Here is the finale, though I'm afriad it's rather short. Please enjoy regardless!
The doctors simply could not understand what had happened to the young man. He was fine physically—some broken bones on his arm and a fractured rib. He should have been awake. But when asked to respond, he would not. What could have put him into the coma?
Gustave was asleep. However, he was sure that being asleep would mean he couldn't feel his aching arm. Or his growling stomach that he should have been able to hear as well as feel.
"Ah…" he groaned. It was strange that he could not hear himself. Perhaps he was still half asleep. Opening his eyes, he found himself surrounded by doctors until a red-haired woman stormed in. What shoes was she wearing that he couldn't hear her? Gustave knew better than anyone that Eveline could simply not walk quietly. It was eerily quiet in the hospital.
Gustave? Gustave? She seemed to ask this over and over again. But why wouldn't she make any sound? Gustave put a hand to his left ear, then to his right.
"I can't hear," he tried to say. With a horrified shock, he realized that this was the problem exactly. I can't hear. I'm deaf. The doctors looked at one another and one carefully examined each of his ears. They wrote in a long, looping script on a piece of paper for him.
They were damaged when you saved the others. You got the worst of it I'm afraid. It's unlikely you will ever be able to hear properly again.
I'm sorry.
He stared at the scribbled words carefully.
"Is my speech different, Eveline?" he shakily asked. He was concerned he would become dependent on others to speak for him, and that he would never be able to create music again. She took the clipboard and wrote furiously.
Thank God you're alive. As for your question, I don't know how you're talking correctly, but for a few slurs. With practice I'm sure that will go away. We would all have died if not for you—the rubble would have broken all of our heads open it seems. Who was that woman?
"Meg Giry. She killed my mother," Gustave tried to explain but gave up and settled for his concern for the Vicomte, "Is he okay?"
Father is fine. He only has a few scratches. He is incredibly angry at the woman though. He doesn't know who she was.
"He knew Meg a long time ago." In a few weeks, he was allowed to leave. Raoul decided to stay in Paris despite the tragedy. He was tired of running, and he was too old for travel.
Eveline refused to leave Gustave's side, on the other hand. She agreed to accompany him to Coney Island, where they broke the news of Gustave's condition to Erik. Gustave would say years later that his father was almost as horrified as when Gustave's mother had died. Gustave agreed silently-for how could anyone understand that? To no longer hear music was a fate worse than death for him. Eveline accompanied him through it all. In the eerie silence that only he could hear, the young man continued to write, but never performed again. He sold his writing to a starting composer and begged him not to perform it until after Gustave was dead. It would be a request that held true. In fact, the man lost the music pages and never found them. A composer in later years would find the scripts and staff paper and become famous.
Gustave and Eveline one day married, and had a young girl with Eveline's curls and Gustave's eyes. She had Christine's voice and Carlotta's attitude as well. However, a composer such as Erik or Gustave would never arise again.
Raoul would one day bid on the monkey figure that the Phantom owned, winning against Meg Giry. Both too old to fight or do much else but watch the world pass by, the most battle they could do was to try outbidding one another in the auction. Raoul, finally, would win something that was of meaning to him. This would be the only time he didn't lose.
Tragedy was overcome, but not in such a way that folk heroes defeat evil. There was no true evil to be fought. Simple human nature clashed throughout the course of their lives and ruined them all, but they picked up whatever they had left and moved on. The only thing of any significance in their lives was lost forever. Especially to Gustave, whose hearing never returned.
The music that which made men fall in love, built humans up to fame and destroyed them in an instant, healed dark creatures such as the Phantom, or broke the hopeful down like Meg. It was the only thing that held them together, and yet it was what ultimately pulled them apart, never to see one another again.
The music.
... I didn't think it would end that way but it turned out well enough for my tastes. Thanks to everyone for reading!
The End
-Flute Chick