To Ease Your Troubled Mind: Ch1

So this one is something of an experiment: my first attempt at first-person narrative (which had the unexpected side-effect of making me more conscious that this was a story being told, with occasional 'comments in retrospect' from the narrator), and my attempt at 'unshipping' my favourite pairing. Arguably it's a bit of a cheat in the latter respect, since I've taken up the tale at a point when the canon has the characters pretty much on the verge of splitting up anyway; but I've done my best at subverting that!

The story is based on the original soundtrack recording, but takes place in a different continuity from The Choices of Raoul de Chagny: this Raoul never suffered concussion when riding in the Prater in Vienna, or had an embarrassing run-in with autograph-hunters when kissing his wife in the Tuileries. And as will be seen, they weren't nearly so lucky with the weather...

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What if Christine and Raoul really had taken up his angry suggestion that first night, packed up immediately, and walked out of the hotel to go home without the money? The marriage still doesn't seem to be working out for either of them...

( Ch.1: The Debts We Owe )