Madness and Hope

A frantic knock on the door woke the Persian from his sleep. He rushed to the door, expecting to see an agitated Raoul who had found out something about Christine but it nearly gave him a heart attack when he saw who stood before his door.

It was Erik, holding a suitcase, and Christine.

The Persian grabbed their arms, shoving them inside, then he closed the door. He was too stunned to say anything, he could only stare at those two.

"I need your help," Erik said, putting down the suitcase. It looked like Erik had decided they would move in.

The Persian gasped for breath in his astonishement. "You... you have the audacity to come here and demand my help? Why would I do that?"

"Because..." Erik started to say something, then gave a sideglance to Christine and took a different turn: "There is no one else I could ask."

"And what do you want me to do?" the Persian demanded, building himself up before Erik with his arms crossed.

"We need a place to stay for the night," Erik answered and Christine nudged him with the elbow, "A few days... Ouch... maybe even longer."

"And why on earth would I take you in after all you did to me?" the Persian asked, unyielding.

"What did I do to you?" Erik asked slightly bewildered.

This was too much. The Daroga grabbed him at the collar and yelled at him: "What did you do? You tried to kill me, you bastard! You tried to murder me in cold blood! And now you have the colossal audacity to come here and DEMAND - not ask - DEMAND that I help you?"

"You said you would forgive me?" Erik defended himself.

"I said, I WOULD forgive you IF you ever asked my forgiveness!" the Persian hissed.

"You never apologized to him?" Christine inquired, furiously. When Erik did not answer she took it that he really hadn't even thought about the need to apologize. "You really ought to be down on bended knees begging for forgiveness!" she berated him.

Erik found himself cornered. He could do nothing but to humble himself and apologize to the Daroga, though he did not like it. He closed his eyes and remembered Christines words about this being his LAST chance. He could not let his pride - or what was left of his pride after his last shameful blunder - destroy everything now. Now he was at their mercy and there was nothing he could do exept killing them, but that was no option either. So he bent his knee and said low-voiced: "I am sorry I tried to kill you and I beg your forgiveness."

The Persian's jaw dropped as he saw Erik at his feet. That was something he had never expected to happen, on the contrary, he had always thought Erik to be too proud to bow to anyone. Eriks eyes sparkled and he sneered for a moment when he saw the Daroga at a loss of words, but then he controlled himself and lowered his head. After all, they were right, he had tried to kill his friend and that was something he really should apologize for. Not that anyone ever had had the chance to apologize to him for trying to kill him... The Persian stood there, looking at Erik and Christine. Right now he was not sure Erik was in control of the situation any longer, right now Christine seemed to be the one in charge. Whatever had happened between these two, Erik was defeated and had finally capitulated to her. The Daroga suddenly felt the urge to take his hat off to her, but he didn't wear a hat right now.

"I forgive you," he said and offered his hand.
Erik slowly got up and took his friends hand deeply ashamed by his friends kindness.

"Tell me now, why do you need a shelter for tonight?" the Daroga asked as he led them to his livingroom, lightening the gaslights.

"She doesn't want to live beneath the opera any longer, and to be honest, I need someone to... keep strict watch over me so... I won't do anything I have to regret afterwards," Erik confessed.
"You WANT me to keep a close watch over you?" the Daroga asked, he could not believe that was actually happening, it must be some weird dream. Or had he finally gone mad and was suffering from hallucinations?
"Please," Erik whispered, "I need help."

"First you tell me everything!" the Daroga demanded. Erik rolled his eyes, he was tired and certainly did not wish for an interrogation but he knew he could not avoid that now.

"I really need some coffee," Erik said, "Could you please be so kind and fix me some?"

"Mademoiselle, what may I offer to you?" the Persian asked, now remembering his manners.

"Just some water, thank you very much. And for him - I think he needs a really strong coffee..." Christine answered with a meaningful glance at Erik who was sitting down unsolicited at the table and rested his head in his hands, massaging his temples. He still suffered from his hangover and facing an interogation wouldn't help him.

It was early in the morning when the Daroga finally decided he had to stop the questioning for he realized that Christine had fallen asleep in her chair and though he would have loved to put Erik through the mill he could not do that to the lovely girl. Erik had a horrible headache and sat at the table, his arms folded on the table, his head buried in his arms. The last hour his answers had mostly been groans.

"Please, Daroga, just kill me and be done with it!" Erik moaned.
"It seems we should go to bed now", the Persian said, "Mademoiselle can sleep on the couch in the livingroom and you... I don't have a guestroom but... you can sleep on the couch in my bedroom."

Erik looked up at him, bewildered. "You really think you would get any sleep when you know that I am in the same room? After all you know about me and all I did to you?"

The Persian smiled at him. "You remember when we were young? Remember our trips to the beautiful places in the Elburs Mountains? We had to share a small tent and I slept quite well. You did not kill me then and you had much reason to get rid of me for I was the one spying on you. Why would you do it now that you need me alive? I rather think you will be the one suffering insomnia - I know you do not sleep well if you are not in your fox's den."

Erik yawned. "I can barely keep my eyes open right now, my head hurts like hell - I just want to lay down, I need rest."

Darius, who was somewhat hard of hearing, did not get any of this. The more he was taken off-goard when he got up to prepaire breakfast for himself and his master and found a beautiful young lady asleep in the living room. When he went to wake his master, he stood frozen with shock when he got a glimpse of another man in that room, a man who had his face covered with a mask even when he slept.

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It seems Erik has finally decided to do the job properly.

Has anyone else noticed that the Daroga is acting quite different from what we know of Leroux's book? Well, having Erik standing in his flat uninvited after that murder attempt and demanding help and not even bothering to apologize... I think Erik really has to apologize for what he did to his old friend.

By the way - who needs an enemy when having a friend like Erik? You better be prepaired for him to stand in your flat in the middle of the night and tell you he was moving in for some indefinite time and you should be aware that he might have the evidence of his latest misdeeds with him, hiding them in your storeroom. Be thankful if he does not try to bury a body in your garden.

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