Hi! I'm back! Well, okay I've been back for a while, but I haven't had much time to type up Chapter 5, but now I did. So read and enjoy! I'm in desktop publishing right now, so I only have about 5 or so minutes before my next class. I better hurry. Bye!

Chapter 5: Morals

That night, Elizabeth received a note from Erik for her to come down and see him. Although she normally did not go home more than once a week, she always obeyed her father's wishes.

Slowly and cautiously, Elizabeth made her way down the steps to the underground, which led to her home.

Before she had even arrived she knew exactly what her father was doing. Loud, powerful notes came from the beautiful organ, and echoed off the smooth stone walls.

Elizabeth arrived, and walked over to him. She gently placed her hand on her father's shoulder causing him to stop abruptly and look at her.

"I need to talk to you. I'm not upset with you about what happened yesterday. It was not your fault, and… you didn't know." He said, removing his mask as he spoke. Erik never used his mask around Elizabeth as she had always lived with him, and was used to seeing her father without his mask. "I know you much too well to think that you weren't sitting behind your door listening."

She smiled, and he looked at her and could not help but smile as well.

"Now, I know that it may seem as though your mother and I are enemies, but that's not true. We are just having an… argument."

"A sixteen year long argument?" Elizabeth made a small smile, and laughed quietly.

Erik laughed as well before responding, "Alright, so I can hold a grudge."

"One quality I hope I didn't inherit."

They sat together on the bench laughing, at least for a while.

After Erik chased Elizabeth playfully around their home several times, they collapsed on the couch in the living room. Laughing and gasping for breath, they sat there for several minutes before returning to the original subject they had been discussing earlier.

"Father, do you think that mo-…" before she finished Elizabeth saw a hurt look form on her father's face, similar to that of an abandoned puppy left out in the rain, "Do you think that Christine lives in the same type of home as we do?"

"No. I do not. I would think that she lives in a large house with Raoul. With a large bedroom, and an armoire filled with only the finest of gowns. I am sure that Raoul has provided all that he could for her. Which must be many nice things, Raoul is a very rich man. I suppose they love each other."

"Well, I guess that is somewhat true." Elizabeth whispered remembering her conversation with Christine in which she had confessed her love for Erik. She forgot all about her father's acute sense of hearing.

"What did you say?" he said suddenly.

"Oh… nothing."

"Do not lie to me, what do you know?" Erik demanded.

Elizabeth could not bring herself to lie to her father.

"She still loves you, she told me so herself." Elizabeth spoke softly, hardly believing it herself.

Suddenly, a loud crash thundered above them. It sounded as if someone had fallen down or slammed the door in Elizabeth's room.

"You must go. I have work to do."

"Father, you wouldn't hurt Christine or Raoul, would you?"

"No. Remember what I told you. I never kill good people, only bad. Besides, since you came into my life I have become far too moral for that."

As she was leaving, Elizabeth heard her father mutter a single phrase under his breath, just loud enough for her to hear.

"Damn these morals."

TBC…