No Backward Glances

Prologue

{Christine's P.O.V}
December 2nd, 1882

It's been exactly one year since I've seen my beloved angel. I feel as though I have died. It seems like a lifetime ago when we sang together in his lair. Back then everything was so much simpler.

On the night I fled the Opera, Raoul took me to his manor & told me I could live there. My life there was a living hell. Before I moved in I never knew how excessively he could drink...or how cruel he could be when he did. He would go the bar with his friends almost every night. & every time I did something he didn't like, he'd beat me & tell me how truly awful I was. At least he had been honest about what a disgrace I am. I wished every night for Erik, my angel to come & save me but I realized it was up to me to find him.

So after six months, I left without a second thought. I left behind a note saying that I had gone to live a new life & left my engagement ring next to the paper. I took a horse, money, my cloak, a few articles of clothing & I was off. That was the night before our wedding was supposed to take place...six long months ago.

Since then I've been using the list of emergency homes Erik gave me at the Opera to search for him. I remember him giving them to me one of the nights I went down to his lair with him. He told me that if anything ever happened that would put me in danger, he would take me to one of these homes. I searched all the homes in France that were on the list. But at each cottage & flat I went to, I found nothing but empty rooms.

After I finished looking in all the French homes, there was only one address left on the list. It was a flat in England. So I sold my horse & used the majority of that money to buy a boat ticket to England.

During my six months searching for Erik I wisely decided to ration my money properly. This caused me to stay on the streets most nights but occasionally when it was especially cold out, I let myself stay in a stingy motel. The saving of my money also caused me to wear nothing but the four ensembles I packed when I left the Changy Manor. The dresses were ratty & torn but I would use whatever I had.

& now here I was. England. I hoped he was here. I prayed he was here.