Sorry updating took so long. This week was the last week of school, so we were loaded down with finals and last minute homework, and then there were all the parties and, of COURSE I had to go to the Rangers games! I mean, the A's were in town! And trust me, it was well worth it because…

I MET ERIC CHAVEZ, HUSTON STREET AND NICK SWISHER! (Insert loud girlish scream of joy here)

But here I am updating, so… BE HAPPY AGAIN!

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It was amazing how slow time could go during science class. I mean, there's a lot of work to do, but when your teacher decides to throw a lecture at you, it's like time just slows down like maple syrup that was left outside in the dead of winter.

At night time.

And the only option besides actually listening and taking notes was starting blankly at the wall or some other inanimate object.

So there I sat, head propped up by my hand, and staring at the clock, wishing that time would hurry up. And Good God Mr. Harris sounded like Del Close from 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off'.

My eyes drooped, and I barely struggled to keep them open. Right now, anything seemed better than having to listen to Mr. Harris drone on and on and on and on.

I sighed refocused my gaze on the wall, my eyes growing heavier and heavier…

I was at Schlitterbahn, one of the world's greatest water parks, and home to the band competition I was apparently in. I was sitting on the top of the Boogie Blast with my horn… and we were about to play, but hang on… why was the Paris Opera house there?

I stood up, and suddenly Schlitterbahn melted away, and I was walking down the Boulevard Des Capucines again. The street was crowded with people, a few giving me strange looks.

I looked down, expecting to see myself dressed in jeans and a tee shirt, but instead I was wearing the Don Juan costume.

I felt embarrassed to be seen in public in such (for the time, which, judging by the ladies dresses wasn't too long after 1870) a skimpy outfit.

I covered myself with my arms, and hurried to the Opera House.

I slipped inside through the backdoor, where the grove of sorbus torminalis trees was. The corridors inside the 'House were just as I expected. Noisy and crowded with people walking around in various costumes.

I imagined that all the familiar faces I saw would greet me enthusiastically, but I was disappointed with my less than welcome greetings.

I waved and smiled, but my old friends from the Corps, working women, and chorus members gave frightened looks and quickly ran away.

No kidding, they RAN away.

I furrowed my brow. What in the world was going on? Maybe… Oh! There's Christine and Meg!

"Meg! Christine!" I shouted, waiving my arm higher to attract their attention.

I jogged down the hall, trying to make my way through all the people, and succeeded only after dodging one of the Fly men.

"Meg! Christine! I've missed you so much!" Instead of speaking the now familiar English, my words came out French, and it made me tingle with happiness in being back.

The two girls turned in response to hearing my voice, but upon seeing me a look of terror was etched into their faces.

"Oh God Almighty!" Meg cried, and Christine crossed herself, looking as though she was going to scream, cry and throw up at the same time.

I tried to approach them, with my arm reached out to calm them down and see what was wrong, but Christine slapped the air in front of my hands to try and ward me off whilst backing against the wall in fright.

"Go back! Leave us be, demonic ghost!" shouted Fredrikk, appearing from somewhere behind me.

A crowd had gathered, and I was afraid. Why in Heaven's name were they all scared of me? And why did he just call me ghost?

And suddenly it clicked. I really was a ghost to them. I had died in their world, seemingly gone forever and now… now I had come from nowhere and they didn't want me here, believing I was sent here to torture them like other mean-ass spirits, who come to avenge something.

I licked my lips and opened my mouth to explain I didn't want to harm them, that I didn't know why I was here, but they just shouted at me to go back to the land of the dead.

It was strange really, how they were all surrounding me instead of running away in fear, but I think it was just out of the shock of seeing me alive. Ok, not alive, but just… there.

"Please! Listen to me!" I tried saying, holding up my hands to show I was innocent, but they refused to hear me out. They shouted until they drowned out anything else… The noise dizzied me, and I swayed off balance. I could feel blood drain out of my face, and I saw the floor rise up to greet me as I dropped to the floor in a faint of some sorts.

"Katey? Katey? Oh my God, Katey, tell me you're ok!"

I raised my head from the hard tabletop, and had to blink a few times before my eyes focused.

I was back in my science class, except now instead of hearing Mr. Harris go on about some load of crap no one cares about, people were surrounding me and whispering about me, most likely.

"What happened?" I asked, my head throbbing.

"You fell asleep or something… and then you started yelling in German or some other language and then you were thrashing all over the place, and then all of a sudden you got real still and we thought you died or whatever!" Amanda, the girl who sat next to me said.

I thought of my dream and groaned. I hadn't realized I'd been talking aloud. I hid my face in my hands and leaned back in my chair, wishing that I could stop these weirdo nightmares.

"Are you alright? Do you need to go to the nurse?" Amanda asked, now sounding concerned.

"N- wait… yeah, I think I should go. Talking in French, and in my sleep? Wow, yeah, I'll just go. Okay?" I knew that I had to go home if I was going to be visiting Paris in my sleep. And I knew that if I stayed I would be falling asleep again.

"Alright, take the pass." Mr. Harris said, handing me the bright pink hall pass.

"See ya." I waved as I stepped from the room. It was hard not to gloat when I got to miss a lecture.

I was all alone in the hall, and my awesome new high heels were making a loud racket. Sure I liked my heels, which were two inches high, but on linoleum when you're the only person sounds like it's straight out of a horror movie.

You know the plot line… The girl in stiletto's or something is walking down the empty hallway. Then all of a sudden there's a second set of footsteps, only louder and manlier. Then there's a whole suspense bit, and then when the chick turns around BAM she dies.

I gave a little chuckle, but I couldn't help but look over my shoulder.

