Sorry for the wait… I started writing another chapter, then went off all A.D.D, and then when I came back to write some more I was like, Oh…my…God… this really sucks and has no point whatsoever.

So, I'm re-writing this!

So… we're gonna have a little time warp to a few weeks ahead… which is going to be… second semester in the school year! YAY!

Why? Because I said so and I have a good plot point.

And just so you know, I have the feeling that I'm going to be using an awful lot of time warps, so get used to it. Lol.

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The dream that I had had with Francois had, thankfully, been the last one in almost a month, and I was glad.

Finals were just around the corner, and I was afraid that those stupid dreams would keep me from studying, but, I didn't have one at all.

Which I'm happy for.

So Christmas break was a whole lot more fun after the scores had been mailed (I passed, so ha!) along with the new schedules for the next semester.

It was pretty much the same classes, except now I had Leadership third period instead of Home Economics.

Even the name, leadership, sounded like a load of boring junk, and now, sitting here in the class, I guess I was right.

You could say that it was good for teaching morals and internal stamina, but that's a load of tosh. Leadership. Is. Pointless.

Although, I must say, it's almost as good as study hall.

Ms. Lay, the teacher, could really care less what we did, short of murder or drugs or talking too loud, but we pretty much had free reign, and could hang out with friends, or, in my case, do homework.

It really sucked, not having any friends in the best class ever, where you could just sit and talk all period, but no, all of my friends got landed in language classes where they were learning German or Polish or something, so I get to set here and do my homework.

Thrill of my life, let me tell you.

'The Green Union Army was under whose command for the first Battle of Bull Run?' I read off my U.S history paper, trying to remember… "Oh gosh, it was… McDuty? No… that's not it… McDougall? No… augh, what is it?" I muttered, rubbing my temple, trying to think of the name.

"I think the answer you're looking for is McDowell."

I jerked my head up and looked around me for the voice who had spoken. I looked up, and found the most beautiful brown eyes looking down at me.

"You're talking about the First Battle of Bull Run, right?" He said, gesturing down to my paper.

"Uh, yeah… how did you know?" I asked, stuttering to find words. Good lord Almighty! This guy was the hottest guy I'd ever seen! He had shaggy brown hair that fell into his eyes, which were an amazing chocolate color, was well built and tall. Not super tall, but at least 6 foot. And all this I took in in just a second.

"You were talking to yourself, not exactly hard to pick up what you're working on." He smiled, before continuing. "You need some help with that?"

I looked back down to the page, which was mostly absent minded doodles, and looked back up, super grateful. Apparently not only was he gorgeous, he was smart!

"You better believe it!" I said, smiling back at him.

He sat down in the empty chair beside mine, and took the barely started paper from me, looking it over, and silent for a moment.

"The Battle of Dallas, Georgia was in Paulding County, not Fulton." He said, taking my pencil and re-writing my work.

"And the Battle of Fort DeRussy was commanded by Generals Smith and Mower, and Colonel Byrd, but other than that, you're all good, for the other two that you answered."

I smiled meekly. I sucked pretty bad at history, and had absolutely no memory at all for dead people who were supposed to be important.

"I guess you'll be wanting my help to finish?" He said, raising an eyebrow and smiling.

"Nah, I think I'll just do this on my own and get every single question wrong, except for those four." I said sarcastically.

So what do you think happened?

Yup, he helped me, and by the end of the period we were friends. And I think I MIGHT have had a teensy tiny minuscule itty-bitty wee little crush.

And I felt good until that night when I went to sleep.

My dream had started out perfectly normal, for dream standards anyway, but then things changed. They lost their fuzzy dream like look, and things cleared. It was like I had just taken Claritin or something.

Instead of being at some Chucky Cheese play place (hey, don't be laughing at my dreams) I was walking to an old fashioned oak door with a tarnished brass knob.

The McDonalds or whatever seemed to melt away, and now I was standing in total darkness besides a slit of light coming from under the door.

There was low talking, and then a sigh, but I couldn't make any of it out. I moved closer to the door, but the noise from inside stopped, except for the sounds of someone walking on stone, most likely pacing. And then more murmuring came from inside.

I leaned in and pressed my ear against the door, but could only heard little snatches of words such as… "Masquerade… just fine… idiot… she… forgive me?"

All of a sudden I recognized the voice and I felt like backing up and running straight back to Burger King to hang with the plastic tubes, but then I realized I had the advantage. I was the one who was the ghost. That fool couldn't hurt me now.

And I knew what I now had to do; it was high time to start antagonizing the man whom had broken my heart in two.

I opened the door with a bang. "Hello lover boy, miss me?" I said, sweeping into the room with a flourish, my eyes blinking furiously in the bright light that my eyes weren't used to yet.

Immediately after saying that my eyes focused, and I felt like biting my tongue in two.

I hadn't stepped into Francois's lair. No; instead I had stepped directly into Erik's place.

"Fleur?" Erik said, turning at the sound of my voice.

I bit my lip and mentally screamed 'IDIOT, IDIOT, IDIOT!'

"Uh, he-ey, Erik…" I said, faltering.

