The Devil Never Sleeps

That night, Christine pulled herself into bed fully clothed, her heart beating rapidly as her eyes remained wide open in sharp awareness. She could not even consider falling asleep, for when she awoke, she would be led far away from Paris. Of course, she had thought about what would happen should she refuse to go, but such an option was out of reach. After all, where would she run to? She did not have a home in Paris, and she did not know where Erik was residing. And if she were somehow lucky enough to find his house in this massive metropolis, what would she do if he was, indeed, still in Rouen? No, standing outside of his house day and night until he returned was madness at best.

And so as the night wore on, she blinked away her fatigue and looked in the corner over and over again, hoping to catch a glimpse of those yellow eyes. But every time she did, she saw nothing, and her apprehension mounted with every passing moment. He was not coming. And she would leave this house in the morning, and he would never know where she had gone or what had happened to her. And worse, she would never be able to tell him that she did not want to go, and that she wanted him to take her away.

The wee hours of the morning passed by without any movement in the room, though, and weariness finally took her over as she fell into a dreamless sleep. She wasn't sure how long she slept before she heard the creak of the floorboards and her eyes flew open instantly. She sat up in bed at breakneck speed and looked around, relief flooding her veins as the two golden pinpricks of light glowed across the room.

"Erik," she breathed, throwing her blankets off of her before she rushed towards him. Before he had a chance to say a word, she threw her arms around him and buried her face in his shoulder, unable to restrain herself. He stiffened for a moment, perhaps surprised at her fervor, but after a second he relaxed and embraced her uncertainly.

It was only a moment of bliss, though, before she pulled back somewhat and looked at him with crazed eyes. "You must take me back. Tonight."

This time, with her candle flickering in the corner, she could see the faint features of his face as they contorted in confusion. "He will come after you," he told her with a shake of his head.

"I don't care!" she exclaimed, no longer restricting herself to a whisper. "We can go somewhere far away—anywhere! Just please take me away." He looked at her hard, trying to read just how genuine this plead was, and she finally let out a long sigh, her eyebrows coming together in distress.

"He's taking me to Sweden tomorrow. And I have nowhere else to go." His eyes seemed to fill with understanding, and she shook her head swiftly, her breath hitching in her throat. "If you do not take me back tonight, I don't know when I could possibly see you again."

He was silent for a moment, and all Christine could hear was the sound of wind beating against the window intermingled with the sound of her rapid breathing. Finally, he took in a breath and spoke once again. "You want to come back with me?" he asked her slowly, and she took his hands in hers, squeezing them gently.

"Yes, I do," she told him, and he looked away for a moment, pain written clearly in his eyes.

"Because I am the lesser of two evils?" he asked her in the same tone, and she felt her heart drop slightly.

"No, that is not it," she said after a moment's pause, but he didn't seem to hear.

"You do not want to be with the Viscount, and so you want Erik to take you away, because you have nowhere else to go," he elaborated, and she could hear the thinly veiled agony in his voice. "I understand," he finally nodded, his eyes coming back to her.

"Erik, you are not listening to me," she begged, and after a moment, his eyes softened in something akin to acceptance. Indeed, her words seemed to remind him that that her sentiments were perfectly sincere and that she spoke in truth when she said that she wanted to run away with him.

"I have deceived you, though. I have done wrong," he continued on after a pause, shaking his head despite her insistence.

"We all do wrong, Erik. But when you love somebody, you can look past those things towards a better future." His mouth hung open as he looked at her in disbelief and wonder, a low breath escaping his lips. The words had barely hung in the air before three swift knocks echoed from the door. Both of their heads snapped towards the unexpected sound, before they heard a voice beyond the door's threshold.

"Christine?" It was Raoul's voice, and her heartbeat quickened once again as her mouth ran dry. "One of the servants told me they heard a commotion—that you were perhaps talking to somebody," he explained, and she looked at Erik desperately, unable to force even a word out of her mouth. He made no movement, fully aware that there was nowhere he could go, and they both looked back at the door helplessly.

The door was unlocked, and she knew that there was no stopping it when the doorknob turned and the door was nudged open tentatively. "Is everything alright?"

When he stepped in, he was taken aback to see her out of bed, and it was only a split second before he saw the second occupant of the room. He immediately stiffened, and she could see his hands clench, aching for a weapon of some sort.

"What is going on?" Raoul demanded, and Christine stared at him, her mouth agape as she searched for some explanation. Erik seemed to read her distress, though, and he spoke swiftly before she could struggle for words a moment longer.

"I'm taking her back home." Erik's words made her eyes fly to him, and she let out small sigh of relief. But from behind her, she could hear Raoul's voice growing anxious as he spoke to her with alarm.

