Meg: I clutched the mask in my hand as I watched the mayhem in Erik's lair. People everywhere were looting, over-turning objects, and wrecking the poor man's life. I could see from a glimpse that this man was not ordinary. He was a genius, an intelligent, clever, lonely hermit. I could understand why my mother had sheltered him for so long.

People were screaming about the monster, the freak who had abducted Christine. I knew what he did was wrong, but when consumed by love a person will do anything. My only hope was that Erik had been kind to Christine, and perhaps they were now headed out of France to a better life.

I walked over to a cluster of shattered mirrors, and felt a strange draft. It was issuing from the back of one mirror, but as I stuck my hand out to touch that backing I realized it was actually a hole! I looked around quickly, but no one was watching. I snuck into the hole, and was abducted by darkness.

The further I walked away from the lair, the darker it got. I was glad there were no corners or turns, just a steep incline. I had no idea what I was doing, but I did it anyway. I worried about my mother, wherever she and Raoul had gone off to. The air around me became stifling, and stale. I found that the dampness of the walls had given way to dry dust, and wondered where this tunnel led.

After what seemed like an eternity of wondering I came up into a small opening. I walked across that opening and gasped.

Ann: I screamed and ranted. I raved at the incompetent fools. After my encounter with Christine and Raoul I had raced back to Erik's lair. The destruction was irreversable. As physical fire burned above, human fire raged below. People had ruined his documents, his creations, and were now burning his most precious trophy.

The Grand Organ Piano. Now a smoldering pile of ashes and metal. I had screamed for Megan, yelling at whoever I could find. She was nowhere within his lair. I raced over to his bedroom, and then his bathroom. "Hey, check this out!" A man was inside playing with Erik's inventive electric toilet. "Where does the water go?" He asked. I told him, 'Stick your head inside and see." Of course the dimwit obeyed.

I ran over to a group of shattered mirrors, and stopped. One of those mirrors was missing a back. I waved my hand in front of it and then stepped inside the tunnel.

Meg: I wondered quietly inside the Paris Catacombs. I hoped there was some way out, because I had lost my way to the entrance from whence I had appeared. I felt frightened and cold. All my life I had never expected to be here, inside a cold tomb chasing down my best friend and a deformed phsycopath. I heard a sound, and stopped. It was as if the coffins themselves were weeping. I rubbed my arms and clutched the mask tighter.

In the pitch black darkness I heard a sobbing. I stopped before an ornate coffin and held my breath. The sobbing was coming from somewhere within that area, but I was stone-still as I leaned over. I couldn't see much except for a small outline, and I sighed in relief that there was no one actually inside the coffin. The person beside it leaped up at my breath, and I backed away. He stood tall, powerful, and menacing.

Suddenly he growled, "Give me that!" and grabbed the mask from my hand. I watched as he placed the mask over his face, and he looked at me. I wasn't prepared for his next request. "Where is Antoinette?"

I asked him back. "Where is Christine?" He looked at me and replied. "I let her go. She is with Raoul." My heart leapt. At least I knew she was safe.

"I don't know where my mother went." I told him honestly. He sighed, and then came to stand beside me. "Why did you come here?" He asked. I shrugged my shoulders. 'I wanted to find Christine. I found the entrance and just kept walking."

He replied. "Do you remember the way you came?" I was atonished. He wanted to go back? Back to that burnt-out shell? Back to those Police? Or did he want me to go back, and leave him here? "Why?" I asked.

Erik leaned in to me and said quietly. "I am lost."

Ann: I wondered over dusty floors, past ancient coffins, and onward toward the voices I heard. I checked my path to make sure I remebered the way back, and finally I found the two. "What did you do to her?" Meg was asking Erik, and Erik replied. "I asked her to stay with me. To be my wife, but I don't think I did it in a good way."

I listened as my daughter had her first converstation with an old friend. Meg said, "No, you kidnapped her, forced her to your lair, and almost killed The Vicompte of France." Erik said quietly, "Yes, but in the end I didn't. Even assholes deserve happiness." Meg and Erik laughed, and I stepped out of my shadows.

"Meg, Erik," I said. Meg turned to me and Erik ran over to me. He almost screamed, "Dear God Lady! Doesn't anyone think to bring a lantern or a candle?" Meg looked at me and said a little softer, "Mother, did you at least remember the way you came? We can't find our way out."

I nodded and took Meg's hand. Erik walked beside us and I brought them back to the tunnel. "Erik, you go first." I wasn't about to have him at my back. He walked and we followed. We came to his lair, and he screamed.

I clutched his shoulder. "You knew this would happen. You've burned out the Opera Populaire, destroyed the careers of hundereds of employees, and to the eyes of Paris, you are a monster. We must get you out of France before sunrise."

Erik stumbled into his lair, by now a burnt out mess. Paper was scattered over the floor, his books floated upon the water, and his organ piano simply didn't exist anymore. He held out his hands in frustrated agony, and to my shock Meg walked over to him.

"Erik, she's right. This is no one's fault but your own." He kneeled to the floor and whisperd, "My...oh...oh.." Meg knelt with him, and he tumbled into her arms. I watched as my daughter looked helplessly up at me. I mouthed the words "Care for him. We'll discuss things later."

Meg: Erik fell into my arms sobbing and I held him. I had no idea what to do but my mother's only words were, "Care for him, we'll discuss things later?" I tentively reached out and began to stroke Erik's soft gray hair.

He cried, "Christine." I knew he was broken, his life was shattered, and there wasn't really anything to say that would make things better. My mother was looking around the lair, and she came over to Erik's limp body.

"Erik, where is your lockbox?" She asked. He pointed towards the water, and she sighed. "Where exactly?" He sat up and wiped his eyes. Suddenly he stood up, walked straight into the water, and began to prod the walls. "What in the world is he doing?" I asked my mother.

Erik removed a small rock from the stone, and I was impressed. The crowd had stolen all his jeawels, his expensive items, but they had not discovered this little secret. When he returned to the peir he was soaked, and I had to glance away. Truthfully he was a handsome man, with chisled muscles and a tall, lith frame.

Only for that portion of his face, his right side so marred with raw, dead skin, horrid boils, and scars. I watched as Erik handed the box to my mother, and she used a key I had never seen before to open it. "Where did you get that?" I asked. Erik replied, "I gave it to her. It is a skeleton key, opens every single lock in this Opera. Even the one's the Manager's couldn't get to."

I shook my head quizzicaly. So many questions were burning in my mind, so many years of secrecy from my mother. I had to know exactly who this man was, and what his relationship with my mother was. "How do you two know each other?" I asked my mother. Erik looked sharply up at her, and she sighed. "Megan, there are, so many things, so many..."

My mother cast her eyes downward, and Erik continued, "We must first get away from this Opera, the police will still be here, and I can't be seen. Meg, you will know, in a few hours time." I bit my lip and looked at the box my mother held. It was full of francs, perhaps thousands of them, all crammed together along with coins and one small locket.

I tenderly reached out to grasp that locket. Erik winced as I opened it, and inside was a tiny, faded drawing of a young woman, perhaps in her thirties. "Who is she?" I asked. My mother was also looking at it, and from the look on her face she had never seen this item before.

Erik's tears fell gently down his face and he replied "My mother, from so long ago. It is all I have left of her." My mother reached out to Erik's shoulder, and he took the locket from my hand.

"Count the money please, Antoinette. I must change my clothing. Megan, would you care to sort out my books and find all the dry travel ones, plus any dry maps there are left?" Erik stood up, and I nodded.

I realized that when Erik gave a command, he expected it to be obeyed.