Lacher

Scene 1

Coming here was always hard for Erik, not only was he getting along in years, but the weight of what he was doing settled on his shoulders. It was difficult, visiting the burial place of someone special, a lover, a confidant. His hands trembled, his shoulders sagged, almost as if they had admitted some sort of age old defeat... but he was a Phantom, a spirit as some had called him! He was always composed, he had the upper hand, yet something about that place weakened, even pained him. A phantom never lost himself in emotion, he was dark and collected! So what was it about this place, and why, after all these years did his heart still ache?

Erik lifted his eyes to find a picture of a young Christine etched into her gravestone. Her face was elegant and seemed to glow... She really was an angel. As he gazed upon her beautiful face a twinge of some long held hatred gripped him, if it was pointed towards himself or this creature he did not know... but he lost himself in it.

"Damn fool!" He said quietly "Was I truly idiotic enough to have let you go? My one happiness... my true inspiration? You were the one who always drove me towards the passion that I poured out into my music. You were my muse, you calmed the inner torrents of my mind, simply with your presence, but now that you're no longer here, I am forever in a spiral... going down, down, down into the dark dungeon that I've always resided in, but tried so desperately to escape from! Damn fool that I am, to have let you go." His eyes filled with tears as his own passion pushed and pulled at him.

Erik looked down at the engagement ring he always kept on his person, it held so many mixed feelings... why had he had it for so long? Well, mostly because it reminded him of her, the fact was that he was still madly in love with his pupil. He taught her how to find her voice, he showed her his music and in the process he found himself falling. Not the kind of plunging that he was accustomed to, for he was not falling into the inescapable depths of his mind, this was a soft ,gentle, almost floating sensation one that he found he could not live without. He needed Christine, to keep him sane, to keep him safe. What kind of spell had this angel cast over him? What sort of firm grasp did she have hat carried on long after she had past? He did not know.

He thought about simply getting up and walking away, disappearing into the mist that had begun to form and claw its way through the graveyard. He could keep the ring and leave the rose... The rose, He had left her one after every performance, a sign that he was pleased with her. He held the items in his hands, in some way Christine was almost like a shadow that followed him wherever he went, looming over him, invading every part of his being. He had waited, for so long, to let her go... to be forever rid of her presence. He could not live without her, he needed her, but he could not bear to have her follow him wherever he went. He wanted the memory of her, to think of the days they spent together, lovingly. He had to let her go, in one way or another.

Erik forced himself to look up at her hauntingly angelic face. He gripped the ring and the rose tightly, the thorns piercing his flesh. Could he handle letting her go again? What kind of misery would this plunge him into? He sucked in a breath, held it, and placed the rose down first, that was the easiest part... The ring was going to be challenging, perhaps the hardest thing The Phantom had ever done.

He let his mind wander as he stared at it, remembering the day he had given it to her... The day he silently pleaded with her to stay. She had come into his chamber, and a feeling of joy filled his heart. "She'll stay" He thought. But she just looked at him, eyes filled with tears, she would not protect him, she would not sing his music... Christine had chosen another. That was the moment his soul had shattered, he knew that he would never again write the music of the night, he would dwell in his dark mind until the end of his days, alone. She left, with the burning opera house falling around him.

Erik shut his eyes tightly the image of her, leaving him, in his mind... He set the ring down, and a wave of uneasy settled over him, dealing him a powerful blow to his gut. He tried desperately to find any breath, as every fiber of his being told him to pick it back up "It's not safe! The ring could be lost, lost forever and then she would really be gone!", but he stayed there with his eyes closed, so still that he looked like one of the statues. His body began to relax, he had done it...

The sound of a distant car echoed throughout the cemetery, he had to leave. He gave one last desperate glance at the items on her memorial... and slipped into the shadowy night.

He watched from afar as an old man in a wheelchair was pushed towards Christines section of the graveyard. It was Raoul! He had changed from the strong young man he had once been, he was now frail and seemed as if he would break apart if you simply touched him. In his hands he held an old music box. "My music box" thought Erik fondly "after all these years... it survived the fire" He watched as Raoul approached the grave, one glance at the items on the headstone and  Erik knew that he had seen it.

The former Phantom of the Opera slipped away into the eery twilight, with a feeling he hadn't felt since the day Madame Giry had saved him from the circus as a child. For once he was able to think of Christine without pain and grief... he would always love her, and he would forever remember the girl that had taught him to truly love.

"You will always be my angel of music, Christine Daee." He spoke softly to the night

And so he left the graveyard, with the beginning of a new opera forming in his head... perhaps, the music of the night was not over after all?