It took nearly a year- but we have reached the end of this story. I loved getting to know these Vampires and maybe one day I'll come back to write a one-shot in this AU, but for now it feels complete. Please also keep in mind that this is a horror story! (Also, if you haven't already, my new one-shot "The Forgotten" won 2nd place in the AU contest, so I would love it if you guys took a minute to read and review it!)
On with the Vampire adventures!
There was a light at the edge of the path.
The labyrinth had been difficult to navigate, but her eyes could see better in the dark now and she could clearly see many of the traps Erik had set for any intruders. She had ran faster than she could ever remember running before this. If one good thing had come from her newly damned existence it was the heightened abilities she had only just discovered. To think— she had been away from him for nearly ten minutes now and she had already found all sorts of new useful things about herself, things she could use to her advantage out there in the actual world! Right there—
Right there.
She slowed to a stop right at the edge of the path where a gate guarded the entrance to the underground catacombs, protecting the people on the outside from whatever may lay on the other side. Or perhaps it was the other way round; perhaps the gate was for her own safety, to shield Erik's kind from the rest of the world.
She shivered.
That was exactly the kind of answer Erik would've given her.
Her hands gripped the gate in front of her. One good tug and she could pull it open.
Her grip loosened.
Was she ready? Was she making the right choice? Erik would be distraught, that was a given, but was she ready to be by herself? With no one to ask questions to or sing with or...
Her mind ventured to her and Erik's activities just a few minutes ago.
She swallowed.
She couldn't miss him. Otherwise she would never leave.
She pulled the gate open.
The moon shone high above, a crescent among the thin wispy clouds around it. She let the hood of her cloak fall from her head, freeing her curls from their confinement. One step. Two steps, three steps, four steps—
She was doing it! She was leaving!
A smile lit up her face as she took off at a steady pace, attempting to put as much distance between herself and the gate as she could at a relatively normal human pace. Oh how she had missed the night air! She stopped and allowed herself to bask in its crispness, the pure serenity of it.
She heard a door open behind her.
Her throat tightened.
She had managed to walk just far enough so that she was in front of the entry stairs to the Opera House...in which she could only assume the Opera had just finished up judging by the mass of people exiting through the doors.
Blood.
She could smell it.
Like the first sign of water in a desert, her throat longed for it. And here it was, pumping through every single person's veins. She could practically see it underneath the skin of their arms, the skin of their neck, running through the dainty veins in their hands. Her vision was blurring in and out as her eyes searched for her target.
No!
She held her breath.
What was this feeling? It overtook her entire body, this overwhelming need to quench the monster inside, the ever present beast that was clawing up her throat.
Her hands shot up to grasp at her neck.
"Christine? Is that you?"
Her eyes shot open, wide with fear.
She wasted no time trying to see who had recognized her, instead choosing to push through the crowd of people, one hand over her nose and mouth, to get to the closest alleyway. She crashed against the side of a brick wall, her chest heaving up and down. She couldn't control it, she needed it. The forbidden fruit of Eden was just mere feet away from her yet she couldn't taste it— she couldn't! She held her breath again.
You don't know the fire that comes with the scent of a human...
Erik's words echoed in her mind, taunting her with their wisdom. She did now though, God help her, she did now! If she could just abstain it until she could find a way past them and away from the city she'd be alright, she just had to wait.
Her vision was going red.
"Christine, wait! You've been gone for months!"
Her body shook, ravaged with the need to breathe, the need to quell the fire that burned from the inside out. She was strong, she was strong, she was strong—
The man put his hand on her shoulder.
All her air came out in a huff and she quickly inhaled the tainted air.
It was the sweetest smell she had ever smelled.
She had him pinned to the ground before she even had a rational thought not to. Her teeth sank into the side of his throat, her fangs piercing the fragile skin. The warmth of it filled her as it gushed from his neck and into her ever ready mouth. She stayed there, hunched over him until no more came from him, until the only blood left was what lingered around the wound that she greedily licked.
She needed more.
Christine was disgusted, but the monster was pleased. This was what it was meant for. This was what the power that surged in its veins was meant to do. It was the predator, the world it's prey.
More...more...
She sat up, ready to ensnare the next person who chose to walk by—
A flash of blond hair caught her eye.
Raoul.
Her hand flew to cover her mouth.
No, no, no, no...
What had she done!
Beneath her, throat ripped wide open was Raoul de Chagny. Sweet Raoul whom she was to marry before she was taken, Raoul who had always been kind to her, Raoul who had saved her mother's scarf from the sea all those many years ago.
A strangled cry escaped her throat.
He was dead. Dead because of her. Because of the creature that craved the life of all it touched. Because of her recklessness, because of her, because of her, because of her!
She ran her hands over his face, his eyes forever frozen wide from shock. She slowly crept back, mortified by what laid in front of her.
Her and the monster inside were one in the same.
She was the monster.
Tears dropped from her eyes and down her face, torn between what to do. She was alone. This was her disaster to fix. Her mistake she'd have to live with for the rest of her life.
However long that may be...
Poor, unsuspecting Raoul, what would his family think when he didn't return home? What would they do if they were to find him here, brutally murdered in the back of an alleyway behind the opera? His sisters would never recover, not after this. How careless she had been!
She felt him before she heard him.
"I will dispose of it later."
She was too numb to even feel anger towards him for catching her. She raised from her knees so that she stood, back towards him.
"I...loved...him," she shakily got out between her cries, her arms pulling the cloak she wore tighter around her, her fists clutching the material.
"I know."
She staggered backwards until she felt her back hit him, his chest like stone. He tucked her into the crook of his arm, wrapping his own cloak around her to shroud her from the outside world.
"I know..." she heard him repeat, his own voice faltering.
A cold finger traced down her cheek until it hooked beneath her chin, tipping her face up to look at him. To look at the eyes she had fought so hard to be free of. But now...now she willingly succumbed to them. She wanted to forget.
Needed to forget.
She was no better than the heathen she accused Erik of being.
"You will not wander from me again, sweet. The world does not understand us, they never have and they never will. There is only darkness in this world, unforgiving darkness, but not ours. Ours has its own kind of light, it's own music, it's own rules, it's own love. You and I...you are too good for this world. I saved you from it once many moons ago, I care not to do it again."
His eyes were melting pits of gold, his own tears glimmering through the black of the mask he now wore, his eyes just barely visible underneath his hood but shining brighter than she'd ever seen them.
"Do you understand?"
She nodded, eyes only on his.
A sad smile crossed his lips for the briefest moment.
"You do not, but one day, one day you will..."
He fixed her cloak so that her own hood covered her curls, masking them from the peering glares of passing strangers.
"Come," he ordered, his grip tighter than she would've liked it around her shoulders.
And so she followed him, their cloaks turning them into nothing more than two shadows disappearing into the darkness that lay beneath the Earth...
Condemned to each other for their eternity.
The End.