(A/N: I know it's been a while, but I'm back! And I decided to finish this off. There are only two chapters, not three. I decided to shorten it. FINALLY it's complete!)

Chapter Two: Escaping the Lunatics

Reina backed up slowly, not wanting to alarm the girl in front of her. "Riiight… well, I'll tell your 'angel' that you're looking for him if I see him, okay?"

"You won't see him… the angel appears only for ME!"

Reina smiled weakly, and then sprinted out of the dressing room. She looked around for Derek, found him, and didn't stop running until she reached him. "Please…let's get…out of here!" she panted.

"I couldn't agree more." Derek began making his way to the exit, Reina following closely behind. She followed him until she saw a set of stairs leading down into the basement of the Opera House.

"Wait! Is this where they keep all of the old costumes? I would really like to see them all… maybe we can afford one last stop." She started down the stairs, ignoring Derek's shouted warnings and protests. After all, there was nothing dangerous about costumes, props, and sets, was there?

She soon found that it wasn't the costumes that she had to worry about.

About three quarters of the way down the steps, she ran into a girl with long blonde hair. "Oh! I'm sorry…It's just so dark down here I didn't see you."

"That's okay." The girl told her cheerfully. "It's nice to meet you! My name is—"

"No, wait, don't tell me. Christine."

The girl's face dropped. "No. I'm Meg. I wanted to be Christine, but…" she sighed dramatically. "I'm an alto."

Reina didn't have a clue what she was talking about. She knew that 'alto' was a voice part, but she didn't see what that had to do with the girl's name. But this girl appeared saner than the other ones… hopefully.

"It's nice to meet you, Meg. I'm Reina."

Meg's face twisted in disgust. "Oh… you're supposed to be one of those Other Woman characters, aren't you? Me, I prefer Erik/Meg stories… they're just so much more… romantic." The girl lifted her nose into the air. "All of those Other Woman characters are always so crappy. Amateurs." She sniffed. "I'm going to go find Erik. Cuuutsie piie! Where aaare you!"

With that, Meg turned on her heal and pranced down the steps. Reina stared at her retreating back in confusion. What did she mean, Reina was an Other Woman character? Reina was Reina. She shook her head to herself and continued down the steps.

When she got down there, to her surprise, she didn't see Meg. So much for the better… she didn't seem very nice. But then, none of the girls here seemed very sane, so maybe it wasn't her fault.

Reina walked around, exploring the basement. All of the old sets and costumes were roped off, but she enjoyed looking at them anyway. She was just staring at an old set for Hannibal as she was walking, when she tripped over a girl on the floor.

Reina pushed herself back to her feet and gave the girl an odd look. She was crouched on the ground, staring into the depths of what seemed to be…

A puddle.

Reina's forehead wrinkled in confusion. "What are you—"

"SHHH! He might hear you." The girl spoke in such a soft voice that Reina could barely hear her.

"He who?" Tell me she's not going to say Erik… please, not Erik…

The girl whipped around and stared at Reina as if she had just sprouted several extra heads. "What do you mean, he who? EVERYONE knows…"

She's going to say Erik. I just know she's going to say Erik. What is wrong with these people! AND WHO IS ERIK? Reina waited for the girl to finish…

"Absolutely EVERYONE knows that the Siren is in the lake!" The girl pointed dramatically to the puddle.

"Erm…" Reina smiled painfully, "I hate to burst your bubble, really, I do… But that's not a lake. It's a puddle."

The girl just stared blankly at her for a moment, and then rolled her eyes. "Of course it's the lake… we're in the basement, aren't we?"

Reina bit her lip, and then figured it was better just to play along. After all, this was the only girl who was looking for someone besides Erik, and though it was clear that she was…well, not quite right in the mind…neither was anyone else in this building. "So… the Siren lives in the lake. Umm… why don't you want it to hear you?"

"Not it… he. And if he hears me, he might mistake me for one of those other girls," she rolled her eyes, "And then he might drown me. And then, he would probably die of grief because he killed his poor Christine."

Christine. No! There was that name again! "Umm… so, you're Christine…"

"Of course I'm Christine! Can't you tell?" The girl pointed to her head, and Reina noticed for the first time that she was wearing a wig. A curly, brown-haired wig. "I prefer the brown-haired Christine to the blonde-haired Christine. What about you?" The girl stared at her as if daring her to say that she liked the blonde Christine.

"Right… The brown-haired Christine is definitely the best." Reina reassured her.

'Christine' smiled. "I knew it! Now, I have to wait here on this side of the lake. Erik is sure to be along soon in his boat to pick me up."

"E-Erik?" Reina asked, immediately taking a step back. So the girl was one of them! "Um…I thought you were looking for…uh… the Siren."

The girl stared incredulously at her. "Erik is the Siren!"

Of course he was.

Reina ran for it.

As she vaulted back up the steps, she thought to herself, Ghost, man, angel, and now Siren! What the heckis Erik!

When she reached the top of the stairs, she found Derek standing there waiting for her. "Why didn't you warn me!" she demanded, running her fingers through her disheveled brown hair.

"I tried." Derek told her apologetically. "Now can we leave?"

"YES."

The two ran all of the way back to the lobby, where they stopped dead in their tracks. A gaggle of girls with 'Project Phantom' shirts on were gathered around a man with short blonde hair and a small blonde mustache. He was glancing around nervously at all of the hostile faces.

