The Phantom Ascending |✔| [Phantom of the Opera Fanfiction]

Taking a Risk

Erik

When I withdrew into my study, I eavesdropped on Christine and miss Giry. Afterwards, I forced myself to relax, focusing on the contents of the study, which by now felt comfortable and entirely my own. I shuffled through the papers on the desk, assessing the worth of my latest work in progress. I couldn't properly write music scores without an instrument, but I could work on lyrics and librettos.

The study overlooked a canal that was rarely used, and the calmness that permeated was usually perfect for quiet contemplation. It reminded me of my old home. The mere fact of living above ground in a conventional room and in such a densely populated city took a lot of getting used to and was still occasionally overwhelming. If it was true that clothes maketh the man, it was also true that one's living quarters can play a similar role in one's sense of self-perception.

Today, despite having locked myself safely inside here where I could work undisturbed, I had trouble attaining the usual sense of calm. The conversation that I'd heard kept echoing through the chambers of my mind, rattling my thoughts and emotions.

Christine had defended me. She lied for me, and lied to one of her closest friends. I couldn't understand a thing like friendship — I learned of it from the pages of books, but experienced none. Perhaps the closest thing I had to a friend was Madame Giry, but somehow I doubt that it was a usual form of friendship.

Christine and Miss Giry were different — I heard and saw them together too many times in Paris, and their connection was obvious. And if anything else was obvious from their latest conversation, it was that I had become a thorn in that friendship of theirs. I frowned and took the papers before me to sketch out my thoughts black on white. I needed to see them more clearly, to then set my mind on the right course of action.

***

A full day passed and I kept entirely to myself, without the joy of Christine's company, since she was spending every waking minute with miss Giry, and I didn't dare agitating the situation further by making an unwanted appearance. However, on the eve before miss Giry's departure, I decided to act at last.

A knock at my door came as expected. I opened them to welcome a trembling figure of Meg Giry. Trembling, but behind that surface hid a layer of steel determination. She was more like her mother than I had realized.

"Please, sit down."

She did so, reluctantly.

"I received your note. What do you want?" she said, raising her chin.

"To apologize and try to come to an arrangement."

"Apologize? For yesterday?" she eyed me suspiciously.

"Well, yes, but mostly for the terror I must have caused you two years ago."

"Indeed you have. To me and to many others. Terror and grief, and for what? To punish us for rejecting you? We never even had the chance to view you as nothing but a fearsome ghost. A menace and then a murderer."

I tensed and she saw it, raising instantly from her chair, ready to flee.

"I spoke too bluntly," she started fearfully, but I signaled her to keep silent.

"Relax, miss Giry. You... You are correct, and yet you can't understand me, since you never had to live inside my skin. But this conversation is really to be about miss Daae."

"Can't you let Christine go? If you truly cared for her, you would," she pleaded.

I rose and turned my back to her to look through the window, trying to keep my voice cool.