Chapter Text
He stared at the black water of the bay and it stared back at him. No matter how hard he tried he simply could not tear his gaze away from the endless black void underneath him. The moon was high and cast a glimmer over the water, the glistening spots almost made the sea look inviting, mysterious. Just like on of his wretched illusions. But Raul wasn’t falling for his magic anymore, this person was no magician because if he truly were all of this would not have happened.
Christine was dead, his beautiful Christine was dead because of him. Surprisingly it hadn't even hurt Raul that in the end she didn’t choose him, Raul had known for a long time now that Christines heart belonged to her angel. Even though she never mentioned it he knew, she needed him, needed his music. He had always tied to build up a good and happy live for them as a family. In a way they were happy he was sure of that, but Christine needed music, and the stage and he hated himself that he took that away from her. So perhaps her death would have been preventable, if he had been better. He knew that, but right now it was easier to blame the man he hated the most for everything.
He stared back at the water, somehow it seemed even more hypnotizing now, it was calling him, whispering to him. Maybe he was still not immune to his Illusions…almost involuntarily Raul walked closer towards the edge of the peer he had been standing on. The thought of drowning himself crossed his mind. Was there any reason he shouldn’t do it? Christine was dead. The child he had raised and loved for almost eight years was not his own and probably gone too. He had nothing left. Nothing.
Just one more step forward and everything would be fine, just fine.
„De Chagny?“ Immediately he stumbled a few steps backward. That voice. He did not need to turn around to know who was talking to him.
„What do you want from me?“ He wanted to sound threatening, but he could not hide the sadness and grief in his voice. „I-Its Charles, he is crying and I don’t know how to make him stop.“ His voice still possessed that heavenly beauty but Raul noticed a slight waver, it sounded as if the man behind him had to hold back his tears too. He took a deep breath and continued, his voice nothing more than a whisper now. „Charles, he…he wants to see his father…“
At these words Raul finally turned around to look at the man behind him. There he stood, his angel of Death. At first glance he looked truly imposing, maybe frightening and mighty too. But not for Raul. He could see that he was trembling beneath his pristine clothes, his long black cloak and the withe glistening Porcelain mask covering his whole face.
But right now Raul did not care about the fact that the Phantom was probably one second away from a breakdown. Charles wanted to see him, he wanted to see Raul, his father.
***
The walk back to Eriks house or liar, or wherever the man lived was quiet, quiet and hushed. The masked man (Raul still didn’t know his name, he briefly wondered if he even had one) was moving like a shadow, fast and without making the slightest noise. The wretched amusement park looked even more horrifying at night with the mist swirling around the houses each one looking more gruesome than the other. And Raul was chasing a shadow, a shadow of death.
After what seemed like an eternity they finally arrived at the right house. It looked disturbingly normal? Somehow Raul had expected something like a dark massive castle that would be suitable for the devil himself. But compared to the other houses around Cony Island it seemed almost friendly. The Phantom opened the door, seemingly without even touching it and immediately Raul heard the cries of his son, he pushed the man in front of him aside and ran into the house. He wanted to get to Charles as fast as possible but as he entered he had no idea where the monster had put him. Furiously he turned around, lunging at the man. „Did you seriously just leave him here all alone?!“ Instinctively the Phantom made a step back, apparently Rauls outburst had caught him off guard. Raul came even closer and the other mans back hit the door behind him, he was still vibrating with anger. „Do you have any empathy at all? How would you have felt as a child if you’d been left alone at night in a house like that?!“ The man just stared at Raul, still at a loss of words. The only sounds were the faint crying of Charles and Rauls own rapid breath, partly from sprinting through Coney Island and partly because of his anger.
He stared at the pair of sunken unequal eyes in front of him, it always seemed like they were glowing, in an unnatural not human like way. It was disturbing, the man in front of him was disturbing, it was even more disturbing that this person was supposed to be the father of his lovely son. All of a sudden Raul noticed how close they were, almost touching, his own face was only a few inches away from the cold porcelain mask with the uneven glowing eyes.
Instinctively Raul made a hasty step backwards, he did not want to be close to that man, it seemed like said man snapped out of his trance as there was some distance between the two of them again. In the blink of an eye he became the imposing Phantom again, every trace of shock, panic was gone all of a sudden, hidden beneath many layers of clothing his mask and his outer worldly voice.
„He is in the first Room upstairs, go and calm him down.“ A chill ran down Rauls spine. The voice wasn’t full of anger as his own had been just mere minutes ago and yet Raul didn’t dare to disobey his orders. It felt like some other force suddenly had taken control over his body as he walked up the staircase towards the Room where he would find Charles.
Maybe the masked man was truly a magician, and Raul realized that he had underestimated his power, greatly.
