Authors Note::gets a large microphone:: AND NOW FROM THE  CO AUTHOR OF THIS STORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dun dun dun!!!

Monka~Hearts~Erik:: HELLO FELLO READERS! It is I, the Great Monka. Also known as Erin (in the story). but really folks. this story started when i had a dream and started to write it out. and with the help of my dear dear friend, Miss~Taken (A.K.A. Carley), for helping me and writing alot of good stuff in the story. i would not have been able to do it with out the sock- i mean peach- i mean her. um... okay! well thankyou for the reviews! we really aprechiate it! or how ever you spell it! Adieu!


disclaimer - i dont own erik.... not yet at least... MUHUHAHAHHAHHA! but i do own erin and a little bit of carley... i think i own her left foot... or maybe its the right.... i cant keep it straight ^.^

A shoulder to lean on/ Back to the opera house

"Carley." Erin said impatiently as she climbed out of the tall cabinet she was hiding in. "Carley?" Erin walked around the bedroom, looking under the bed and behind the folding screen to see if she was hiding. "Carley?" She wondered out of the bedroom and spotted Carley on the couch. Carley never cried. She thought that it showed weakness and weak she was not. Erin was at a loss. She never really knew what to say. Erin slowly made her way into the room "God gave me courage to show you, you are not alone!"  Erin sang as she leaped on Carley and gave her a big stage kiss. Carley began to laugh.

"Oh yuck. I am infected." She said sarcastically and fell over.

"Fooler!" Erin sat and stared at Carley. Her eyes were red and her nose was running. "Wow, you look attractive." Erin looked around for a Kleenex but couldn't find one. "Here." She handed Carley her sock.

"That is gross."

Erin held out the sock again and said, "Beggars can't be choosers." Carley shrugged in agreement and took the sock.

"Want it back?"

"No thanks. You keep it." Erin and Carley sat in silence for a while. "So… do you wanna talk about it?"

"No." She said plainly.

"You can talk to Erik and yet you can't talk to me."

"That's the way it works."

"At least let me try and cheer you up."

"Be my guest." Carley said doubtfully.

"One second." Erin rushed into the other room and came back with a sheet and a bathrobe.

"What are you doing?"

"Okay? Ready?" Erin wrapped herself in the bathrobe and walked  to the back of the room. "I remember there was mist. Swirling mist upon a vast glassy lake." Erin walked around waving her arms about. "There were candles all around and on the lake there was a boat. And on the boat there was a man…" Erin ripped off the bathrobe and threw the sheet over her shoulders and used it for a cape. She kept wiggling her arms but she did it in such a fashion that it looked as if she were playing the piano. Carley rolled on the floor laughing.

"Oh my gosh! Where did you come up with that?"

"I call it… The Wavy Arm Dance!" Now Erin was on the floor laughing with Carley.

"You're so weird." Carley had said when the laughter had subsided.

"I know. You don't have to tell me."

"I wonder where Erik is…"

*        *        *

Erik slowly made his way down to the cellars of the opera house. He knew the path well and knew that no one crossed those paths but he was still careful. When he had gotten down and across the lake, his heart whimpered. This home, his life's work had been destroyed. Not one candelabra stood upright, sheets of music were strewn everywhere, and his beloved organ had been burned. Only charred wood sat where the organ had once sat. Instinctively he began picking up sheets of music. Some half burned others ripped. Some still in tact. The mob had been ruthless, but unthinking. After not finding him they figured it was pointless to do anymore damage. Which might have been a good thing. He walked over to the west wing to find it relatively undamaged. He went to an ornate statue of a bust of some roman goddess and turned her head. A compartment opened. He pulled out sheets after sheets of music. Some of his favorites, some of his works. The last one he pulled had familiar red markings on it. Don Juan Triumphant...It stated boldly in garish blood red letters. He made a movement to cast it away forever then retracted his hand. No he would keep it for now. Maybe it would come in handy. He stashed it to the side with a pile of other sheets of music that he meant to take with him. Erik looked at the papers he had chosen to take with him. I'm missing something. Something I am not supposed to forget. He thought for a while then remembered. Erik shuffled through the rest of he papers in the hidden compartment. He pulled out a medium, square, black case. Erik held tight to the handle, shut the compartment, and headed back up to the surface.

*        *        *

"I wonder where Erik is?" Carley wondered aloud.

"He probably just needed some air."

"But then why did he want to go alone? I mean, he's out there… all alone."

"Erik has been alone for along time." Erin searched for the words to nail down her thoughts. "Erik's a big boy. He can take care of himself."

"Well I never doubted that!" Carley sat up. "It's just that if we want to take Erik back with us then he has to get used to people." She stood up and walked to the window.

"Excuse me, I must have fluff in my ear. I thought you just said 'Take him back with us.'"

"I did."

"You're crazy."

"I know."

"We can't do that."

"Why not?" Carley spun around and stared at Erin. "You want him to just stay here and die of a broken heart?"

"No. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy." Erin stood up. "But we can't take him back. It's not right!"

"But…. But I don't want to leave him. And we can't stay here. That's not right either."

"I don't want to leave him anymore than you do." Erin rubbed her eyes. "And… and we can't come back here once we've gone back."

"Gosh I hate this."

"You hate this?!" Erin stared at Carley with her tired eyes. "You're not the one with the powers. For you, this is just confusing. For me, this is one big migraine." Silence settled over the two girls. Carley opened her mouth to say something but Erin cut her off. "I'm tired. I'm going to bed. I want you to do the same. With sleep, comes the answers." Erin gave a weak smile to Carley and walked slowly to the  bedroom.

"Night." Carley whispered. "Bed? Bed. I couldn't go to bed. Not for all the jewels in the crown..." Carley laughed at her little My Fair Lady joke. Instead, she sat at the window, chewing at her thumb, and thought. I could never leave him. Never. I don't care what happens. He either comes with us or I stay here. I don't care if it's 'not right'. A loud crash came from downstairs. "What was that?" Carley speed walked down the hall way and the stairs at the end of it. When Carley had reached the bottom step, she realized that the usually noisy bar had gone eerily quiet.

"We know he was here! I will ask my question one more time, where is he?" A burly man was grasping Michael firmly on the shoulders.

"I swear, he isn't here" Michael sputtered.

Carley edged close to a drunken man at a table. "What's going on?"

"That man is asking that man if he has seen someone."

"Well I know that. But who?"

"The Phantom of the Opera." Carley gasped.