I decided that the story can't go on without or dearest Erik and I couldn't bring myself to kill him, I'm just too attached as I'm sure you all are as well. Ugh, he infuriates me so sometimes, but I love him. He makes me a better person by being…well he's Erik…Teehehehe. Okay, enough with the sadness and heartache and on with the show. Dun, dun... DUN, DUN!

Chapter 14

Resurgence

Cossette sat there sobbing on the bed holding Erik. She cradled him in her arms and continued to weep. "Oh, Erik…Don't leave me," she begged. She looked up toward the ceiling. "Please, God, don't take him from me," she pleaded. It was a futile effort, but she begged none the less.

"My poor Erik," she wailed. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I apologized, see? I'm sorry for the pain and torment you endured in your miserable life. I'm sorry that my mother rejected your love and that my father tried to kill you. I'm sorry that your Opera House is no more and that you lost your music…I'm sorry that I never told you what my mother said on her death bed…She asked for you, Erik. I'm so, so sorry. Please forgive me," she cried and laid her head back on his chest. "Please, please forgive me."

Cossette stayed that way for what seemed like an endless and unfair eternity to her. She held him in her arms and whispered things to him while she smoothed his hair away from his face. She had always wondered what lay beneath the mask he wore. He had said it was a hideous distortion, a face infection…She wouldn't ask him what lie beneath nor ask him to take it off. She had hoped that he would open up to her and show her when he was ready, but that time had--would never come. It was over.

She stared at the white mask and traced it with her finger. She would never remove it even in his death. If she were to she would feel as though she had betrayed him and that wouldn't do. She sighed and her tears finally dried up. She was unable to cry anymore. She wiped her tear stained face on her sleeve and laid back down next to Erik and nestled herself against his cold form.

Cossette began to think about what could have been…If he hadn't stayed in his room all alone for three days…she didn't even know how long he had been lying there when she had found him…She then remembered something Erik had said to her: "Many people die with their music still in them." It repeated over in her mind. It was true; Erik had died with his music in him. He had so much left but he had given up…The thought made Cossette's heart break ever further. "My poor Erik," she whispered.

A sudden cough startled her. She looked up at Erik's face and could see his eyelids starting to flutter, but they didn't open. She blinked several times. Were her eyes deceiving her? She sat up and cupped Erik's face in her hands. "Erik?" she asked softly in disbelief. His skin was no longer as cold, but it was still clammy. "Erik?"

She listened to him groan. "Erik! Please don't' leave me," she begged him. "Please come back, please. I need you here with me."

***

Out of all of the darkness and gloom, Erik could her a soft voice calling to him, begging him to return. It was Cossette's voice. She needed him. Death held onto him tightly and covered him with it's dark veil, but he fought against it's cruel skeletal hands and forced to break free. It kept pulling him back, but he continued to struggle against it. He harnessed all of his old hatreds, torments, and pain and turned it into strength.

He forced his way though the gloom of grim and surpassed the reaper himself. He felt himself return to pain; physical pain of the living, which meant he had defeated death and won.

He felt the touch of small hands on his face. He coughed and snapped his eyes open to see Cossette was leaning over him. Her face was scarred by the many tears she had shed and her once youthful face looked very old and tired, but she still have that youthful radiance about her. He tried to find his voice, but the fight with death had taken up his remaining strength. All he could do was look at her.

"Erik?" she questioned.

He tried his best to nod, but he couldn't.

"You're alright!" she exclaimed and basically threw herself on him. He groaned, but she clung to him anyway.

"Cossette," he mumbled.

She lifted her chin and looked at him. "Erik?"

He coughed lightly and cleared his throat. His voice was still raspy, but it was better than it had been. "Yes, Cossette," he said softly.

He searched her deep brown eyes that were reddened horridly from her nonstop weeping, and he saw much confusion, but it disappeared and was replaced with a small smile and a small amount of relief. It was a queerly grim smile, but a smile none the less.

He grimaced as he felt a small pain surge throughout his entire being. Her smile faded away quickly and was replaced with worry. "Are you alright?" she asked with all of the concern he knew only too well.

"Fine," he grunted. He tried to gently pry her from him, and it became apparent that she wasn't letting go just yet. He sighed, defeated. "Leave me to rest," he said rather sharply.

Cossette totally ignored him and continued to cling to him. She buried her face in his jacket once again.

Erik could feel her small form pressed against him and he was growing very uncomfortable with the contact. She molded herself to him and clung to him like a young child would her parent. He had experienced more human contact in those short few hours than he had ever in his life and he wasn't too sure that he was ready for it or even if he liked it for that matter.

He tried to shrug her away again, but it was futile. She hung onto him tighter as he tried to break free from her grasp. She held onto him so tightly he thought his lungs would implode on themselves. "Can't breath," he rasped.

She immediately released her tight hold on him and her cheeks blushed with embarrassment. "Sorry," she mumbled.

After he had his breathing under control, he sighed deeply and closed his eyes. Her arms were still around him and her head was still on his chest and no matter how much he wanted her to leave him she wouldn't budge. "Cossette, I heard your voice in the gloom…I followed you…through the gloom," he said quietly.

