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Ella pushed back the mirror and stepped into the dressing room. All was silent, though it appeared it would not have been if she had come a few minutes earlier; clothing was strewn about and a large trunk was in the middle of the room. Obviously people had been in here. Perhaps Carlotta had come back to pack her things and leave for good? One could only hope. Ella quietly and quickly made her way to the door… and smacked right into Madame Giry!

"Ma cherre, I thought you were still abed with your sister…" She looked behind to the door where the girl had appeared from. "You little fool," she cursed at her as she pulled her down the hall. "Do you think you are being brave?"

"I've already had this exact discussion and it was determined that I am not being brave, nor stupid, just stubborn." Madame Giry pulled Ella into her office. Ella sat herself down in a chair across from Madame's desk. Madame Giry did not take a seat, but began to pace back and forth, cursing under her breath. "Are you going to tell me or not?" Madame Giry stopped pacing. She hesitated for a moment, then smoothed down her skirt and smiled sweetly.

"I don't know what you are talking about, Ella. And you should be back with your sister." Ella dug her fingers into the arms of the chair.

"Stop that! I am not naïve!"

"Of course not, ma petite, no one said you were." MadameGiry made a movement to help her up but Ella held tight to the chair.

"Then stop treating me so! Stop treating me like…like Christine!" Ella felt bad to speak of her sister with such contempt, but she felt justified. "I want to know! Tell me about the Phantom!"

"I know nothing, Estella, no more than the others…keep your voice down!"

"You're lying! You know the Phantom! You know him! Tell me about Erik…" Madame had been trying to calm her, but stopped her fussing when she heard the girl speak the Phantom's name. She went and sat down behind her desk, pale.

"He told you his name?" she said it with disbelief.

"I only had to ask," Ella crossed her arms over her chest. "He said Christine never even asked….For all his love for her it does not seem she gives him much thought." Disdain crept back into her voice. "….I don't even think it really is love, Madame….something just as strong though…"

"The heart is a fragile and very complex thing, ma petite. Even the greatest thinkers of our times cannot explain exactly what the nature of love is." Ella only nodded. "What happened?"

"Well, he does not love me as he does Christine, nor do I think he really likes me," she said rubbing her neck.

"Erik has a temper….he is still like a child in so many ways."

"That's what I want to know. He was a child…a little boy. He wasn't always in the Opera House was he? How did he come to be here? And what is with that mask?"

So Madame Giry told Ella her tale, of how she had found Erik in a traveling show and saved him from the cruelty of the world. She also told Ella what had transpired over the morning since she had gone down into the cellars. Ella found herself with tears in her eyes; she could not cry for her own father's death, but she could cry for the mistreatment of this stranger? A stranger who had tried to kill her! Nothing made sense to her anymore.

Madame Giry showed her Erik's last letter. "Rehearsals for Il Muto will begin early tomorrow….with Carlotta as the lead," she said.

"The imbeciles!" Ella cursed the managers. "Surely you could appeal to Raoul de Chagney…he will help."

"The managers think it is all a plot by Vicomte de Chagney to get his lover to super stardom." Ella almost laughed. If she had not met the Phantom herself, she supposed the idea of Raoul concocting such a plan for Christine would seem plausible. Still, it was lunacy to not give in to the Phantom's demands. Ella looked back at the letter.

"What do you think he will do?"

"Who can say, mademoiselle…?"

Who indeed. Something inside herself told Ella that this was just the beginning of something bigger.