The surprise that had been in his eyes suddenly disappeared and he laughed.

"I knew you couldn't resist my charm, but, 'Lover-boy'?"

I rolled my eyes. What an idiot; I die and then make a mistake and all that he can do is make a joke about it?

"I thought you were someone else." I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Well I would hope so. I wouldn't want to be confused with that bizarre old lover of yours, although, that's already happened." He added bitterly.

I furrowed my brows at that last comment.

"What do you mean you've already been confused with Fran… with him?" I asked, skipping over His name. I didn't feel like mentioning it.

"Well, my dear," he started icily, and I could sense he was going to bring up Don Juan. "When you tricked me…"

'Ha, I was right.' I thought.

"…on the bridge when I found out you weren't Christine, I pulled a trap door on you, sending you down to the depths of the water trap where it was assumed you died upon impact with the ground at the end of the tunnel."

He paused before continuing with much hate in his voice.

"I had disappeared before they could shoot me, and so they came to the conclusion that I had murdered you by sending you down into the dark abyss.

"However, when they went down, they found naught but an empty water chamber. No body or bones or anything. Except, two petticoats that had come from your costume, leading them to believe that I had taken you and either killed you later, or had kidnapped you."

I opened my mouth to ask how he knew all of this, but he interrupted me before I could say a word.

"Madame Giry wouldn't speak to me; even she thought I had taken you, and so I found out from a discarded newspaper left in the streets. It had a full article and even an interview with your precious Francois."

I bowed my head and clenched my fist. Even the sounds of his name send my heart pounding. Although, with excitement or fear I have yet to discover.

Erik had noticed this and said with a note of, holy flock of brown chocolate milk cows, was that… pity…? "But I know the truth of how you died."

I jerked my head up. "How could he know?"

Almost as if reading my mind he answered "I know my way around this labyrinth quite well. As I was coming back here from the stage I came across that idiot's room, which I had already known about. Although, there was something different that usual. There was the normal one person, but there was something different about that one person.

"The individual draped out on the couch wearing the most peculiar clothes: woman's clothes; and not just any woman's clothes, but the very same costume that you had worn only half of an hour before."

I could picture the scene exactly, and it sent chills down my spine just thinking about it.

"Naturally I came to investigate, and what I found was quite odd. It wasn't the fact that you were dripping wet, no, it was the fact that around your next was a bright red stripe, with a rope-like pattern imprinted into your skin."

I involuntarily clutched my throat, and he smiled sadly.

"Of course a few other things were strange too. Like how there was really no sign of struggle anywhere, and the only other thing that was wet, besides you, was the couch. No drips on the floor or puddles anywhere."

"He could have straightened things up." I said, shrugging my shoulders.

But another thing was bothering me. Why would he bother to set me back on the couch and remove the noose?

Erik and I were silent for the moment before he began to speak.

"Do mind if I ask you something?"

"Have you cared to ask permission ever before?"

"No I guess I haven't… but seeing as you might haunt me forever if you were offended I thought I might as well."

I chuckled, wondering what he was going to ask.

"Fire away." I said.

"Where were you murdered thought? It would have been hard to hang someone who was lying down, and your arms were folded as though noting had happened."

I shut my eyes, and tried to fight off the instinct to let my eyes well up.

"Behind the couch. I had been hiding, and he came around. I had no other way to escape. So I just… let him… kill me." I uttered, choking at the memory of my murder. My chest tightened in that all too familiar way when I could see the scene replay in my minds eye.

I turned away from him, and finally let the tears fall.

"Fleur… what happened?" Erik asked quietly.

"I had just come out of the water trap and the lake, and I found that empty cavern. I looked around to see if there were any doors out, but there weren't. And then all of a sudden I heard someone coming, so I dove behind the couch, praying that it wasn't you or… someone else that would hurt me."

I heard Erik stifle a laugh as I mentioned him going to harm me, but I ignored it.

"So I crouched there, and then… the person started talking, and explained why he was going to kill me. And then he said… he said…" I stopped and felt my chest heave.

"What did he say?" Erik questioned softly, with no trace of laughter in his voice now.

"He said that 'Girls are so easy to charm when they're in love. And that's how I managed to corner you here.'"

I could only imagine what Erik looked like, but something told me it wasn't nice.

"And then, I realized it was… him, and then he just laughed and said 'Ah, love can be deceiving, can it not?'"

At the end of that sentence I couldn't suppress a loud sob from coming to my throat, and I sank to the floor, burying my face in my knees.

"And the shame of it all is the fact that he's the one getting all of the sympathy." Erik said, his voice sounding mad now.

"He spread a rumor that he had asked Madame Giry if he could have your hand, and who knows what else he's said. He's playing it off as though I was the one who killed you and making it sound like he's heart broken." Now Erik just sounded discussed at the mere thought of Francois.

"It isn't fair." I said mournfully.

"Nothing in life is fair."

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Ah, one of life's most valuable lessons brought to you by Erik.

Review pretty please!

And for the last time, NO! KATEY AND ERIK AREN'T GOING TO HOOK UP!