She turned her head and looked up at him. Her eyes were still red and her face still pale, but she managed a smile. "Don't you ever, ever leave me again," she said firmly and smacked his arm.

Erik was surprised by her smacking him. It didn't hurt him much, just surprised him was all. "Cos--" he started.

"Ever," she interrupted and glared at him.

He nodded in agreement. The firmness in her voice shocked him. It wasn't his choice to leave her. She tried to hold a straight face and glare at him, but she soon started giggling. Erik rolled his eyes. "You are a strange one," he jested.

She smirked. "But you know you enjoy it," she giggled.

He raised his eyebrow at her playfulness, which he didn't understand. "Oh, my little Cossette, naïve and young…poor girl," he sighed.

She released him and sat up next to him with her legs crossed. "What do you mean by that?" she asked rather confused.

Erik was glad to rid himself of her contact. "The heart has reasons the mind knows not," he replied.

She cocked her head at him in confusion.

He almost chuckled at her ignorance, almost. "Dear girl, why do you cling to me like a child? Why does my death effect you so?" he asked.

She thought for a moment. She opened her mouth several times to speak and nothing came out.

Erik watched in amusement as she fought an inner battle with herself; she was obviously losing.

After a few long moments she finally found her voice. "Because I-I…" Erik watched her eyes close. "Because I love you, Erik," she finished and opened her eyes and looked at him.

Erik stayed perfectly still and indifference settled in on his face. He searched her face and found no answers. What had she just said? What? Erik's mind froze. He couldn't think let alone comprehend what she had just said to him. Love me?

Cossette obviously saw the confusion on his face. She grabbed his hand in hers and he looked at her. "As a friend, Erik," she said. "As a friend, nothing more nothing less. A friend."

Erik noticed he hadn't been breathing and he inhaled sharply causing him to cough again. A odd sense of relief and disappointment crossed his mind. Was he disappointed at the fact that she loved him as a friend? Did he want something more? Not now, not ever. She had just said herself that she only did as a friend. "Ah," was all Erik managed to get out. He downcast his eyes. He couldn't look at her.

"Erik, I didn't mean it like that. I meant that I care deeply about you just not on those terms. Maybe I would had if things had been different, but not right now," she said. "I do love you dearly though," she reassured him.

"I see," he replied and looked at her. "Leave me to rest," he barked. The sudden change in his mood startled her and him. He didn't even understand what at brought on his temper. Was he mad because she only loved him as a friend and nothing more? Was he mad at her for clinging to him with her soft feminine body molded perfectly against his? When Cossette didn't move he bellowed it again, "Leave me be." Cossette stared at him for a moment nodded and left without a word.

Erik could tell by her body language that he had upset her, but he needed time away from her to rest and recuperate from the ordeal he had just had with death. He was physically tired as was he mentally tired. He was completely drained and he used up the very last of his energy in his short temper. He was angry with her as he was angry with himself.

He let go of a low grown and tried to turn on his side, but couldn't. He muttered a curse under his breath and closed his eyes. He soon fell into a restless slumber from sheer exhaustion.

***

Cossette walked out into the dark den and took her usual set in her usual chair. She crossed her arms and stared angrily at the hearth. "Damnable man," she muttered to herself. She cursed his name silently and began to pace around in circles like she had observed him do when he was angry. Eventually she calmed herself enough that she was able to sit back down.

She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. She was mad at Erik. No not mad just irritated by his indifference, his stubbornness, his insufferableness, and his overall attitude and self pity. She grew tired of it all. She had grieved for him and groveled for him and he had returned to her, but he was still the same old shuttered and elusive Erik. That stubborn man. She tried to hate him, but she soon found it was impossible to do so.

She couldn't hate him. It was impossible. No matter how infuriating he was at times… She even told him she loved him! What is wrong with the man, she thought. She then remembered that Erik had always been very sensitive and he put up his mask when it came to matters of the heart. She shook her head and felt guilty. "Perhaps I shouldn't have told him," she grumbled to herself.

Cossette hadn't noticed she had been so tired, but the whole ordeal had taken so much out of her and her eyes were most tire of all. They stung from the endless tears she had shed for him and she had a headache from it all. She pulled her blanket up around herself and decided there would be no reasoning with Erik tonight…so she decided to try later…for tomorrow is another day.

You didn't really think I could kill Erik did you? Heavens no. That would make me a murderer and that is one title I don't yet desire. Doesn't his indifference and stubbornness and his "ggrrrrr I'm gonna be all grr at the world and everyone because I'm a sexy beastie and I can get away with it" get annoying sometimes? Ugh, that insufferable man!

Me: "Be grateful I brought you back from the dead!"

Erik: "Grrrrrr...Why kill me in the first place?"

Me: "Oh shut-up and go play with your monkey before Raoul touches it!"

Erik: "Fine! No! My monkey! Don't touch it fop!" (Erik does the sexiest cape twirl ever in the history of sexy cape twirls and sulks off.)

Me: "Teehehehehe...Cue theme music!"

Erik: (yells from somewhere in the background) "Hey!That's mine!"

Yes, that was necessary. Hehe. I'm running on pure sugar right now...hehehehe. Well....Reviews, perchance?