It was only when Nathan called for Christine's assistance that he realized she wasn't there anymore. He lifted the flashlight and looked in every direction, but the room was empty, and he hadn't seen or heard a thing.

Cursing, Nathan whirled back to the unconscious kid and grabbed him by the front of his jacket. Ray was cold underneath his touch, but he knew that he wasn't dead. "Ray! Ray, wake up. Come on. You have to wake up." The water was starting to lap around his upper thighs and was consistently growing higher. He shook Ray again.

The kid's eyelashes moved, and he groaned. "...Christine..."

Hoisting him to an upright position, Nathan leaned Ray against the stone wall and held him in place. Now that he was waking up, Ray was able to hold himself upright. Nathan took his tied hands tightly and squeezed them, not really to comfort, but to make them warmer. Every inch of Ray's body was ice cold, and a shiver accompanied every breath he released.

Nathan held him in place with one hand while he worked the binds that held his hands together. They were tied nicely, and he was rather surprised that Erik had taken the time with it. He wouldn't have to tie him up to ensure he drowned... Unless...

The door!

"Come on. We have to hurry." Nathan set the damp ropes aside and aimed the flashlight up. Yes! The door was still open! If he could lift Ray and reach it, perhaps he could wait until the water rose high enough and then escape himself. They were of no use to Christine here.

"Where is...Christine?"

"She's fine, Ray." Nathan lied, but it was the lesser of two evils. The most important thing to do was get out. "I'm going to lift you up, okay? See that door up there? Look." Nathan held the flashlight and pointed to the square of light above them. Ray looked, but his eyes didn't seem to see. "Right there. Here, you can hold the flashlight... When I pick you up, I want you to grab the side of it and lift yourself out. I can only push you so far." Nathan didn't wait for a response but bent below the surface of the water and took Ray by the knees. The kid was light, and he lifted him with no trouble at all.

As soon as he was fully standing again, Nathan shouted up at him, "Take the sides! Hurry!"

The last word barely had time to register before he heard a slam above them and Ray's frustrated exclamation.

Nathan nearly toppled underneath Ray's sudden movement, and the glare of the flashlight shone in his eyes. "What??"

"The door's closed!"

Erik.

"Fuck!" Resisting the aggravated urge to just drop Ray, Nathan slowly lowered him back again. He was shaking with anger

Ray put his hands against the wall to steady himself, and he took a moment to completely assess the situation. He must have been unconscious for a very long time. "Tell me where Christine is..."

The flashlight had fallen from Ray's hand, and Nathan fished it out of the water and flashed it up again. The ceiling was mere stone now, and there was no evidence of there ever being a door there at all. He circled the edges of the room, slowly and pushed against each stone slab with all the fore of his weight.

"Where is she?"

Nathan turned and shone the flashlight at Ray. "He has her...but right now we have to worry about getting out. We can't help her until we get out." He pronounced and drawled out each word to signify the importance.

It worked. The fact that Erik might have Christine was what gave Ray the initiative to move away from the wall and help Nathan search. Both of them worked at it, pushing at any crevice that seemed odd or out of place, and investigating every piece of stonework that stuck out from the rest.

Muffled cries came from the other room as they reached the center of the room. Ray and Nathan stopped together, and both leaned closer to listen. It was impossible to make out words...but it was unmistakably Christine's voice being answered by someone speaking too softly for them to hear.

Ray was not able to help himself. "Christine!"

"She can't hear you," Nathan whispered, but he didn't bother to shush the kid. It didn't make a difference now who heard them. Erik already knew that they were there.

"There has to be another way out of this room!"

Nathan did not answer, but the tired look that he gave Ray was enough to show his thoughts on the matter. If Erik wanted them to drown, then they would. It was as simple as that. They were trapped rats. Christine was their only hope now, and by the sound of the cries in the other room...she was not getting very far.

Now there was silence.

Ray was pressed against the wall, listening intently. "I can't hear anything..."

The water was up to their waists now.

Beginning to shiver himself, Nathan flattened his body against the wall. He knew that it was deeper in the middle... It was best to stay on the sides. "Can you swim?"

Indigent, Ray gave him a look. "Of course I can swim."

"Good, because we're about to."

At Ray's horrified expression, it was quite obvious that he hadn't considered the fact that the water would continue to rise. He slid his hands alongside the wall, where it was steadily dripping, and looked upwards. "Where is all of this coming from??"

"Pipes...see?" Nathan centered the beam of the flashlight on very small but noticeable black holes. They were positioned around the ceiling, but only along the walls...so that the pipes outlined the room. The flow of water gave Nathan the impression of a waterfall...especially when it began to increase...

The room was about eleven feet tall and twenty feet across... It was easy enough to calculate. It would be about ten minutes before it was filled completely, and then there would be no more air. The gush of water would stop only when the fissures in the room were filled. Both of them would drown, and Christine would never even know.