"She is home," he began at first, before continuing on. "Christine, come to my side. I will call the police immediately, and we'll have him locked up for good."

She turned back to him at this, her eyebrows furrowing at his demand. "What are you talking about?" she asked slowly, and Raoul scoffed in impatience at her reply.

"He's a murderer! A kidnapper, a liar, a despicable human being!" Raoul argued, and she could sense Erik stiffen at the words, perhaps quelling his urge to lash out in return.

"Can the past not be redeemed?" she shouted back, her fear morphing into full-blown anger in the blink of an eye.

"Simply because he has manipulated you into feeling some sort of attachment to him does not mean that all of his wrongs can be forgotten!" he replied fiercely. Christine looked at Erik weakly, but he merely stared back at her in response, waiting to hear what she had to say just as much as Raoul was.

"He has not manipulated me into doing anything!" she cried, turning back to Raoul frantically. "You are only saying these things because I am choosing to stay with him and your pride is wounded," she accused, and Raoul smiled faintly in response.

"You are only unhappy with me because you know that you made a mistake," he reasoned, and Christine clenched her jaw in resentment. "You know that you were misguided in believing that this man could provide a sensible or stable life for you, but you needn't be upset! The death of a family member can make us all blind to reality, and I am here to guide you back onto the correct path," Raoul told her with false encouragement, and she watched as a flicker of pleading hope passed through his eyes. Yes, he was desperately wishing that she would go with him, and she knew instantly that it was because he loved her.

"You cannot guide me anywhere, Raoul," she told him sadly, her anger suddenly snuffed out at as she stared into that frantic gaze. "You only know me as a child—as a little girl who played by the sea with you—but you could never know me as a wife."

Raoul's face fell at this, and he was silent for a beat. "You don't know what you're saying," he stammered, but she sensed that he knew her words to be true. Christine let out a low breath, looking down at her hands before she spoke again.

"I know precisely what I'm saying," she told him, and her eyes shifted to Erik after a pause, their eyes meeting in silence before she turned back to Raoul. "You were right before, when you said that you were nothing like Erik," she told him, and Raoul's jaw clenched instinctively. But it all seemed to become clear as she spoke, and all sense of indecision seemed to fly away from her with each word. "Because I love him. And I only think I'm supposed to love you."

The words seemed to hit him squarely in the chest, and hearing the spoken aloud with no hesitation made him stop dead. "But you do not," Raoul finished for her, his voice barely coming above a whisper as he looked hard at her.

"No," she told him faintly as she shook her head, sensing both men's eyes on her. "I do not."

Raoul blinked, his lips coming together in a thin line as he looked away abruptly, unable to find any words to reply with. That was when she felt Erik's presence come up beside her, his hand coming to rest between her shoulder blades tenderly.

"You will let us walk out of here together," Erik said finally, and Christine felt a sense of comfort come over her at the sound of his voice, now strong and commanding once more. "You will not follow us. You will not tell anybody that I was here. You will merely say that Christine has decided to live on her own in an apartment somewhere in Paris."

Raoul's eyes lifted as he looked at the two of them, barely willing to believe what he was hearing as his gaze shifted between them sadly. "I do not want you to leave," he said finally as his eyes came to rest on Christine. "I imagine such an incredible future with you."

"I know," she told him gently, for the desolate look on his face had only deepened. "But it's not what is meant to be. I just know it."

He was silent for some time after that as he took in her words and processed them. After a long pause, he looked down and blinked several times, his breath shaking. "And you will be happy?"

The ghost of a smile came to her face at last, and she nodded almost imperceptibly in response. "Yes, I will," she told him firmly, but he would not dare to look at her. Another moment passed as they looked at one another before Raoul finally stepped aside, revealing the door to the bedroom. Erik began to lead her towards the door, but Christine stopped in her tracks as she passed by Raoul, who was looking desolately down at her hands.

"Raoul," she said, and he looked up slowly, a frown etched into his features. "I do not despise you."

His lips twitched in the semblance of a weak smile, but he did not respond, even after she had smiled in return. Still, there seemed to be a sense of resolution in his expression, and he finally looked between the two of them and gave her a slow nod. And so, after a final pause, she turned back to Erik and they walked easily out of the house and into the midst of night.

When they had reached the street, they began to walk leisurely through the night as Erik led her back towards the house. The roads were empty, and they didn't see a soul or hear a sound, save for their own footsteps. After several minutes of this silence, Christine looped her arm around his, pressing her shoulder against his as they walked.

