Chapter 23: Finding the Path.

It was unclear where she was going but Meg walked on through the theatre as if she was lost within it. She felt like she was. Nothing in the theatre felt comfortable or familiar anymore. Halls she had always travelled seemed foreign and far away. Places that once were filled with timeless melodies were deafening by the silence and the darkness. Lush colours gave way to the eery darkness and forbidding gloom. It was a terrible place to find oneself but was it really her she was feeling. Something inside her was aching. She had never been so mad or so violent in her life. She was losing who she really was and becoming something she wasn't or so she felt. It was the darkest moment Meg had every had in all of her life. She felt as through her heart was broken and her soul had escaped her. She was nothing but the ghost of the theatre now.

She walked on feeling the walls and the drapes and the doors as she went along. She was trying to feel, see or hear something to trigger the memories of happiness, but she only found it to be and empty and forbidding place. Her heart was heavy and sinking within her. But horrible ideas of a darker and even less friendly world plague her mind. It was just outside of the theatre. Would they miss her if she left? Would she be able to survive? How could she if she couldn't even survive a place she loved so dearly as the Opera Populair. Would anyone even notice if she did as so many people were telling her to do, to go out into the open and experience the real world? She wondered as she passed through the great theatre's foyer and right up to the great entrance into the building. All it would take would be a few steps to walk out into the world and be rid of everything that was here, and in her life now. She stopped and paused, placing her hand on the gilded gold handle of one of the large doors. Her body shook all over as bitter tears rolled down her cheeks.

Erik watched her from the shadows of the foyer. In his rage he had followed the two women and listened into their fear. He had heard every word that was exchanged between the two ballerinas. And had seen the anger and the fear in Meg's poor, young face. It was a terrible, heart wrenching fear that covered her and a darkness that he knew too well. What had he done to her and she to him?

His heart seemed to stop beating as he watched the star of his new drama pause at the door, only inches away from a world without him. Could she really leave him too? Had he scared her so much that she would leave so suddenly and why was he not rushing out to stop her? To comfort her and beg her to stay with him. These questions raced through his mind but his feet would not move from there place on the floor. He couldn't even call out to her. Remorse for his tone and his anger filled him. His heart sank as she leaned into the door. It didn't move under her weight.

Meg sighed deeply and sobbed out loud, she had been able to fight her thoughts and had decided it would be best to leave. She leaned against the door but her prayers were answered, they were locked. Deep within her there was a relief that rose. She made up her mind to leave but she never really wanted to. She didn't know what she would do if the doors really would have opened. Would she have been able to push it open and step out into the world. She wouldn't have to know now. The moment had passed and her desperate prayers, that the doors would not move, were answered. There were other ways out of the theatre but at that moment she knew it was not the right thing to do. She moved silently away from the door, shivering and moving up the stairs of the great foyer.

She walked on slowly and dreamily. Her tears had washed away her anger toward Christine. She knew that the girl was desperate now to regain her life that she was so comfortable in. She too was feeling a desperateness toward the theatre and the drama now. She knew that it was nearly a life or death situation to save the theatre because she believed that she would die without her home and without him. It is true that people will to anything to stop change, even initiated change itself. But a great sadness for Christine had now taken over her. She knew that someday her old friend would realise what life was really about and that she would learn to be happy in her new life but she was still torn to see her unhappy and desperate. She also felt a great sense of quilt growing within her. Her lack of caution was what led to this and really she should have expected something like this to happen. She had jeopardised the Phantom and his secrets.

Holding tightly onto herself she walked on, past box five without even glancing at it and further on her journey up through the theatre.

Erik followed her slowly, listening to her cry as they went. She shivered with cold and sadness. In his arms he carried the rose coloured blanket that he had so violently ripped away from her. It was a piece that was at one time intended for Christine but since then he had given it over to Meg. It was one of the only items he had left from his youth and child hood. The blanket had belonged to his birth mother and was the one thing she had given him out of love. Now he had moved it on to someone he felt dearly for and had betrayed her with his anger and his overreaction. He followed silently not wanting to disturb her but yearning to apologies and to wipe away her fear.

The theatre was as quiet as a tomb, at this late hour. No one was found in any levels of the theatre, not even the ancient sounds of superstitions and anxiety. She moved slowly and silently all the way to the roof and out into the open air of the summer night. The stars were bright in the sky, and the moon reigned high over the heavens. Down in the street the lamps were still lit and the night owls were still prowling the street. She walked close to the edge of the roof and looked out at the city.

"Why do you feel you must follow me?" she asked as she turned around and looked into the shadows of the roof top.

"How did you know I was there?" Erik asked as she stepped out shyly before her. His mask has been replaced.

"I have gotten used to feeling you close to me," she said as she turned and looked back to the city.

Erik walked slowly over to her. He watched as she reluctantly let the cold get the better of her and she shivered as a breeze blew through her hair. He placed the blanket gently around her shoulders again awed by how much she had changed in the few weeks that he had come to really know her and how much she seemed tuned into everything about him. It was like she was apart of him somehow, like his heart and hers were one.

