Authors note: This chapter contains some violent descriptions which may not be suitable for all readers, but it is probably ok so read on!

And when you are done, don't be shy, tell me what you think!

Chapt. 20

Immediately, the lights in the chamber flashed on and the heat began to rise;

I whipped around, "Le Roy! Open this door!" I shouted angrily,

"Open the door! What a ridiculous suggestion! Of course I am not going to open the door, after I worked so hard to get you in there! Why would I ruin it all now?" His voice sounded lightly amused,

My face was burning with rage; thinking he could trap me in my own trap, I knew I should have killed him when I had the chance. I went quickly to the secret release which would allow me to leave the torture chamber. However, when I looked for the small round button, it was not there,

"Ah! Looking for the trap door release?" I heard Le Roy say wickedly, "It is not there anymore! It took some time to rip it out and fix the floor, nearly two days, but watching you now, it was well worth it!

I felt a chill crawl up my spine; he was right, it was not there; and without it there was no way for me to exit the chamber; I was trapped. I looked around wildly, searching for something that would help me or for an idea that would get me out of here. Unfortunately, I knew there was none; nothing would help me now. I did not think I would go mad inside, I knew it was all an illusion, a well simulated illusion but an illusion none the less. However I did know that there was now no way to escape; I would most likely starve to death inside.

"Are you wondering, Monsieur Opera Ghost, what exactly is going on?" Le Roy asked me; and by his tone he was sickly amused with the whole situation, "Do you want to know why I trapped you in here?"

"I am not trapped in here," I lied coldly, making sure my voice was clam but venomous, "There is another way out, and if you force me to use it, if you do not open this door right now, I swear I will make your end most…unpleasant,"

Le Roy actually laughed at me, which only made me more furious, "Oh what an amusing joke! What a bluff! Oh let me open this door right now, before I incur your wrath in full!" He was laughing wildly, then he suddenly stopped and his voice became cold, "I have spent some time on my little projects down here, and I know for a fact that there is no other way for you to get out of that chamber,"

What else could I say? There was no other way out; I remained silently fuming, how had I let this happen?

"Are you ready now, to hear my story? You are in for a real treat, it is a good story," Le Roy's voice was light and amused again. I silently clenched and unclenched my fists, trying to keep myself from beating angrily at the glass panels of the chamber,

"I will take your silence to mean you are ready for me to tell you…"

I cut him off suddenly, "You are the killer we were looking for, you killed that girl and kidnapped the others," I had realized this the moment I had burst into the torture chamber and found it empty, then I suddenly felt as though I wanted to vomit, "What have you done with CJ?" I demanded,

Le Roy ignored my last comment however, "So, you finally figure it out, yes I am the 'killer,' to bad you were to late in realizing it to save yourself!"

"Where is CJ?" I asked again, and again he ignored me,

"But I really did so much more than what you are giving me credit for, I mean, my whole plan is quite impressive really," he sounded sickly amused and proud of himself,

"There is nothing impressive about kidnapping defenseless women, and where is CJ!" I was shouting now,

"Oh! Look who is playing moral leader now! How dare you judge me! You, a convicted murderer and stalker, don't try to tell me I acted wrongly!" Le Roy burst out angrily, then he managed to compose himself,

"As I was saying, my whole plan is quite impressive. You see, I should have been made the Chief of Police, not that Fillips fellow, and instead I was made only a captain. I was treated with contempt and condescension; even by my subordinates! It was not fair,"

I turned to face the direction I knew Le Roy was watching me from, "So, the night you were arrested, I developed a plan that would show them all!" He shouted triumphantly, "I would create a crime none of them could solve, then I would show them just how idiotic they were compared to my brilliance!"

"What did you do with CJ?" I said slowly, shaking all over with rage at what this fool had done,

"The whole thing was working perfectly of course; everyone was baffled and I played along, all the while laughing behind their backs! Oh, you should have seen the looks on their faces when they found the dead girl in the tunnel! I really did my job well with her, she was a gruesome sight," His voice trembled slightly with relish and I shuttered; I had met wicked people before; and I was twisted in my own right, but Le Roy was a new kind of sick; and it made it worse to know he had been alone with CJ earlier,

"The only problem for some time was that one man, the one who died, he found out too much so I had to eliminate him," Le Roy spoke as though he had done nothing more than pull a weed out of a garden, and I remembered Dumas telling us that one police man had already died in the search for the killer,

"Anyway, then I found out about you it nearly ruined everything; I had been counting on the fact that no one else could find out how to access the tunnel leading down here where I kept my work. Then when I found out you were alive, and where going down to the house, I needed to act quickly," Le Roy was sounding excited now as he explained his actions to me,

"I needed time to move the remaining girls and clean the house,"

"The cave-in?" I asked, still trembling in an effort not to bang my fists against the glass,

"Very good! That gave me a whole day! And then there was the fire…"

"You set that building on fire!" I growled, "Innocent people died in that fire!"

