Suddenly, the door to the rooftop burst open. Gerard came barrelling through, still wearing Erik's clothing and black mask.
Erik looked up sharply. "Gerard, what are you doing here? What's going on?"
The next three words explained the entire situation. "They're after me!" he said.
"Who?"
"Ledoux's last two gendarmes. They saw me, thought I was you, and gave chase. I've only got a couple of minutes before they figure out where I've gone. What do we do?"
Erik gave it a scant second's thought. "We'll have to switch back," he said.
He took Christine's hands in both of his and spoke swiftly. "Listen to me," he said. "The gendarmes are coming up after me. Don't tell them the phantom is up here. If they question you, tell them… tell them…" he paused only an instant before he smirked and wenton in a low voice, "Tell them you have a tryst up here with Chagny, and you're just waiting for him." He pressed one last brief, hard kiss to her mouth, and then grabbed Gerard's arm.
"Let's go." He led Gerard around the corner of one of the eaves out of Christine's sight, casually tossed his red cloak to the roof, and started unbuttoning his dark red jacket. Gerard was only an instant behind him, tossing down his cloak and coat, and unbuttoning his trousers.
"Good thing we're nearly of a size," Gerard grunted, bending over to tug the trouser cuffs off over his shoes.
"An amazing coincidence," Erik rejoined dryly, as he pulled off his own trousers and tossed them to his father. Gerard tossed his own at the same moment, so both pairs crossed in the air. "Shirts should be fine as they are," he muttered, tucking his own shirttails into his newly acquired black trousers.
"As you say," Gerard grunted, stooping down to pick up Erik's discarded red jacket and cloak. They were already wearing identical ruffled white shirts. "Still got the packet?"
Erik patted his chest and nodded. He reached forthe black coat and shrugged it on. "Here, don't forget the gun," he said, reaching into the pocket of the coat for it. He handed it to Gerard and picked up hislong, satin-lined black cloak in the next motion.
"There now, are we ready?" Erik asked.
"Uh, not yet," Gerard said, looking uncomfortable. He pulled off his black mask and tossed it over to Erik. "Forgetting something, are we?"
"Damn," Erik muttered, shaking his head as he tied the mask onto his own face. "Must be getting old, to forget my mask."
"Or Christine's a bad influence on you," Gerard teased, tying up his cravat.
Erik eyed him. "Must be getting old," he repeated pointedly.
From where he sat on top of Apollo, Philippe could just barely see the opera manager and his son swiftly changing their clothes. Just as they finished, he noticed Erik reaching into his breast pocket and handing Gerard… a pistol? The newly phantomized Erik pointed for Gerard to go in the opposite direction as himself, toward the door,while he crouched behind the corner of the eave, waiting for the policemen to show up.
The door opened quietly and two of Paris' finestedged out onto the rooftop. One of them, a heavyset, earthy sort, caught sight of Christine, standing silently near the edge overlooking the city. "Hey! Mademoiselle!" he shouted.
Christine turned to him innocently. "Are you calling me, sir?"
"Do you see any other demoiselles up here?" he asked rudely. "Where is the phantom?"
Christine had been an actress on the stage for long enough now that she knew how to portray the expected emotional response. She gasped, eyes wide, hand flying to her heart. "Th-the phantom? The ph-phantom is up here?"
"Saw him running up the stairs not too minutes ago," the gendarme replied, glancing around. "Nowhere else he could have gone."
His partner, a thinner and more suspicious fellow, narrowed his eyes at Christine. "You must have seen him come up, miss."
"No, sir, I'm sorry," Christine said. She lowered her gaze modestly. "I was…waiting for… a friend of mine… to meet me up here."
"Who?" asked the burly officer.
She stiffened her shoulders. "If you must know, it was the Comte de Chagny," she replied with dignity.
