The hole seemed to go on forever and ever. I had given up screeching like a cat with its tail caught in a door, and instead busied myself with trying to keep my skirt down.

'Now I know how Alice felt…' I thought, remembering Alice in Wonderland.

I craned my neck first downward to see if the end was near, then, after seeing naught but black, looked back up.

The stage seemed like just a tiny postage stamp sized patch of light.

It was really quite a sickening feeling, just falling endlessly, and I was ready to hit ground… but actually… it was safer here than having to face Erik, so I guess I should just stay here for a while longer…

SPLASH

Or not.

I guess I finally found the end of the hole. Unfortunately, it was the stupid water trap Raoul had fallen into from when he was going down to try and save Christine… I suppose it has two entrances.

A bright light suddenly flared all around me and I could see just what predicament I was in…

I was in a deep square pool like thing, with stone walls twenty feet or so tall. A criss- cross grade hung menacingly overhead.

I took in all of these things in just a moment, for a moment was all the time I had, for the grade above started moving downwards, screeching in protest as though it hadn't been used in a thousand years or so.

I searched the water below for a way to get away, and at last saw my opportunity. A portal thing was against the wall some five feet below, and behind it was the latch to get out.

I glanced up at the grate that was slowly advancing, took a deep breath and plunged below the icy water.

I could barely see two feet ahead of me in the murky water, but I was able to feel along the wall for the knob. 'Aha! There...' I thought as I felt the cold metal bar. I shoved against it with all my strength that I had, but it wouldn't budge, and I was soon out of air.

I kicked against the wall and tried to swim back up, but my skirts were holding me down. I struggled against their weight, and made it gasping to the surface only after ripping two petticoat layers off.

The grate was three feet from the water's surface, and I was starting to seriously panic. I wasn't very strong, and I couldn't hold my breath too long… but I had no other choice except to take in as much air as my lungs allowed, and dive back under.

I found the lever easier this time, and was soon back at trying to make the rusty bar move. I threw all of my weight against it, but it still didn't move… and then I realized something… It went the other way. I should be pulling, not pushing.

I could have cried. I was almost out of breath, and the grate was at the surface of the water, but I had to give it one more shot.

Feeling more and more lightheaded as the seconds ticked by, I now pulled at the bar with all my might.

I let go of it, exhausted, and contemplating just ending it all here. It would have been easier that having to go and face Erik after this, and I could get back home sooner, but I couldn't do that. I wasn't bred to quit just because the going got, um, seriously tough, no, if I was going to die here, I was going to go down fighting, not dying giving up!

I screwed up my eyes in concentration and gave the bar the greatest tug I could…

CLUNK

The lever gave a shudder, and whipped out of my hands, and the grate that was closing in on me changed direction.

I felt relief, but I wasn't out of the danger zone yet. I had to somehow use the zero amount of strength I had to swim back up to get air.

I looked around me, for something I could kick off from, but saw instead off the bar I had just pulled against, a passageway.

I figured I had no other way, and pulled myself into the next hole that was three feet by four.

It went on for only a few feet, before spilling out into a lake type thing.

When I spilled out from the port hole I gasped in the air as if it were the last bit I would be able to get, and dragged myself to the shore.

I made sure only that my head was out off the water, before I flopped down onto the ground, face down, and breathing hard.

I lay there for what seemed the longest time, before I gained the strength to stand up. I got to my feet very cave man like, pushing off the ground with my hands from my squatting position.

I was soaking wet and the dress was clinging to me so that you could see the outline of my legs, making me blush with modesty as I tried to peel the skirt away.

The lake chamber was mostly just a large cavern, a huge circular stone place, with crude torches lining the walls, and at the opposite end a dark entrance to who knows where. It seemed the only other exit besides going back, and so I walked through, all the while picking at my skirt.

The dark tunnel was only about twelve feet long, and it spilled out into another chamber, but this one different, it had low leather couches, bookshelves, gas lamps with the most delicate designed shades, Venetian masks and silk fans hung from the walls, a few mirrors were stood in corners, and a huge oriental rug covered the cold stone floor.

It was like stumbling into the Phantom's lair… only it wasn't. There was no organ, no adjoining rooms or anything that was described in either book or movie… some one else lived beneath the Paris Opera House, that I had a sinking feeling no one knew about them…

I traced the perimeter of the room, hoping that there was a door leading out, but no such luck. It was just walls.

I leaned against the rough wall and tapped my temple against it, trying to smash a good idea into my head, but suddenly, there was the sound of footsteps…

My heart thudded, and I prayed to God it wasn't Erik or the gaytarded person who had tried killing Christine and I.

I franticly felt along the walls, trying to find a way out, but no such luck. I was sealed in with this stranger, who could be anyone.

The steps came closer, almost to the mouth of the room, and I dove behind one of the couches, trying to stifle the sounds of me breathing hard.

I shut my eyes tight and tried to think of something, anything, I could do to get away from here. I knew that I went back home if I fell asleep, but I wasn't going to sleep in a matter of seconds… maybe, oh it was plain idiotic, but what the heck…

I tapped my heels together three times and thought hurriedly, "There's no place like home… There's no place like home… There's no place like home!"