"He really wants to kill us, doesn't he?"

Nathan looked at Ray rather sadly. The kid was no more than twenty...and had already come face to face with something like this. More than likely he'd never met anyone who actually wanted his life to end. It was frightening...and maliciously evil. It wasn't fair for him to get caught up in this, with Erik's twisted games of jealousy...or with his perverse ideas of right, wrong, and justification! Ray was completely innocent. He'd done nothing to deserve this, but...the brave defeat in his eyes gained Nathan's respect.

So he wanted to give Ray hope. "We have a chance. If anyone can talk him out of this, it's her."

"But what will he make her do?"

"He thinks that he's in love with her. He's obsessed...I don't know what he would make her do. We can only wait...and pray, if that's your thing."

Leaning his head against the icy wall, Ray took a few short breaths. "I wish that I could talk to her. I want to tell her..." He stopped.

As he looked at Ray's pale face, Nathan completely and beyond any shadow of a doubt, despised Erik. He didn't hate him for what he'd done. No...he hated him: the very person that Erik was...if he was really even a person! How could anyone do this to another human being? So coldly...and so calculating! If he was his friend at all, how could he leave him to die? It wasn't as though Nathan had betrayed him first! If Erik had only kept that damned promise! It really was not that difficult...

Nathan felt the pressure increasing...something in the water gave way, and it suddenly surged to their necks. "Get ready. Start treading water if you have to!"

Being shorter than Nathan was, Ray was already doing so, and he clung to the cracks of the wall and held on, moving with rising water... There was a current now, and it was going fast. Ten times as fast as before.

Alarmed, Nathan kept the flashlight above the water with one hand. "He must have done something!"

"Done what??"

As if it wasn't obvious! Nathan grabbed the boy's sleeve and drew him closer. "Stay by me. We need to be prepared for anything."

The chill was getting to him now; Nathan felt it deep in his bones. He knew that it must be worse for Ray, but the kid didn't complain. He could have been numb by then...

Both of them treaded water in unison now, and they gripped the side of the room as the water swirled around them.

The ceiling was getting far too close.

With a feeling of impending doom, Nathan glanced over at Ray, and he couldn't help but feel a genuine sense of sympathy. Ray's certainty of death was present in his eyes...as well as the awareness of the hopelessness in this situation. Usually...everything would be enough to send anyone into shock...but there was no fear that Nathan could see. There was only acceptance. Ray was willing to die for this girl. He must have known that from the beginning...that this was a possibility... It was more than Nathan had expected from him.

With a tentative grin, Nathan moved his hand and shook Ray's. "It was nice working with you, kid. I always liked you."

Ray did not feel so comfortable dying. He smiled a little, hesitantly. "I thought I got on your nerves."

"Nah...I've just been on edge. As you can understand."

Either of them would be able to touch the ceiling if they extended one hand.

"I wish that I'd at least gotten to fight him fairly."

Nathan looked at Ray for a moment, but spoke honestly, "There is no fair with Erik. There never has been...and there never will be. But I can assure you...if you fought him fairly, you would have lost."

For a moment Ray looked annoyed, then he just shrugged. "Maybe. But at least I would have lost fairly."

Another increase of water brought the ceiling to their heads. "Get ready to hold your breath." He smiled again, and in a slight self-depreciative nature. "Good luck, kid."

Up to the moment right before their heads went under, Nathan had not considered his own death. He felt pity for Ray...because he was young. Nathan was not old, but he was older...and he'd felt as though he lived longer. But what was living? His wife's death ended his life long ago...and he felt a vague relief in the moment when he could no longer reach air. He held his breath, but kept his eyes open. The flashlight was flickering dangerously, but he held it tightly in his hand anyway...even though he could see nothing. Nathan had stared Death in the eye many times and laughed, and he did laugh--silently...finally, he would die. He would never seek out death...but it finally found him, and while he did not completely welcome it...he would not run either. His wife would be waiting for him.

The flashlight went out.

A millisecond after that, Nathan felt something cold, and then he was breathing again.

The water...the water was lowering...

Ray was gasping next to him, and Nathan felt a violent jerk of current as the water swelled downward, and he was pulled away from the wall with Ray. He grabbed onto the kid and tried to push him back again, to hold on, but he lost his grip and then couldn't see him anymore. "Ray! Ray, grab the wall!" He managed to yell, but his voice was lost in the noise of the water as it swept downward.

A few times, his hand collided with the wall, or perhaps it was Ray... He couldn't tell, but at one point he found Ray again and held on.

Then he felt the floor underneath him again. The water had lowered so quickly that it was nearly drained, but it was going too fast! There must be a pipe opened in the floor... Nathan felt another suction, and he was suddenly...inside the floor... and in the pipe! Ray was next to him, but a bit underneath him...and he felt the kid's hands pushing him up as gallons of water rushed around him and down on Ray. Only a few more seconds and it would be over!

