“Masquerade, paper faces on parade.
Masquerade, hide your face so the world will never find you.”
Masquerade, hide your face so the world will never find you.”
His haunting voice floated through the air as Christine approached. She had returned to him, although still not quite sure why. Her heart clenched at the familiar verses. She had never thought of that song as a sad one, it usually being accompanied by swirling, spiraling patterns of colors and the voices of so many celebrating the new year. But now, as she listened, really listened with her heart to the words and the sound of his lost voice, she could hear what the Phantom must of heard.
She could feel it, rising up in her chest. The overwhelming, unescapable helplessness and longing. The complete loss of hope. His only wish: to be loved. To no longer be forced to hide away in the darkness for something that wasn’t his fault. For something that he couldn’t help. He wasn’t even allowed a chance to try.
Tears came to her eyes. She was ashamed. He had been there in the dark nights, he had cared for her, taught her, showed her something special that she had had inside of herself. He had tried to communicate with her through his music; the only way he knew how to communicate with the outside world without being feared and hated. He had done all this for her in hopes that perhaps, somehow, he wouldn’t have to be alone anymore. Alone in the darkness. And she had betrayed and abandoned him. He had trusted her to save him from his dark fate and she had been too selfish to see what he had been trying to tell her all along.
Suddenly, his attention turned from the music box that he had been studying and their eyes met.
“Christine, I love you.”
Those four words, sung so sadly and with so much hope, broke her heart. She felt something stirring inside of her. Rising from the deepest depths of her heart and filling her mind. A strange feeling. Something that was similar to what she felt for Raoul when she saw him and yet different and...stronger. Comprehension came to her. She loved this man. She loved him with every inch of her soul which, until now, had been kept silent under a careful blanket of securing darkness. Afraid of where this realization might lead her.
She was safe loving Raoul. Her future would be set. No surprising twists or turns. Simply a life led in content. But loving the Phantom...she didn’t have the faintest idea where that would lead her. She still could not forget that look of malice and possession that flashed across his eyes whenever she had done something unpleasing to him. She could still not forget the bitterness that had poisoned his heart. And yet, as she stood there looking into his ruined face, all she could see in his eyes were flashes of pain, sadness, and the terrifying possibility of hope.
She knew that she could ease away that pain of loneliness. She could slowly extract that poison. He was a good man inside. His heart was good. It was only the years of being constantly ostracized by society that had caused him to form these harsh callouses against the world. The years that he had been forced to stay hidden away from the light. Only she would be able to save him, she knew. Only she would be able to save him from his sanctuary of darkness that had now become his prison. He would accept no one else. He was already driven farther away by her apparent choice of another man. She had to choose her fate now. Choose between the bright and straight road which, if not complete happiness, at least was a promise of light and freedom, and the road of darkness and uncertainty which her heart was both terrified of and begged for.
She knew she loved him, but did she have the strength and courage to save him?
