A/N: Sorry it took so long, I am having a huge writers block. I also just got back from a trip to the east coast.
"Meg? Are you alright" Meg said nothing. She continued to stare out the window at nothing. Her whole life had changed. There wasn't that sparkle in her eye that everyone loved. Meg was no longer the strong one. She was a living corpse trying to forget about her heartbreaking past.
It had been five years since that horrible night. The disaster left many of the workers jobless, living in the streets of Paris. Madame Giry and Meg had been lucky to have relatives that were generous. They were given a home outside of Paris and had to pay only a small amount of rent. No one had heard or seen the infamous Phantom of the Opera. It seemed as if he just disappeared from the world and gone back to that world as deep as hell.
Meg was now twenty-two years old. She was a young, beautiful woman and had every man's eyes set on her. Many men tried to court her yet she wouldn't succumb to them. Her mother had grown irritated, Meg simply needed a husband. Madame Giry knew something had happened to her daughter when the police had told her they had found her lying in the street crying. Finally to her mother's delight Meg agreed to marry a young, handsome, and wealthy man from Northern France. He was a count and all the women adored him.
Now Meg had fallen in love with Count Damien Michel, but her heart would always secretly belong to Erik. She missed him terribly, but was too stubborn to go look for him. She missed his sweet lips and his mysterious green eyes. She missed the way he could make her shiver by barely even touching her hand. Meg closed her eyes to try and hear his sweet voice singing to her alone.
"Meg, it is nearly noon and you are still in your nightgown. I am tired of you sitting around while you have a handsome fiancée that you are about to marry in a couple of months. We need to start planning for the wedding." Meg opened her eyes, slowly coming back to reality.
"What was that Mama?" Meg asked innocently. Madame Giry was about to scold Meg when there was a knock on the bedroom door.
"Come in," Madame Giry cried out. A young maid named Isabel tip-toed in. "Madame Count Michel, is here for Madamoiselle Giry."
"Oh my goodness, I am not even dressed." Meg ran to her wardrobe searching for the perfect dress. "Umm, please tell the Count that I will be down a few minutes, Isabel."
"Yes, my lady."
"Meg darling, you look lovely, as always." Count Damien said as Meg descended down the stairs.
"Damien it is so good to see you." She said as she kissed him on the cheek.
"I was thinking about lunch and then a stroll in the park afterwards." He said wrapping his arms around her waist.
"That would be lovely."
Meanwhile in the darkest parts of Paris, lived a man who had been a mystery to everyone. No one knew where he had come from or who he was. Mothers would tell their children that he prayed on bad little boys and little girls. Others said he was the devil himself trying to capture sinful men and women to take them back to his home in hell.
Those were only rumors; of course, none of them truly knew the man behind the monster, who burns in hell, but secretly dreams of beauty. He was once known as the infamous, Phantom of the Opera.
Now Erik lay on top of a little whore he had hired for the night. She had blonde hair and beautiful green eyes. She couldn't have been older than seventeen. It was the only way for Erik to enjoy the joys of the flesh. It was a way to forget his horrible past. It was a way to forget about not only Christine Daae, but also little Meg Giry. He sighed in frustration at the thought of his little ballerina. She was the one who was always there to wipe away his tears. She was the one who had taken care of him. Not Christine, Meg.
He wondered what had become of Meg. Was she married? Was she happy? Did she still think of him or did she try to forget the selfish bastard that he was? Those were questions he asked himself every night after he thought of Christine. "Oh Monsieur" the young girl whispered. Erik's attention went back to the girl.
"Get up," he barked, as he was rolling off of her.
"But… but sir. I thought you were enjoying yourself."
"Put your dress back on and take your money. I want to be alone." He said throwing her dress at her. Erik quickly put his dress robe on and took a glass of brandy, letting the hard liquor to help him forget all his thoughts of the life he knew before.
"I had a wonderful time Damien. Lunch was splendid. I think I'll not be hungry for a week. You really shouldn't have." Meg sweetly said.
"Well I'm glad that you enjoyed yourself. I should always spoil you Meg. You are after all my future bride." Damien smiled lovingly at Meg. "Speaking of you being my future bride, have you planned anything for the wedding?" He asked.
Meg began to bite her lip nervously. "Umm actually I haven't." Meg said sheepishly.
"Meg you know we need to start planning. The wedding is only a couple of months away. I will not let you wait till the last minute."
