I led her to the side of the tunnel where I had carved a set of stairs in the rock to make the descent from this passageway less difficult. After going forward several more paces; we were in the cavern with the lake.

It was a most redoubtable sight; my small, oddly built house sitting eerily at the other side of the still sheet of reflecting liquid. Blurry beams of light were streaming down from above, and a creeping mist swirled around the lake and the house.

"Cheery place," CJ muttered,

"It served its purpose," I whispered dismally back, it had served its purpose quite well; it had facilitated my madness and allowed for me to imagine myself married to Christine and living like a normal man. And yet, even when this happily false image had taken hold over my mind, some part of me had always known it would not end well, and one room in the house, my bedroom, reflected that.

In what was my bedroom, there stood a coffin where a bed should have been. I had never felt as though I was a real living person in the world. As such, I had always acted how I felt; as if I was dead already.

I did not want to descend again into that world. I laughed in my head at that thought; I was in that world again. All I had to do was look around; my past was all around me. Like some sort of bazaar dream, I watched the mist across the lake turn into my small boat which was carrying me and Christine…

"Erik," CJ whispered to me, and suddenly the mist was mist once more; I was back in the present, back with CJ,

"Erik," CJ said in a hushed voice, "How do we get across?"

"There should be a boat…" I saw it pulled up on the shore. It seemed as though it was in the same place where I had left it the last night I had left my house, but I could not really be sure.

"How easy is it to see the lake from the house?" CJ whispered to me,

"Very," I said grimly, "but from here there is really no better way to get in; at any entrance there is a chance of being seen," CJ nodded and began to walk toward the boat.

I quickly ran through other options of entrances in my head; ones which led down from the opera above. However there was no way to get up to the opera from where we were. Going through the opera would have made more sense and I wished Dumas had let us enter through there, however it had never been up to Dumas, Le Roy was in charge, and nothing he did made sense.

We reached the boat. I was suddenly struck with a wave of strange remembrance of the last time I had taken a woman in my boat; and I looked over at CJ, when suddenly my mind allowed her blond hair to turn brown along with her green eyes. I was about to reach out my hand to this vision of Christine to help her into the boat when CJ jumped nimbly into the small craft. I shook my head, the vision of Christine gone.

There were two oars; we both took up one and I was about to tell CJ to use her oar to push the boat off the shore and into the lake water when she did just that of her own accord.

"You have been in a boat before?" I whispered to her,

"I lived on the coast before my father died,"

The boat cut through the glassy water without much noise and we rowed as speedily as we could, however I still felt incredibly uneasy; we were plainly visible to anyone in the house. It seemed to take longer to reach the other side of the lake than it had on previous occasions. I attributed this added time to the fact that at any moment, someone could burst out of the house with a gun pointed at my head.

We guided the boat across the water; as we approached the shore I thought for a moment about where the best place to land the boat would be, however it occurred to me only a second later that no matter where we put the boat to shore; we would still be uncomfortably exposed.

The boat bumped into the land and we disembarked as stealthily as we could. I led the way to the house, I made no noise as I went and I hoped that if anyone had gotten down here, they were not inside the house now.

It was a very good possibility that no one had come down here; the police had found the body in the tunnels above, the killer might have only discovered that tunnel, and not the one leading down to my home.

There was the odd point; in my experience with the caverns below the opera, most avoided them. They were ideal for hiding; however I had never experienced anyone trying to use them as I had used them. How anyone would find out about the tunnel that led to my home baffled me.

However, there was no time at that moment to ponder it any further; we had reached the house. We walked the last few feet hunched over in a ridiculous manner so as to avoid the windows, and then we pressed our ears against the wooden wall of the house. I heard nothing. Slowly and cautiously, I crept to the section of the wall behind which my room was located. I listened again; still nothing indicated that anyone was in the room.

I searched for and quickly found a crack in the wall. I pressed my fingers into the crack and it widened. It was one of the secret doors in my home. I slid it sideways an inch and peered in; only empty air stared back at me.