"Spare me your moral lecture; I am not the convicted murderer here!" Le Roy yelled, "I was just doing what I had to; I was hoping you and CJ would burn to death; I knew if you passed the house on the way to the opera Dumas would stop and make you try to get people out, however the fire was supposed to be worse, the rain made it less so, shame really,"

I shook my head fuming as I thought about the two children who almost burned alive because of this man's delusions,

"But it did give me time enough to fix this chamber so you could die in it," Le Roy chuckled, "I wanted you two to come down here and find no trace of anyone, then the crime would be all the more impressive when I solved it, however…"

"You made a mistake because you are too moronic to read music,"

"Language language! Don't snap at me Phann, I made one simple mistake, and of course, it did little damage because you are still going to die,"

"And CJ? Where is she?"

"My God! You are persistent, aren't you? I really do think you are in love with her, or are you still pining away for dear Christine?" He said this last name with as though he was releasing poison. I felt the blood drain from my face,

"How did you know about her?" I asked, voice shaking,

"Why your friend the Persian! You see, he told the rest of the police where to find the tunnel doors, but it was impossible and most of the police thought he was mad anyway so the search for the other tunnels was abandoned. However I needed to find out where they all were for my plan to work, so I went back to your friend the Persian,"

The heat of the torture chamber was starting to make me sweat, however I felt cold inside as I listened to Le Roy,

"He was most helpful, I told him I was doing a follow up of the original investigation, and he actually took me down and showed me exactly where to find everything, explaining your sad tail because he thought I was interested; he thought it might help with the investigation; I learned a lot about you pathetic life that day,"

I shut my eyes and shook all over; I felt unable to move though the chamber around me seemed to be spinning,

"I was told all about the room with the crib in it; what kind of a creature do you have to be to keep something like that? And he told me all about how you were in love with Christine, and how she had tried to kill herself rather than stay with you…"

I shook with sadness as he described that particular event. I felt as though I was drowning, but I fought to right myself. I refused to fall apart because of him, I would not break down,

"I have met her, you know," Le Roy said suddenly, "I have met this Christine of yours, I know her husband Raoul; she is quite a pretty thing, why on earth would you think she would want anything to do with you?" Le Roy was laughing again,

Glaring up to where the observation window was, I fought the ringing in my ears and managed to speak, "Where is CJ?"

"Ah! So you will not be distracted! Very well, let me tell you," He savored each word in a frightening way, "When I first developed this plan, I was going to blame the murders on the Persian, him being the only other person who knew how to use the tunnels. I would say he was crazed and trying to avenge you or something; that was why I did not kill him right away. However, when I found out you were still alive, I changed my mind; I can frame you,"

"No you can't, Dumas knows where I was at the time of the kidnappings," I retorted, but I had a bad feeling he had worked around this fact,

"Ah yes that was a problem, but then I realized, when I produced your body, it would be obvious you had not been executed on schedule, and then Dumas and Fillips would have to explain why you were not beheaded; their careers would be over, leaving room for me to take their place!"

"Fine, kill me, I don't care, but tell me what you have done to CJ,"

"Oh how heroic you sound!" Le Roy exclaimed, "Don't worry, I am getting there; you see, once I no longer needed your friend the Persian, I had to eliminate him because he could have told someone he had led me down to the lake. So, I told CJ that we were sure the Persian was the killer and she was to kill him. I said you would not be coming because you having been his friend compromised the mission,"

"CJ…killed him?" I whispered this more to myself than to Le Roy; I felt saddened, the Persian had been my only friend for some time. I shook my head, he never should have gotten involved with me; only bad things happened to people who got involved with me,

"Yes she did, and this is the part I think you will really like," Le Roy paused for affect, he seemed to have been building up to this point, "After CJ came out of the Persian's apartment, I made her a proposition; if she let me have her, I would let her go free,"

I stepped toward the observation window, furious, "She would never do that!"

