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charleygirlTitle: Beyond the Green Baize Door 5/?
Author: charleygirl
Word Count: 1202
Rating: G
Genre: General, Drama
Characters Involved: Christine Daae, Raoul de Chagny
Disclaimer: The Phantom of the Opera is the creation of Gaston Leroux but probably these days copyright to Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Summary: When the plan to catch the Phantom during Don Juan Triumphant is hatched, Christine is not happy with Raoul.
Author's Notes: Intended to be a Phantom version of my series Jottings from a Doctor's Journal, a collection of fragments, vignettes and missing scenes. Mainly musical-based, but I have picked up bits and pieces from various places.
NOWHERE TO TURN
Emerging from the managers’ office, Raoul looked desperately right and left along the corridor until he spotted the hem of her blue gown vanishing around the corner.
“Christine! Christine, wait!”
He gave chase, and caught up with her just as she was entering her dressing room. She would have shut the door on him but he stuck his foot between it and the frame, forcing her to allow him to enter. Turning her back on him she paced to the middle of the room, her arms wrapped tightly around herself as though she was in pain.
“Christine, my darling, what is the matter? What has upset you so?” he asked, bewildered by her behaviour. He had just hit upon the perfect way to trap the Phantom – surely she should be pleased to think that within a few short weeks she would be able to breathe freely at last!
She laughed, shortly, but there was no humour in the sound. “You really have to ask?” There was a pause, during which he did not answer, confused by the question. After several seconds of silence her shoulders slumped and she said, “Go away, Raoul.”
“No, I will not.” Quickly he crossed the room, taking hold of her upper arms as she would not let him near her hands. Her face was tilted downwards, her gaze on the floor; when he touched a finger beneath her chin to raise it to meet his she refused. “Christine, I have never seen you act like this. It is that fiend’s influence, it must be; you are still under his spell, even after all this time! What has he done to you?”
“How do you know what is normal for me, Raoul?” she demanded, finally lifting her head to look him full in the face. Her brown eyes were shining with unshed tears but her chin and mouth were set with a determination which gave her the aspect of a stranger. “Until the gala the last time we saw each other was when we were children! I am no longer your Little Lotte; I may still be a child to some, but I have grown since then and I have had to face the prospect of a life alone – can you blame me for accepting comfort when it was offered, even comfort from that man you just called a ‘fiend’? You have never even met him! He was my Angel of Music, was kind to me, and supported me when no one else would! Am I to just abandon him?”
“Christine, he has mesmerised you, filled your head with nonsense. Remember the chandelier – he could have killed you!”
“Oh, that horrible chandelier!” Christine threw up her hands in exasperation and turned away from him towards the mirror. “The chain was old and rusting – even the workmen said that it was an accident waiting to happen.”
Raoul recalled the Phantom’s insane laughter as he released the rope and allowed the chandelier to drop towards the stage and very much doubted that it had truly been an accident, but he did not say so. They stood there for some moments, Christine’s eyes fixed on the looking glass before her, as though she saw something in her reflection that he could not. “And what about Joseph Buquet? Was that an accident, too?” he asked eventually. She said nothing, and so he dared to broach the subject he found most distasteful: “Do you... do you care for him, Christine? Despite everything he has done?”
Christine shook her head sharply. “Yes... no... I don’t know! I am so confused, and this ridiculous charade is only making it worse. Do you honestly think that you will get away with it? He knows everything that happens in this theatre; you will not take him by surprise, but none of you can see that! You are all so obsessed with catching the Phantom that you are blind to anything else around you!”
“Christine, please - ”
“You have made this plan, and yet you lay the responsibility on my shoulders! None of you will let me think for myself! I don’t know what to do, how to act. I have no one to turn to; I can’t keep anything straight in my head because there is always too much noise! You, Erik, the rest of them... I am pulled every which way and I hate it, Raoul!” Her hands clenched in her hair, pulling at it in her frustration.