Sliding it fully open I entered. My room was deserted; the only thing in it was my coffin. CJ entered behind me, jumping and grabbing my arm at the sight of the coffin. I shook my head at her;

"There is no one inside it," I whispered, although at that moment I realized that was not necessarily true. A coffin made a good hiding place.

I moved noiselessly to the wall just in front of my coffin and removed a small section of the wall behind which I kept several things of importance to me. There was a Punjab lasso, a bag of money, and a pistol.

Taking the pistol, I turned around and faced the coffin. I stood at one end, the end in which the head would be, and I motioned to CJ to go to the other end. I motioned for her open the coffin. She eyed me skeptically, but she placed her hands on the lid. She looked back up at me; I was pointing my pistol, ready to shoot anyone inside. I nodded to her, and in one quick motion she pulled the lid off the coffin.

I was glad I had not just shot automatically, because all I would have done was made a commotion and shot a hole in my empty coffin.

We both sighed and let the built up tension release. This room was empty. I handed CJ the pistol and returned to grab the lasso. CJ walked to the door frame and I stood beside her. Peering out into the rest of the darkened house, nothing moved or showed any sign of life. No light flickered from under any door, nor did the sound of feet reach our ears.

Slowly, we pulled open every door and searched every room. I had always thought I had a small house; however it seemed as though there were countless doors to check behind and rooms to investigate.

Each time we opened a door my heart raced and I saw a figure hiding in the room; however it never really was a canceled figure; it was always shadows in disguise.

At last, we had exhausted every place in the house and concluded that it was, for the time being, empty.

"I don't know if I should feel relieved or just more nervous," CJ said to me, she did not bother to whisper,

"It does not look like anyone has been down here," I said, "I really don't see how anyone could get to this house," We were standing in the kitchen dinning room area, and I moved to a cabinet, took out a candles and flints and lit them, "No need to be in the dark anymore,"

"Unless someone is watching the house," CJ said nervously,

"In which case we will see them before they reach us," I did not really know if that was true, but I was getting the increasing feeling that the police had been wrong and that who ever was taking the girls from the opera had simply found the one tunnel from the road.

CJ appeared to accept my reasoning. She was looking around the room newly lit by the candle light, "So…this was where you used to live?"

I nodded and began opening drawers and cabinet doors; staring at everything I had thought I would never see again. It was a strange feeling to be back, I almost felt as though I had never really lived there. In the short time I had been living like any other human being I seemed to have gotten used to it. It seemed odd that I had chosen to live like this; but I had, for I remembered every inch of the house and every thing in it.

"Why do you have an empty coffin in that one room?" CJ asked me, just as I found a bottle of wine I had been saving for my 'wedding celebration.' I straightened up and took out two glassed, then turned and sat down at my dinning room table. CJ sat down as well.

"That…" I hesitated momentarily, then I thought to hell with it, she already knew too much about me, why not this as well? "That was my bed room, I used to sleep in a coffin," I poured her a glass of wine and pushed it toward her, she took it gratefully,

"Why the hell did you sleep in a coffin?" She asked, eyes narrowed in suspicion,

"Well…" I poured a glass of wine for myself, "Dead people 'sleep' in coffins, and I never felt like I was a living human being, the only other thing to be is a dead human being, so I thought I should act like one,"

CJ gulped her wine, I could not blame her; we had done quite a bit that day and had no food or drink.

"Why did you feel like a dead person?" CJ asked confused

"My face," I said simply and I downed the wine in my glass,

"Easy there, you have to be sober to get us back out of here," CJ laughed as I finished, then her face became serious again, "So, you have lived like this, in hiding and alone, all your life, just because of your face?

"Yes," I made to pour more wine but CJ quickly grabbed the bottle; I glared at her,

"Promise me that you will never sleep in a coffin again," She said,

"And then I get the wine back?"

"Yes…but you have to really promise,"

"I promise,"

"You promise what?"

I sighed, "I promise I will never sleep in a coffin again," She handed me the bottle,

"So why was there a baby crib with a fake baby in it?"

