A/N: I'M ADDICTED TO REVIEWS!

Thank you SO much for not COMPLETELY ignoring my last authoress's note!

Okay, this is the epilogue cries Yes, it's over. Ten years later...a few things are explained. Or, at least, one thing is explained.

Let me, finally, get something straight for the readers: if you didn't notice the very first chapter's note, this originally started out as a story for my english class last year, starring my friend and I in our junior high school. I later changed the names to post it. Ari is me. Stella is my friend. She co-authored it, and SHE wrote the part where Ari gets Erik. NOT ME. I'm not THAT selfish, but my friend is the sweetest person in the whole world and I love her.

ON WITH THE EPILOGUE!

Epilogue—Ten Years Later

"Ari, go, it's your turn!" Erik urged her. They stood backstage of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and it was time for the curtain call of the play that Erik and Ari had just starred in—The Phantom of the Opera. Ari strolled out to center stage in her Christine costume and bowed deeply to the tumultuous applause. She smiled as she backed up, and Erik appeared, as dramatic as he could be, in his flowing black cape and stark white mask. He bowed graciously, then turned back to Ari. He took her by the hand and kissed her cheek, and they bowed together as planned. The entire cast joined hands for the final bow. The audience was on its feet, screaming and cheering as the curtain closed.

Erik swept his wife of five years into his arms after they had left the stage.

"They love you, Ari," he said and kissed her solidly.

"They love you, too," she replied, pushing him away teasingly. Just then, the director of the production came up to them.

"Erik, Ari, you brought the house down!" he said.

"Well, I would hope not," said Ari, and Erik shoved her playfully.

"I wanted to tell you, Drs. Stella C. Dubois and Raoul deCorren request an audience with you at once."

Ari turned to Erik excitedly. "Erik, it's Stella! She's here!"

They followed the director to a private lounge. In it stood the twenty-three-year-old version of their friend, with her new husband. Ari ran to embrace her.

"Dr. Stella C. Dubois-deCorren," she said, laughing aloud. "Think of it!"

Stella let her friend go and turned almost shyly to Erik. "Hello, Erik."

In his grandiose, gentlemanly manner, Erik took her offered hand and brushed it against his lips. "Hello again, Stella."

"We can't stay long," she said after introducing her husband, "but we had to tell you that you were absolutely brilliant. Both of you."

"You are too kind," Erik said.

"No—it's true. You really are the Angel of Music, Erik," she insisted.

"Many thanks, flattering child."

"Stella, darling, we must go," Raoul, her husband, said gently. She sighed and embraced both of her dear friends.

"Until we meet again," Ari said.

"Parting is such sweet sorrow," added Erik.

i

Instead of taking a taxi or bus, Erik and Ari walked back to their New York studio. At the corner of eighth and forty-second, an older woman approached them.

"Congratulations on your triumph tonight at the Opera—Erik."

Erik looked surprised. "Have we met?"

"Long ago," the woman said with her French accent. "Well over a hundred years ago."

"Madame Giry?"

"Yes, Erik. When I cast the spell on you, I did not die, as you thought. My gypsy spirit simply left my body, until now."

"Why now?" he asked.

"You have found your purpose," Madame Giry said. "It's time for you to move on."

"Wait—"

But before he could finish, the older woman gestured, and they were enveloped in a cloud of thick smoke. When it cleared, Madame Giry had gone, and Erik was falling. Ari caught him and held him against her until he stopped shaking.

"What just happened?" she asked him.

"I think, my dear," he said weakly, "that she has taken away my curse."

"It was not a curse after all, was it?"

He smiled and bent his head to kiss her. "It was not."

Ari suddenly realized what this meant. "So, are you now truly alive again?"

He exhaled and tilted her chin upward, touching her again with his lips.

"I am truly living again."

—O. G.

bows Thank you, and GOOD NIGHT! Don't forget to check out my other stories! I LOVE YOU ALL (AS LONG AS YOU REVIEW)!

LONG LIVE ERIK!