Yay! Today is Tuesday and I actually updated on time! hahaha. well, thank ya'll for reviewing, and here is your long awaited (yeah right) new update! And this is my longest chapter... EVER!

Chapter 15

Staring at the strange man, I was deeply anticipating his reply. But when it came, I had no clue what to say.

"You do not recognize me?" the man said hurtly. "I am your father! And this wretched man kidnapped you and took you from me!"

I was too much at a loss of words to answer, so Erik did it for me.

"I did not kidnap her!" Erik growled. "You were dumb enough to let her wander off by herself! Maybe if you would have kept an eye on her, she would not have ended up here."

"If all you say is true, then why did you not return her to me? She must've told you who here parents were, did she not?"

I finally spoke up. "Well you never came looking for me! Don't you think that when I came here, I tried to go back home? But after awhile, nobody came for me, so I gave up on you!"

My father hung his head, then looked up with desperation in his eyes. "Let me in."

"Do you honestly think that is a good idea? Do you not remember what happened last time you came into my lair? I do think that you doing that made the situation much worse, if I do recall." Erik said mockingly.

"What are you talking about?" I questioned Erik. "What do you mean the last time he was here? Do you mean to tell me that he has been here before?"

"You haven't told her?" Raoul asked. "How could you not have told her? Were you too afraid that she too would choose to come back to me, like everybody else did?"

"You shall regret those words, Monsieur." Erik said softly as he walked over to the mechanism that would open the gates. He pulled on the lever and the gate began to slowly open. Raoul walked stiffly underneath it, but was soon stopped when a rope flew at him. But instead of wrapping around his neck, the lasso was blocked by Raouls' hand.

"Thought that you could catch me off guard again? Oh no, I came better prepared this time!" Raoul exclaimed as he pulled out a steel sword.

With a smirk on his face, Erik too took out a long sword.

"I see that you are not quite ready to give up yet, are you?"

"I beat you once in a sword fight and I can beat you again!"

"That was just a blunder of mine!" Erik said hotly. "And it will not happen again!"

Erik lunged himself at Raoul with his sword out, but missed slightly. Raoul brought up his sword, ready to plunge it into Erik, but Erik was quicker and blocked it. They both brought their swords out of the lock and swung at each other once more. As they were sword fighting, I was watching in awe. I had no clue what could have gone on between the two. And what did they mean by sword fighting again? When had they ever done it before?

My thoughts were quickly interrupted when I saw that Erik had Raoul by the neck and was squeezing the breath out of him. But before Erik could kill him, Raoul brought a knee up and kicked Erik in the stomach, which made him stumble backwards. Then Raoul picked up his sword and continued onwards in his fight with the phantom.

"I will not lose again," Erik whispered so that no one could hear it.

Swiftly he elbowed Raoul in his face, which gave him a bloody nose, and made him fall onto his back and onto the cement slope. Erik was about to plunge his sword into Raoul when I yelled, "Stop!"

Erik did not put his sword into Raoul, but instead brought it down to the edge of his throat.

"Tell me," Erik asked, "why I should not kill him here and now." He turned his gaze towards me. "Why?"

"Because he is my father! And even though you obviously hate him, he does not deserve to die."

"Oh but he does, my dear Emma," he replied while giving more pressure onto the sword. "You have no clue how much he does deserve to die."

"Then will you tell me?" I said almost too happily. "Will you finally tell me what is going on here? How you know my mother and…"

But I did not get to finish, for at that moment, a woman was walking through the lake and towards us. Since the gate was not yet lowered, she walked right into Erik's lair. At first, she did not say anything, but just took in the surroundings. When her eyes landed on me, they filled with such longing and love.

"Mother?" I asked questioningly.

"Oh, Emma!" she yelled as she ran towards me and embraced me in a hug.

"How did you know to come here?" I asked.

"I guess that I always knew that you were here," she said slowly and quietly. "But I just never wanted to actually believe it."

When she had finished, she looked over at Raoul and Erik. Erik had turned as stiff as a stone, and was staring intently at my mother.

"Christine!" Raoul gasped out.

"Please, Erik…" she started.

"It is too late for pleading," Erik stated.

"I am sorry, for everything and…"

"I said it is too late! Too late for all your useless pity, your pleads, they mean nothing to me now!"

Tears began to fill my mothers' brown eyes, but she quickly blinked them away.

Slowly approaching the three of them, I asked slowly, "Will you now please tell me what happened? Since all of you are here?"

"Alright," Erik said submissively. "I guess now would be the perfect time to relive my demise." He took a slight pause. "But only, if I can tell my story first."

I looked at the other two and they simply nodded their heads. And so, with the approval, Erik began in his story.