I had just started pouring my wine, but at this I stopped and put the bottle back down, staring exasperatedly at her; it seemed she was not happy unless she was getting me to reveal painful and shameful facts about my life,

I sighed, her sharp eyes were staring intently at me and I knew she would pry it out of me sooner or later, "All the furniture is from my mothers house, that crib and the baby used to be in my room, and I tried to trick my mother into believing I was the fake baby so she would love me,"

CJ opened her eyes, looking sadly at me. I looked down into my drink,

"You tried to convince your mother you were a wooden baby doll?" CJ asked me with a small laugh, I suppose she could not help herself, it was a bit foolish,

"It sounded less ridiculous when I was five years old," I snorted, and I had to admit it felt good to be met with something other than pity, fear, or loathing, when I talked to other people about myself.

"I am going to venture a guess and say it did not work very well?" CJ asked, finishing her drink,

"No," I said shortly, "No it did not,"

"Why did you keep it than?" She asked bewildered

I opened my mouth to respond but I could not think of anything to say. I had no idea why I kept it, "I don't know," I told her honestly,

"You should get rid of it, you don't need that reminder of your childhood laying around,"

I considered it for a moment, "All right, since you know everything, what should I do with it?"

"I don't know…but you should get rid of it…"

I rolled my eyes, "Alright, now you have to tell me something ridiculous about your past,"

"Something ridiculous?"

"Yes,"

"I once knew a guy who slept in a coffin,"

I shook my head, "Get out of my house,"

"I would if I knew how to get back up to the surface," CJ smiled at me, then she looked around at the dinning room, it appeared by the look on her face that something had just occurred to her. She dragged her hand across the table then looked at it,

"That was interesting," I said after observing her motion, "How much wine did you have?"

"Were you in this room a lot? Did you use this table often?"

"No," I said, surprised at her question,

"Did you clean it a lot?"

"Once in a while," I said, still wondering where she was going with this,

"Then there should be dust on the table,"

I looked down at the gleaming table in front of me, then I turned and stood, returning to the cabinet with the glasses. They were gleaming.

"Strange…" I looked all over my dinning room, it was perfectly clean,

"Maybe someone was down here," CJ said standing and coming over to me,

I raised my eyebrows, "So the killer came down here to clean my house?"

"Alright, so that does not quite make sense…unless someone knew we were coming and wanted to make it look as though they had never been here,"

"How would anyone know we were coming? Not many people even know we are alive, let alone what we are doing,"

"That is true…"

I knew I had made a point, but it was a bit unsettling, "Maybe we should look over the rest of the house,"

We both took a candle and I made my way to my bed room. We looked over everything; it was devoid of any dust or dirt mark…but why would someone clean my house?

All the rooms were the same; clean and neat, almost too neat, I tried desperately to remember exactly where everything had been before I had left it so I could determine if anything had been moved, but it was impossible.

If someone had been down to the house and cleaned it up afterwards, perhaps someone was trying to conceal the fact that they had been in my home, but how would they know I was coming?

My music room was the last room I entered. The organ was never unclean, so there was nothing truly strange about not finding any dust on it. This was the one room I liked; the one room which had given me some kind of joy. I walked over to the organ and ran my fingers along the keys. My beloved opera, Don Juan Triumphant, was still on the music stand. I picked it up gently as though it were my child. I looked through the pages; it was all still there. But then…wait…

"Someone was down here," I said defiantly,

"How do you know?" CJ asked, coming to look over my shoulder to see what I was holding, "What is that?"

"This is the opera I wrote…I finished it just before…but the pages are out of order,"

"So?"

"I did not leave it this way; I left it perfectly in order,"

"And you know that for sure?"

"I am positive,"

"Alright, so what to we do?"

I shook my head, "I don't know; I think we should go back to Dumas, nobody is down here now, and if someone knows we were coming down here they will not return anyway while we are still in the caves,"

CJ nodded, "I am falling asleep anyway," I looked at her and she did indeed look tired; actually she looked awful, her face was still blacked with soot, however there were pathways through it where sweat had run down her face. Her clothes were burnt and tattered; then I had an idea.