"Of coarse not Damien, it is just that I've been… distracted."
"Distracted? How so?" Damien asked.
Meg needed to find a good lie. She couldn't tell Damien about how she dreamed of Erik every night. How she wished she laid in his arms while he sang songs into her ear. She couldn't tell him how every time he kissed her she was secretly thinking of it being Erik. "It's just that I miss Opera Populaire so much and I always am thinking about it." It was half a lie.
"Come now Meg, it has been five years since the fire, surely you must be glad to get away from that place with the lunatic." Meg's eyes narrowed.
"That place was my home since I was a child. My whole world was that place. I can not just simply forget about the world I knew before. You don't understand I was going to live there my entire life to become Prima Ballerina."
"Meg you can't just simply throw your life away on some silly little dream." Damien regretted his words. He could see in Meg's eyes the hurt and anger.
"How dare you? It wasn't some silly dream. It was real. I knew what the managers and my mother had said about me. They said maybe in a year or two I would become Prima Ballerina, but as you know, that silly little dream didn't come true." Meg stormed off to the carriage, not listening to Damien. She was furious. He was like all the other men, who thought girls were silly.
"Hello Erik." A waitress that he had slept with a few nights before said to him.
"Hello." He grumbled.
"What can I get you? The usual?" she asked already knowing he would say, "yes".
"Yes." He said barely above a whisper. Once he was given his drink, Erik poured it down his throat. He loved how alcohol could make him forget all his troubles. He loved how just for a moment he was like the other men who came into the local tavern.
The waitress came back and sat on his lap, her perfume burning his nostrils. "So Erik," she giggled. "What are you doing later tonight? I was thinking you and I could spend some time together for a couple of hours. What do you say?" It was tempting, but he couldn't. Her brown curls reminded him too much of Christine. The last time they were together he had screamed, "Christine", instead of whatever the girl's name was.
"Not tonight. I'm too…tired." She started to pout hoping to win him over, but he wouldn't fall for it.
"The infamous seducer is refusing a woman in his bed, for the first time? I can hardly believe it." Erik glared at her.
"Ah Erik, I was wondering when you would be here. A few of the boys are about to play some cards and was hoping you would join in." The tavern keeper said, walking up to him.
"I'm not so sure. I'm not in the mood tonight."
"Oh come on Erik one game, that's all I ask." Erik rolled his eyes before standing up and walking over to the card table.
The men began to play a game of poker. Erik was doing pretty well, while the other men were struggling. They all had put in 20 francs and each and every one of them was getting greedy. Erik and the men were by then drunk. He smirked. He had a full house. "Sorry gentlemen, but I believe all of you have lost." He put down his hand.
A man stood up furiously knocking over his chair. "You're a lying bastard. You're always winning. You are cheater." Erik sat in his chair casually. The man was obviously drunk.
"Why good sir, I'm hurt. I am not a cheater at all. I think it is you who is the cheater." Erik said putting his hand to his cold heart.
"Why you…" The man took a knife out of no where and struck it into Erik's leg. Erik was shocked. He had always been able to doge anything. For the first time in years a man didn't miss. That man would regret it. His temper flared, he would not be made a fool. The stupid man was laughing… laughing at the infamous Phantom of the Opera. Suddenly before the man could react, Erik threw his famous lasso around his neck, snapping it in half in an instant. The entire tavern went quite.
"You…you killed Alexander." A man said with a shaky voice.
"Get him!" Another screamed. Erik had to get out of there otherwise he would be killed. With a wave of his cape and a little magician's trick, Erik was out of the tavern. He limped his way over to a horse tied to a pole and climbed onto it, riding off into the night he had always known.
"Meg I'm sorry if I've hurt your feelings. It slipped out." Damien said in the carriage. Meg continued to ignore him. He sighed in frustration. "Meg stop acting like a child. You know I didn't mean it." Meg glared at him before continuing looking out the window.
"You are like all the other men, Damien." She paused. "None of them believe in women. You all believe that women can't do anything besides cleaning and cooking. I hate it! I am not some machine to do as you please." Damien was about to say something when Meg spotted a body on the side of the road. "Stop!" The carriage came to a jerky halt.
Meg quickly climbed out of the carriage to the body that was lying in the road. "Meg! What is it?" Damien said climbing out as well.
Meg's face paled as she looked at the pale face of the man she once loved.
