[The Phantom of the Opera] The Beast and the Canary

He froze, passively accepting my kiss.The sweet blood flowed into my mouth and stained his lips red.I hooked his neck and kept turning and deepening the kiss until both of them were a little out of breath.After a long time, I stopped, forehead to forehead, nose to nose: "...kiss can't lie, I don't believe you can't feel my love for you."

He stared at me complicatedly.

Knowing that he already believed him like this, she still couldn't help teasing him.I let go of him, pretended to be lonely, turned around and prepared to leave: "Well, since you still don't want to believe me, then I don't want to make things difficult for you anymore, let's just do it like this, don't see each other in the future... ..."

Before he could finish speaking, his wrist was already grasped.

He stepped forward and hugged me tightly.

"Meg," he began hoarsely, "I'm not a great man."

"I know."

"You will be entangled with me for the rest of your life."

"I know."

"I'm very jealous and probably won't allow you to make new friends."

"I know."

"I'm emotionally unstable and can hurt you sometimes."

"I know."

"I will try to control your life, and I will be responsible for all your food and clothing."

I covered the back of his hand, interlocked my fingers with him, and turned my head to him with a smile: "It's okay, I am willing to be controlled by you."

So he stopped talking, remained silent, and increased the strength in his hand.

There is a sentence I didn't say to him. In fact, I don't hate his control. On the contrary, I still enjoy and like it.Since the death of her father, Mrs. Geary has been busy supporting the family, managing a ballet school with hundreds of people by herself, and later adopted Christine, so she really doesn't have much time to spend on me.Not to mention caring about me like an ordinary mother, sometimes she can't even remember the day of her father's death.In my previous life, I was wandering all my life, and my soul never had a destination until I died.Eric's seemingly arbitrary and domineering control in this life actually gave me a lot of security.

Shaking my head, I didn't think about these old things anymore.It's all over, at least in this life, I have an infinitely beautiful new start.

At a quarter of midnight, the dance was over.

Push Eric down on the couch.I went down the stairs, walked around the long table piled with leftovers, and asked for a medicine box.When I went upstairs, I looked back with some feeling, and saw Christine standing under the chandelier. She was wearing a champagne-colored skirt and her long hair was lightly brushed. , looking confident and happy, she is completely different from her who was always pale and sweaty in her previous life at this time.It's good to be happy, I hesitated for a while, I didn't go up to say hello.

Back upstairs, Eric is waiting for me.The moonlight is somewhat dim daylight, filling the entire terrace.Seeing me approaching, he frowned and didn't cooperate with my movements: "It's just a minor injury, I can apply the medicine myself."

"Be obedient." He straightened his head, bent down and patiently applied iodine.Looking at his protruding browbones, deep-set eyes, and terrifying skeleton-like outline, somehow, I suddenly remembered the cold eyes he looked at me in his previous life.Out of nowhere, I called softly, "Eric, look at me."

He looked at me with some doubts. Although he was still not very gentle, he was more caring and pampering, as if no matter what unreasonable requests I made, he would agree.

This is the person I'm about to spend my life with.The person in the previous life was him and not him.

After wiping off the potion, I tied a bandage on his right cheek, and gently pushed a white mask up.

"Promise me, Eric, don't use face changing in the future, okay? I don't want to see you hurt yourself again."

He was silent for a moment: "I don't want others to think that you live with a monster."

"You are not a monster, you are the person I love the most." I sat down on his lap, put my arms around his neck, and leaned close to his shoulder, "I... let me tell you a story, you Just listen to it, don't take it seriously."

"it is good."

I thought about it for a long time, and decided to tell everything that happened in my previous life as a dream: "Maybe you won't believe it, but I've been having a dream these past few years... the person you love deeply in the dream is Christine," see His expression didn't seem to reflect who Christine was, so I had to remind him, "Kristen Daye, the ballet girl you once pointed out. In your dream, you expelled Carlota for her, and wrote a letter threatening The two theater managers even set up traps on the stage to short-circuit the theater chandelier and cause a fire that shocked the world..."

He was slightly taken aback: "It sounds like my style, and then."

Then what happened, I really don't know: "Then, you let her and Viscount Shani leave, and lived alone..."

"Why? If it's really me, I won't let her go, let alone let her go with other men. "

I was confused by what he said, yes, according to Eric's personality, if he really loved Christine, he would rather perish with Viscount Shani than hand her over to the other party, so what happened underground at that time what?Actually let him send them away willingly...

I thought about it and said, "Maybe you love her so much that you can't bear to imprison her underground?"

He lightly smiled and touched my head: "The front is pretty decent, but the back is pure nonsense. I will never let the person I love leave me, even if I imprison her by my side, I will not let her go Leave. All this should be just your wild imagination, I will not fall in love with others, and I will never meet a girl like you who deserves to be loved again."

