Chapter 24: Full Disclosure

Erik's POV

I began to pace around the Louis-Phillipe room as an internal battle between me and doubt raged on in my inner psyche as I began to hear someone enter my lair.

Evangeline must have found her way down here faster than I thought.

I rushed towards the shore of my underground island but was met with nothing.

"Well, well, well, Erik. And what thoughts of despair have you today?" Nadir Khan asked in a joking voice.

Nothing but a huge disappointment.

"Nothing that has anything to do with you, Daroga.'" I growled at him. He chuckled in response until he noticed that I had ignored him and resumed my pacing.

"What are you even doing here, you old fart? I thought I made it clear the last time that I did not want your company." I finally stated as he sat down on the chaise lounge to watch my struggle.

"I just wanted to check on you and make sure that you are alright."

He then noticed the food that I had prepared for me and Evangeline.

"Oh, were you already expecting my company?" He asked as he decided to sit down in Evangeline's seat.

I jumped out of my resolve and pulled the man out of her seat with a powerful yank upon the back of his collar.

"DON'T SIT THERE! THAT'S EVANGELINE'S SEAT!" I bellowed.

Nadir's face was pale with fear as I collected myself and put him back down. After taking a few deep breaths, I decided to sit on one of the armchairs that were inside the Louis-Philippe room as Daroga went back to his seat on the chaise lounge, visibly shaking.

After about a few seconds of intense silence, Daroga asked,

"So, Mademoiselle McKenna still resides in your lair?"

I nodded in response, rubbing my head as I felt a migraine coming on. Leave it to Nadir Khan to give me a massive headache with his mere presence.

"Have you...."

"No." I answered, "We haven't even talked about it. She hasn't asked about the mask and I don't want to scare away the only friend I have."

"But Erik, you know that the subject will come up sooner or later."

"I know." I sighed, "Actually, I have decided that I am going to show it to her."

Daroga's eyes widened with shock.

"What? Are you sure?"

"That's the thing, Nadir. I'm not. Evangeline has related to me in the past of how she is from a future century. And by how she first introduced herself, I have reason to believe that I am well known in her time."

"Or she could be mad."

I said nothing as I thought about my time with her. She showed up wearing clothing that would be more suited for a male of her age, dubbed certain things like the ice box and Louis-Phillipe room as a "fridge" and "living room", and had been foolish enough to find her way down here in the first place.

"It could be madness," I reasoned, "But at the same time, I can't help to do anything but believe her. Besides, I, myself, have been considered mad. Even you have thought me insane, Daroga. And it could be this same type of insanity that has drawn me to her in some way."

Nadir seemed to catch on to what I was starting to imply.

"Erik, are you saying that you are falling in love with her?"

I paused, unsure of how to answer. I had fallen in love before, but with what had happened when I tried to win her affections, you can plainly see that it didn't work out. I still didn't know what to feel about her. I mean, yes, I have developed a sort of affection towards her, but I wouldn't call it love. At least, not yet.

The truth was, I was too afraid to let someone back in my heart. True, Evangeline has been slowly worming her way in, but I've already been hurt multiple times before, all of which by people that I was supposed to trust.

And let us not forget about my revolting face and my even more horrendous past.

If she was somehow immune to the horror of my cursed form, then she would surely flee from the nightmare that is the nature of my origin.

There are certain things that she still hasn't known about. Secrets that have haunted me for years. Fears that I have never voiced and the demons that I face every day.

But yet, I have decided to show her the cause of all my sorrow.

"I don't know." I finally said as I began to hear the sound of footsteps and the gondola being moved across the water.

"You must leave now, Daroga. Evangeline is on her way here." I said as I led Daroga to one of the secret exits. As he turned to leave for the outside world, Nadir said one more thing.

"I hope you know what you're doing. I don't want to see either of you hurt."

With that, he was gone and Evangeline had walked into the foyer.

Evangeline's POV

I entered the lair as the gangly form of my friend slunk over to where I stood.

"Good afternoon, Evangeline." He said in a smooth voice. He was dressed in a black waistcoat with black slacks and dress shoes and he wore his white mask with the open space for me to see his mouth.

"Hey, Erik. What was it that you wanted to talk about?"

As I spoke, I noticed that he suddenly became distracted and nervous, which was very uncharacteristic of him.

"You okay, Erik?"I asked.

"What? Oh, yes. I'm alright, " He replied as he snapped himself out of it. "But, I would rather we eat first before we begin."

He then took my hand and led me to the dining room where our lunch was set. On the table were two plates of piping hot lasagna and freshly steamed vegetables as well as two cups of freshly brewed tea. As I headed to where I was supposed to sit, Erik sprinted ahead of me and pulled back the chair for me to sit down.

We ate in silence as I stole quick glances at my friend. He hardly touched his food and instead looked down on the plate as if it did something terrible to him.

"Are you sure that nothing's wrong?" I asked as I finished eating.

At that moment, Erik gave a long sigh as he got up and walked over to where I sat. As I turned to stand up, he gently sat me back down as he started to talk.

"There is something that I need to ask you."

"Sure, go ahead."

"How much do you know about my past?" He asked.