***
Erik did not dare to follow Raul upstairs. He managed to stumble into the kitchen before breaking down, he curled up in the corner that was the farthest from the door. This was not supposed to happen! None of this was supposed to happen! Christine was supposed to be alive, alive and happy! But she was dead, she was never supposed to be dead. A sob escaped him and he put his hand over his masked mouth to stifle the sound. Everything was his fault, and he knew it, driven by greed and love, love for his darling Christine, his true angel he had ripped this family apart. In a way he was the one who killed Christine…
His hands, no his whole body was shaking violently and he couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. Christine was dead and he had a child. And the child probably hated him more that anything. Not only that but Charles feared him, was disgusted by him and his corpse-face. Suddenly he couldn’t breath anymore, the mask was suffocating him! But he couldn’t take it of it was his only protection, the only safety Erik had left in the world. Christine was dead, the only person who could look at his horrid visage and smile was dead, and it was all Eriks own fault!
Tears were mixing with his snot beneath his mask, his breathing was becoming more and more rapid and yet it felt like he was still not getting any air. So there was no other choice for him than to tear it of, finally it felt like air was getting back into Eriks lungs. His normal perfect vision was still blurry from all his tears but he could finally breathe again.
Christine was dead.
Once again the truth hit him hard perhaps even harder now as he felt his head clearing and the panic slowly subsiding again. The only person who ever loved him was dead. It felt as if the cruel truth were paralyzing his entire body, he could not move, he could not cry anymore, just stare into the endless darkness that lay before him.
***
Raul was exhausted as he was walking down the stairs, finally he had managed to calm Charles down. Raul himself was barely holding on and he understood that everything that had happened must be even more disturbing for his own son. He decided that he would keep calling him that, his son. Charles needed him, Charles wanted to stay with him, he had made that very clear tonight. Even if this monster was his father by blood, Raul would not give away his child. Love was stronger than blood, and obviously love was not something this monster understood.
Hesitantly Raul entered what he believed was the living room, he truly did not want to speak to this person anymore, but unfortunately it was inevitable. The strange man had lit a few candles and as he entered Raul found him sitting in a big armchair. He truly looked like an angel now, with the faint candlelight only illuminating the white cold porcelain mask. An angel of death. Raul sat down on the chaiselongue next to the armchair. He let out an exhausted sigh.
„He’s asleep now.“ Raul broke the icy silence between them.
„Thats good.“ The man next to him answered, he sounded neutral, the hypnotizing commanding tone in his voice was gone, and Raul was truly thankful for that.
Silence, again.
Raul was the one to break it once more.
„Im not leaving him you know. He is my son and you won’t just take him away.“ He glanced at the phantom again, waiting for any type of reaction, anger another command perhaps? But Raul was ready to fight, ready to fight for his child, this nasty hypnotizing won’t work on him again. Burt there was no command For a moment the phantom looked almost, relieved or perhaps resigned.“
„I was rather hoping you’d say that, recent events have proven that I am completely unsuitable to be a…a father. Charles is obviously disgusted by me and I won’t ruin his live any further. The greatest gift I can give him is to vanish, forever.“
For a moment Raul was shocked. He expected everything but that. He didn’t like how defeated the phantom sounded. Fore some reason it made him angry that the man was giving up his son so easily.
„Do you think this is what Christine would have wanted?“ Raul snapped, he could see the man flinching visibly as he mentioned her name. But Raul didn’t care. „You already left her once, even though she was ready to go with you and now you want to leave your child too, great do that!“ Raul truly had no idea why he was getting so worked up about that all of a sudden, he should be happy that the this thing did not want to take away his child.
„Don't make a fool of yourself De Chagny, the child is obviously disgusted of me, and I have done irreversible damage to his live, so why in gods name should I stay.?“ The mocking tone could not conceal the hurt in his voice.
Raul took another deep breath before answering him. „He needs you too, you both might not know it yet but I think you need each other…you need something to keep you from going completely insane and he needs music. And unfortunately you are the embodiment of music, and I can’t take that away from him, not after I took it from Christine.“
Silence again. The other man seemed to be processing what Raul had just said.
„But he needs you too.“ The beautiful voice whispered.
„I know.“
„And how would such an arrangement work?“ The voice asked.
„Unfortunately I don’t know.“
Silence again, both men were deliberately not looking at each other. This time the masked man broke the silence.
„I have a house in France, its quite big…I designed it myself, years ago. I’ve been using it when I occasionally visited France in the last few years. Its not no close to Paris and not too far away…Its quite big, big enough for three people…“
Raul stared into the living room a little longer, unable to move. This was insane, absolutely insane. But that’s not what he said out loud.
„Christine always wanted to be buried in Perros, next to her father.“
„The house isn’t too far away from there. It would be easy to visit her grave regularly.“
Raul finally looked up, directly into the mismatched glowing eyes. „Then its settled, we’re going to France.“
„I just have one more question. What’s your name?"
The man hesitated a moment before finally answering.
„Erik.“