I waited, but nothing happened, besides the fact that the footsteps were even closer now.

My throat contracted, trying to let out a sob, but I swallowed hard, I couldn't make a sound… what if it was Erik or the Voice… Oh Lord in Heaven… Oh Please… Don't let it be either…

I guess God didn't hear me, because the next thing I heard, echoing into my brain, and cutting off all other senses was…

"Hear, Katey, now and tremble!
Hark to our step on the ground!

Hear the steps -
for He comes!"

I could have screamed with fright. If I thought drowning was going to be bad, this blows drowning out of the water with worseness.

There was a silence, and then:

"Hear, Katey, now and tremble!
Hark to our step on the ground!

Hear the steps -
for He comes!"

He repeated, sounding as if having fun torturing me to insanity.

"God, please, whatever I did wrong, God, forgive me! Is this about kicking Craig in the family jewels in sixth grade, because, God, I thought we were past all that!" I whispered as quiet as I could, but the Voice heard me and chuckled softly.

"Past all hope
of cries for help:
no point in fighting"

I couldn't resist letting out a loud sob, which I regretted immediately as the voice laughed louder.

"Poor little Katey. She finally gets what she deserves, but she's too stupid to understand." He said, in a mocking voice. It sounded familiar… but whose was it?

"You might ask as to why I've hurt you, and I'll oblige in telling you; the first time, as well as the second, I've meant to kill you, but you always got the better of me. How you ask? You see, the second attack was quite obvious, you regained consciousness in time to knock me off course of getting rid of that spineless ninny Daae, and that ballet woman's idiot daughter coming back to save you.

"But the first time, ah, it was rather ingenious how you kept me from killing you. You see, you had left a CD at that sap of a best friend of yours and she came to return it to you. Of course, her being the halfwit she it, didn't bother to call your parents, leaving it up to the police.

"So I had no choice. I had to find a way to outsmart you, and I did. Simply by befriending you, my dear; Girls are so easy to charm once they're in love, and that's how I managed to corner you here."

I had no idea what he meant by girls being in love, but suddenly it hit me.

It was Francois.

I was stunned, and lie on the floor, still behind the couch until Francois came around, chuckling softly at the stunned expression on my face.

"Ah, love can be deceiving, can it not? And now, dear, it's time for you to sleep… for good this time."

He leaned down and jerked me to my feet. I was as limp as a rag doll, and he had to hold me up, as I felt like I was liable to faint.

"Ah, now, come my dearest, you must be able to stand straight, or I'll have a hell of a job putting the noose on."

It was amazing, both how he could make the word 'dearest' sound exactly like the word 'bitch', and how little it mattered to me that I was about to die. So I did as he instructed, and tried to stand on my own.

"Yes," he went on, leaving my side to get a rope that was cleverly hidden under a cushion in the couch. "I knew that it was going to be hard to get you on your own to kill you without being suspected, but you made my job a whole lot easier, what with your stupid idea of replacing Daae as Aminta. And now, now it will be suspected that that Opera Ghost man has killed you. Now just sit on the couch if you will…"

He indicated for me to sit, as he fashioned a noose. I blankly complied. I wasn't hardly bothered by anything that he was saying.

In my mind, his phrase about 'Girls are so easy to charm once they're in love, and that's how I managed to corner you here.' as well as all of his kisses, soft words and love that he had shown me chased each other around and around. How could something like that, turn out to be so disastrous?

The remembrance of the first time I had seen him, at the masquerade, played in my head, and I felt a salty tear slide down my cheek. It had been such a happy time, and now…

My eyes blurred, and I could just make out Francois's figure squatting in front of me.

"You can't be crying over dying. You've surely faced worse odds before." He paused for a second, as if watching a second tear fall, and then he chortled. "You're still going on about the fact I'm not who I seemed to be: the perfect, caring, loving beau. Well, doll face, not every thing is as it appears to be. Learn it, and live by it. Though you aren't going to do much more living." He added.

He slipped the coarse rope over my head and around my neck, pushing a few wet hairs on my face out of the way.

And you know that the horrible thing is? Even though he was about to kill me, his touch still exited me.

"Any last words?" He asked, grinning.

I chose my words carefully. "Yes. 'It is the duty of men to love even those who injure them. – Marcus Antonius." Seeing his stunned look I went on in a rush. "The Lord is my Light and my Salvation – whom shall I fear? The Lord is the Stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 28:1"

Francois looked surprised, but quickly erased the look off his face.

"Well good for you. But now, It's time to meet the man upstairs himself. Goodbye Katey."

He tugged the rope tighter and tighter and I could feel my windpipe contracting.

It really was goodbye forever for here. Never again would I see Christine or Meg or Raoul or Madame Giry, or the ballet girls, the chorus members, the thrill of being onstage, everything here would be lost forever.

"Good-bye." I gasped before Francois yanked the line tighter, and I felt myself drifting off. Forever gone from the world I loved.

--------------------

And that, my dear, faithful reviewers and fans, is…

The End

I hope you enjoyed it, I'm sorry for such an ending, but here's the good news…

THERE'S A SEQUEL!

And that is where my guest star, WanderingTeen, is featured.

But for now, good friends, I bit you farewell!

(Psh, I'll be back in a day or so.)