Hello there! Sorry, but Erik will not appear for a couple of more chapter, I'm building the background. I hope you are enjoying the journey.

I have borrowed a few elements from Susan Kay and embellished on Erik's mother's background. I must say "thank you" to Susan Kay for her wonderful story and to Gaston Leroux for the wonderful characters…but I don't find his Phantom believable.

The man could not have been the breathtaking singer he was supposed to be without a nose. The nose is an important, virtually irreplaceable, part of the singers ability. Being a singer myself, I am fully aware of this. Nor do I like an ugly phantom; that is merely my preference.

There are a few original characters that are my creation and the plot is mine, but everything else was borrowed.

Not much longer until Erik…I promise.

Enjoy!

THE DAWN THROUGH THE NIGHT

Part 1

CHAPTER 5

December 12, 1874 – June 1, 1876

Madeline

Her hands visibly trembled as she heard the contents of the letter. After all these years of searching for her son and coming up empty handed, a letter from a stranger fans the embers which she had long thought extinguished. Erik was alive…or at least he had been, 2 ½ years ago.

The writer stated in the letter that she had a great deal of trouble locating her, but was finally able to gain an address after hiring a private detective.

The contents of the letter were disturbing enough without the guilt of the past years mocking her with every word. He had been arrested for crimes he was later found to be innocent of…and released…but by the time this was found out, he had disappeared.

The letter was sent by a Madam Giry…an apparent friend of Erik's, she spoke about him as if she had known him for some time. What was not said was as pronounced and loud as what was said. He had been wronged by everyone he knew, and now none of them could find him.

The nurse walked in and immediately went to her patients side. "Now Madam, you know you are not supposed to be under any undue stress…your doctor said you are not to be disturbed." The nurse said; but the eyes that looked up at her were clear and alert.

"He's alive Sarah…my son is alive." Madeline exclaimed, hope flickering behind her tortured eyes, once again.

Sarah sat down in the chair next to Madeline, "You never told me you had a son."

Madeline smiled a bitter smile, "For years, I wanted to forget I had a son…but then…I woke up out of the haze I had been in…just in time to discover he had left me."

She spent the next couple of hours relaying to Sarah the sad account of Erik's birth and childhood; if it could be called that. She left out nothing, and the disgusted look that Sarah gave her, only added to her shame.

"I have tried for the past twenty years to locate him…Étienne pretended to be interested in finding Erik also…but…" her voice trailed off in a tone of deep, ripping abhorrence.

Étienne had insisted they marry after Erik had run off…saying that it would help her cope with his betrayal…but several years, and another drug addiction later…Madeline had found out that the man who had professed undying love for her, was not the man she had fallen in love with.

Étienne had dark secrets, secrets that threatened his life and the life of those he loved…or said he loved. He was a doctor, but he was a crooked doctor. Madeline had always wondered where he got his money…and one tragic night, she found out.

He was a body snatcher, a common thief. He stole bodies out of graves and sold them to scientists for extremely large amounts of money. The scientists experimented on these bodies…for the sake of "science", and Étienne got rich.

Once he found out that Madeline knew his secret, he began drugging her. These were the same drugs she had been addicted to while pregnant; the same drugs that had robbed her child of the right side of his face.

These drugs caused hallucinations and other health problems. This went on for several years…until the law finally caught him.

Thankfully, Madeline was not involved, and she was put under the care of an honest and kind doctor. He did his best to reverse the damage done by Étienne. She had to be taught to walk and talk again, such was the damage done by the drugs.

That had been a couple of years ago, and she was making great progress. Étienne was spending the next sixty years behind bars, deep in the caverns of the jail…so she felt certain she was safe from his manipulative and dangerous ways.

"You have every right to look at me that way Sarah…I was unfit to be a mother…" Her eyes misted over and the pain of her failure with Erik showed in every part of her face, "…I allowed myself to become an addict…even after my husband begged me to stop.

"I was ill prepared for the damage I caused my unborn child, and for the innate intelligence he possessed." Madeline reflected, with distant eyes.

Madeline drifted back in time, thinking about her baby boy and the inhuman intelligence he possessed. She had feared him…a tiny, black-haired baby; and she had never let him forget it.