I couldn't help blushing, and almost followed his words. I really thought that everything in my previous life was just an illogical dream, until when I was going downstairs, I ran into Christine who was about to come up.The moment she saw me, her eyes turned red immediately: "Meg, where have you been these days?"

Before I could open my mouth, she hugged me hard: "I was so worried about you, I thought... I thought something bad happened to you! I asked Raul to keep looking for you these days, but the news I brought was always not optimistic , I thought, I thought I would never see you again..." As she spoke, she burst into laughter again, "In the month you left, Raul and I were getting married soon, and Mrs. Geary would also come to our party Wedding. By the way, have you told her that she is safe? She is also worried about you."

I automatically ignored the last sentence, and when I heard the word "marriage", I subconsciously looked at Eric.He folded his arms and waited for me quietly, without the jealousy and pain in his memory.

"Are you finished?" He glanced at Christine and said bluntly, "You can let go of your hand."

Christine hugged me and refused to let go, and complained to me worriedly: "Meg, where did you meet this person? I heard that there are a lot of love liars in the society who hook up beautiful girls at prom salons , to deceive their feelings and money. You see, the ball is over, and he is still wearing a mask, he must be afraid that people will expose his identity as a fraudster!"

I:"……"

I suddenly felt that my worry just now was superfluous and inexplicable.

But he still couldn't help looking at Eric, and briefly told him about the events of his previous life. Will he suddenly recall everything, and then take Christine away and continue his relationship?After all, I can dream about things that I haven’t experienced in my previous life, and it’s not impossible for him to suddenly have the memories of my previous life... The more I thought about it, the more worried I became, and the more I thought about it, the more uncomfortable I was, and then I saw Eric raised his eyebrows, showing no emotion He said to Christine with a burden, "I'm Hearst."

I:"……"

No, who had repeatedly said before that he would never be Hearst's?

Christine froze for a moment: "...Mr. Hearst? Are the rumors outside true? Meg, are you really with Mr. Hearst?"

I had to spend some time explaining to her, and Eric looked at his pocket watch and went straight downstairs to wait for me at the entrance of the hall.When I was leaving, I heard Viscount Shani comforting Christine in a warm voice from behind: "I have known Hearst for a while. He seems arrogant, but in fact he is just strict with music, and he doesn't like to make things difficult in private. I don't know what happened today, maybe I had a fight with Miss Giri."

Walking to Eric's side, he also shook his head, but he didn't hear Viscount Shani's comment: "Christine, I remembered. I used to think that she is very talented in music. As long as she undergoes strict training, she will definitely become a The soprano who shocked the whole of Paris, but when she spoke just now, her breath was disordered and her breathing was out of order, obviously she did not take the skills I taught seriously. Impulsive, innocent, addicted to the past, she will not have more music Highly accomplished."

Christine in her previous life really shined brilliantly under his training, but most of the time she looked panic-stricken and her eyes were filled with fear, and her life was not very happy.I think a person's life cannot be judged by just one glance. She must have other encounters that belong to her.

After returning to the ground, I fell seriously ill without warning.

The illness came on very quickly, like a mountain, and soon I couldn't stand up, and I could only sleep in bed every day.Eric placed many advertisements in the newspapers, but doctors all over Paris shook their heads and said that this is a terminal disease, and there is no cure for it.Even Clara, who was far away in Germany, knew that my illness was hopeless, so she wrote to express condolences to me. Taking Schumann as an example, she told me that life and death are impermanent.I wasn't afraid of death, just worried about Eric's mental state.He stayed by my bed day and night, barely closing his eyes, his chin was full of blue stubble, and his eyes were tired and dazed.I saw a faint will to die in his face.

One evening, I held his hand with difficulty and tried to force a smile, trying to get him to promise me not to do something stupid.But he supported his forehead and blocked my words with one sentence: "I will not live alone, do you want to see me die alone?" He lowered his eyes, stood up and helped me tuck the quilt, "If this is you If you want to see it, then I promise you."

Of course I don't want to see him die alone.

However, if I am destined to die early, then what is the meaning of my rebirth...

My seriously ill body couldn't support too complicated thinking. After a while, I fell asleep and had a long, long dream, so long that I thought I would never wake up again.The scenes in the dream are varied, sometimes it is the dead body of Buquet hanging in the center of the stage, sometimes it is the big chandelier crashing down, and sometimes it is the magnificent and magnificent theater being burned... The last scene is a vast darkness. Run in the dark.After an unknown amount of time, a figure suddenly appeared in front of him.

The figure is tall and thin, wearing a cloak embroidered with dark patterns, and the whole person is almost completely integrated into the darkness.I ran to his side, looked at him for a long time, and found that I didn't know him, but I had an inexplicable feeling that he would definitely show me the way and tell me where the exit of this place was.

