Chapter Six/Epilogue
Raoul stood with his eyes wide. "Daughter?" he asked, eyes wide with shock, but then his eyes turned soft as tears stood in them. "Then you truly love him…"
Christine was next to Angèl within half a moment and the girl was stirring back towards consciousness. Erik stooped next to them, reaching a shaking hand to his beautiful daughter's face where the porcelain mask she had worn had splintered when hit by the debris, slicing into her face. He closed his eyes briefly and stood, shaking with a murderous rage as he looked at the officer.
"Papa? You'll hurt yourself more," came a quiet voice.
Christine took his hand. "Erik, please don't. They'll leave, won't they, Raoul?" she asked her old friend pointedly. "You will tell them to leave, won't you?"
"Yes," Raoul answered softly. "You heard the lady, leave."
"But, sir, you really have no authority to –"
"I was the one who told you he was down here. I see I have made a mistake now! Go!"
The officers looked to one another nervously and back to the aristocrat who had since taken the rope from his neck and thrown it back to the ground. They moved out slowly, the mob dissipating and leaving everything in apparent chaos. Raoul looked to Leron who was staring at Angèl and her parents intently. He started forward and the boy, more a man with every step he took, let out a shaky breath. "Angèl…"
She looked at him, trying to wipe more of the blood from her face and forcing back a bit of a laugh. "Perhaps I'll have to take the name of 'phantom' from you, Papa. I will do little good as an angel with a marred face as this."
"You are still beautiful," her father said as he pulled her to him. She turned her eyes upward, smiling a bit, but then she turned back to Leron.
The man stood with his eyes fixed on her, pleading for forgiveness. Begging for it. Their eyes met as she stood onand he moved forward, dropping to his knees before her, and grasped blindly at her cloak. "Angèl…" was all he seemed to be able to say, his voice holding a strange melody-like quality as he repeated it over and over, tears streaming down his face in pure loathing of himself and what he had blindly done and allowed. "What can I do... How can I ever..." he managed, voice beginning to sound choked by the sob he had managed to keep down.
Angèl knelt next to him, running a long, thin finger along his smooth cheek. "Say you'll share with me one love one lifetime," she sang in a near-whisper. "Say the words and I will follow you. Lead me, take me from my solitude. Love me, that's all I ask of you."
Leron reached forward and grasped her, pulling her close where her bloodied cheek rested on his shoulder. "Wherever you go, let me go to."
"Say you love me."
"You know I do!"
"Love me," Angèl sang, Leron's voice coming in half a beat later. "That's all I ask of you."
Erik looked on at the two, eyes slightly wide. He stood slowly with Christine's help, favoring his leg. She stood on her toes and kissed his cheek. "She alone can make our song take flight," she whispered into his ear, kissing him again and he pulled her close.
"Monsieur! Where are you going?" Leron called out over the stairway of the grand opera house.
Raoul looked back over his shoulder, adjusting his top hat has he did so. "I am leaving, of course." He gave the young man a small smile. "It's time that I… bow out with as much grace as I might be able to regain. Congratulations on your engagement, lad."
"Thank you, sir."
"Your bride's father is pleased with it?"
Leron laughed as he descended the stairs. "He said that if someone had to marry her, it might as well be me, though I wasn't quite sure how to take that! He loves his daughter very much. I promised that I would not take her away from this place and we would stay."
"That should keep him happy."
"I do believe I made his day with my promise."
Raoul smiled. "Give your bride my congratulations as well." He paused. "And tell her mother… thank you."
"What for, sir?"
"Everything." He tapped his walking stick on the marble floor. "Do well with your life, lad."
"Wait, sir! One moment. Won't you come to the opening act of Angèl's father's opera?"
"Erik has a new opera? Perhaps I might see it. What is it called?"
"The Phantom of the Opera."
Raoul smiled a bit and tipped his hat. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."
A/N: There's the end. Hope ya'll enjoyed it!
Tracy137:Thank you very much. It was a bit choppy, wasn't it:sigh: oh well, I knew there was something wrong with it, but it was so clear in my mind. Though as my father has pointed out many a time, if I could put what was in my mind directly to the public, it would drive them mad. Thanks for your review!
Number 356:Ah! Thank you so much! You're so kind! I'm glad you like it :)