Note-I do not own Phantom of the Opera or anything to do with it except for the characters and events I create myself. Sorry if this story is horrible lol.

CHAPTER 1

"Do you Christine Daae take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband? To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, until death parts you?"

Everyone in the church watched anxiously as the young bride looked from her fiancee to the church door. Her fiancee, the young Vicomte de Chagny smiled warmly, squeezing her trembling hands. Under her veil, he could see her eyes darting around the room nervously, and behind the sparkling brown, he saw panic.

"No..." She whispered, and in unison everyone in the church gasped. All of Parisian high society was in attendance.
"What did you say Christine?" The viscount asked his bride and she shook her head sadly.
"No Raoul, I cannot. I'm sorry. I cannot marry you." She looked at her feet and hurt filled the young man's blue-green eyes.
"But, why?" He asked, but in his heart, he did not need to hear her answer for he knew. She loved another and always had. Silently, she took her engagement ring off of her finger and placed it into his hand.
"Please try to understand Raoul. I'm so sorry, please don't hate me."

Gathering her many layers of skirts, Christine turned and ran out the door as fast as she could, leaving the entire church audience gaping after her. She hated herself, for she had hurt two men she cared for. Raoul was strong though, he could move on, but the other was much more fragile and she was determined to make things right as she made her way across the street and up the front steps of her former home, which lay in shambles. The Opera Populaire. She knew exactly where she was going as she rushed into the dressing room she had once occupied and threw the mirror open, nearly shattering the glass.

Feeling her way blindly through the tunnels, she stumbled along, uncaring of what lie ahead. She found the winding staircase and nearly tripped as she took them two at a time. At the bottom of the stairs, she came to the edge of the barely lit underground lake with no way to get across. Desperate, she looked around for the gondola, but it was nowhere in sight. Taking a deep shaky breath, she reached up into her hair and ripped the veil from her head tossing it to the side and causing her long chestnut hair to fall down her back in glorious curls. Looking down she could see her reflection in the still water. A bride. Guilt spread through her. She did not deserve to be happy after the pain she had caused, but she had to know if he was alive or not. Closing her eyes, she dove into the lake and swam swiftly through the caverns of the lake until she came to the shore of a place she knew so well.