Sing Once More (A Phantom of the Opera Phan Fic)

Chapter 14

Chip felt around his eyes and frowned. "Erik...I'm still blind."

There was a sudden pause from Erik as he looked between Chip and the hallway to freedom. There were two possible options: 1) He could stay with Chip and figure out this entire situation, or 2) He could run off, leaving Chip and all these bad memories behind. The decision weighed heavily on his shoulders, but the more he contemplated it, the more he began to realize another important factor. "Where's Reagan?" Erik finally asked.

"How should I know I'm still blind!" Chip grumbled, crossing his arms as if that would accomplish some point.

"We'll figure out your sight problem later. Maybe you just need to sit down. Something could be swollen and pinching a nerve. The most important part right now is finding Reagan." Erik snipped at Chip, as he closed the dressing room door.

Chip rubbed his eyes again, finding this blindness to be more of a challenge each moment. "Well, customarily, if we are back to the future...er, present I guess, then Reagan should have trailed just behind us. So she should be here somewhere. Right?"

"That's not always the case, Master Charles. You and Reagan have jumped back and forth and left me in the past for a long while, yet to you it seemed like a matter of seconds. She could still be in the past." Erik said, his voice getting quieter. "Unless she...."

"Unless she what?!" Chip growled, grabbing onto Erik's sleeve. "Erik, what the hell did you do? Did you...." He paused and gasped. "She's...she's gone...YOU MADE REAGAN CEASE TO EXIST BY TELLING YOUR PAST SELF ABOUT CHRISTINE! YOU MONSTER!" Chip began to throw punches at Erik's chest, only they seemed more like puffs of wind dancing across a strong oak tree.

Erik pushed against Chip's chest, making a distance between himself and the boy. "Don't be so irrational. I may have told my past self about the future outcome, but I also told my past self to simply eliminate to foppish problem."

Chip's dark eyes went wide. "YOU KILLED RAOUL?!" He screamed.

Erik threw a hand over Chip's mouth. "SHH! You'll give away our position." He hissed. "I didn't kill Raoul though. I don't know why. I just didn't do it. I guess...I guess fate just had to fall where it did. People had to exist and events had to continue as they pleased. I'm an Opera Ghost, Master Charles, not a -- forgive this elementary reference -- TimeLord."

Chip cracked a smile beneath Erik's palm. "TimeLord. Ha...that's a good one." He said in a muffled tone.

"You teenagers and your puns. I'll never understand. But maybe I wasn't meant to understand." Erik sighed, backing away from Chip. "I...I just wish this would have never happened. I wish you people would stay away from me. Every time, every damn time, someone gets near me I hurt them or they hurt me. I'm tired of being hurt or hurting others, Charles. I'm sick of it. It pains me. It causes me to cry out in the night for solace, but there can be no solace for a demon like me. There will be no solace for anyone like me." Erik hung his head, wiping a tear away from his unmasked face.

"You know...Erik, this is the twenty-first century. People are different. Some are a lot more mean than usual, I get that, but there are also things that are nicer and more friendly. People aren't afraid of a little...deformity. They really aren't." Chip said, still unaware of his location.

Erik sighed again. "This is not a little deformity, Master Charles. It's more of a big mound of flesh, plastered to my face, and torn at by foul beast and the devil himself. It's hideous! Absolutely a nightmare."

"Look at you having a pity party. At least you can see. At least you can play the piano. At least you can walk and talk and make beautiful music for the entire world to hear at your own whim! At least you had a moment of love from someone." Chip said plainly, shaking his head at this horrendous display of self pity.