Keep Me Close

The Last Time

The weeping child had her head laying on the torso of Christine's lifeless body... Erik was still trembling holding onto his angel, knowing this would be the last time her ever saw her... The last time he could run his hands through her wild mane of brown hair. The last time he could stroke his thumb across her soft, ivory skin. Every inch of his body was filled with sorrow. The color had left her once rosy cheeks, and her soft pink lips that he had his on for a moment for the last time. He could still remember the first time they met, the first duet they sang. Every time he sang her to sleep. Every day he watched over her protectively from behind the mirror. All the times he watched her dance as a young girl back at the Opera Populiare from box five. He remembered how he felt on the night they shared ten years ago. The way she kissed and caressed him like no other would ever be able to. How she looked beyond the deformity that he believed drove them apart, only to realize it was the darkness in his own soul that divided them. It ended to have him leave her scared of what he had done, leaving her in the darkness of the night.
He thought of the madness he endured through those ten years without his angel. He had just gotten his love back only to let her slip through his fingers once more. His angel of music had now joined the rest of angels in heaven.

Still trembling, and attempting to stifle his weeping, he felt a small hand on his. Erik reflexively flinched and retracted his hand. He saw through his tears a pair of emerald green eyes, just like his own starring back at him. They were eyes of his daughter. The product of that one night he shared with Christine ten years ago. He looked at the child, with her tear stained cheeks in awe, having doubt that a child this gorgeous could even possibly be his. The child of a monster. But she was.
Her hand found his face, her small delicate fingers finding his mask. His body tensed out of habit, however as she peeled the mask off of her fathers face, she only stared at him with love as his Christine once had. She dropped the mask to the ground, and placed her hand on her father's deformity. The tears then began to flow again as Erik pulled the only part of Christine he had left close, into his warm, strong embrace. He felt her nuzzle her face into his neck, softly crying. They stayed like this until the police arrived, breaking up the moment between the phantom and his only child. The coroner approached with Madame Giry by his side, she came toward Erik first placing her strong motherly grip upon his broad shoulder.
"Erik, take the Lily home" she said in a maternal manner. She had been the one to raise him and Christine. He didn't want to leave the body of his angel; however, he understood that it was his duty now to be a father to the child he held in his arms. Lily looked up from her father's neck toward Madame Giry, her lips quivering. More men approached, he released his grip on Christine's body and stood up lifting the child with him as she wrapped her legs around his torso. Placing his mask back on he began to walk from the pier back to land, his whole body almost numb. Then his daughter's cries became louder, as she watched her mothers body being lifted onto a stretcher and a white sheet placed over her body.
"Shhh, its ok, its ok" Erik cooed in the child's ear, attempting to calm the young girl down. She cried harder, griping him harder. "Mon enfant, she is in heaven now. She will always be with you" he whispered into her ear.
"Please don't send me back to Monsieur de Changy" she cried.
"I could never mon amour. You are my girl, my princess, my flower, my Lily, my Lillian Rose." He said, soothing her. She continued to sob softly, breaking Erik's once stone cold heart into pieces. He was barely holding on, attempting to remain strong for his daughter.
He had never even thought he would ever be able to have children with a woman, and most certainly never thought about having to parent a child, especially alone. He never had a father, let alone father figure growing up. He didn't know where to begin. Would he even be a good parent? All Erik saw in himself was rage and fear, not qualities a father should show, yet Erik had lived with those qualities for so many years.
However, this small girl would change him forever.