Page 79 of Angel's Mask

Now they were full of human fear and heartbreak as they stared at her.

“Christine...” he said, reaching for her and she sprang away from him, off the bed.

It was the voice she knew better than her own. The voice she had thought was so beautiful it could only come from heaven. It was the voice that had told her so many beautiful things, that had saved her soul with so many promises. And every one of them had been a lie.

“Who are you?” she demanded, her voice breaking. He stood from the bed, coming closer and Christine stumbled back and away. He froze. The look in his eyes was one of utter despair. “What are you? Angels don’t breathe. Ghosts don’t have heartbeats and homes.What are you!”

“I am not an angel, or a ghost,” he answered, quiet and ashamed, looking away from where Christine stood hunched with grief and rage as he tore her faith to shreds. “I’m just a man, and my name is Erik.”

It was too much to hear it from his lips. She felt sick and trapped and more than anything, utterly betrayed. It was as if the world was crumbling under her feet, like this stranger standing before her had taken the one she loved and trusted most and killed him in cold blood.

“How could you?” Christine whispered, the enormity of his deception coming into focus. “How could you do this to me?”

“Christine, please...” the man who was not an angel entreated, stepping toward her with a hand outstretched.

“Don’t touch me!” Christine screamed, slapping his hand away. “Don’t youdaretouch me!”

The man drew back, almost cowering. Was he shaking too?

She didn’t care. “Youliedto me.”

“I’ve lied for years, it wasn’t meant for just you,” he defended himself weakly, refusing to look at her as her fury rose like a storm.

“No! You made me believe in anangel! Not a ghost!” she growled. “Why?”

“I wanted to help you.” He raised his hands in an entreaty. “I never meant to hurt you.”

“But you lied to me!” Christine shouted and the man flinched away again. “Why me? Why take everything I ever wanted and destroy it? Why be an angel?”

“It was what you wanted!” he cried out, turning completely away from her, and retreating. “You asked for an angel, and I gave it to you.”

“So why did you take it away!” She screamed the question, the force of her fury shocking even her. He still refused to look at her, leaning against the wall, his shoulders heaving as he panted.

“I had to,” he protested with difficulty, as if he was in more pain than her. How dare he play the victim now. “He was going to tell you. I didn’t want you to find out from someone else. Please, try to understand—”

“Understand?Understand?” Rage propelled her as she raised her fist to strike him. And something unearthly moved him as he spun and caught her wrists in his skeletal hands.

“Christine, please—” he begged.

“I built my life on you!” she shrieked, not even bothering to struggle. “I lived foryou! And it was all lies! Everything I believed – everything I cared about was a lie. What an idiot I am. Did you laugh when you made me such a fool? I gave youeverything!” Christine stared at the man who had so easily destroyed her, infuriated by his silence. For months his words had nourished her just as they had poisoned her. Now he had nothing to say; no explanation, no defense.

“I put my soul in your hands, and you took it all away. Tell me: what must Iunderstand?” she continued through clenched teeth. “You took every dream I had and distorted it to lies and for what? Just so you could...” she grew sick at the thought of the night before and so many others. “So that you could make me your toy? Your whore? God, you didn’t even tell me! You waited for me to find out until after you’d taken what you wanted!”

“No!” he protested and dropped her wrists like they burned him. “Christine, no, that’s not...I never...”

“How could youuse melike that?” she asked, soft and ashamed. “How could you let me—”

“Because I love you!” he burst out and Christine fell back in shock. “I love you,” he confessed again, his voice small, and looked down at the ground.

Christine grimaced in disgust. She had known with joyful certainty that her angel loved her but the idea this terrible man should love her was unthinkable.

“You love me?” Christine whispered. “Youlove me, and still you lied to me?” She stalked towards him fearlessly, rage cresting again. “How can you even dare to say that after what you’ve done?” She was within inches of him again, her voice rife with righteous venom. He still would not look at her.

“Christine, I’m sorry. I never meant for it to be this way,” he whispered as he closed his eyes.

Christine shook her head and contemplated the masked face a breath away from hers. Now that she wasn’t looking him in the eyes, the mask itself came to her attention. “Yes, you did. You concealed the truth from me. You used me. You hid from me...and you’re still hiding from me, still lying.”

His eyes flew open. “Christine,please, forgive me.”

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