"This is not a dream, is it?" she asked as she looked up at him briefly, looking for some emotion in his masked face.

He glanced back down, some mixture of disbelief and delight swimming in his eyes. "No, I do not believe it is."

A smile came to her face as she looked forward once again, gazing into the misty fog that drifted through the light of the streetlamps. "Were you in Rouen all this time?" she asked him, and she felt him nod slowly.

"Yes. Nadir is still at my home there, thinking that I'm fast asleep. He'll be furious if he finds out what I've done," he mused, though she could sense the seriousness that laced his tone. They fell in silence, for Christine hadn't any idea how to soften his worries, and she did not want to trouble him further.

"Erik," she finally said as she stopped in her tracks, turning to him as he came to a halt as well. "You know that I am not here simply because I do not have a home," she told him, and his mouth turned down somewhat. "I am here because you are my home."

He did not seem to know what to say in response, and so Christine merely leaned up and pressed her lips to his gently, lingering there for a moment before she pulled back. He simply looked down at her, his eyes filled with something that she could not place, and she linked her arm with his once again and led him down the street.

"What happens next?" she asked him simply, and he was quiet for another moment before he glanced at her with a small smile that was filled with adoration.

"Whatever you'd like to happen," he replied easily, and a grin came to her face at his words as she contemplated the possibilities.

"I have always wanted to travel somewhere that I've never been," she mused, her eyes drifting up to the sky in thought.

"Name the place. We can go anywhere," he told her, and she chuckled a bit to herself at the gallant nature of his reply. "We can travel and see every opera and sing every day."

"Everywhere. I want to go everywhere," she told him teasingly, and he let out a small laugh himself, a sound she rarely heard.

"I'm afraid you'll have to choose one place first, and then we'll talk," he told her, his voice light, and she nudged him teasingly. They walked for a moment in silence after this, their pace leisurely as they turned down a new street.

"Will Nadir be very cross?" she asked after several minutes, her tone somewhat more somber this time.

"I'm sure he will be," Erik replied, looking away for a moment as he spoke, perhaps hiding his apprehension at this notion.

"We shall write him a letter, then," Christine told him firmly, hoping to raise his spirits. "He can visit us any time he likes, if only to ensure that I'm not being chained up in your basement or something equally absurd." The words were meant in jest, and thankfully Erik smiled in amusement as he heard them.

"We shall simply tell him that we are off to…" she paused for a moment, searching for a place to travel. "Austria! We're off to Austria to get married." The words had come out of her mouth before the thought had even entered her mind, and Erik stopped dead in his tracks before he looked at her slowly, his mouth slightly agape at her sentiment.

"What did you say?" he asked her, and she gulped as she stopped as well, looking up at him expectantly.

"I can be your wife, can't I?" she asked him tentatively, and she felt her breath stop in her throat as she stared at him in unveiled hope. He was silent for far too long, and she felt dread overcome her as he watched her in astonishment. "Erik?" she asked slowly, and he looked down for a moment.

"I simply never thought I would hear such words," he explained, and she smiled weakly at this.

"I'm afraid that was not the response I had hoped for," she admitted, and his eyes flew back to her, as if finally registering what she had said.

"There is nothing I would hope for more than to be by your side for all my days," he told her with determination, and her breath seemed to leave her all at once at his words. They lingered for a moment, but there didn't seem to be a need to say anything more, and they both began to walk once again as contentment fell over them. It wasn't until they found themselves across the street from his house, stopping to let a lone carriage pass, when she finally spoke again, her tone ironic and questioning.

"Erik," she asked him curiously, cocking her head to the side. "If the devil never sleeps, does that mean the devil's wife isn't permitted to sleep either?"

He looked down at her, raising an eyebrow at the query, before he looked back up and began to lead them across the street towards his house.

"I suppose we'll have to see about that."

His words echoed faintly across the street as they came up the pathway to his home, their arms still linked together, before they disappeared resolutely past the threshold of that wonderfully familiar wooden door.

49 days, 131 pages, and 58,672 words—that's the culmination of The Devil Never Sleeps! The ending snuck up me, actually, because this story was 100% unplanned, meaning I had no idea what was going to happen in the next chapter until I wrote it. But here it is, and I hope it did not disappoint!

I want to thank a few people who have been with me for a lot of this story, and whose reviews have kept me going! Thank you to CaptainHooksGirl, Phan3145, Deadtom77, PhantomFan01, Ailovec, letthesongtakeflight, and emeraldphan, who were there with me nearly from the beginning—and for some of you, from the first chapter! Thank you to all the reviewers and readers, and I dearly hope you enjoyed this one. Until next time!

Christine