"Before we leave, there is something we should do," CJ raised her eyebrows,

We stood in my bathroom, washing the soot off our faces. I removed my mask and cleaned the twisted skin beneath it. I noticed that soot from my hands had transferred to the mask so I cleaned it out as well, then I realized CJ was staring at me,

"What?" I demanded, I hated it when people stared at me,

"You missed a spot, here," She reached up with the cloth she had been using on her own face and rubbed my marred cheek,

I blinked and gave her a nod of thanks. I rubbed my face; I needed to shave. All of my things were still in place, so I lathered my face and picked up my blade,

"You can do that with out a mirror?" CJ asked skeptically,

"I am a man of many talents," I said dryly as I put the blade to my skin,

"I cannot watch this," CJ said abruptly, "Give me that blade," I moved the blade out of her reach,

"No, I can shave myself; I have done it for years," I moved the blade farther away from her,

"That was before I came along, now give," she muttered wryly and she took a firm hold on my wrist and pulled my hand to her, forcing me to give up the blade.

I stood awkwardly as she went to work. One of her hands was placed on the back of my head in order to keep her other hand steady, and she was staring, in fact concentrating, on my face. I wanted to squirm away, however there was a blade at my throat and if I made a wrong move there would be a blade inside my larynx.

"Alright, now that was not so bad was it?" CJ rinsed the blade in the sink,

"It was hell," I said, running my hand over my jaw in approval; it was smooth, meaning she had not missed a spot,

"It could not have been worse than when you cut my hair," CJ hit my shoulder, "I thought you were going to rip it all out,"

I laughed wickedly as I remembered, "I maintain that it tried to kill me first,"

After our impromptu washing, I retrieved a new set of clothing for each of us,

"Looks like Noel came early for me," CJ said dryly as I handed her new, clean trousers and a shirt,

"Pardon?" I did not quite follow what she had said,

"You know, Noel, where you get presents…you just gave me these," She held up the clothes I had handed to her. I stared at her blankly, "You never celebrated Noel, did you?"

I shook my head, and CJ nodded, "Right, sorry I mentioned it…" she mumbled, then she cleared her throat, "I am just going to change now," she turned and went into the bathroom. I changed in my bedroom. It felt wonderful to be back in my own, clean clothes and I decided I would bring some back up with me. I would also bring my bag of money up with me.

CJ knocked on my lightly on my door and I opened it. She stood in the hallway and I started as I looked at her. It was very strange to see her dressed in my shirt and pants. They were too big for her and she had rolled the sleeves of the shirt up to her elbows, and she looked…appealing.

She looked back at me, "Erik, in the room I was just in, there is another door we didn't look behind," She did not need to say another word; I knew she was talking about the torture room. I shuttered, I should have taken it apart years ago. It was a replica of the device I had built in Persia; a circular room of mirrors, and in one corner an iron tree. The person being tortured in the room would be made to feel as though they were lost in a dark jungle and eventually they would go mad, and hang themselves from the tree. But nobody would be hiding there, no one would willingly go into that room.

"No one will be in there," I said, not even wanting to think about that room.

"What is in there?" CJ asked curiously,

"Nothing, it is just a closet," I lied

"A closet?" I could tell she did not believe me, "Alright, if you say so," I appreciated her not pushing the subject; most things I was willing to tell her; but this was something I would rather just let die.

We blew out the candles and put them away; I was about to clean up the rest of the mess we had made in the otherwise spotless house when I stopped myself; if someone was using my house without my permission, than they should clean up for me.

Taking a big holding money, clothes, parchment and ink, I exited the house.I was greatly relieved to get back into the boat and head for the opposite shore. I was truly feeling fatigued now, and I just wanted to get back to the cab and sit down in safety.

The boat finally landed on the shore and we disembarked. Wordlessly we walked toward the tunnel which would finally take us out of the caves. When we entered the darkened passageway I immediately took CJ by the hand and led her as I had on the way in. When we reached the drop off where CJ had almost fallen earlier, I went to the small set of stairs and pulled CJ up behind me.