"She did Phann," Le Roy laughed evilly, "She let me have her right there in the ally like a common whore,"

I finally lost control and slammed my fist hard into a glass panel; the only affect was a pain in my hand, the glass remained unbroken, "She wouldn't do that!" I yelled,

"Jealous are you? But then you were always jealous of me, CJ always paid more attention to me than you, I think she rather liked me, the little fool, as if I would ever desire a common girl like her,"

"She hated you!" I screamed, "She thought you were a fraud and a fool!"

"That is not what she said in the ally," Le Roy retorted, then he laughed wickedly as I continued to beat angrily at the glass, "Phann? Don't you want to know what I did then?"

I stopped hitting the glass; Le Roy's voice had become eerily calm and cold as he spoke these words to me,

"After I was through with the little whore, I strangled her until she lost consciousness," I fell to my knees, "Then I slit her wrists and watched her bleed to death; I think her trousers were still around her ankles where I left her,"

I loosed a howl of rage and pounded against the glass wall of the chamber over and over and over again, screaming half in anguish, half because I was trying to block out Le Roy's wicked laughter. I beat the glass to no avail until my knuckles started to bleed.

My stomach was sick as I pictured CJ lying dead in some ally; I did not think that she had willingly given in to Le Roy, but I did think he could have raped her, and then…I could not bare to think of her dead, I had not even said goodbye to her! I felt hot tears mingle with the sweat on my face, and I slowly lost the energy to beat the wall any further.

Sliding down to the floor, I could still hear Le Roy laughing mockingly, calling me a pathetic fool, taunting me for loving both Christine and CJ only to have them both be with another man. I was no longer listening; what he was saying hardly mattered; he had said enough.

CJ was dead. I sat with my back to the glass and my head in my hands. I had been a fool for so many things; I should have realized Le Roy was up to no good, I should have stopped her from going with him, and I should have told her how much I cared for her. Thinking back to earlier in the afternoon, I pictured her leaving for the last time and I heard her say good bye to me and I realized to my horror, I had said nothing back.

I had never felt so powerless; even with Christine I had been in control, I had sent her away. Now as I sat, a spider caught in my own web, I realized that this was how Christine must have felt while I had been threatening to kill Raoul. The difference was that I had not actually killed the boy; for one brief moment I thought that perhaps somehow Le Roy might have been lying, and that CJ was still alive. I quickly abandoned that hope however, knowing I was not so lucky, and that Le Roy had no feelings which would stop him from doing just what he had said he had done.

One last idea came into my head, one final rally to gain my freedom. I blinked back the salty liquid falling from my eyes and cleared my throat,

"Le Roy!" I yelled, and at first there was no answer, "Le Roy!" I called again,

"It there something I can do for you Phann? Is there a part of my genius plan you do not understand?" Le Roy's voice drifted into the chamber,

"Where are the remaining girls?" I tried to keep my voice even,

"You mean the ballerinas? I am glad you asked! I built wooden coffins like the one in your room and sent them inside of it, they are behind the house now,"

I shuttered, "Are they still alive?"

"Yes! There are air holes in the coffins and I let them eat and drink, and I plan on keeping them alive as long as you are alive, I can't have my victims dying after my murderer can I?" he laughed,

"Don't do it," I said heavily, "Don't kill them,"

"Why ever not?" Le Roy asked lightly,

"Because you will regret it, believe me I know, I was like you once; I used to think the world owed my something and I was going to settle the score, but you will regret it,"

"The only people who have regret are the weak ones," Le Roy sneered,

"That is exactly what I used to think, but it changes you, murder changes you. You start to hate everything else just to avoid hating yourself. You isolate yourself because you can not look at people in the eye, and in your loneliness the only voices that reach you are the screams of victims, and the only faces you see are ones with glazed over eyes,"

Le Roy remained silent, so I continued…

"I suffered this fate, believe me I wish I could go back, but it is not too late for you! Just let the girls go, let me take them back up to the surface, I will take the blame for their kidnapping, just let us go…I am trying to do you a favor,"

I waited in silence for his reply, hoping somehow he would change his mind and let me out. I knew it was unlikely, but it was the only idea I had.

"You have a strange sense of humor Phann, and also an overdeveloped hopefulness if you think I am going to let you out of there," Le Roy gave a short laugh and then I heard his footsteps retreating. He was gone.

I rested my head in my hands; I did not know what else to do. CJ was dead, I was trapped, and Le Roy was well on his way to getting away with murder.