“We must go through with this, Christine,” he said, gently laying a hand on her arm. He attempted to meet her eyes in the mirror but she looked away. “We cannot allow him to win.”
“Do you know how the big game hunters in India catch tigers?” she enquired, much to his surprise. Before he could answer, she continued, “They tether a kid beneath a tree, then hide in the tree and wait for their bait to bring out the tiger. When the tiger takes the kid, they shoot it.” She turned to face him. “Is that what I am in all this, Raoul? Bait?”
“If we let him live, we will never be free of him. Do you truly want to spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder, wondering if he is there?”
She made no comment, instead choosing to attack him with another question. “Do you love me, Raoul?”
“Do I - ?” Astonished, he took an involuntary step backwards. “Of course I do! How can you doubt me?”
“Because if you truly loved me you would not put me in this impossible position!” she cried. “How could you do that to me, Raoul? How could you? Erik may be many things, but he would never deliberately put me in danger, especially not so he could score points against a rival!”
“Score points...? Christine, he is a madman, capable of anything! You know that!”
“Do I?” She looked sad all of a sudden. “I don’t understand anything anymore.” Her voice dropped to a whisper and Raoul only just caught her next words, “Perhaps if we were treated as he has been we would be mad too...”
In desperation, he finally captured her hands, bringing them to his lips. “My darling, we have no choice. The Phantom must be stopped, for all our sakes.”
Christine regarded him for a long moment. “No, there are choices, but for your own ends you decide to give me none,” she said, pulling away and walking to her wardrobe. Taking out her cloak, she settled its blue velvet folds around her shoulders. “I need some time alone, Raoul, time to think.”
“Where are you going?” He followed her to the door, noticing with a pang that she had wound a red scarf around her neck. Perhaps it was the same one he had rescued from the sea all those years ago. Oh, how he wished they could return to that time, when they were happy and free and there were no masked maniacs dogging their footsteps. How much simpler life had been back then!
She sighed. “To talk to the only person in this world I have ever been able to trust.
“My father.”
Author: charleygirl
Word Count: 1202
Rating: G
Genre: General, Drama
Characters Involved: Christine Daae, Raoul de Chagny
Disclaimer: The Phantom of the Opera is the creation of Gaston Leroux but probably these days copyright to Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Summary: When the plan to catch the Phantom during Don Juan Triumphant is hatched, Christine is not happy with Raoul.
Author's Notes: Intended to be a Phantom version of my series Jottings from a Doctor's Journal, a collection of fragments, vignettes and missing scenes. Mainly musical-based, but I have picked up bits and pieces from various places.
Emerging from the managers’ office, Raoul looked desperately right and left along the corridor until he spotted the hem of her blue gown vanishing around the corner.
“Christine! Christine, wait!”
He gave chase, and caught up with her just as she was entering her dressing room. She would have shut the door on him but he stuck his foot between it and the frame, forcing her to allow him to enter. Turning her back on him she paced to the middle of the room, her arms wrapped tightly around herself as though she was in pain.
“Christine, my darling, what is the matter? What has upset you so?” he asked, bewildered by her behaviour. He had just hit upon the perfect way to trap the Phantom – surely she should be pleased to think that within a few short weeks she would be able to breathe freely at last!
She laughed, shortly, but there was no humour in the sound. “You really have to ask?” There was a pause, during which he did not answer, confused by the question. After several seconds of silence her shoulders slumped and she said, “Go away, Raoul.”
“No, I will not.” Quickly he crossed the room, taking hold of her upper arms as she would not let him near her hands. Her face was tilted downwards, her gaze on the floor; when he touched a finger beneath her chin to raise it to meet his she refused. “Christine, I have never seen you act like this. It is that fiend’s influence, it must be; you are still under his spell, even after all this time! What has he done to you?”