A final push from Ray sent him upwards, and Nathan lifted himself out. He sprawled onto the floor and away from the final pull of water.

Not taking time to recover, Nathan turned quickly to grab Ray, his head swimming, but he felt only air. The pipe was empty.

And the room was drained.

The rush of water carried Ray through the pipes several yards underground...underneath the street, many buildings, and people walking above him, who had no idea of what was passing beneath their feet. His body traveled all the way to an open drain, where it emptied out into the New York harbor. But by then, Ray was long dead.

And Nathan, still holding his breath even though he could breathe, fell into unconsciousness with his hand remaining outstretched.

There was a long time in which Nathan was not aware of anything at all. It was only distantly that he saw shapes and dark shadows. He felt a cold hand on his forehead, and he pulled away from it... Several times, he tried to speak, but either he was unsuccessful or ignored. No answer came from the dark abyss.

After a long time, he realized that he was lying on a couch of some sort. He could see small pinpoints of light, and he heard voices. One was distinctly Christine's, but he never heard Erik. Again, Nathan tried to say something, but he was too exhausted to even move his jaw. For what felt like hours, he listened...his eyes open small slits...and the shapes gradually focused to become two people.

Christine was kneeling at Erik's feet, and she was crying. Her features were clouded, but Nathan could see the anguish in her movements as she looked up at Erik's dark shadow. It was impossible to see him at all...Erik's back was to him. Nathan realized that she must have been begging for him to let her go...and he struggled to move and help her, but it was only his fingers that stirred.

Their voices were becoming words...and he heard Christine speaking, in a very soft whisper: "Erik... I didn't mean it. I'm sorry..." The break was present in her voice, but it was what she said that confused Nathan more. What was she sorry for? Didn't she know that Ray was dead?

Ray was dead.

The monster moved, and Nathan's muscles tensed as if against an attack, but Erik only knelt to Christine's level. He did not touch her; there was an uncertainty that Nathan sensed. "Christine..."

The pale shape that was Christine shifted, and her hand moved as if she would reach out to him...but she did not. "I-I didn't mean it... I do care...I just..." The regret and horror in her voice was not for Ray...but it was not for Erik either. It was for all of them. She was trembling.

Erik took her hand instead, and he was shaking as well, much to Nathan's surprise. But even in his grogginess, he still wished to reach for the pistol and shoot him...tricks...he had too many tricks! This could be a trick right now... Erik could be taking advantage while she was weak...after Ray was dead, drowned! He could see that Erik was wet and knew that it was he who had pulled him from the torture chamber. He felt it in those last moments...he knew that Erik might have tried to save Ray. Or...made it appear to Christine as though he tried! But what if he had just watched? Watched...and laughed, silently...as he won...

Or could he be redeemed? Did he give in to her out of the regret and mercy of his warped heart?

Nathan could never know, not until he could manage to muster the strength and get up and speak! He fought harder, and his hand twitched...

Then he felt blackness beginning at the edges of his vision and closing in, little by little...

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry, Christine..."

But was he?

Christine was crying even harder, and instead of shrinking away from Erik's touch, she leaned closer. The very man who had committed this crime comforted her! Comforted--Christine!! What could she be thinking?? Didn't she realize that Ray was dead...dead by Erik's hand and no other? It wasn't as though Ray tromped down underneath the theater of his own accord and asked to be killed!

"I'm sorry for leaving...for what I did..." Christine's head gently lay against Erik's chest, and he held her. She was very still as he did, sobbing piteously.

Nathan watched as Erik hushed her, drawing her closer. "No...no. Don't be..." There was only a slight tremor of self-loathing in his response, but Nathan felt triumph anyway when he heard it.

Guilt! Erik should feel guilty for what'd he'd done! He should hate himself, Nathan thought furiously.

When he attempted to make a sudden movement, in absolute rage and with the thought of retribution, he was sent back into the realm of unconsciousness.

It would be hours before he woke again in dark silence. He had been returned to his home, and the shades were drawn to keep out the rising sun... It was morning already?

Then all memories of the previous night returned, and Nathan practically fell out of bed as he made a dive for the telephone. The first number he dialed was the police, and then Christine's apartment...but her phone only rang and rang.

Well into the evening, the police searched the theater, underneath and all inside the corridors. The trapdoor that Nathan had discovered merely the day before seemed to have disappeared... When asked if he wished them to drill through the floor, Nathan told the policemen no. He knew that it would do no good...Erik was long gone. And while it would give Nathan the utmost pleasure to destroy and uncover Erik's home, he saw it as a waste of time...and he still had a rather annoying, grudging respect for the man who'd nearly killed him.

Ray's body was discovered earlier that afternoon, and a funeral was scheduled. Christine Daye was reported as missing.

There was still a vague feeling that it wasn't over.

But would it really ever be?