A/N.

Thank you so much for the reviews. Our little friends really are working themselves into quite a tizzy. I'm enjoying it immensely. As may be apparent by my ridiculously frequent updates!

At any rate, this is just a little teaser. I'm working on the next 'big' chapter as I write this, but it may be as late as.. gasp.. tomorrow! Unfortunately real life is being terribly cruel and not allowing me all the time I'd like to wallow in poor Erik's misery, or feel a jealous sort of pity for Elizabeth. Hrm!

I would gladly beat everything in real life down, however, for another installment of the OW, echo. Pleeeeeeeeeeeease.

Oh, and if you guys haven't read it, please read Opera Wench by my-echo. It's delicious.

Off to the story!

"Where is she?" A young male voice interrupted the conversation Raoul was currently having, and he glanced up toward the intrusion. William DeGent stood in his parlor, looking quite harried.

"We will find her," he attempted to calm the young man. William nodded mildly and turned to pour himself a drink while Raoul finished speaking with Captain McHargue..

"I have half of my men out searching for her, Vicomte. If she is within Paris, they will find her."

Raoul tangled his hand in his hair, brushing the errant locks from his face in a nervous gesture. The Captain continued.

"If you'll pardon my asking, Monsieur.." He paused to cast a wary glance toward William. "Do you think she had any reason to run away? Anything she might have been escaping?"

William seemed to hear this, and quickly shot a hot glare toward the officer. Raoul sighed heavily.

"Elizabeth would not run from her troubles, Captain, of that I am certain. Where ever she is, she needs our help. Speaking of which, has anyone seen my wife?"

Frigid was not a cruel enough word to describe the condition of the waters into which Nicholas was cast. Upon first entering it, he felt as though a thousand daggers had stabbed into his flesh - leaving him immobile. After a moment, the sharp and searing pain turned into a horrifying numbness. Nicholas found that he could once again move his limbs, and he began to struggle against the water - trying to regain his bearing.

Points of light shone at him from all directions, making it impossible to tell which way was up. He followed the bleak beams until he felt his lungs would burst with thirst for air. His mind began to get hazy, and random images flashed before him.

He seen the children, mocking him. Throwing stones at him, while the adults about simply laughed. Flashes of horses, their magnificent beauty and freedom. Dark brown curls, ruby lips. The sweet smile that curled upon them. Elizabeth. Oh God, he was dying!

Nicholas submitted to the images in his mind, his body going limp in the unforgiving waters. He began to sink, and he scarcely felt it when his body bumped against the bottom of this trap. The last thing his conscious mind grasped was the iron-like grip that fastened about his ankle, and the sensation of being pulled quite suddenly through the waters.

Christine fought her way back through the passages they had come through. It took her much longer than the original trip, and if she had not known better she would have sworn the tunnels had shifted even since they entered. She had forgotten what a criminal mastermind Erik was.

Finally she burst from the ruins into the fresh night air with a gasp. It was like being freed from a coffin, she mused, as she drank in the cool night air. A pause upon the steps to gather her wits and strength, and then she was off towards the Rue Scribe entrance. Why she had not thought of it before, she could not say, but now she knew it was her only hope. Whether it would be a safe entrance or not could easily be debated.

Erik found himself in a foul mood. On any other day, someone from the world above falling into one of his traps would have been a welcome diversion. A break in the mundane existence he had been condemned to. Now, however, he found that there was plenty to amuse himself with in his domain and this intrusion was simply that. An intrusion.

The icy waters were of little consequence to him. His body had long since become accustomed to it's ruthless bite. The water was murky and dark, but he knew every corner of this lake with the same familiarity that he knew his arm, or leg. It was quite simple really, to find the body heavy with defeat as it sank into the dark abyss.

A man, it seemed. Young, though. Erik paid little more attention to it as he grasped the ankle and swam back towards the surface. Eventhis self-proclaimed corpse needed to breathe.

Elizabeth shuffled about nervously. Half of her felt safer within the bedchamber, as though he would not approach her within it's confines. The other half, currently screaming the loudest, was an insatiable curiosity that demanded she return to the edge of the lake and see what had called her guard away. She chided herself, even as she obeyed the latter thought.

The cavern seemed deathly quiet without his presence. He made precious few sounds when in it to be sure, but his very presence existed like something akin to music. The entire room felt alive with a sort of dread when he was there. Elizabeth oddly longed for him at that moment. Alone, she felt buried alive.

"Master!" She called out, hoping the term would placate him and return him to her. In the distance, she heard a heavy sloshing.