Once again, Odette and Raoul entered the Opera House. Odette suggested that they split up, try to find the Persian, and meet back at Christine's dressing room in an hour. Odette watched the Vicomte leave, and then dashed to Christine's dressing room. I know Erik has a way to get in here! Odette thought as she carefully examined the dressing room's paper-thin walls. Within moments she heard his voice!
"Why have you come here?" Erik roared, his voice like thunder.
"Where are you? Erik, come out." Odette looked around the room trying to see where Erik hid. A dazzling light shown from the mirror and she watched it lift aside. There stood Erik, straight and tall as always, dressed in a dark velvet tuxedo, the same black cape lined with ivory silk, and the white mask covering the entire right side of his face. As she had been the first time she saw him Odette was speechless.
"Come with me" Erik demanded holding out one gloved hand to Odette. She took his hand, without hesitation, and he led her away down a dank passage, down several stories to a gondola tied at the edge of a vast underground lake. "Get in." She obeyed and he rowed (do you row a gondola, or do you push…or pole?) her across the mist shrouded lake, at the far end of the lake stood a beautiful open house, looking quite out of place in the darkness of the cellars. Odette noticed that there was no sunlight, and she wondered distractedly why Erik kept himself from real light now. Erik tied the boat and escorted Odette up some stairs and into the house. The house was lit with hundreds of candles, Odette observed a gigantic pipe organ lining one wall, and caught a glimpse of a swan shaped bed covered in red sheets in the bedroom. Odette smirked, remembering that bed, how had he ever smuggled that out of Persia? She was jerked from her memories as Erik roughly threw her into a stiff wooden chair and began pacing the room, "Why have you come here? Have you not tormented me enough, you charlatan! I told you I would kill you if you tried to find me again. Why have you come?" Erik nearly shrieked in rage, and for the first time in her life Odette was afraid of the man she loved.
"Erik!" Odette cried. "Erik I came here because I love you! I always have. I never meant to hurt you in Mazenderan." Odette saw him flinch at the name. Softly she sang, "Erik I love you!" She realized that tears were streaming down her face and her voice was shaking, but she didn't care he had to believe her!
"You never meant to hurt me!" He roared again. "Never meant to hurt me, you betrayed me, let the sultana think I murdered those people, if it weren't for the Daroga I would be dead! You never loved me!"
"Don't be a fool Erik!" Odette snapped. "Of course I loved you, I have spent the last five years of my life searching for you! I was thrown out of Persia too, that night." He looked surprised, "You never knew that, did you? That wicked little sultana knew you were innocent; she had me locked in her room when I went there to plead for your life! I sent the Daroga to save you! After you and the Daroga disappeared, she had me thrown out of the country! I have been searching for you ever since."
"I used to make that little sultana laugh, why would she kill me?" Erik demanded, but Odette heard a hint of doubt in Erik's voice.
"She was facing a dilemma, even a Sultana can't admit to so many killings. She needed a scapegoat and you were it. Everyone knew you could throw the Punjab, you had taught her. It was easy to convince them that you had committed those murders."
"You had killed too, with those knives of yours." Odette flinched; yes she too had killed her share in Mazenderan. Erik watched her cringe, and felt bad for making her remember those times. Still, she had been a genius with throwing knives, she could have pinned a fly to the wall from across the room.
"For good reason." Odette snapped, furious. "But I can't throw a Punjab; you can and did. Often, if I remember." You killed much more than I did! Odette reflected, her temper flaring dangerously.
"So why have you come here now? How did you find me?" Erik demanded, curiously.
"I love you; I had to make you understand. I heard stories about a ghost that haunted this Opera House; I knew it had to be you." Suddenly Erik lunged for her; she felt his hands on her neck. Her fingers closed on her dagger and she pressed the blade against his stomach. "I will bury this blade in your stomach before you can so much as bruise my neck." She growled, her voice was cold and angry. "Why must you kill the one woman who truly loves you?" Erik's hands loosened, and he steeped away, Odette returned the dagger to its sheath, hidden in the folds of her skirt. Erik looked at her for a moment, and turned away, ashamed. He sunk to the floor his face hidden in his hands. Odette stood where he had left her, still enraged.
