Chapter 10

"Gunpowder!" Clouseau exclaimed. "Run for your life and your last damburgah!"

"Not our last damburgah!" Raoul yelled at him, then corrected himself. "I mean hamburger. Run for our lives!" And they did. They ran for minutes and minutes, through the mucky water underground, until they reached the gate to Erik's house. Clouseau took notice of the organ right away.

"You know, I could play a song on that organ. It's about damburgahs."

"That's nice," Raoul told him sarcastically.

"Do you want to hear it?"

"No."

"Drat. It's good."

"I doubt it."

"It's as good as Beethoven's music."

"Whatever."

At that moment, Erik and Christine entered the room we were looking at through the bars. "Christine, it looks like we have guests."

A look of panic fell onto Christine's face, but a happy one was on Clouseau's. "Can we have dinner? I'm starving! How 'bout damburgahs!"

"No!" Raoul barked at him.

"Oh."

"We're in deep trouble! That man's Erik!"

"He is?"

"Of course. He has dark hair and a white mask, like I told you!"

Clouseau studied Erik for a moment. "No, I don't see the resemblance."

"Never mind."

Erik walked over to a lever near the gate and pulled it toward him. The gate opened and Clouseau and Raoul walked in, Clouseau stumbling over his shoelace again.

"You might want to tie that," Raoul told him, but then remembered the trouble it had put them through last time. "I mean, no, don't tie it."

"No, I should tie it."

"No, I mean it. Save it for later."

"Okay."

Erik snickered and closed the gate with the lever. "I'm afraid there will be no future for you two!"

"No future!" Clouseau yelled. "No! I want a damburgah! I never lived to have my billionth damburgah!"

"You count?" Raoul asked.

"Of course! I've had 5,890 damburgahs so far."

"What's a damburgah?" Erik asked.

"You don't know what a damburgah is?" Clouseau asked. "You idiot! You don't know what you're missing!"

"He means hamburger," Raoul explained as Erik pulled some ropes from off the ground. He then tied both Clouseau and Raoul up against the gate, both with nooses aroundtheir necks. "Christine, forget about deciding at eleven o'clock. You'll decide now! You can stay with me and let these two free . . ."

"And I get damburgahs!" Clouseau said.

"Or you can go free, but at the cost of their life."

"And I won't get damburgahs. Those poor damburgahs. They will never have the honor of being eaten by Inspector Jacques Clouseau."

"You think that's an honor?" Raoul asked.

"Of course. You know, if we get out of this alive, I think I'll make the official damburgah fan club."

"Good luck." Raoul then turned to Christine. "Don't stay with Erik, Christine. I don't mind dying for your freedom!"

But Christine's attention was on Erik. "Why did you pull me into this trap? You knew this would happen!"

"Christine, just choose to stay with me," Erik told her. "It will do your lover good."

All three continued to argue with each other, yelling different things, but Clouseau was also yelling. "You can't do this to me! Chief Inspector Dreyfus will miss me so much! He will! And so will damburgahs! And Ponton will miss me! Poor Gilbert Ponton! And the damburgah fan club will never live!" No body was really listening to him.

After minutes of yelling and screaming, Christine finally decided. "Raoul, I don't want you to die," she told Raoul. "And Erik, I don't want to leave you alone. I'll stay." She then kissed Erik for a long time, while Raoul tried to wiggle away so he wouldn't see the sight. But before long, the four heard a mob approach.

"Do you think that mob has damburgahs?" Clouseau asked.

"Would you give it a rest?" Raoul asked.

"Maybe. Not until you give me a damburgah."

Raoul only sighed as Erik told Christine, "Forget me and take him! Go and leave me! Forget everything you see!"

Christine hesitated, but untied Raoul and Clouseau as Erik opened the gate. They then left, but Clouseau once again tripped over his shoelace. He began to feel as though he were once again falling through a large, black hole.

A/N: I know you're going to hate me when I say this, but we only have the epilogue to go. I'd like to thank all my reviewers, anyway; Phantom's Beauty, phantomphan1992, dangerousdame, Chloe Rides a Land Shark, and Smartalec124.