"Angry? Why should I be?" Kaylen relaxed visibly at his words. "I mean all you did was ruin my plan and my life. She would have stayed with me, Kaylen. She would have stayed here with me until I died. Do you know what that meant to me? Do you!" His voice broke down into sobs.
"She wouldn't have stayed Erik. She planned it this way." Kaylen said calmly.
"You lie!" he shouted and threw his hands down to his sides. " She would have stayed with me if it wasn't for you!" He advanced on her, arms outstretched as if he meant to strangle her. Kaylen pulled the gun out from behind her back and aimed for Erik. He stopped short, half from his instinctive fear of the gun, but more from the shock that Kaylen would actually point a gun at him.
He heard the double click as she cocked it and held it squarely on him. She meant to do it, and he had half a mind to let her. "Go ahead." he said in quiet challenge. "Shoot me. You might as well. What do I have left to live for?" Kaylen seemed unsure of what to do. She obviously had not been expecting this. Erik took a step forward "SHOOT ME!" The gun began to shake in her hand. "Erik," she said, "I'm sorry." Erik closed his eyes waiting for the bullet that would end his life and all his pain but it never came.
When he opened his eyes again he saw that Kaylen had turned her back on him. She stood now, the hand with the gun limp at her side, her other arm hugging herself tightly. Her head was bent and her shoulders shook visibly from her sobs. After all she had done to him, she didn't have enough mercy to kill him.
He slowly made his way to her, not wanting to spook her and have her accidentally shoot him. He only wanted a fatal shot, not another shot to the arm. Even when she heard him behind her she made no move to shoot him. He moved past her, she no longer mattered, Christine was all that mattered now.
He found his gloves and put them on. The Punjab lasso was in his hand still and he tested it now for strength by tugging on it from opposite ends before making his way toward the door.
"Erik!" He looked back to see Kaylen looking like a very lost child. "Where are you going Erik?" She looked so weak and out of place here. After all she had done to him he hated her. He could kill her now if he wanted to . Just a flick of his wrist and she would be motionless on the floor. She was weak. She wouldn't even put up a fight. He stood there considering it. "Your not worth the effort." he said out loud before turning to leave.
"They're gone Erik. You won't catch them. You won't even find them."
"But you know where they're at don't you?" He turned back on Kaylen. "Tell me!"
" I don't know. I'm sorry Erik, she's gone."
Erik let out a cry of anger like a wounded animal and sat down heavily where the couch usually was only to fall flatly on the floor. For the first time he saw what they had done to his house. All around him his furniture lay in ruins. Books where strewn across the floor as if they where rubbish, and many had been thrown into the fire. The keys on the organ had been pounded in and the glass on his mother's small portrait, the only picture in his house, had been smashed.
He sat on the floor and choked on his tears. Just think of what they had done to his music. His opera and life's work, Don Juan Triumphant. He envisioned them finding the music sheet marked in red ink and throwing them into the fire. The fire in his vision licked and swallowed the pages, curling the blackened edges until it was just a ball of charred paper. The flames danced happily, mocking him, laughing at his pain. He felt a hand on his shoulder but he didn't even bother to turn around. "I couldn't have stopped them Erik." He waited for the sorry but it never came. He assumed that she thought she had said it enough. What good would it do anyway? It wouldn't bring her back. Silently he shook her hand away, walked into his room and shut the door behind him.

********

Kaylen worked all night to clean up what remained of Erik's belongings. She cried as she did it. they had destroyed so much. So many of his beautiful exotic things. So she wept and cleaned. The books she stacked neatly where she remembered Erik had always liked having his books. She swept up what she could of the ashes from the fireplace and dusted the mantle. The books in that had been burned in the fireplace, she placed in a neat pile beside it, not sure if Erik would have wanted to keep them or not. Within minutes she had a new fire going. The flames warmed her and she sat in front of it, her arms wrapped tightly around her. Her eyes wandered towards Erik's door and she wondered if he would ever come out. In his position, she wasn't sure if she would have come out either.
*
Erik came out of his room and found Kaylen curled in front of a dieing fire like the dog she was. She looked so peaceful in her sleep almost like she was dead. He hoped she was. He hated her. He looked away and saw what she had down to clean his house. He supposed that it was her way of asking for forgiveness. She wouldn't get that from him that easily. "Erik." He turned to see her sitting up and rubbing her eyes. "I've made breakfast already, it's on the table."