"It all started when I saw a young girl come to the Opera House. Her father had just died, and she was training how to sing. She would come down to a room and pray every night for her father and that her Angel of Music would come to her. When I heard of this 'Angel' I knew what I had to do. I came to her in her sleep and in her dreams and sang to her. I made her believe that I was her Angel of Music. Eventually, her voice progressed and she became actually quite good. When she turned 18, she became one of the chorus girls in the operas, but I wanted her to be so much more; I wanted her to be the lead. And so I began a series of events that would cause her to be the only one left that could possibly sing the lead. And I succeeded. Since I succeeded so well, I made a boy fall in love with her: the Vicomte de Chagny. When he came to her, she forgot all about her Angel. She denied me and betrayed me. I gave her all I had, my music, my voice, I even gave her her own voice. But still, she loved him, and not me. Desperately, I searched for a way to make her love me. Then one night, I had finished my opera that I had written specifically for her voice, Don Juan Triumphant. I gave it to the managers so that they could put it on in their opera house. When they did so, I knew that I would have to play Don Juan, otherwise, all my hard work would have been for nothing. I succeeded in getting on the stage, but at the end of the play, when I had Christine completely entranced, she did something that I did not expect. She tore off my mask and everyone saw my abhorrent face. I paniced, I did not know what to. Looking all around me, I noticed the chandelier. Taking out a small pocketknife, I cut the ropes holding up the chandelier and it came crashing to the ground. I heard the screams of the many people below, but it did not bother me. Grabbing Christine by the waist, I took her down through a secret trap door through the stage. From there, I lead her down to my lair, asking her many times why she did what she did, but she would not answer me. Finally, we reached my lair and I made her change into a wedding dress; I had planned to make her my bride. But then," Erik continued, pointing at Raoul, "he came along and stood outside the gate, pleading to be let inside and for me to let Christine go. So I let him come inside, actually, I bid him welcome. But he was not ready for my lasso, and it caught him around the neck. From there, I tied him to the gate and made Christine choose between us. I told her that she could either live the rest of her days with me, or I would kill her lover. At first she did not reply, but then she walked up to me and she…. And she kissed me. I had never had that sort of experience before, and it touched me. So I saw that the whole thing was pointless, that I could never hurt Christine or anyone she cared about. And so I let the two of them go. I let them leave, just like that. They rowed away in my little boat, but not before she came back and gave the ring back to me. Yes, the same ring that I have been trying to give to you, Emma. I was heart broken. The only woman that I had ever loved, and the only one that had ever given me a little chance, was gone. I went around my home and broke all the mirrors, so that the mob could not find out where I had gone. I left through a secret passageway, and did not return to my home until I was sure that the whole opera house was empty and no one would ever return."

When Erik ended, he was looking down at his feet, and possibly crying silent tears, but I was not sure. All I knew was that his story really touched me, and I was crying myself. I could not make peace with the fact that my mother would have left such a tormented man; a man that actually needed her. But she had left him. I looked at my mother and saw that she too was crying. I wanted to know more of what Eriks' past was like, his whole story. But I knew that now was not the time to ask.

Still looking at my mother I asked, "Why did you leave him?"

She turned to me, with the tears streaming down her face and replied, "The truth is that I did not love him, I loved Raoul and wanted to be with him. I would have done anything so that Raoul could live." She turned her glance to Erik and continued on. "But I am so thankful to you Erik, that you let me leave with Raoul. It made me so happy, and I was just glad that you had finally found the compassion to do that."

Erik cast a very quick glance up at Christine, but did not say anything. Raoul was no longer on the ground, but was instead now standing silently at Christines side. Erik looked up at the three of us, standing side by side.

"I guess that you now would like to go home with your parents?" Erik said absently.

I looked at my parents and then back at Erik. Slowly, gently I stepped forwards, towards Erik.

"Actually," I said, while keeping eye contact with, "I would be honored if I could stay here… with you." After I said this, the most surprised look came upon Eriks' face.

"Do… do you really mean that?" Erik asked.

I just nodded. Then I turned towards my parents once more.

"May I?" I questioned.

"Oh no," Raoul exclaimed. "I did not come all the way down here, risk my life, just so that you can stay here with… him."

"Well," Christine said reasonably, "maybe we can all work something out."

We all pondered for a few moments thinking of something that everybody would be pleased with. Finally, I spoke up, having a wonderful idea.

"I think," I began, "that I have an idea."

"And?" everyone said in unison.

"How about if I stay with Erik for two weeks, and then go back and live with my parents for two weeks. Does that sound reasonable enough for everyone?"

When nobody answered, Christine decided that she should speak up.

"That is a marvelous suggestion, Emma. Right, Raoul?"

"I guess that that would work out just fine," he admitted.

I looked over at Erik, who had not said anything yet.

"Erik?" I questioned.

He nodded his approval.

"Then I guess that I will start my two weeks here," I declared. Nobody moved. "That means that you two can leave now and come back when it is your turn."

"Alright," Christine said as she came over and gave me a hug goodbye. "I shall look forward to your stay with us."

"Me too," I agreed.

"Emma, it was wonderful to finally see you again," my father stated, while he too, gave me a hug. "I apologize if I startled you by chasing you down here."

And with that, my parents left, and I did anticipate my stay with them in two weeks. After I saw them safely leave, I turned around to face Erik, who had a huge smile on his. I had never seen him smile like that before, but it made me put on just as big of one.

Well, that is the end of my story, thank you all for reviewing... JUST KIDDING! I still have a lot to go in my story! So keep on readin and reviewin!