Disclaimer: More lyrics by yours truly but again, more reference to Webber. Darn them for having copyrights! In other news…all things related to The Phantom of the Opera belong to Gaston Leroux and/or Andrew Lloyd Webber. Go split the credit amongst them.

The Nightingale

Chapter 5: The Phantom Returns

The light in her room was so dim, even the candles had been hidden behind a veil from her eyes, so she was surprised when she awoke to find herself in near darkness. But she was comforted and her jitters went down as his voice sang to her in the dark from a different room. She sighed as the sweet strings of a violin accompanied him.

"Leave me never but only return to me

You are mine now, you can never be free

Why, why did you have to betray me?

You could hurt me but I could never hurt you, you see?"

Adrianna was startled by the sound of something solid landing on the floorboards and she thought Erik might be hurt. She instantly stood and called to him.

No answer.

Again she called to him, but as she tried to walk, a great pain struck her head. "Angel? Angel, are you well?" she called through the door. She cracked the door open and heard a clock strike somewhere…that's when the crying began. "Angel, are you okay?" she called. She walked into the great hall where many candles and their fire danced and licked around her. She put her hands over her mouth. "Ang—Erik! Erik!"

She ran to the huddled figure on the floor. He looked up at her, his tear stricken half of his face pale was drained, his clothes disheveled and his hair in a wilt. She stroked his face and noticed the gold glittering from her finger. HE had given HER Christine's ring!

His body shook with sobs, his shoulders tense with some hidden memories of pain still lingering in his mind. She did not even notice that she was calling him by his real name. She hesitantly but more carefully slipped her arms around him to keep him from shaking. She had seen him like this once before…

"Erik, did the church bells forget to ring?" she asked softly.

He looked up at her, more sad than surprised at her accuracy. She brushed his hair back, careful not to touch his mask. Like the day they first danced together, he held her hand at his face and so she saw no reason to keep from stroking him. The bells had always frightened him as a child…

"Erik, Erik, heaven's gates open to the happy angels

Listen, listen to the bells sing for their arrival

They are dancing past the pearly white gates for you

And you too will dance through the gates soon…"

Erik opened his eyes and looked at her. "Please, do not sing that…" he said hoarsely. She let him go, knowing he wanted to stand. He was now angry with her?

He walked a few feet toward where his violin had fallen from his grasp. He picked it up tenderly, examining its strings and glossy wood finish. He was relieved to find it unharmed. But he froze with his back turned to her.

"How do you know my name?" He turned on her, his eyes glowing with fire. "How did you know my mother's lullaby? HOW! Tell me!" he said, picking her up from the floor by her arms. Adrianna tried to escape from his grasp but he held fast to her. His face was so close, now she could really see the embers embedded in his eyes…

"I'm sorry, Angel, forgive me!" she said. Tears began to sting the corners of her eyes.

He let her go…and swept into another door. Her eyes widened as she caught a glimpse of a coffin inside just before the door slammed shut on her. She buried her face in her hands…how could she have even tried to sing that song to him? She knew the song haunted him endlessly. And the bells, they hadn't rung this morning. Was he frightened he would be locked up again?

She sat in the corner crying until she heard the organ in his room blast with heart-tearing music. Grief! She had caused him grief when she only wanted to make him happy!

His voice rang out from the room as the organ's notes tore the souls of everyone who could hear underground. Erik's voice sang with such a power, like he was trying to reopen hell and unleash the demons. Adrianna sang with him, pleading to lock the demons back up…

"Betrayed again and again, this soul has no one to turn to!"

"You are not alone in the war of hearts, there is not only you!"

"I am alone against the cruelty of this world and no mercy!"

"But there are others who wander your same path too, you see!"

Why was she even trying? She could not comfort him like this… She ran up to his door, but would not open it. He continued to play, his voice starting with its rage. Just standing so close to him singing like this made her soul catch fire as the notes entrapped her.

"Why! Why am I cursed with the suffering of everyone's sins, this hideous angel denied from paradise?

Why can I not be there with the beautiful angels in the sky, who is there denying me this right!"

She pounded on the door, pleaded with her voice to open the door and let her in. "Let me in, Erik, please! Erik!" Her face was drained, the power of the notes draining her power. "Don Juan the Triumphant" had the music that truly lived up to its title. But with her last energy, she sang out to him.

"Erik, my angel of music, beauty and light

Your nightingale sings only for you; there is no end to the music of the night!"

The organ began to calm in its notes and the notes of Erik's heart-tearing masterpiece ended…for today. Her head hung, her sobs quieting as she heard footsteps come from inside.

She saw the ends of his black cloak hanging over the end of the coffin, his suit jacket laid across the floor beneath it. Erik picked her up and held her to make her stop crying this time. He stroked her wet face and she wanted to feel his face too. His was wet with tears also. She kept whispering over and over "forgive me, Angel, I am sorry, Erik!"

Erik held her but needed to release her. "Tell me, how do you know my real name? No one other than my friend, Daroga, calls me that anymore, darling. Did you meet him before?"

"No, Erik, I'm just a memory from the past, is all."

And this seemed to satisfy him enough.

"You can tell me all later. I must return you so you can accept the lead role of Felisa, Nightingale." He smiled secretively at her surprised expression. "Let us depart for 'above' now," She nodded, still clinging to him. "Darling, please, I still need to retrieve my jacket and cloak from my chambers, okay?"

She blushed, releasing him.

He returned, looking as if nothing ever happened as she composed herself in her own room. But before she left, the picture of Erik at the piano, dancing with her, crying on the floor for the bells, singing his grief flashed in her mind. She looked at the man as he rowed them across the lake to the other side. Another image flashed in her mind, she saw the brush with the initials in sterling silver on her dresser.

C.D. for "Christine Daae", she had been sleeping in her room, using her brush, and now taken the former prima donna's Angel of Music. Something about this made her uneasy. What if Christine suddenly decided to return?

From the other edge of the boat, Erik observed her distant stare but decided not to ask.

He helped her out of the boat and led her through the dark passageways. Suddenly, they were at her dressing room, stepping through the mirror. She looked back but he was not walking through with her. "Er—Angel?"

"You must go to rehearsals. You will accept your role, yes?" he asked.

She nodded and he disappeared. At that same moment, there was a knock at her door. To her surprise, it was the two managers, Andre' and Firmin. They looked a little jumpy then usual. "Yes, Monsieur Firmin, Monsieur Andre'? May I help you?"

"Well, it seems Carlotta will not be able to sing the part of Felisa. We would very much be honored if you would accept it?" They wanted her to say yes…but how? How did she end up with the part? What happened to Carlotta?

They were to announce this at rehearsals that day and as they left, Adrianna gasped at what they were talking so secretively about.

"How will everyone take this? It's still hard to believe…the Phantom of the Opera has returned!"

She turned to the mirror as it glowed and Erik appeared. He smiled charmingly.

"…there is no end to the Music of the Night!"