Don't worry, of course Erik will come back. I'm so glad to read your reviews, it's interesting to hear what you think about my story.

Well, here's chapter 13. Please R&R. Atrice

Part 13 - Impossible understanding

Engaged… did that mean she didn't love him after all? Erik knocked over a candlestick – it landed in the water and the lights went out. He put a carpet on the floor for her sake! Erik began to remove the carpet on the floor, until he fell down on it, realizing how alone he had become down here; how much he longed for someone to share the emptiness with him.

"I fought so hard to free you…" he sang in a whisper, remembering someone else singing that. Raoul said he'd free Christine, from Erik himself. Like he was something like a monster, he could not understand that someone might actually love the being, that was the Phantom. Free… free from this dark place, free from the darkness. Lucille had become his light, and suddenly Erik knew what to do. He was free himself, actually, he could leave this place if he really wanted to. But someone else, someone he loved, didn't seem able to escape without help.

The sound of the horse's hooves echoed in the streets of Paris, as the daylight – the sun – had begun to rise, it lit up everything. He had to do this. He stopped the horse outside her house. This was how it looked in daylight, this was how the house that contained his love, looked in daylight. Would she ever see the light? He had promised, he would teach her what light was, and he hadn't succeeded yet. 'But the way you left her, you fool… she won't go with you now, you didn't even answer her.' He thought to himself. Erik wandered around in the garden, while the sun turned dawn into day.

"Lucille, won't you explain? How can I win your love back?" Artus walked back and forward on the small veranda just outside the doors to the garden. Lucille sat on a bench by the sunny wall, hearing him walking, listening to him.

"The more you try, the harder it'll be. Just don't try." Lucille sighed, she really didn't want this conversation one more time.

"I don't even know the man, you claim to love… what's so special about him? I can sweep you off your feet too, if that is what you want. I'll do anything, Lucille, anything, if you would just love me. Love me, that's all I ask of you…" Artus had stopped in front of her. Lucille left the bench and strode past him, onto the grass in the garden, feeling the sun trying to brighten her mood.

"He gave me his music… made my sight see love. And now, how I repaid him, denied him and betrayed him. I was bound to love him, when I heard him sing…love me, that's all I ask of him…" she sang with a sad voice. She heard Artus walk down to her, standing right behind her – but not touching her. He had done so much, tried so hard, but it seemed like nothing could make her love him again. That man had turned her head, and he couldn't understand why. Artus didn't know what to do… he wanted to hold Lucille tight, and don't let her go, he wanted to feel her lips against his again. But mostly, he wanted to feel the love that she shared with this strange man, who sang strange songs to her.

Erik stood behind the tree in the far end of the garden. He could see her and that man… no, that boy, who couldn't listen to what Lucille said to him. Why did he refuse to listen? Erik would never marry a woman who didn't love him. He would never again try to make someone love him, when it was impossible – love couldn't be forced. Her song reached his end of the garden, a song filled with love for him, with sorrow for the way he left her the night before. Why did that man, who claimed to love his Lucille… why did he suddenly remind Erik of someone else, the man who took away the first woman he loved for real?

"No one would listen… no one but you, cared as the outcast cried…" he sang, but so very gently and low, that he was sure not to be heard. But Lucille looked up, in the direction from which the song came. He had forgotten, that her sense of hearing must be better than his, since it was part of her way to see and feel.

"What is it, Lucille?" Artus asked, as she began to walk towards the other end of the garden. He saw her walk, as if she was paralyzed. A blind girl, knowing her garden, knowing exactly where to step, walking against that old and wide tree in the far end of the garden. Artus suddenly came to an understanding – they were not alone in the garden. He followed her, the right hand on the sword by his side.