A/N: Thank you all for the responses! This story is far from being over and we still have some good parts to get through. I should have mentioned before, but I love cliffies. And this one has its fair share. Lol. Thank you Halley for the great work and please don't forget to review!

Chapter Fifteen:

A Friend in Need

Emmy fumbled towards the nearest drinking fountain by the class, drowning herself with the refreshing liquid. Sputtering, she swallowed as much as she filled her mouth, some drops dribbling down her chin. Gulping the last mouthful, Emmy moved away until her back touched the wall and unceremoniously collapsed into a heap.

Hot tears streamed down her face, as her body quivered over the lack of control. She had no power over her voice. Not over her own voice!

And that dream! That horrible nightmare where she dreamt of some terrible force taking over, controlled by Erik, wasn't something of the imagination. It was real… a memory. A memory forgotten…

"Oh God!" she moaned, muffling her sobs in her legs. It couldn't be possible! It couldn't! Yet, she had all the evidence surrounding her-- her maturity in voice, the sudden curling of her hair, Erik's devotion, and no doubtingly her strange thoughts and impulsive speaking. All of that wasn't Amelia Brooke Sawyer. No, no. It was something, more specifically, someone else.

There was the fierce palpitating of her heart, the alarming increasing rate where her chest felt like bursting; the intense struggle to fight, only to lose. Emmy had survived it. What if she wasn't so fortunate?

Then a dawning terror came forefront.

Shirley West.

She and the other two missing college girls were all found dead to the cause of cardiac arrest, all three being courted by an unknown secret admirer. They had a secret admirer.

Erik…

The oncoming nausea made her swoon, her stomach gyrating with trepidation. Those three were dead. Dead. Dead because they couldn't sustain the force, not like she could, the force… that had to be none other than, the one person she had to be—

"Emmy?"

The soft, quiet voice broke through her dreadful reverie. Sniffling and gasping, Emmy lifted her head to look up into Maggie's worried disposition. The redhead shyly grinned. "Hey, you okay?"

Her sweet concern was heartbreaking, more so as Emmy remembered how cruelly she behaved towards her. Or was that her within that did the deed? She could no longer tell if her actions were of her own.

"Mrs. Anderson sent me out to get you. You kind of surprised everyone during warm-ups."

Emmy could only stare at her, the glazed watery look in her eyes. Why was Maggie doing this? Why did she care what happened to her? After the inexcusable ignorance, the brunette would have expected Maggie never to even speak to her let alone approach her ever again. It was all that she deserved.

Maggie cocked her head, her light red brow furrowing. "Emmy, won't you say something? If it will make you feel better, you sure shock the heck out of Sarah. I think she knows she has a new talented rival now."

Now she was being sentimental and kind. This was more than Emmy could take from her.

"All right, Emmy, enough is enough. If you don't want to talk to me, fine! I get it but you could give me an explanation as to what happened—"

"It wasn't me," Emmy whispered, her eyes never wavering. Her voice came out low and inapprehensible that Maggie had to bend lower to hear.

"What?"

"It wasn't me," she repeated, still quiet but audible. "That wasn't me."

Maggie laughed. "What do you mean it 'wasn't' you? Everyone heard you!"

"Don't you get it?" Emmy suddenly leapt, grabbing the petite girl's wrists. Maggie cried out and gazed at her friend, startled by her behavior and frightened look. "He did this to me! I asked for it and he did it. He did it!"

"Emmy slow down!" Maggie exclaimed, her green irises widening as a chill went down her spine. All the color from Emmy's face was replaced by a chalky white and the anxiousness riding in her hazel eyes was daunting. Fighting the overwhelming urge to call for help, Maggie swallowed hard and asked, "Who he did what?"

"He…Erik," she at last confessed. "Erik."

Maggie gave her a long hard look. "Erik?"

Emmy nodded with fervor. "He's real. I've seen him, he taught me, and… and… h-he put her in me!"

She frantically searched her friend's face, but all Maggie had to show was disbelief. "Maggie I asked for it. I wanted to be Christine Daae and I am becoming Christine Daae!"

"For Pete's sake!" Maggie tried to break free from her viselike grip. "Let go Emmy! Let me go!"

Emmy did but she had to make her see reason. She had to prove that she was telling the truth and that this wasn't a phanatic breakdown, though Emmy was getting close to it.

"Maggie, please, listen. I swear to God that is the truth! Erik, the Phantom of the Opera, does exist! That voice in choir doesn't belong to me, it belongs to her! He's turning me into her! Look at my hair! See? See! It's curled! My hair doesn't curl naturally like this! And my rudeness to you wasn't me. I would never hurt you intentionally Maggie, you know me. It was her! She's trying to take over my life! I lost my soul! It belongs to him and her, can't you see?"

Maggie was slowly backing away. Emmy's face fell but in a desperate attempt she reached out for her once more. "Maggie—"

"NO!" she shouted. "Stop it!" The normally timid girl's countenance flared in contempt. "I cannot believe how low you would stoop to with your lies, to justify your behavior. Why don't you simply tell me the truth that you just didn't want to be my friend anymore? That would be a whole lot easier than with this crap you're telling me."

"But it is the truth!" Emmy cried. Then an idea came to her. She knew how to get Maggie to believe her! "I can prove it! He teaches me after school in the auditorium. You can come with me and hide in the back and he'll come out! You will see him!"

Maggie shook her head, her strawberry blonde tendrils brushing her skin. "I'm going back to class. I can't listen to this anymore. I know you love the Phantom, but this is beyond obsession. Bye Emmy."

"But—"

"No," she affirmed firmly. "Just… leave me alone. Leave me alone."

Maggie turned on her heels and Emmy watched mournfully until she disappeared. All alone she stood in the middle of the hallway, silence hanging over her, except her soft sniffles. If Maggie wouldn't believe her, then no one else would. She was alone on this with no one else to turn to.

Emmy could have sworn she heard laughter inside her head.

TBC…