She had forced him to wear a mask, unable to bear the sight of the scars she had caused. His presence was a constant reminder of her failure to him and to her husband. The drug had warped her mind, causing her to despise the sight of her own child, and treat him like…something; anything but human.

The right side of his face was horribly deformed; his bone structure was malformed and his skin was paper-thin with the blood vessels easily seen through the translucent membrane. His lips were far fuller than was normal and oddly shaped for such a small face; they obviously were deformed also.

The left side had been left untouched, as were his eyes. But Madeline had been unable to focus her attention on the perfection of his left side, the heavenly beauty of his deep, green eyes, or the full, soft covering of raven hair that rested atop his tiny head.

For the first several months of his life, she barely acknowledged him at all; if it had not been for Marie, her maid and trusted friend…she would have never spoken to him. She thought to not feed him, hoping he would starve to death and save her the trouble of abandoning him; but Marie would not have it.

She never held him or coddled him; choosing, instead, to ignore his existence. As he grew, that effort proved harder and harder; his genius mind required discipline and instruction beyond her capabilities and she had hired many to try, but none succeeded.

He resorted to tricks of the mind and hand to amuse himself, and Madeline was often the unsuspecting dupe in his one-man show. Magic fascinated him, as did anything mechanical or musical; and he excelled at all.

She had said she hated him; yelled it into his face, and watched, as what was left of his humanity, disappeared in his slumped shoulders and depressed features. She threatened to have him admitted into an asylum for those with intelligence beyond their human ability to control and contain; those who were a danger to themselves and others.

She drove him away. When he left, he left no indication that he had ever been there. His clothes, his drawings, his sketches, his brilliant architectural designs: Everything he had personally designed or touched…was gone with him…it was as though he never existed.

Etienne had taken over after Erik left, pretended to be weaning her off the drug; but instead, he was just giving her a weaker version of it. She became conscious enough to realize all that she had done and the love she had for her son became an echo in her heart, as her "doting husband" helped her cope.

"Think what you must of me Sarah, but I need your help in finding this woman, Brigitte Giry." Madeline begged. "I must try and right the wrongs I have done."

It took her several months to recuperate enough to travel, sever what ties she had in Le Mans, and move her entire house to Paris. She would find this Madam Giry and learn about the son she had never really known…and perhaps together, they could find him and bring him home.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Three months later, September 3, 1876

Sarah wheeled Madeline out onto the porch of her new house in Paris. She had not been here in years, and found that she loved it as much as she had all those years ago. She had gone to the bank and found that Erik had left her over 500 thousand francs; more money than she had ever hoped to have; but she left it there…it was Erik's, and she intended to return it to him.

She had had no luck in locating this Madam Giry. The Opera Populaire had closed its doors just weeks before, and all the people involved had sought other employment in the city. She would continue to ask around and keep her eyes open for any sign of the woman.

Then, as fate would have it, one day about six months later, she opened the paper and read the following announcement:

Madam Giry's School of Dance

Now open and accepting new students

Inquire at 215 Cavalier Ave, Paris

Madam Brigitte Giry, former Prima Ballerina at the Opera Populaire; owner, operator, and instructor

She gathered her parasol and gloves, called for Sarah and a carriage, and they made their way toward the address in the paper. She had been patient with her need to find this Madam Giry, and had hoped and prayed an opportunity would present itself, and it had.

She would find a way to give back to Erik all that she had taken from him, mainly her love and support. He had been everything a mother could possibly want, and she had shunned him because of something he had no control over.

He had never cried, except when hungry. He had been clean and orderly, never leaving anything out of its place. He had slept soundly and quietly. He was brilliant, articulate, gentle, and artistic; what more could a mother ask for in a son? And yet, she had shunned him.

Madeline stepped out of the carriage and surveyed the building in front of her. It was an old abandoned schoolhouse, which had been renovated, and it looked warm and inviting. The sign in the front verified that she was indeed at the correct address, so she paid the driver, Sarah put her in the wheelchair, and they headed up the sidewalk toward the two women chatting in front of the door.

TBC