It took some time before we reached the offshoot we needed to go down. "This way," I said, pulling her down a small tunnel tributary to our right,

"Where are we going?" she groaned, she sounded exhausted,

"The door we used to get into the tunnel from the road only opens one way, we need to go around to use a different door,"

I heard her sigh behind me. I was tired too, and I felt like my legs might give way at any moment. The way back was all uphill and drops of sweat were forming on my forehead and there was a burning sensation in my thighs. The bag I was carrying seemed to have filled with bricks while I was not looking; there was a searing pain shooting up my back. It seemed an eternity before I reached the end of the passageway and tripped the trigger to open the door.

We entered the main passage way which led out to the road where I hoped the cab was still waiting. The moment we stepped into the tunnel we felt a rush of cool, fresh air, a welcome relief after our arduous climb up from the lake. Stumbling from weariness we made our way at last out to the grated entrance door.

I sighed when I saw the cab waiting for us. The rain had stopped however there were great puddles everywhere. Twilight had fallen, and the moon and several stars could be seen shining out of the sky above. We reached the cab and I pulled open the door. Dumas and Le Roy sat opposite each other, which was a damn shame because it meant I would have to sit next to either Dumas or Le Roy. I let CJ climb in first, and it was only then that I realized I was still holding her hand.

I let go. CJ limbered into the cab; she sat next to Le Roy. I felt I could have kissed her for that.

"Well, you were gone long enough, what did you find?" Dumas snapped,

"Nothing," I said glumly as I leaned gratefully back in my seat and closed my eyes,

"What do you mean nothing? You had to have found something!" Dumas yelled impotently,

"No sign of anyone at the moment," CJ said to him, and when I opened my eyes I noticed she was rubbing her shoulder.

"Really?" Le Roy said in a strange, high pitched voice,

"Some one was down there though," I said, "I am sure someone was down there,"

"How can you be sure?" Le Roy asked and his voice rose to an even higher, more irritating pitch,

"My music was out of order," I said simply, and Le Roy looked at me oddly, but he did not say a word.

"But the girls, you did not see any sign of the ballerinas?" Dumas asked,

"No," CJ and I chorused,

"Well…I guess you can look again tomorrow," Dumas snapped, and I remained silent; I did not have the energy to fight with him,

"Were you two waiting here the whole time we were gone?" CJ asked suddenly,

"No, of course not," Dumas bristled, "We only came back an hour ago; we had other officers here throughout the day," Dumas turned to me, "What is in the bag Phann?"

"Clothes, money, paper, ink," I listed them off and handed him the bag, "Look for your self,"

Dumas opened the bag, "What do you need money for?" He asked my harshly,

"You never know," Dumas eyed me suspiciously, but he handed me the bag.

It was very difficult not to fall asleep on the ride back to our crumbling house. It was impossible not to fall asleep while we were climbing to our room. I fell onto my bed, not noticing that Dumas had said good bye at the door of the house and Tom had left us at the door of our room.

CJ flopped onto her bed, "I have never been more tired in my life," CJ said, rolling into her back.

I grunted in agreement, "How is your shoulder? I saw you rub it in the cab,"

"It hurts like hell, but I think I can sleep it off," she murmured; we were quiet for some time and I had almost fallen asleep when CJ spoke again,

"Erik?"

"Yes?" I jerked out of my semi sleep,

"Thank you for earlier today,"

"What?" I was confused, what was she talking about?

"In the fire, thank you for pulling me out,"

"Oh, that," I said, waking up slightly more and staring at her in the dark, "What were you doing down there anyway? Didn't you realize what would happen if you stayed down there?"

CJ sighed, "Do you remember when I told you about the mother who killed her two children? Remember I mentioned she had another daughter? Bernadette? I took in her and her younger brother, they lived with me for about a year, of course I had to leave them alone while I was working, and one day…one of the tenants in the lower floors lit a fire, and it got out of control…"

I shook my head sadly, no wonder she had seemed nervous to enter the house, and had wanted to stay and help more, she had been burnt once before.

"I'm sorry," I offered bleakly.

"It was not your fault, it was just…one more thing to happen," she sighed, "I just wanted to thank you,"

"I would not have left you down there,"

She turned and in the moonlight I saw her smile, "Good night Erik," she closed her eyes.