"I'm not hungry." Erik said as he turned to retreat back to his room.
"Erik you have to eat."
"Oh?" he turned to look at her, his arms crossed, "and why is that."
"Erik just because she's gone doesn't mean your live is over! Your still alive aren't you?"
"You don't know how wrong you are my dear. However, you still didn't answer my question."
"Fine don't eat." Kaylen turned to go into Christine's room. Erik ran after her. "What do you think you are doing!"
"I want to give you something." Kaylen reached between Christine's mattresses despite Erik's horrified look. She pulled out sheets of music including the manuscript for Don Juan Triumphant. He reached out for them, but she was faster and she pulled them away just out of his reach. "A favor for a favor, Erik. Eat your breakfast like a good little boy and I'll give you your music. Like it or not, I'm still your friend and I won't see you waste away to nothing on account of one failed romance."
He glared at her through the mask with his arms crossed at his chest. She had outdone him. Fine he'd play along just this once. "Alright." He turned on his heel and made for the kitchen.
Kaylen walked in to find Erik seated at the table over his breakfast. She stood over him until he had finished every bite. He seemed uncomfortable at having her watching him eat, he kept eyeing her as he drank his water. But she wouldn't leave, not even when he gave her dirty looks between mouthfuls of sweet bread. Finally he was done and Kaylen slid the music sheets across the table to him. "I'll be back Erik. I have to go back up, Ashley and Meg are expecting me, I just hope they haven't come to check up on me yet. I'll be back. Keep in mind that I still have a few of your precious things hidden as incentive to let me back in the house."
Erik smirked, but that soon gave way to a frown. "I hate you." He whispered without emotion. Kaylen sighed heavily. "I know."

Kaylen made her way to her room. The halls where still dark and she had no trouble getting into her room undetected. Everything was as she had left it, but without life. Her room seemed alien to her now. She would have to keep it for now though to keep up appearances. She didn't plan to spend most of her time here now though. Erik needed her, even if he couldn't admit, even if he did hate her. No time for regrets now. She had done what she had thought to be right at the time, and anyway she had errands to run.
*
"Erik, let me in." Erik opened the door to Kaylen carrying bags of supplies. Food and other things he would need, but she knew he would never go out and get on his own now. It was more than she could carry and she struggled to get them all to the kitchen, unaware of Erik watching her coldly amused. She emptied the bags, placing everything carefully out on the table, always aware of her shadow Erik watching her with crossed arms from the doorway. Without a word to him she crossed the kitchen and began to pile wood into the stove. Dusting off her hands, she turned to the doorway to see Erik still watching her. No matter. She would not be intimidated, she was stronger than him she had proved that before and she would again.
She continued to make dinner aware that Erik never left the kitchen. She turned to face him. "Erik I'm not going to poison you."
"Pity."
"Why don't you go sit down somewhere, work on your music or something."
Erik shrugged and walked into the other room.
******
From then on Kaylen became the mother of a heartsick Opera Ghost. Everything was a chore, even getting Erik to eat proved difficult. Only by bribes could she get him to do what she wanted.
That night, after dinner, she sat on the couch examining the portrait of Erik's other. She turned it over in her hand. The glass had been completely smashed but had not damaged the portrait as far as she could tell. Erik sat in the chair beside the fire eyeing her suspiciously. If he thought she was going to do something to damage the small portrait he made no move to stop her. He seemed more curious than anything.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small rectangle of glass. She had taken the measurements earlier and stopped by the glaciers on her way back from shopping. Carefully, she slid the little cardboard backing out of the gold frame. She took out the portrait of Erik's mother and laid it face up on her lap. The shattered glass, she poured out into her hand , careful that one cut her. The rectangle of glass fit perfectly and she put the frame back together. She turned it over in her hand and Erik's mother smiled at her, she smiled back. She got up and replace the portrait to where it belonged, on the mantle above the fireplace. Her skirts brushed Erik as she passed him and he flinched. She still had the broken glass in her hand and she brushed it into the waste basket in the kitchen. A piece of glass nicked her and she winced. The cut on her finger bled and she put it in her mouth to stop the bleeding before going back into the drawing room to sit back on the couch.
Erik eyed her as she came back in. "What are you doing?"
"I cut my finger."
"Don't do that." Erik walked out of the room and reentered carrying a bandage. He knelt beside her and took her hand.
"I thought you hated me." she said eyeing the top of his head as he wrapped her finger.
"I do. A favor for a favor." he said and he turned his head to indicate his mother's portrait on the mantle.