Christine POV:
I opened y eyes to see him looking at me. He reached out to touch my face, but I swatted his hand away. I stood up and pushed away to the other side of the room.
"So it was all an empty lie? One final lie to fool us all? To make your death our story's end? To put your life beyond recall?" I was fuming. How could he have done that to me, just to come back ten years later to claim me again? "How dare you come and claim me now!? Invade my life, ensnare my voice?"
"If you could know the pain I've known, then you would know I had no choice." He sounded so sad, so broken. I almost gave in . Almost. He reached out his hand to touch my face. "My Christine..." I slapped his hand away.
"Your Christine? I was yours one brief night long ago. Long ago," I walked over to the piano on the far side of the room and stood, facing away from him. "With a man that I no longer know."
"Ah, Christine! You came and found where I hid. Don't you deny that you did. That long ago night..!" I felt him put his hands on my shoulders. I leaned my head back into his chest, relaxing. And remembering.
"That night..." I sighed.
"Once there was a night, beneath a moonless sky. Too dark to see a thing, too dark to even try." I turned and fell onto the ottoman I looked ahead ad remembered that night as if it was yesterday, not ten years ago.
"I stole to your side, tormented by my choice. I couldn't see your face, yet trembled at your voice. And I touched you,"
"And I felt you," We were remembering together now.
"And I heard those ravishing refrains,"
"The music of your pulse,"
"The singing in your veins,"
"And I held you," He cut me off.
"And I touched you,"
"And embraced you"
"And I felt you,' We came together once more.
"And with every breath and every sigh,"
"I felt no longer scared," I knew my future.
"I felt no longer shy," I had helped him to overcome his shyness. I looked up at him as he came closer and we sang together.
"At last our feelings bared, beneath a moonless sky."
"And blind in the dark, as soul gazed into soul. I looked into your heart, and saw you pure and whole." He put his head on m shoulder, only to raise it when I finished.
"Cloaked under the night, with nothing to suppress. A woman and a man, no more and yet no less. And I kissed you!" He looked deep into my eyes. I couldn't look away, even if I wanted to. Although I wasn't sure I did.
"And caressed you," We came together again.
" And the world around us fell away. We said things in the dark, we never dared to say." I stood up and he grabbed my arms and pulled me to him.
"And I caught you,"
"And I kissed you,"
"And I took you," I couldn't take it anymore. I grabbed his shirt and pulled him close to me. I needed to be closer. I couldn't get close enough to him.
"And I begged you!" We were together again.
"With a need to urgent to deny. And nothing mattered then, except for you and I. Again, and then again, Beneath a moonless sky." I stared into his eyes and leaned in to kiss him. My body was alive with electricity. Suddenly, he pulled away and turned his back to me.
"And when it was done, before the sun could rise. Ashamed of what I was, afraid to see your eyes," I felt like I was going to be sick He turned around to face me but I put my hand on my stomach, remembering how it felt when I awoke and he was gone. "I stood while you slept, and whispered a goodbye. And slipped into the night, beneath a moonless sky." He sat on the piano bench, facing away from me. I stood behind him a few feet back, trying to hold in the tears that were threatening to spill over.
"And I loved you! Yes, I loved you! I'd have followed anywhere you led. I woke to swear my love," I spit out the next part, oping to make him feel guilty. "And found you GONE instead!" I was right beside him, and he turned and grabbed my waist.
"And I loved you,"
"How I loved you,"
"And I had to, both of us knew why,"
"We both knew why?" I didn't know. I didn't know at all. We came together again as he stood and and held onto me even more tightly.
"And yet I won't regret, from now, until I die. That night I can't forget, beneath a moonless sky." Our faces were inches away. He leaned in to kiss me.
"And now?" I turned walked away.
"How can you talk of now? For us, there IS NO NOW!"
YOU ARE READING
When Love Begins
FanfictionWhat happens when Christine and her family are invited to America to sing at a new opera house? One word: trouble.