The Comte de Chagny, roosting on his perch on Apollo's shoulders, stifled his derisive snort. Christine sure had some gall, after having just told him she wasn't interested! Then he caught Erik's brief movement out of the corner of his eye and realized she was trying to protect him… and had no idea Philippe was even up there. Philippe settled in to see what would happen.
The officer sniggered. "Lucky man," he remarked.
His slender partner noticed something. "Look here!" He stooped down to pick up Erik's discarded skull mask. "Someone's been up here, that's for certain."
"Yeah, but it wasn't him. He was wearing a black mask," the heavyset policeman pointed out.
Out of the corner of her eye, Christine saw Gerard trying to sneak towards the door. She immediately turned he back on him and starting walking in the opposite direction, to try and distract the gendarmes so he could get away. She didn't know it, but the direction she chose happened to be towards the corner of the eave where Erik waited quietly.
"Here, miss, where are you going?"
"Nowhere—" Christine started to say, before she was interrupted.
With a growl, Erik leaped out from around the corner and grabbed Christine. He slammed her back up against him, with one arm around her waist and the other around her throat. Christine let out a startled squawk of fear—Erik's position was almost identical to the man's who had attacked her all those weeks before!
Philippe, perched up on the shoulders of the sun-god, swore quietly. So this was the kind, self-effacing teacher Christine loved so much? He began to climb down quietly. A motion from the corner of his eye caught his attention: Gerard quietly opened the door to the stairway and went through it, closing it silently behind him. What was he doing? He couldn't be alerting the gendarmes—they were already here!
"Let her go!" the slender policeman yelled.
"Never!" Erik cried in defiance. With his teeth bared in a vicious snarl for the benefit of the gendarmes, he stroked down the side of Christine's neck with the hand that was hidden in her hair. "Stay in character," he encouraged her in a whisper.
The huskier policeman drew his pistol and aimed it at Erik. "Monsieur! Let the lady go!"
His partner pushed his gun arm down in disgust. "No, you fool, you'll hit the lady!"
With a firm grip on Christine, Erik began edging toward the door knowing that Gerard was just on the other side of it listening. Hoping that his father would catch on to his plan quickly, Erik shouted, "Let me go, or I'll make her suffer!"
"You brute!" the slender officer cried in horror. "What kind of man are you?"
"Not a man at all," Erik replied with a sneer. "I'm a ghost! Or haven't you been listening to Choletti?" He edged a little closer to the door; it was only a few meters away now. He skirted the edge of the section he was on; the section below was at least three meters down, and he didn't want to slip.
There! Finally, Gerard burst through the door loudly. At one glance he took in what was happening: Erik, holding Christine in a threatening manner and facing off two armed officials.
Gerard took his pistol out of his coat pocket and aimed it at Erik. "Let her go, Phantom!" he called. "Let her go and things can go back to the way they were before!"
Erik shifted his grip on Christine's midsection. "You say so, but I still see two gendarmes after me, and you've got me at gunpoint! You let my theatre be taken over by those two imbeciles! How can I believe you?"
Gerard gestured with his pistol; Erik's eyes followed the motion. "Let her go, I said. Choletti was arrested tonight; Ledoux recalled his men—except for these two, whom we couldn't find—and I'm the manager here again."
"Sir?" Asked the thin officer, disbelieving.
Gerard nodded to them, not taking his eyes off Erik. "It's true, messieurs; you've both been recalled. Choletti confessed to the deaths of your two partners himself." He addressed himself to Erik once more. "Now I'm telling you for the last time, Monsieur Ghost: Let. Her. Go!"
With a growl, Erik spun Christine out of his arms. At that same instant, Gerard fired his pistol and Erik staggered back, a dark red stain blooming on his chest.
Christine screamed.
Author's note: If anyone is interested in keeping track of my progress, listening to my writing rants, orseeing what these characters look like, I now have a writing blog located at spaces. msn. com /members /CleverLass/(remove the spaces or email me for the proper link). Depending on circumstances, I may be replying to some of my reviews there as well.