Seeing no one I mentally scolded myself.

'Get a grip Katey; He's not going to be here in your freaking school. I mean, honestly, it's a SCHOOL. He couldn't get past the secretaries. Unless He climbed through a heating duct or something.

I smiled at the thought of Francois in a heating duct in the ceiling, and turned the knob to the nurse's office.

"Can I help you dear?" She asked, looking up from her computer monitor.

"I sort of fainted in Science, and now my head feels like someone's smashing a sledgehammer into it." I admitted, trying to look sick.

"Oh… Ok, well how about you lie down and I'll get you some water. Do you have any medicines here?" She asked, looking over her shoulder from the sink in the corner.

"Uh yeah. I should have some Motrin or Tylenol." I said, sitting down on the pink plastic bed. "I'm Katey Douglas." I added, seeing her look over her shoulder again, this time from the medicine cabinet.

Nurse Brightfield handed me my aspirin and had me lie down after I swallowed it.

"And… would you like to call your mom or dad?" She asked as she pulled up my file from the computer, no doubt seeing on the record I had been in a coma before.

"Um, yeah." I said. They Tylenol had really taken effect. I was now extremely tired, and felt like falling asleep right there.

She handed me the phone, and I called my mom's cell.

It rang about three times before she picked up. "Hello?"

"Hey Mom."

"What's wrong hun? You sound terrible."

"I'm in the nurse's office. I don't feel very good."

There was a pause.

"Like… you know… that kind of bad." I continued.

"I'm coming right over sweetie. See you in a minute."

"Ok, bye mom."

We both hung up, and I handed the receiver back to the nurse.

"She's coming?" The nurse asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah. I'm going to…"

"Go lie down." She finished for me.

I sat back down, and leaned my head against the white stone wall. I didn't want to risk lying down and going back to sleep.

Within twenty minutes mom had come, got me, and dropped me off back at home, telling me that if anything happened, just call her.

I had nodded and promised that I would, and once she had driven away, flopped down on my bed.

Now I could sleep in peace, and didn't have to worry about anyone hearing me speak in French.

But by now no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get to sleep.

I tossed from side to side, and buried my face in my pillow, but I still couldn't fall back asleep.

Conceiting defeat I got up from my bed.

Sheesh, how the heck was I going to do now?

Almost immediately I wanted to slap myself.

Hello, Earth to me. I am HOME on a school day. I could do, like, anything!

Sure I felt bad about staying home, and making mom have to come get me and worry about me, but hey, I'm a normal (yeah, just keep thinking that) teenage girl.

I raided the kitchen for anything edible with sugar (ha, I love Little Debbie) and flopped on the couch to watch some TV.

Pretty much nothing was on, except some lame daytime Soap Opera, which involved some weirdo storyline that I didn't even want to bother with.

I sighed and hauled my lazy butt off the couch. I always felt like such a slouch and like one of those lazy, fat people who only watch TV and eat sugar after one of these episodes. But I supposed everyone needs a break from now and then.

I crouched down to the 'Movie Cupboard' where all of the DVDs were stocked, and filed through them.

The King and I, Men in Black, Sleepy Hollow, Forrest Gump, Pearl Harbor, Egypt: Secrets of the Tombs, Back to the Future, Memoirs of a Geisha, Wayne's World, Shrek, Phantom of the Opera…? Hang on… What's that doing there? I thought I killed all the copies?

I picked it up from the shelf and just stared at the cover. Damn did it make me think of things that I didn't want to remember. Don Juan, the Masquerade… and all of those average days of doing normal stuff. For that time period anyhow.

Almost robotically I popped the case open and put it in the DVD player and pushed play.

I retreated back to the couch and just stared at the screen, not really seeing the movie, but instead saw everything play out into my mind.

After about an hour of the replay, the masquerade began, I mentally saw the dance being played out. I still remembered every twist and turn of my body, and my muscled flexed at their cued times. And then, right on time, almost as if I was back in time, I felt my torso being held securely by strong arms.

My breath caught and I spun around, terrified.

No one was there. I had just been carried away by memories, and only imagined HIM being here.

I took a deep breath, and tried to refocus on the movie, and only the movie, but no matter how hard I tried to focus on the screen, I couldn't ever really see the actors. Instead I saw Christine, Meg, Madame Giry, Erik, and everyone else through my own eyes. The way I saw them.

Before my eyes was like my life flashing before me, and was now showing the Graveyard bit.

My arm tingled unpleasantly from where cold steel had once poked through, and my heart thudded with the realization of what scene would come up next. But even though I knew this I still couldn't take my eyes away from the screen.

The whole Don Juan scene fluttered past my eyes, and soon came the part I had been dreading…

After the whole 'Alice in Wonderland' bit.

I wanted to turn my head, to go back to watching the gaytarded soap opera, but my eyes were fixated on the television.

I felt myself nearly drowning, lying down on the rough bank of the lake of Evil, and then having to face the freaky tunnel, after which entering the room of terror.

The footsteps I heard inside my head made me want to scream, but for some reason my voice box didn't want to work.

My muscles tensed, and I almost felt myself being slung behind the low couch, and then the quiver in my stomach of having found out about Francois.

The skin on my neck crawled with the sensation of being fitted with a noose, and my windpipe seemed to contract as my painful death was repeated.

A salty tear made its way down my cheek, and soon more others followed suit.

I picked up the remote, my head suddenly cleared of the fog that had previously held my mind captive, and flipped the TV off.

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A very cruddy chapter, but don't hate me for it. It's 2-something in the morning and I'm just KINDA tired. I haven't been up this late since… ok, Friday. But I got up early, so I'm about ready to fall asleep right now…

But pretty please review!