"Wait a minute, wait!"

He stopped and turned to look at me.Curiously, his hair, eyes, and even the mask are exactly the same as Eric.But he is definitely not Eric, Eric will not be as skinny as him, and he will not stare at me with such cold eyes like him.

"What's the matter, say." He asked coldly.

My heart skipped a beat.He feels so familiar to me, but I can't remember where I saw him.After thinking about it for a long time, I couldn't think of it, so I had to ask first: "...do you know where the exit is?"

I thought he would refuse to answer, or that he didn't know, but his expression was so indifferent, but he was surprisingly easy to speak, and raised his hand to point me in a direction.

I quickly thanked him and walked over there. After walking a certain distance, I felt that something was wrong. My heart was empty, as if a piece was missing, and I couldn't help running back to find him.He didn't seem to expect that I would come back, and he was a little surprised: "Why don't you leave."

"Do I know you? Have we met before? You give me a very familiar feeling... a bit like my husband."

He was silent for a long time before answering: "I have known you in the past life." Seeing that I wanted to ask again, he frowned, reached out and patted my back, "You should go."

I had a lot of questions at first, but after being slapped like this by him, I somehow didn't want to continue asking.The feeling of confusion disappeared, and the feeling of familiarity also disappeared. I walked forward in a daze, not knowing why I came here, nor where I was going.That figure was the only person I had ever seen who had kindness towards me.But looking back, he was so far away from me, as if he never existed at all.Did he really show me the way?Or, is it just my hallucination?

What does the "previous life" in his mouth refer to?

Is there really a previous life?

He knew me in my previous life?

Why does he feel so lonely to me, like waiting for someone who will never come.

After waking up, I was able to stand up easily, as if I had never been seriously ill.Pulling open the curtains, I shed tears for a long time against the purple-blue sky.These tears come for no reason, and I don't know who they are shedding for.As I cried, I watched the sky turn from slightly green to bright.Once upon a time, I seemed to have accompanied someone. From the early morning light to the bright sky, his eyes that lost interest in everything in the world still make my heart ache... Who is it?

Thinking of this, my head hurts, and I can't remember who it is anyway.Forget it, forget it.

I thought that the aftereffect of my recovery was amnesia, but I didn't forget anyone in my life, nor did I forget what I had experienced with Eric.

One day, many years later, I talked to Eric about a misunderstanding we had had.I joked, "I thought you'd never love me."

After listening to my previous mental journey, he said slowly, "Who said that?"

I was stunned, yes, why did I always feel that it was impossible for him to fall in love with me?

It doesn't make sense at all.

This has happened more than once, and I often find myself forgetting important things, but when I think about it carefully, there seems to be nothing missing in my life.Just like now, obviously I just forgot what the misunderstanding in the previous dating period was, it was not a big deal, but I felt extremely disappointed for no reason: "...I guessed it."

He propped his chin, thoughtful: "It seems that my love is not obvious enough. Must I put you in a cage like a canary, can you feel that I love you?"

I quickly waved my hand: "No, no."

This is how it was revealed.A year later, Eric's new play was staged. In the same year, the chandelier of the Paris Opera House fell due to a short circuit, killing a lady watching the play.The news was a sensation, and Eric was also a little surprised: "You really hit the spot."

I had question marks all over my face: "What are you talking about? I didn't curse it to catch fire."

"What you said before, forgot?"

Maybe it was because my blank expression didn’t look like a fake, and he also doubted whether he remembered it wrong, so he didn’t continue this topic. Anyway, it was just a harmless episode: “Wars are getting more and more frequent, Paris can’t live anymore, Do you have any other cities you would like to settle in?"

I think of Ms. Clara who has been in touch with us over the years.My musical literacy has always been only average, and I don't really have much in common with Eric.If he had Clara as a neighbor, he would not be alone.

Eric listened to my thoughts, looked at me for a long time, and then said: "The address of her last letter was in Frankfurt."

"Then let's go to Frankfurt."

For the next few years, despite having Eric by my side, I was haunted by the missing piece of my memory.I always feel that what is lost is not a memory, but a part of life.I never stopped looking for those lost memories, until one afternoon, I woke up from the rattan chair, and saw the lavender glow piercing the clouds of the skyline, the lake not far away shone with golden light, and the breeze brought the fragrance of flowers and plants , everything is full of vitality in my eyes.I just realized that I should live in the present, not stick to the forgotten past.

In a person's life, not every regret can be fulfilled.Just like no one can know what happened in his previous life, living in this life, breathing in this moment, one should only think about the present.

Let go of the memories that you don't want to stay in your mind.

At least, I still have a lover and a future.

Standing up and pushing open the door, I called Eric.

He sat in front of the grand piano by the window, smiled and turned to look at me, and said, "I'm here."

(End of text)