Reina suddenly realized what was different… they weren't chanting "Erik" anymore. Now, they were chanting something else…

"Punjab! Punjab! Punjab! Punjab! Punjab!" The chanting grew increasingly louder, and then one of the girls in Project Phantom stepped up to the poor man with blonde hair. "How dare you trespass upon Erik's sacred ground!" she hissed. The chanting of "Punjab" had stopped. Now all of their eyes were trained on the girl and the young man.

"I—I—I'm only visiting! M-My father is the patron of many opera hou—"

The poor man didn't get any further. Suddenly, the girl whipped out a kind of lasso and put it around his neck. "You forgot to put your hand at the level of your eyes!" she exclaimed.

"Derek… we have to do something! They're going to kill him!"

"No, they won't." Derek leaned on the railing. "Security always shows up before they do anything too bad."

"D-Don't hurt me! I'll leave right away!" The young man was now stammering.

"That's what you say, Raoul, but we know better! You're here to try to ruin Erik's life again! You broke his heart when you stole Christine from him!" the girl tightened the rope further.

"What are you talking about? M-My name i-isnt' Raoul! It's Todd!"

The girl made an exasperated noise. "Of course it is, Raoul." She tightened the rope even more.

"Hey!" One of the girls in the crowd suddenly exclaimed, "Is that rope made from real cat gut?" She sounded excited.

The girl with the rope apparently forgot what she was doing at the moment and turned to the other one. "Yeah, it is! Funny story… you see, we hit a cat on the way to a Phantom convention, and I thought… hey, it's dead already, right? It doesn't need its guts! So I—"

Todd threw up.

Reina looked at Derek, horrified. "They're lunatics! All of them! Lunatics!"

"You only just figured that out?" Derek asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, no… but I didn't think they were dangerous lunatics! We have to help that poor young man!" Before Derek could stop her, she shouted, "What are all of you doing! Release Todd at once!"

More than five hundred sets of eyes looked up at her. She gulped.

"Why?" The girl holding the lasso asked, frowning. "He's here to hurt Erik!"

"No I'm not!" Todd cried frantically.

"No he's not!" Reina echoed. "Just let him go!"

The girl beside the one with the lasso nudged her and whispered loudly, "She's one of those Raoul fan girls."

The girl with the cat gut made a gagging sound. "One of two!"She told the other girl.

"No… probably more than two now. It seems that the guy in the movie gained sympathy." The other girl sounded disgusted.

"Only because he cried during The Point of No Return!"

"Oh yeah… I laughed my head off at that part… the person in back of me threw their popcorn at my head…"

While they talked, Todd carefully lifted the rope off of his neck and started sneaking away. That is, until one of the other girls saw him. "HEY! RAOUL'S GETTING AWAY! ATTAAAACK!"

"Okay, while their busy, let's get out of here." Derek whispered, pushing Reina in the small of her back to get her moving. It didn't take much… she took the steps by twos and soon the two of them were at the door.

They were about to step outside when suddenly one of the Project Phantom girls yelled, "FOR ERIK THE MAGNIFICENCT!"

Then all of the other girls started to take up the cry…

"ERIK THE ANGEL!"

"ERIK THE GHOST!"

"ERIK THE MAN!"

"ERIK THE SIREN!"

"ERIK THE PHANTOM!"

"ERIK THE VENTRILOQUIST!"

"ERIK THE GENIUS!"

"ERIK THE ARCHITECT!"

"ERIK THE MAGICIAN!"

"ERIK THE—"

"THAT'S IT!" Reina yelled in frustration, "WHO THE HECK IS ERIK?"

All of the color drained from Derek's face, and the phan-girls suddenly were very, very quiet. They all seemed to forget about Todd as the one in front said in a dangerously soft voice, "What did you just say?"

"I said… uhh… I said…" All of their eyes were on her, now. They were glinting dangerously, and several of the girls were fingering their pockets as if they were about to pull out a dagger… or maybe more cat guts…

Reina backed away, shaking. "I said…" she looked apologetically at Todd… "I said… GET RAOUL!"

There was a moment of silence, and then all of the girls cheered. They turned and resumed chasing Todd around the entrance.

Reina turned to a very relieved-looking Derek and told him, "Now… let's get out of here. Please!"

The two ran down the steps to the cab just as the security police pulled in, sirens blaring. A bunch of policemen got out of their cars and began jogging up the steps. As one of them passed Reina she heard him mutter, "The fifth time this week…"

Derek opened the door to the cab for her, and she got in without hesitating.

"Where do you want to go next?" Derek asked her as he got in the front.

"I want…I want to go…Home."

"Home it is."

The cab peeled away from the front of the Opera House just as there was a noise that sounded suspiciously like a chandelier falling…

Reina never returned to the Opera House. Or Paris, for that matter. Instead, for her next trip, she decided to visit some of the old Persian castles… she'd heard that they had once had some interesting torture techniques..."

END.

(A/N: I had a lot of fun writing this… Being a phan myself, I know how crazy we can get sometimes. And, sadly, I'm not sure that I exaggerated anything…

But now, the only thing I have to say at the end of my story is…

GET RAOUL!

Hilary (AKA: Christine.)