Page 72 of Angel's Kiss
11. Until I Am Sleeping
Erik leapt to Christine, grabbing her tight and clamping a hand over her mouth before she could scream.
“Don’t look. Don’t look!” he whispered, pulling Christine away from the grisly sight of Buquet’s corpse, dangling like a sandbag among the ropes. He chanced a look at her to confirm her eyes were screwed shut, tears escaping from the corners. “There are still people about, do not make a sound.”
She nodded, and he released his hand from her mouth. He spun her towards him, touching her face with all the gentleness he could summon, and she gasped in a breath. She opened her weeping eyes and Erik’s heart broke for the second time that night.
“We have to move. Right now,” he commanded and did not wait for her assent before leading her away, making sure she did not look back. Erik did though. He glanced over his shoulder to the sack of meat that had been Joseph Buquet until moments ago. Far above, in the highest part of the flies, there were giant bells. They would never sound in mourning for their former master.
Erik led her down the twisting path to the stage, holding her close when they came to the main floor where he ushered Christine quickly as possible to her dressing room. It was cold and empty when they entered. When he grabbed Christine’s cloak from its hook and placed it around her shoulders as she stared into the shadows, her eyes unfocused and her body limp. He caressed her face, and she blinked back to life as he held her gaze.
“We can’t just leave him,” she said, voice small and terrified, eyes drifting upwards. Erik forced her to look back at him.
“Christine, listen to me. You have to leave, right now, before it’s found. You must be seen exiting the building by as many people as possible and get home.”
Christine shook her head wildly. “No, please, I can’t. You-you have to come with me.” Her voice broke into a sob and she grabbed his arms, holding onto him with desperate pressure. “Please don’t leave me alone.Please.”
Erik stared at her, at a loss. He had done this. Buquet was dead because of him, and now Christine bore that sin on her heart. And he could not abandon her to the dark, not now.
“Alright,” he replied, concern for the woman he loved overcoming his panic and fear. “Come, we have to go now.”
He pulled the hood over her head then stole a wine-colored scarf and wrapped it around his face before pulling the brim of his hat low. If he was to do this, he would take no risks to himself, and more importantly, to Christine. Wrapping a protective arm around Christine, he guided her back into the hall.
He kept them moving at a steady pace, not so fast as to arouse suspicion, but not so slow as to increase their own panic. He leaned in towards Christine when a fireman passed them, his heart racing all the while. He noted Christine and said nothing to Erik. A stagehand, an alto, the attendant at the stage door. All of them saw Christine and the shadow at her side. Not soon enough, they stepped into the frigid air on theRue Auber. Christine shuddered beside him and he tried to keep himself from doing the same. His mind flashed to the sight of Buquet turning, pistol in hand, and Christine’s cry. She had been trying to save him.
He pulled her closer to his side as they made their way to the brightPlace de L’Opéra. Erik braced himself against the rumble of carriages and the sparse people still about at this time of night. He was used to venturing out at a much later hour, but no one paid them much mind as they traveled quickly down theAvenue de L’Opéra.Christine caught his gaze in confusion as Erik turned them at theRue des Petits Champs.
“You know where I live?” she asked meekly.
“Of course,” Erik replied.
Their steps grew slower and more unsteady as they continued on their way, and Erik could feel Christine beginning to tremble at his side. The shock was wearing off. Finally, they turned left, almost at theRue Notre Dame des Victoires, and Christine stopped, gasping for air and staring down the street. She was looking at the dark façade of the Basilica ofNotre Dame des Victoires.
“Oh God,” Christine whimpered, collapsing against Erik in the sight of a house of the holy. “He’s dead and I – Oh God!”
“Christine, no!” Erik grasped her by the arms, holding her up with all his strength and shaking her so that she looked at him. “Stay with me!”
Christine made a choked noise in response. She was pale and wheezing, like she was drowning on dry land, eyes wide and unfocused, her whole body shaking in Erik’s grasp.
“Christine,breathe,” Erik commanded with all the authority of the angel she had known, and she froze. Erik took a deep inhale, and she mirrored him automatically. He breathed out and she did the same. “Good. Keep breathing.” Again they breathed together, then again, Christine growing calmer with each inhalation and release. “That’s my girl, keep breathing for me.”
He was not expecting her to throw her arms around him, embracing him with such force it squeezed the breath from his lungs. But he did not stop her. He embraced her in return, wishing above all that he could hold her like this long enough to drive away every horror that she had seen because of him.
“Let’s get inside,” he whispered in her ear, and she nodded against his chest. She laced her arm with his and held him tight as they passed the church and came to the door of her building.
“I don’t have my key,” Christine said, staring at the lock. She did not flinch when Erik pulled a pin from her hair, nor show any sign of surprise when he picked the lock within seconds. He kept her close on the way up the stairs and they thankfully found the door to the Valerius flat unlocked.
“Adèle is home,” Christine muttered.
“We should—” Erik began to reply, when light spilled into the parlor from an opened door, revealing Adèle Valerius’ silhouette.
“Christine, is that—”
Before Erik could panic, Christine pulled him into her arms and kissed him, drawing him tight against her so that his back was to Valerius and Christine was against the wall. Erik’s mind could hardly process his fear and desire and worry all at the same time, but Christine kissed him with more heat and desperation than she ever had before, and as she did, the world faded around them. It was wrong, he knew it, to love the feel of her fervent mouth in the shadow of what they had just done and seen, but nevertheless, he adored it.
“Well, I’ll leave you to that,” Valerius said from a thousand miles away.
