Seal My Fate•Phantom of the Opera Fanfiction

Chapter 12: Repercussions

Welcome back poto isn't mine okay let's go

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The warm air inside the upper levels of the opera house seemed to bring back my immediate memory of the moment the way that steaming pancakes bring back old childhood memories. It was as though everything came flooding back at once, and I couldn't overcome the waves no matter how hard I tried. I'd failed.

Raoul reappeared beside me and reached into his jacket.

"Christine," he sighed, noticing, for once, the fear on my face, "I have something for you." I bit the inside of my lip as he pulled out... a rose. Just an everyday, ordinary rose, nothing special. Well, that wasn't too bad. At least it wasn't a ring.

"Raoul, I'm sorry," I breathed, my stomach turning for no good reason, "I.. I can't."

To my surprise, he didn't seem hurt, only concerned.

"Christine, I've told you, he can't hurt you."

"Oh, he can," I laughed. Raoul was hilarious. "I have no reason to believe he will, though."

"May I ask why?" He asked, bunching his eyebrows up in mild confusion. I looked back at him, my head spinning as I tried to sort out what I remembered from here and what I remembered from the movie—in other words, what I should and shouldn't know.

"What do you mean?" I'd meant to say something a little more profound than that, but it was a coherent sentence and at this moment that was more than I could ask for.

"Not half an hour ago you were terrified. You told me that this 'phantom' would never stop killing, and now you say that this... this thing, the same thing, wouldn't hurt you? I'm afraid I don't understand how that adds up."

I looked at the ground, trying to gather my thoughts without letting them show on my face.

"Well," I explained slowly, "he is a murderer, I have no doubt he'll do it again, he can't be stopped, but-"

"Christine," he interrupted me once my voice was shaking too much for him to understand it, "I just want to understand."

"The dude's in love with me," I summarized.

"Pardon?"

"I said he's in love with me."

"I'm aware of that much," Raoul chuckled, "what did you call him?"

I paused.

"Uh. I believe I said 'the dude's in love with me.'"

He chuckled again, taking my hand and squeezing it lightly.

"I think Little Lotte may need some rest."

"Pourquoi ?"

"Christine," his slightly confused look hadn't faded, but there was now an overwhelming amount of concern on his face, too. "What on Earth is a dude?"

Well, shoot.

"It's... nothing, Raoul," I started back toward the door, "I- one more thing." He raised his eyebrows at me. "I..." I dropped the rose he'd given me, reminding myself that it was not the same one as the one in my cloak, "give that to someone else. Please. We haven't laid eyes on each other in years, this would never work."

He looked at me as if to say he'd been thinking the same thing, but was afraid to admit it.

"Look," I continued, "I love you, I always have, and we'll always be together, but... as friends. Okay? Friends?"