11A/N: This is just a quick little bit I wrote for the song Shatter Me by Lindsay Stirling with Lzzy Hale. If you haven't heard it before, I highly suggest you give it a listen before you read this. Or listen while you read it, that would be even better. I hope it goes without saying I own nothing.
I hope you enjoy!
It was a long shot, what she was about to do, but she couldn't wait any longer. She needed to know, she needed to see. Something, anything, that would convince her she wasn't crazy.
She had really begun to wonder.
Late at night, when the opera house was closed and all the stage hands and performers and managers were long gone, Christine lit a candle and snuck out onto the main stage. If not for the security lights, it would have been pitch black in the cavernous space.
Setting the candle carefully down by her side, she sat dead center of the stage, pulling her knees up to her chest. She didn't have to wait long.
A cold gust of wind blew out the candle at her side. She glanced over, an amused smile lifting the corner of her mouth. Always the same, her ghost. Never announcing his presence, but announcing his presence. Carefully, she got back to her feet, that sudden feeling of being watched sending tingles skittering down her spine. Squaring her shoulders, she took a deep breath. She hoped this worked.
Christine opened her mouth.
I pirouette in the dark
I see the stars through me
A beat passed. She held her breath, wondering, hoping that she would get the answer she sought, and at the same time afraid. What if he wasn't real? What if he was?
Just when Christine was beginning to think the whole thing was a mistake, that she was crazy after all, a violin's tune carried on the air, echoing with the herald of change. A smile split her lips and she took the hint.
Tired mechanical heart
Beats til the song disappears
The violin continued, carrying the song forward. Feeling lighter than she had in a while, Christine stepped from the shadows of the security lights.
Somebody shine a light
I'm frozen by the fear in me
Somebody make me feel alive
And shatter me
So cut me from the line
Dizzy, spinning endlessly
Somebody make me feel alive
And shatter me!
Oh, that was definitely him! She could hear it in every note from the violin, the way the intensity rose to match her own.
Shatter me!
She cried out, feeling the song begin to take on a life of its own.
Somebody make me feel alive
And shatter me!
Christine turned away from her invisible audience, walking slowly backstage.
If only the clockworks could speak
I wouldn't be so alone
We burn every magnet and spring
And spiral into the unknown
She found herself strolling the back hallways of the opera house, always haunted, always followed by the violin as she sang.
Somebody shine a light
I'm frozen by the fear in me
Somebody make me feel alive
And shatter me
She should have feared someone would overhear, but instead as the song swelled and carried her on, she almost wished someone else could hear this.
So cut me from the line
Dizzy, spinning endlessly
Somebody make me feel alive
And shatter me!
She turned a corner and found herself in almost pitch blackness, but the music from the violin seemed to only grow stronger in the absence of light.
Shatter me!
Somebody make me feel alive
And shatter me!
There was nothing to see by, she was led by music until she wasn't even feeling her way along the wall anymore, every step her feet took strong and assured. This path that would surely either lead her to hell, or the greatest adventure of her life.
If I break the glass, then I'll have to fly
There's no one to catch me if I take a dive
I'm scared of changing, the days stay the same
The world is spinning but only in gray
Hers was a good life, her position in the ballet and her relationship with her longtime boyfriend Raoul everything she could ask for, and yet… Since the first time she had felt the presence of the opera ghost while singing alone in one of the dressing rooms one night, she had wondered…was there more?
If I break the glass, then I'll have to fly
There's no one to catch me if I take a dive
I'm scared of changing, the days stay the same
The world is spinning but only in gray
(Only)
Could she be more? More than another blank face in the ballet? More than a childhood sweetheart turned socially acceptable wife? Did she dare to be more?
Somebody shine a light
I'm frozen by the fear in me
Somebody make me feel alive
And shatter me
Christine wanted to be more. She wanted more from life than a position and a husband she settled for just because it was good enough. She wanted a life and a man that would challenge her at every step, dare her to be more than she could have ever imagined herself to be.
So cut me from the line
Dizzy, spinning endlessly
Somebody make me feel alive
In the dark, over the violin, she heard the creak of a door opening and could tell she had stepped into a room long fallen into disuse, the sudden presence of dust and neglect heavy in her nose along with… something else.
And shatter me!
What was that? Darkness… a faint damp smell… ink? Sandalwood… Her heart sped up. Was it him?
Shatter me!
Suddenly she stopped. The door shut behind her.
Somebody make me feel alive
And shatter me!
The violin went silent, replaced by the steady gallop of her heart. She stood in absolute darkness, waiting for something that would change her life.
Christine was suddenly blinded by the blaze of dozens of candles all igniting at once. She threw her arm up to give her eyes a moment to adjust, and when she lowered it, he was there.
Dressed all in black, his regalia contrasted starkly to the white mask covering half of his face. A violin and bow hung limply from his hands. They stared at each other, taking in every detail of what they had only imagined until that moment.
Throat suddenly dry, Christine swallowed roughly. "Are you the opera ghost? My… angel?"
Her words seemed to startle him. He shook his head. "No," he said, voice low and hoarse as if from disuse. "I am no angel, I am simply Erik."