A Good, Honest Girl (Remix)
Happy Birthday, Sonja @timebird84! 🥳🎂🎉
I started writing this Charoga phic for your birthday last year 🤦♀️ and I was determined to finish it for this year! It’s an alternate ending to my post-Leroux phic “A Good, Honest Girl” (which will explain some of the little details, but isn’t necessary to read first). Okay, so it’s more like a pre-Charoga set-up phic, but I hope you enjoy it!
It was done. Well...almost.
Erik’s ring was on his finger but he was not yet buried. Although he had generously dug the hole in preparation for her, Christine could not muster the courage to finish the task. A small part of her feared he was only sleeping very deeply, and would wake to drag her down into the grave with him…
Echoing footsteps coming down the corridor startled her and she scrambled to her feet. She held out the lantern, searching the darkness and finding the shape of a man.
Christine gasped as the Persian came into view. Raoul had told her of their journey to the house across the lake the night of Faust. Perhaps she should have thanked him for aiding Raoul in his doomed rescue attempt, but she was too anxious for niceties.
“Oh, thank heaven, it’s only you. You frightened me!”
“Mlle Daaé! Or is it Mme de Chagny?" he wondered aloud.
He seemed just as surprised to see her there. Suspicion crept in. Why was he here? He snatched a hand from his pocket almost guiltily - what was he hiding?
"I did not expect you to...er, to come so quickly from the North, that is.”
Ah, now she understood. He had believed she would not honor her promise to return and bury his...friend, if one could call the two friends. He had never betrayed Erik’s secret until her “disappearance” and Erik had seemed distressed at the possibility of the man he called daroga dying alongside Raoul in the torture chamber…so, yes, she supposed they had been friends in their own strange way.
The realization of this fact and the sight of his jade eyes rimmed with red quickly led Christine to forgive his doubts of her. Besides, she was relieved not to be alone in these final moments with the lifeless figure of the man who had changed both of their lives so dramatically.
Without her needing to ask, the Persian lowered Erik’s already-skeletal frame into the ground and covered it with shovelful after shovelful of earth. Christine prayed over that lonely pile of dirt, unable to bring herself to sing a hymn. He produced a handkerchief from his jacket to wipe his brow, and she pretended not to notice as he dabbed at the corners of his eyes before tucking it away.
“Please allow me to escort you back to the surface. I'm certain M. de Chagny will be relieved to see you safely returned.”
She hesitated, then replied, “Y-yes, of course.”
Christine cleared her throat, but there was no disguising the lie. No one was waiting for her on the other side of the rue Scribe gate. She did not - could not - blame Raoul for not accompanying her. He had already agreed to remain in Paris until they received word of Erik’s passing. It would have been cruel to then also make him return to this forlorn place, so near to where his brother’s drowned body had been discovered.
"Hm."
A soft sound of understanding, free of pity or judgment.
"Well, then, would you be care to join me for cup of tea under more pleasant circumstances than the last one?”
The Persian offered his arm and she took it with a grateful smile. Raoul had once described the other man’s hands as ice cold, but his fingers were warm against hers as he tucked them into the crook of his elbow.
“I should like nothing better.”
...and then they kissed & fell in love & lived happily ever after the end 😜
xoxo
