Chapter XIII- Nightmares

"Why, of course I'll let your husband be put under house arrest," the bailiff said. "Mrs. Giry, I can barely imagine the pain you must be going through." He said, patting her hand sympathetically.

"Erik is a good man, sir. Everyone just seems to forget it…" Finally Meg grasped what the bailiff was saying. "Oh, monsieur! Are you serious? Can Erik really be…?

He nodded, and Meg clapped her hands and jumped up and down. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

The bailiff smiled sympathetically and went back inside the jail house. A few minutes of Meg shuffling her feet, and wondering if she should just leave and come back tomorrow passed, and shefelt very foolish.

Finally, Erik came out in shackles and handcuffs. He still looked exhausted. When he saw Meg, he hurried to her as fast as the shackles would allow him to.

Meg met him half way there. He would have hugged and kissed her- Meg felt quite certain of that- but the handcuffs stopped him from putting his arms around her.

...Or maybe, somehow, he did reject her? She had to know… She slid her hands up his chest and shoulders, and the around his neck.

She pressed her lips against his. Erik's chains rattled as he tried to put his arms around her waist. He kissed her right back, putting his hands around her neck rather than her waist.

His kiss was warm and exciting; and very, very accepting. Meg knew he hadn't rejected her. "Erik," she said, extremely happily. "You're coming with me." She smiled at the bailiff so thankfully. Erik blinked, surprised.

There was just enough time to take off Erik's bonds beforehe took her into his arms. For real, that time.

With one last thank you to the bailiff, Meg quite literally pulled Erik into the carriage.

They were more than halfway home when Erik started to cough uncontrollably. Meg tried to calm him down, but all she could do was just hold him close until his body relaxed and murmur the occasional encouraging phrase.

Erik tried to catch his breath, and pulled Meg close. She snuggled close to him, putting her head against his shoulder, and her arm over his stomach.

Erik was up on the gallows again. This time Meg was no where to be seen. His heart ached. He wanted to see her. For the last time.

He didn't want her to come at first, but he had decided in his final moments, he wanted to see her. He just wished she didn't have to see this

Meg pushed through the crowd and started yelling something again, but he still couldn't hear her. They held out their hands to each other, but they still couldn't reach.

He was again shoved up the stairs and the noose was again slipped around his neck and tightened. He was again asked for his last words.

"I'm not sorry!" He said, and he was just about touse his life line- that was, until the platform opened sooner than he expected, and he plummeted down.

He watched from a different place as Meg ran to him, weeping hysterically, and flinging herself down next to him. She gathered him in her arms, still crying.

It looked like that statue Erik had seen once. What was it called again? The Pieta.

Meg brought Erik's…body closer to her, burying his head in his chest, and cried harder. Madame Giry tried to gently pull her from the body, but Meg refused to move. She waved her mother away and stayed with Erik.

That was, until the guards roughly pulled her away. It took many tries to get Meg into the carriage, but she finally did and they drove away. He could see her face look back at him, agony in every feature.

The next thing Erik saw was Meg screaming in pain. Her face was red and she clutched the sheets of the bed, trying to get something to hold on to. His jaw dropped as he saw the baby was being born- a month early. He heard another scream of grief from Meg unlike he had ever heard before as Caressa sadly announced that the baby was stillborn. …And that it had been a girl.

He covered his ears, not wanting to hear her shrieks of grief anymore. He shook his head no, and then started to murmur it, over and over, growing a little louder each time until he was yelling it at the top of his lungs. His yells and her cries intertwined and the din was unbearable.

Meg woke up to hear Erik screaming. He was thrashing about wildly and screaming his head off. Meg tried to wake him up, but he slapped her hands away and screamed louder.

"Erik, Erik, what is it?" She said, Jean-Paul and Caressa rushed in, looking disheveled, alarmed, and very, very sleepy. Soon the whole household was around Erik, holding him down. Meg slapped his face gently, trying her best to wake him up.

She said his name over and over, and finally Erik awoke. He breathed in and out slowly, trying to reassess the situation. He saw Meg, above him, leaning over him.

"Are you alright?" She said, scared. He grabbed her and hugged her powerfully. Caressa and Jean-Paul scurried out, quickly.

As soon as the door was closed, Erik started to weep, pressing her against him, wanting her to be even closer than she was. "Erik, what is it?" She said, scared. "What is it? Tell me! Tell me!"

But he never did tell her. They stayed like that all night, Erik crying like that, and Meg wondering just what Erik was bottling up inside of him.

Meg couldn't remember the last time that Erik had a full night's rest. It had started when she brought him home- he couldn't sleep, and he got up and wandered around the house until Meg forced him to come back to bed.

He had done this every night. And just last night, he got up again and wandered around the house until he remembered his piano. He sat composing as softly as he could until five in the morning. Meg had watched him. He looked so at peace that it seemed a crime to tear him away.

Finally Meg understood just why the organ was called an organ. Even though they didn't have one- couldn't afford one at all- the piano was part of him. Like he couldn't possibly live without it. It was a part of his body, like the heart that was beating inside of him.

Once he had finished composing he wrote a title up on the top. Momento Mori. Meg presented herself in the doorway at that time. He looked guilty at waking her, and it took a lot of placating to get him to return to his bed.

…Only for him to awake yet again a few hours later, and wander the house aimlessly for the second time that night.

There, seeing her husband weep into her arms so passionately, she couldn't help but wonder; what was happening to her husband?

"Henri," Mariette Jammes said, to the Emperor. He was looking out the window and was not himself at all. He was standing with his arms behind his back and glaring out at the streets of Paris below him. "Henri, I know you're upset, but…"

The Emperor glared at Little Jammes, no warmth in his eyes at all. "I am not upset. I am tormented, Madame." He turned back to the window, and spat out the rest of his words. "My conscience has is tearing me to shreds- I know that the dearest, sweetest lady in the world is weeping because of the pain I brought her."

"Henri, I'm sorry the plan didn't work, but we still have time to reform it!" She said, desperately. She felt something like she had never really felt before. Pity? She wasn't sure.

"I'm done," He said. "I'm disgusted with myself." He turned to look over his shoulder at the girl behind him. "Go…away." He snarled. "GO AWAY!" He began to beat his fists against the glass.

Mariette could do nothing. She ran away from the Emperor.

She left the room to find even more unrest in her heart. Meg would pay. She would PAY. She would pay for finding the man she loved, and having him love her in return. And she would make sure that the Emperor would have the revenge he deserved as well.

Be alone, Meg. Mariette thought. Be so alone you could die from it.

Okay, How'd ya'll like it?

Sorry I haven't updated in a while... this chapter was insanely hard to write as well.

But never fear, the next chapter is going to be a lot easier!

Guess what? I'm reading Phantom! IT'S SO GOOD! Why did they make this be out of print? Evil, evil printers and their evil evil ways... I just got it yesterday and already I'm on page 453. I just can't put it down!

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