously close to her neck. "Every night I dream of hearing you, holding you, caressing your skin---feeling your flesh raw against my hands."

  Christine moaned and gasped, her chest rising and falling against his coat.

  "I..." She gulped, and opened her mouth to speak. Before she could, something soft and warm pressed against the crane of her neck. Christine's eyes widened as she realized what it was. Erik's mouth coaxed onto her throat.

She cried out as broke free of his embrace, and he stepped back and almost tripped over his trench in surprise.

"I am married!" Christine stuttered, her fingers gingerly touching the spot on her neck.

  "That did not stop you before, I recall..." Erik murmured dream-like as if he was remembering something tender.

"N-no," Christine stuttered out. "Oh God..." She cried and latched her hands to the lapels of his coat. Startled, Erik gasped.

"I loved you...." A tear fell upon his shirt. "Yes!" She cried deliriously, laughing like a madwoman. "I loved you! I was yours that night, you left your mark clearly---but it was my choice! I loved you!"

Erik's face was a mix of confusion and utter despair.

Raising his right hand, Erik began to caress a lock of Christine's hair that had fallen out of place. With his left, he gingerly pressed his fingers to the small of her back. He was trembling, she realized.