A/N: Yay for another chapter! Sorry to keep you all in suspense about Elodie. [=

Chapter Twenty-One: Resurrection

Elodie

She woke with the sun in her eyes as she had for the past 6 months of her life. She felt grateful for every ray of light that blinded her in the morning as she turned her face to the window. She often had to peel her eyelids open as they were heavy with sleep. Her limbs still felt heavy and she suspected they always would.

She now managed a morning meal with her mother each day. Though she was growing tired of her mother's constant worrying. Her father was regaining some of his warmth. Elodie knew how much pain she had caused them.

"That's all over with." She said to herself as she stood and touched the edge of her bed as if she were afraid of falling over. "Things are different now."

She busied herself with pushing clothing around her wardrobe until a loud tap echoed in her room. She glanced up, tendrils of brown hair falling her face. "Who is it?" She asked as she tucked the hair behind her ears with a smile. She was glad to be finally be able to have her hair back to normal.

"Your sister." Madeleine's voice came through the wood. Elodie felt her eyes narrow. Her sister was utterly suspicious of her. She watched her every move like a hawk and always sat close to their mother. Two years older than Elodie, she should have not cared as much but she had nothing but her family. Her husband had been killed in a boating accident and she had lost their first and only child not much later.

"Come in, Madeleine." She said in a forced sing-song voice.

Her sister entered carefully as if she were afraid of provoking the beast within. "How are you feeling?" She asked as she looked intently at her with her blue-gray eyes.

"Quite well. The sun is out and that always improves my mood."

Her sister let her hand land on a bureau and lean slightly on it. "I have good news." Elodie was aware of the slight light in her sister's eyes. She was excited. It was something Madeleine did not express often. Her sister was often trailing about the garden or sitting still while her mother chattered away. Losing her own family had taken the life out of Madeleine. Elodie could still remember them as children.

Before Madeleine became a proper young lady and Elodie began a journey of punishment they often giggled and rolled in the grass by the small pond in the garden. They wold braid flower crowns and place them on each others heads and race around the garden. Madeleine had been about to teach Elodie how to play violin when Elodie began to get in trouble for misbehaving.

"Elodie?" Her sister asked cautiously.

She shook her head. "Yes. I'm fine. I was just reminiscing." Her sister's mouth broke out into a small smile. "What is the news?"

She watched as her sister's smile grew. "Papa and mother are taking us to Paris for the weekend." Elodie felt her heart beat harshly in her chest.

"Really?"

"Yes. It was mother's idea, really." Elodie could not believe it. She had trouble believing anything these days. "It is to be a special treat for you, especially." Her sister said as she stepped closer to her. She came close enough to grasp her sister's hands. "Elodie, we are so proud of you."

Elodie smiled and squeezed her sister's hands. "Madeleine, do you think this is meant to be?" Her sister's confused look made her smile. "This trip to Paris. I have been missing Paris so. I cannot wait to go!"

"I am sure." Her sister said. "Mother wants you down for breakfast in five minutes." She concluded. She turned to leave, only looking back over her shoulder to add, "I expect she'll share everything with you."

---

The week after Elodie had returned home was one of the most painful and haunting weeks of her life. She could hardly sleep for the pain in her body and when she did sleep it was not something she wished to experience.

Her dreams were too colorful and filled with unnamed emotions. She began to doubt her very existence. In her waking moments she often babbled nonsense and felt her body twitching. There was a moment when she grasped her mother's hands wildly and started shouting about a forest.

"Maman, on the edge of the forest you can see how far the ocean stretches."

"Elodie what are you talking about?"

"The forest on the edge of the property. Or maybe it is the property. You can see the cottage just barely. I sat there once at night."

"Elodie." Her mother said nervously.

"And he found me in the forest. Or maybe I found him. I can't remember."

"Who?"

"I-I can't-"

"Elodie." Her father had said loudly, silencing her whimpering as she shook under the quilts. "There was no man. You were dreaming."

"Dreaming?" She asked as tears formed in her eyes.

Her father did not respond. She felt the tears slicing through her skin. It hurt too much.

"But it seemed so real." She said as she weakly grasped the fabric in her hands.

When she had cleared the door of death and had started her recovery she never spoke of the forest again. Nor the man who seemed to determined to appear in her dreams. When she thought of him her heart ached and besides, she was starting to believe it had all been a dream anyway.

---

Paris was just as she had remembered it. Full of life. It made her feel at home. She knew she should have been born and raised in Paris. The city, in essence, was her. Or perhaps it was the other way around.

Her father walked dutifully beside her, watching as she eyed everything with love. Her sister and mother were up ahead a ways.

"Papa, do you remember the opera you took me to?" She asked with a smile as she watched a couple saunter past them.

"Yes." He said gently. "You went on about it for days. It was spectacular."

"I still think of it when I dream." She announced as a smile broke out even broader on her face. "I wish I had been trained in voice." She said with a small giggle.

"Elodie, you would have been the star."

She smiled and turned her head to look across the street swarming with people. Her heart seemed to stop in her chest. Her large eyes took in the sight of the man from her dreams. She felt her eyes sting with wetness and her mouth open slightly as she gasped as silently as she could.

He stood there, a dark cloak over his face but she could tell it was him. His eyes seemed trained on her. Her mind raced. She suddenly knew his name. "Erik." She said as she felt her heart begin to thump painfully in her chest.

Her father tugged gently on her arm. "Elodie, what is wrong?" He began to pull her gently after her sister and mother. She craned her neck to see the man still standing there.

She licked her lips, preparing to tell him she had been seeing things when Madeleine raced up to them. She grabbed Elodie's arm, her eyes large with wonder. "Papa, is it true?" She asked with surprise as she eyed her sister with delight.

"Is what true?" She asked with concern as she watched her sister and father smile at each other.

"It is." Her father said.

"Elodie! Mother just told me. Oh you will look splendid."

"For what?" She asked confused.

"Mother told me that you have been invited to a party hosted by Madame de Chagny, the former soprano of the Opera Populaire. She said she has met you before when you were in Paris and she wanted to call on you but decided this would be much more fun. It is tomorrow! Papa is buying you new clothing for it."

Elodie felt a smile grace her lips. "Papa." She said said with delight. "Oh this is too wonderful!" She grasped her sister's hand and her fathers and grinned. It was only once they began to move again that she remember the man who's name she suddenly recalled. She looked back and could not see him.

You're seeing things Elodie. She told herself.