The Violinist | Christine Daae

Chapter Eight

 Francois had never thought he would fall in love with Christine Daae. They had been friends since they first happened to meet at the Opera Populaire. He'd thought she was a nice girl, and she liked him.

 But all of Francois' feelings had now begun to change.

 All of this Phantom of the Opera business had made him afraid to show up for work at all. But he still did it, anyway, for the love of music and for not wanting to look like a coward for not showing up. The fact that he was afraid of such stories throughout his childhood seemed to have followed him into adulthood, because he experienced that same fright when he had the nightmare (he would always call it the nightmare; it seemed fitting enough). There were many times when he awoke in the night and thought there was someone else there in his attic room. But every time he lit a candle and inspected the whole room, and every time there was no one there. Then he would never be able to fall asleep again, and would simply lie awake in bed until sunrise.

 Then Christine happened. To Francois, her life sounded like a living nightmare: some madman living under the Opera Populaire had tricked her into thinking he was the angel from her father's stories, taking complete advantage of her belief of her father's stories as a way to get closer to her. He took her down to his underground home with the idea of keeping her there forever, and told her that she would never be free of him. True, she was now being courted by the Vicomte de Chagny and it seemed the Opera Ghost had disappeared entirely, but that didn't mean anything. Christine said he most certainly would return for her; she didn't know when or how, but he would return.

 But Christine didn't run away and hide. Yes, she was terrified of the man, terrified of what would become of her if he did manage to get her in his grasp again. However, she still showed up at the Opera Popluaire and did her duty. Despite being very much afraid, she hardly let it show, and she absolutely shone when she was on stage. This woman, who had become the obsession of a madman, stayed strong and rarely let anyone see her fears.

 Francois had seen these fears of hers. Seeing him have to face down his own fears from his childhood and that he believed her story seemed to make her more willing to open up to him. She had told him everything, and admitted she was afraid, but she knew that whatever would happen would happen, and she wasn't going to try to stop it before it went any further. She would face whatever came, even if she was terrified of what that would be.

 Francois was now getting to know Christine much better than he did before, on a more personal level. To him, she was a very brave woman, and what she had gone through made him feel silly about being afraid to go to work out of some childhood fear. She had been threatened and taken advantage of, but she still faced the Opera Populaire nearly every day. To him, that was bravery, and it made him want to be more brave.

 Talking to Christine helped. Anyone else might have laughed at him or mocked him, but she didn't. She listened to him talk of his childhood with a genuine interest, and seemed to be truly sympathetic towards him. Francois didn't know he needed someone like her in his life until this time, when he was getting to know her better. She was kind, beautiful, thoughtful, brave.

 By the end of the year, Francois was in love.