A/N: I am really sorry for not uploading. I had intended to unload ages ago; well over a year ago. However I have never actually got round to it due to other commitments. But... here it is! I hope you enjoy it and a new chapter will be up soon.
"I am sorry, I-" Madame Giry found herself incapable of constructing the most basic of sentences. Still, she drew the small child closer to her side, as though shielding her from some unknown evil force.
"Shh, we don't have much time." The stranger stepped out of the shadows, revealing the man Madame Giry once knew. He led them inside the carriage, sitting down beside the ballet mistress . The luggage was loaded onto the back of the carriage and soon they were leaving the burning opera house; never to return.
The carriage rocks from side to side. The horses race on in front. A familiar face hides in the shadows, face fully hidden in the dark. Outside, the streets of Paris are lit with the dim glow of the gas lamps that line the walkways and the unusual orange glow of the burning opera populaire. The city is almost in darkness.
"I know you are there Erik. There is no point trying to hide your face. I know you aren't ready to take off the mask just yet but please come into the light. Talk to me, Erik."
Madame Giry was on the verge of desperation. She had left her daughter in the burning opera house to look after the little ballet rats and now the man she gave everything up for won't speak. She doesn't know where she is going or why. The only reason she stepped into the carriage was the promise that she would see Erik again.
Finally, he moves into the light. He is still shy and insecure; like a little boy on his first day of school. He hides behind the white mask he wears, obviously forgetting that it was she that first saw him without the mask at his will. After the incident on the opera stage, he cowers in the shadows, ashamed of what god gave him. He has lost all faith long ago.
"Where are we going, Erik? Why don't you speak?"
After a moment's silence, he replies "We will go South, to the country for now. Then we will go wherever we please. Wherever you please"