"Why have you come back now? I thought you had betrayed me, I thought Mazenderan was just an act. Odette, I've found a new girl, I love Christine now." His voice trailed off. Odette stared at him for a moment, and then she slowly advanced; crouched next to him and rested her hand on his shoulder.
"Erik, this girl has never even seen you, until this morning she didn't even know you were a man; she thought you were the angel of her father. How can you love her, you don't even truly know her. Where is she now?" Odette demanded realizing she hadn't seen the girl yet. "Erik, what have you done with her?"
"I have done nothing, she went home, I wouldn't sing with her today, not after she told me you were back." Erik grinned evilly and added, "You were wrong I did not try to kidnap her."
"How did you know that I feared that?" Odette asked apprehensively.
"I know more than just what happens at the Opera." He replied with a smirk. Erik slowly rose to his feet and stood there staring at Odette. I can't believe she is back! She loves me! Or so she says, he reminded himself what if she is still acting, what if she is saying she loves me to save this girl?
"I had to find you again," Odette said quietly to break the silence. Suddenly Erik grabbed her again, around the waist this time, and Odette was back in his arms where she knew she belonged. She ran her fingers under his mask pulling it off, and kissed him before he could react, her hand resting on his scared face. Erik kissed her back, actually lifting her off her feet, enjoying the feel of her in his arms once again. This woman betrayed me! He mussed angrily. I can't let her back into my life; this is all a clever plot to help Christine escape from me! With those jealous thoughts, Erik threw Odette from him, to the floor. Stunned she picked herself up, "What the hell was that?"
"You just want to save Christine!"
"Erik you sound like a jealous idiot. I hardly even know this girl, and I certainly didn't know her five years ago when I started searching for you! Does she even need to be saved?" Odette's voice shook with anger and alarm.
"I love her."
"She has never even seen your face, Erik; can you be sure she loves you back?"
"She will! I love her, I killed for her, and neither you nor that bloody Vicomte of hers can change that fact. Christine will be mine! You can do what you want, but I will be with her some day, she will make me happy, she will never betray me!" Erik hastily snatched his mask from Odette and but it back on.
Odette didn't know what to say in the face of this rampage, so instead she asked, "You did kill for her, what did Bouquet do?"
"How do you know I killed Bouquet?"
"Everyone was talking about his death and how the rope could not be found, I assumed that you had killed him with the Punjab, and didn't want to loose it. Why did you kill him?"
"Bouquet was a pimp" Erik stated plainly, "and, the night I killed him, he was trying to find a way into my house."
Odette laughed, "He was a pimp, under Mme Giry's nose? She's far to imposing to allow something like that to go on with her girls."
"Giry never knew, he and that cow Carla, had pimped out most of the dancers. They were planning to pimp Christine. I couldn't let them get away with that." Erik was scandalized by the thought. "I love her too much." He killed for me once too, Odette shuddered slightly; I wonder if he remembers that.
"Does she know why you killed him?" Erik shook his head, sadly. "Erik, what if she is afraid of you, what if…if she can't stand your face?" Odette moaned, wondering why she had gone so far. "Why must you chase her, you have my eternal love!" She rushed on to cover the comment about his deformity. It was just beginning to dawn on her that Erik was insisting that he wanted Christine instead of her; she really couldn't loose him again, not after all the time she had spent searching for him.
"She will love me!" He insisted one final time. Suddenly his demeanor changed, "Come I must take you back before the Vicomte misses you."
"Erik I can not leave you, I have searched too long!"
He sighed, still wanting to believe that she loved him. "Then you must return in two days time, sit in box five at that night's performance of Il Muto. I'll find you, I promise, but now you must leave!" Odette could think of nothing to do but obey him, so she followed him back, along a different path this time, to Christine's dressing room. She tried to grab Erik before he left but he disappeared so quickly he actually seemed to vanish. Seconds later Raoul entered the room reporting that he had been unable to find the Persian, they would have to come back tomorrow.
"No, Raoul we will come back in two days. I am sure Christine is safe for now. Can you get us two seats in box five for Il Muto?" If the Vicomte was surprised by this announcement and request, he was too polite to show it, a fact for which Odette was eternally grateful.
"Of course, consider it done. Shall we return home, mademoiselle?" With that, Raoul held out an arm for Odette and escorted her to a carriage waiting outside.