I was silent. I had told him about me being from the future and he had never questioned me about how I already knew about him before.

"Well, in the 21st century there have been many adaptations of your story, but almost all of them follow the same plot: you were born with a facial deformity and had to deal with being abused by your mother because of it. You were then placed as a sideshow attraction in a traveling fair by a band of Romanis but had left after a few years and had traveled all over the eastern part of the world. And then you returned to France to build this place, fell in love with Christine, and tried separate her and her childhood friend, Raoul."

"And, in all of these "adaptations", what does the deformity look like?"

At this, I started to get suspicious and a little bit sad for him.

Why is he asking me about that? I don't think he's asking just to ask. What is going on?

"Like I said, there have been many adaptations. For example, according to Gaston Leroux and Susan Kay, both say that you have yellowed skin, have very sharp facial features, that you lack a nose and the Leroux one suggests that you even have leprosy and smell like death while the Andrew Lloyd Webber adaptation states that only half of your face is deformed. There is even one where you aren't deformed at all but were instead chucked into the sewer as a baby and were raised by rats."

"Rats?" He replied, slightly disgusted. "Who on earth said that?"

"Dario Argento."

"Then he is a fool."

We both started to chuckle a little.

"Where is this coming from? You've never shown interest in learning what goes on in the 21st century."

He stopped chuckling as he looked at me. Suddenly, he knelt down and gathered me into a gigantic bear hug which seemed to last for an hour, but in reality was only five minutes. When he pulled away, I was still in shock.

He had never hugged me before. At least, not without the hug being initiated by me.

"Evangeline, I must show you something. But before I do, please remember that you will always be my dearest friend no matter what happens."

"Alright, Erik, you're freaking me out here. What's the matter?" I started to ask. He was starting to act as if the world was going to end in a matter of seconds. But he said nothing.

As if by slow motion, he slowly began to take off his mask and I was soon shown the actual, unmasked face of Erik, The Phantom of the Opera.

Gaston Leroux and Susan Kay were right: he had no nose! There was just a gaping hole where the nose should have been, but that wasn't all. The entire upper part of his face, save for his mouth, eye lids, chin, and forehead (all of which looked severely irritated since he seemed to never take the mask off unless it was to wear a new one) , had no skin making his face red and showed the muscles and ligaments that helped form facial expressions. And even if he had skin, his face would still look like a skull head with eyes. Speaking of his eyes, they were way set into his skull, to the point where if I put my finger in his eye, I was afraid that I might pop it out by accident.

Not only that, but I soon noticed that they were starting to well up with tears as he began to quietly sob into the hem of my skirt.

"Evangeline, please don't leave Erik!" I heard him say in a muffled, pain-filled moan.

At that moment, I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming amount of sympathy for him. He looked so lost and scared as if he was a four-year-old trapped in a grown man's body. He also probably never had a chance to grow up, making my heart ache even more for him.

I took one last silent look on his face. He looked as if he could be the perfect candidate to be featured in a horror movie or work at a haunted house as a jump scare.But with what I know from the countless adaptations, he certainly didn't deserve to be abused.

"Welp, now I know why you need the mask." I finally said.

Erik's POV

My head shot up from her skirt as I heard the passive tone of her voice.

"You are not disgusted at Erik's face?" I asked in surprise, stray tears freely trailing down my deformed face.

"No, not really. I've seen worse back at home. And before you start saying anything, no, I am not showing pity. You really hate being given pity. I'm showing you that I care about you. "

With that, she took my face in her small hands, brushed away some of the tears that were starting to form in my eyes, and, to my astonishment, gave me two kisses each on both of my malformed cheeks.

Still in shock, I turned to place my mask back upon my face as I didn't want to expose her to my ugliness, but for whatever reason, she took my mask from my hands to stop me.

"You don't have to put it back on. I don't mind looking at your face. Besides, it looks like the mask is causing more irritation."

She then grabbed my hands in order to help me stand since I was kneeling in befuddled silence before her as the clock struck noon.

"Oh my gosh, I need to go back up there! Break's over."

As if nothing had transpired, she got up, gave me one more quick hug, grabbed her satchel, and turned to leave.

"Oh, by the way, you don't smell like death at all. You smell like cinnamon, rose petals, and wood smoke."

I was soon alone in the lair, trying to process what just happened.

I had shown her my face.

And she was not afraid.

She had even kissed my mangled form four times!

At that moment, I began to laugh as tears of joy started to run afresh from my eyes. All of the emotions that I felt as I stood there ranged from joy to anxiousness, but there was one emotion that stood above them all:

Love.

I have fallen in love with Evangeline McKenna.

A/N: Hello my fellow Phantom Phans!😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁

Thank you all so much for the 23k views and the 1.73k votes! You guys are the bomb!!!!!!

So.....

ERIK JUST LET EVANGELINE LOOK AT HIS FACE!!!!!!

Mama's getting hyped for her babies and I know y'all are too!

Was it what you expected?

Did you think he showed her a little too early?

Will he tell her about his past next?

Vote, Comment, and Share and I'll see you guys next time!

M'kay, Bye!!!! 💖

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