Chapter 30: Fin

The rain poured down in massive sheets as Erik sought the find any visible trace of Isabelle's carriage. His suit now drenched from the storm which had lasted for the past couple days. Thoughts of failure ran through his mind and his heart ached as he pictured never seeing her again. It had been many years since he had experienced such sense of loss. All those years ago, when Christine had left and he destroyed every connective memory. The same fire burned inside him only he felt compelled to find his love.

It occurred to him that Isabelle may have come by horseback for the night she arrived she had been soaked to the skin. He kept running although he heard lightening and thunder in the clouds. Losing grace and poise he normally possessed with each step. Now older he lost momentum in his stride and bent over to catch his breath.

In the darkness he saw nothing. No trace of his beloved, just the bleak distress of night. Normally the night would comfort him and cloak him like a blanket, but tonight, the night refused any ease his anguish except for the rain which concealed his tears.

His hands twitched as his sides, seeking a keyboard. So many years he spent sedulous study with his music and now his skills were not practicable to win back his love. For Christine the music had swirled within their souls like a cyclone and any return to that kind of passion brought had brought them together for short time.

Erik did not realize until then that it was only the music within him that Christine connected to. Their souls were linked through the bonds of notes and cadenzas and arias but nothing tangible. It occurred to Erik that Christine was more lost than he had ever been.

Trudging back to the house he closed the door and left wet footprints all over the carpet. He saw his piano sitting invitingly in the parlor and it drew him like a moth to a flame. His fingers toured the keys as if responded to his soul which sought any way to communicate his pain. Suddenly his voice joined the bravura which filled the house with longing. The years of singing for the opera company had tested and perfected his already angelic voice.

The house almost wept in the presence of such beauty. Tears of his own spilled out onto the keyboard which he now pounded upon with ferocity. As if in a trance, fire flowed from his fingertips and out through the strings of the piano resonating with passion. He wondered how he could survive the heartache if he never saw Isabelle again. Rosalie would fill his days with purpose and even love but a part of him would always feel missing.

The weeping in his voice made the room cry. He had suffered and gained so much over the years and now he felt his journey through love ending with a sweep of his fingers across the ivory keys. The weeping grew into an audible plaudit for Erik's music. The voice sounded almost human, and suddenly Erik stopped his heart lurched in his chest. That voice… he knew it, it had not been his imagination but real!

He nearly fell off of the piano bench in pursuit of the sound which now stopped and seemed to move further away from him. Erik halted in his tracks and listened, he moved with more agility and he once had to escape from Persian police all of those years ago. Tiptoeing around the room he pounced on a figure who hid behind the sofa. She wrestled him but he had strength and did not use all of it to contain her outcries.

Aware of whom he held in his arms he tried to calm her through embrace but she resisted for a few moments and then gave up the attempt and lay limp in his arms crying in frustration and in relief. Erik kissed her tears and stroked her hair weeping himself for joy of finding his love, "Oh Isabelle," he cried clinging to her for fear she would disappear from him again.

She spoke quivering in his arms, "I could not leave you, Erik! I tried! I tried…" her voice trailed off as her words were muffled by Erik's embrace, "Damn you for making me care about you, making me love you! Damn your wretched music!" Erik tried to hold back a laugh but it escaped and he looked into her eyes smiling.

"Do you think I would have given you up so easily?" She returned his gaze with eyes reddened from the salt tears.

"Did you really think I could leave? You hold such power over me, it simply is not fair." They hugged again and this time Erik knew his happiness would never leave his life again. His journey had ended and a new road lay before him, a road which he would never be forced to travel alone again.