A/N: As always, I want to tank you for the reviews. You don't have any idea of how much your comments mean to me! Hope you keep reviewing and giving me such happiness :D  Oh, and the format of this text doesn't look like I wished it would look… It's because I'm using the Word 2000, and I was habituated to the Word 97 =/ But it does not change anything too important, as you can see. draegon-fire: answering your questions, as said in the beginning, this story takes place after the musical ending, so, Erik's disappearance here is the same as in the musical: when the mob arrives, the Opera Ghost had gone without a trace. Like in the musical, I won't specify to where Erik disappeared. And about what he's going to do when he finds that Christine is looking for him… Well, you'll see ;)

Disclaimer: I don't own dear Erik, the managers, Christine, Meg, Madame Giry or any of the characters mentioned in this story. They belong to the bon vivant Gaston Leroux, Andrew Lloyd Webber, the RUG and Susan Kay.

Chapter IV – Down once more

At once I realized that the sooner I could go back to the Opera and try to be a soprano again, the better.

Only one day after arriving in my flat, I was walking in the Opera Charles Garnier and knocking on the managers' office door.

"Oui?" Monsieur Firmin's voice came reluctantly from within. Being the occupied man he had always been, he was surely occupied making business and contracts. But soon he opened the door and recognized me. "Ah, Mlle. Daaé! It's a pleasure to see you again! Do come in."

I thought that it wasn't exactly a pleasure, but he was pretending properly. I saw Monsieur Andre, with a cup of tea in one hand, already stood up to greet me as I entered the room.

"Hello, Mademoiselle Daaé. Good to see you again," he smiled and gestured for me to sit on a chair next to the table where all the contracts were signed.

"Hello, Messieurs," I said with discomfort as the two men stared at each other. Until that moment, I didn't know if Raoul had told them about the end of our engagement. "I presume that you have already guessed why I am here. I wonder if, maybe, I could get my job back?"

"With Piangi's death and La Carlotta's demission, we've been searching for a new tenor and a new lead soprano. We've already found the tenor," M. Andre spoke, "and, for the soprano, we've been thinking about you."

"You're already known by our public," M. Firmin cleared his throat and resumed his colleague's speech, "in spite of the last events, you are perfect for the job."

I hadn't thought about replacing La Carlotta, of course that I was flattered. But the absent way in which M. Firmin referred to Erik sounded a little suspicious to me. Putting those thoughts aside, I started to negotiate my contract. They were offering a good salary and didn't seem to bother with my marital status, if they knew about it. One hour later, I was signing the papers.

Leaving the office, I went to my old dressing room. After make my contract, I had one more thing to do before leave the building: check Erik's house.

While I opened the passage in the mirror and lighted a lantern, I wondered if even with his hiding place discovered by the mob, he could be living there. It was a place so ridiculously probable that no one would ever think of it.

I walked through the labyrinth and reached the gate in a couple of minutes. It was opened and I crossed the invisible threshold with a strange feeling, as though I was entering in another world – and I really was, somehow.

I found Erik's house completely destroyed, almost unrecognizable. The piano was broken, with its keys violently tore off; the couch had been burned and, in the fireplace, many books that Erik used to read for me were turned into ashes. I walked to his room, a place that I had hardly entered before, and saw that the saddening furniture in there had been savagely destroyed too. 

Before I could notice, tears were rolling down my cheeks. I knew it was my entire fault. I wanted nothing but apologize to Erik; apologize for being so childish and for hurting him one more time when all I really wished was to make him forget about all the pain he had already suffered. If I could only have him by my side... Suddenly, I heard something that made my heartbeat double with hope: music. It was the harmonic sound of a violin and I recognized the song as the one that had Erik sang for me when I came into his home for the first time; he used to call it "The Music of the Night".

"Night time sharpens

heightens each sensation...

Darkness wakes

and stirs imagination"

I started to sing it almost automatically and ran to the music room, from where the music appeared to be coming from at that moment. I could imagine Erik standing there, the violin lifted up to his chin, playing my father's instrument with ardor. I pictured him without the mask. That piece of porcelain consisted in pure nonsense to me. He was a genius, a gentleman and my beloved; what did it matter that his face was scarred?

To my disappointment, however, I found myself completely lonely in that room too and the music ceased in the same unexpected way it had started. I noticed that the music room had also been damaged. The table where Erik used to work on other things than music was missing a leg, the marvelous tapestry that used to cover the room had been totally retailed and, kind of replacing it, pages of various books were dispersed on the floor. I ran my hands on every bookshelf and every drawer, feeling the damages and looking for the violin I had given to Erik long ago. In the end, I found nothing. He used to keep the instrument in a locked drawer, but this drawer was empty and open without any forcing marks. It appeared that the person who had opened it had the key and only one person had it...

Sighing, I left the music room and continued my way to the next room – my room. I became instantly surprised when I opened the door. The room was intact. The bed, the mirror, even the book I was reading: everything was there. Why didn't the mob destroy this room? Perhaps they didn't find it. Erik had built its entrance as a hidden passage.

I stayed in the house for very long, checking the damages, searching for the things that were missing or simply breathing the underground's different air. But the time was running and soon nightfall would come. The idea of going back through those passages at night, without Erik's help, terrorized me and I couldn't stay all night in that empty house either. I hurried and made my way back to my dressing room, then to the street.

I couldn't command my thoughts when I was back in my flat. I thought about the music I had heard, wondering if it had been just my imagination, and remembered the missing violin – had it been stolen by a member of the mob or taken by Erik at that moment? There were never-ending possibilities, but my heart just accepted one of them.