“How do you know what is normal for me, Raoul?” she demanded, finally lifting her head to look him full in the face. Her brown eyes were shining with unshed tears but her chin and mouth were set with a determination which gave her the aspect of a stranger. “Until the gala the last time we saw each other was when we were children! I am no longer your Little Lotte; I may still be a child to some, but I have grown since then and I have had to face the prospect of a life alone – can you blame me for accepting comfort when it was offered, even comfort from that man you just called a ‘fiend’? You have never even met him! He was my Angel of Music, was kind to me, and supported me when no one else would! Am I to just abandon him?”
“Christine, he has mesmerised you, filled your head with nonsense. Remember the chandelier – he could have killed you!”
“Oh, that horrible chandelier!” Christine threw up her hands in exasperation and turned away from him towards the mirror. “The chain was old and rusting – even the workmen said that it was an accident waiting to happen.”
Raoul recalled the Phantom’s insane laughter as he released the rope and allowed the chandelier to drop towards the stage and very much doubted that it had truly been an accident, but he did not say so. They stood there for some moments, Christine’s eyes fixed on the looking glass before her, as though she saw something in her reflection that he could not. “And what about Joseph Buquet? Was that an accident, too?” he asked eventually. She said nothing, and so he dared to broach the subject he found most distasteful: “Do you... do you care for him, Christine? Despite everything he has done?”
Christine shook her head sharply. “Yes... no... I don’t know! I am so confused, and this ridiculous charade is only making it worse. Do you honestly think that you will get away with it? He knows everything that happens in this theatre; you will not take him by surprise, but none of you can see that! You are all so obsessed with catching the Phantom that you are blind to anything else around you!”
“Christine, please - ”
“You have made this plan, and yet you lay the responsibility on my shoulders! None of you will let me think for myself! I don’t know what to do, how to act. I have no one to turn to; I can’t keep anything straight in my head because there is always too much noise! You, Erik, the rest of them... I am pulled every which way and I hate it, Raoul!” Her hands clenched in her hair, pulling at it in her frustration.
“We must go through with this, Christine,” he said, gently laying a hand on her arm. He attempted to meet her eyes in the mirror but she looked away. “We cannot allow him to win.”
“Do you know how the big game hunters in India catch tigers?” she enquired, much to his surprise. Before he could answer, she continued, “They tether a kid beneath a tree, then hide in the tree and wait for their bait to bring out the tiger. When the tiger takes the kid, they shoot it.” She turned to face him. “Is that what I am in all this, Raoul? Bait?”
“If we let him live, we will never be free of him. Do you truly want to spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder, wondering if he is there?”
She made no comment, instead choosing to attack him with another question. “Do you love me, Raoul?”
“Do I - ?” Astonished, he took an involuntary step backwards. “Of course I do! How can you doubt me?”
“Because if you truly loved me you would not put me in this impossible position!” she cried. “How could you do that to me, Raoul? How could you? Erik may be many things, but he would never deliberately put me in danger, especially not so he could score points against a rival!”
“Score points...? Christine, he is a madman, capable of anything! You know that!”
“Do I?” She looked sad all of a sudden. “I don’t understand anything anymore.” Her voice dropped to a whisper and Raoul only just caught her next words, “Perhaps if we were treated as he has been we would be mad too...”
In desperation, he finally captured her hands, bringing them to his lips. “My darling, we have no choice. The Phantom must be stopped, for all our sakes.”
Christine regarded him for a long moment. “No, there are choices, but for your own ends you decide to give me none,” she said, pulling away and walking to her wardrobe. Taking out her cloak, she settled its blue velvet folds around her shoulders. “I need some time alone, Raoul, time to think.”
“Where are you going?” He followed her to the door, noticing with a pang that she had wound a red scarf around her neck. Perhaps it was the same one he had rescued from the sea all those years ago. Oh, how he wished they could return to that time, when they were happy and free and there were no masked maniacs dogging their footsteps. How much simpler life had been back then!
She sighed. “To talk to the only person in this world I have ever been able to trust.
“My father.”