She spun suddenly and reached out to take his mask away from him. He stepped back out of her each and almost in defence of himself.

"My fear of you is not from your face," she said as bitterness and anger rose in her quiet voice, "I would have thought that was already clear in the trust I have shown you, but clearly you cannot trust me." she said as she turned away from him not willing to let him see her cry.

"Trust is hard to come by," he said softly.

"Not if you are faced with someone willing to give it," Meg said as she turned back to look at him, tears rolling down her cheeks, "and I can feel that you know it. Or am I just blinded by something else, something I clearly can't understand. What spell have you cast on me?"

"No spells," Erik said as she backed further away from her now. His heart ached to hear her speak such words. They were words that were racing through his own mind, accusations he felt he needed to put to her but she was far ahead of him in the argument. He felt helpless now.

"Take off you mask," She ordered him, looking angry and hurt and helpless all at once, "let me look at you and face you as I am facing you now. I have nothing to hid behind, you shouldn't have that luxury either, at least not now. We have come to far and to close to each other to allow for these walls to exist. Give me your mask," she said and stepped closer to him holding out her hand.

Erik didn't know what he was doing as he pulled the mask from his face and handed it to the girl. He felt more vulnerable now than he had ever felt and yet he knew he could do nothing. His strength had escaped him now and he looked at his feet as she held the mask before her.

"I didn't mean for her to follow me, I had no idea she was that selfish to do something as bold as that."

"I know this now," he said as he went to brush a tear from her cheek but she pulled away from him.

"You could have known had you asked me," she said as she turned away and walked toward the other end of the rooftop.

She placed the blanket and on the edge of the roof and the mask on top of it and turned back to face Erik. She shivered with cold and he shivered with exposure but they were as open to each other as they had ever been.

"What is happening here?" he asked her as he finally looked up and their eyes met.

Meg stepped closer to him, her eyes never leaving his as she walked up. She was so close now, there was barely room between them. Her face was red in the moonlight, tear stained and sorrowful. His was bare and open to her sight, the great mass of flesh and scares, redness and imperfection was right before her but her eyes never moved from his. She saw only within him and she stood there before him until he found in her what she had found in him.

Tears still rolled down her face as her blue eyes bore into him. He could feel them and the more she looked the more he felt like she was reading him and her face changed. Tears of anger and sadness now mixed with understanding and passion.

"You can trust me," she whispered as she reached up and touched his face, "I've let my guard down to you and I've presented all that I am, nothing more and nothing less."

Her hands were freezing as they touched his cheeks but he felt a great warmth with the touch. He leaned in closer to her, looking deeper into her eyes and that was where their souls met.

"I do trust you," he whispered back, "I am sorry."

"I am to," Meg said a received smile crossing her face, "for everything and anything that may happen. I am sorry," she leaned in, and, standing on the tips of her toes as dancers do, she kissed him.

The kiss was like a new life had been breathed into him. He felt like all ill feelings toward him, that he had ever felt in his life, were wiped away. This woman had made contact with him like no other human being had ever. He was filled with a passion and could feel it within her as well. He wrapped his arms around her there on the roof and they shared a life changing moment.

When the kiss had ended, Meg pulled away from him only slightly and let herself sink back down onto her heals. He still looked deeply at her but another emotion had filled his eyes. They sparkled like the stars that filled the heavens and she had never seen anything so handsome in her life. They masked the scares of his face and the horrors of his past and gave him a completely different look. Meg would see nothing else but the compassion and happiness in his eyes when he looked at her. His entire body had loosened up, he was not tense or afraid as he had been but comfortable in a way that she could tell he had never been before.

"Perhaps we should get to work," Meg said as she finally let the blush rise in her face and feeling a slight embarrassment for it she turned her face away from his.

He smiled as he recognised the emotion in her, "if that is what you wish Mademoiselle I can only obey," he said as he walked with her to the edge of the roof top where she picked up the mask once again and handed it back to him.

"I ask that you not wear it when I am around, but I understand if you must while within the theatre," she said as he took it from her hands.

"I'll wear it, only when it pleases you," he said with a smile, it was a handsome smile and a comforting smile.

"I'd prefer you never to wear it," she said, "but we both know that you must. Perhaps one day the rest of the world can see you as I do."

"Perhaps," he answered and wrapped the blanket back around her shoulders.

They both turned, then, and looked out at the glittering city of Paris below them. It was a beautiful mid summers night and far below on the street the lamps were still brightly burning. The city of lights before them were like the mirrors of the billons of stars that filled the heaven's.

Erik leaned in to her again and kissed her cheek gently, "I'd like you to return with me to my world. Will you come?" he asked her.

"I will," she smiled and turned away from the stars.

"I am glad," he smiled back at her, "it pleases me to only see one star these nights."

Meg blushed again and followed him silently into the darkness of the theatre.

Dear Readers

Thank you to everyone who has read the story and given such kind reviews it makes me very happy to hear from you and it has helped me to write this story. I am more into it now than i was in the beginning because so many people have said such nice things about it. I am working hard on it now and there is much more to come soon! please keep leaving me messages andI hope you enjoyed the three new chapters!

Angel