Hola, friends. I come bearing a new update! Warning, I have never written a scene like this before, so please bear with me. Also, while you read, you may want to listen to the song Granuaile's Dance by Celtic Woman. That is the song that this chapter is based on. Every time I would listen to it, this scene would always play in my head. I hope you enjoy it! Shoutouts to mangadragon10122, MrsBellaWhitlock123, IKhandoZatman, Anomaly9, and al of my reviewers! Hope you like :)

Chapter 26

After that song, I was a hit. They all jumped up in applause after I had finished each song. The line-up went Please Don't Make Me Love You from Dracula the Musical, Eyes of a Child by Ramin Karimloo, Sound the Bugle from the movie Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Everything I Do by Bryan Adams, I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables, and Oh What a Beautiful Mornin' from Oklahoma. I know most of the songs were depressing, but they were all I could come up with. But, hey, the audience wasn't complaining.

It finally came time for the grand finale. By this time, I had totally forgot about everything, even Madame Giry saying she needed to speak with me and Erik asking me to trust him. I was too excited to recollect any of those conversations.

"Now, ladies and gentlemen," I began. "I leave you with one last song." There were groans from the audience: apparently they wanted this to last a lot longer.

"Now, now, boys and girls, don't go all mopey on me." I was rewarded with their laughs. "This is a special song, and even though there is no singing, I hope you will love it as much as the others. If I could have my violin, please…"

One of the stagehands brought it out to me and exited just as quickly. As he went, I thanked him and signaled to Reyer that I was ready. As the introduction played, I stretched my arm out gracefully, the bow seeming as if it were an extension of my arm. As my cue came, I brought the bow to the strings and began to play as I spun and leapt. Once the 'first stanza', as I like to call it, ended, the female dancers came out on the stage, all dressed in flowing skirts and masks, as if attending a masquerade. Meg and Christine came to me. Christine had tied a beautiful black mask onto my head as Meg tied a flowing skirt around my waist. The top portion matching the same color as my dress then fading to black as it went down. They were preparing me for the party as well as the other girls who were in the back, doing rond de jambs and things of the sort. At the key change, they all circled around me and were rotating around me clockwise as I went counterclockwise. The key went back to its normal pitch as the men came out onto the stage. But something was amiss.

They're all in their proper outfits and masks, all five of them…wait…there's only supposed to be four of them!

That's when I realized what Erik had meant when he had told me to remember….

"Should this be a minor key?"

Erik and I had been working on the sheet music for the orchestra and were currently on Granuaile's Dance, the song I was playing on the violin at the end of my performance.

He looked over my shoulder at the music I was writing. "I don't know. Why don't you play it for me and I can give my opinion?"

I shrugged. "Alright, then." I grabbed the violin and began to play, but got so caught up in the music, I forgot the task at hand and just started to dance around the lair.

I was twirling and jumping everywhere, not paying any attention to the man who was about to join in my little one-person performance. As we danced together, I realized something: we fit perfectly together. I knew that sounded cliché, but it was the truth. Out of all the guys I had been close to in my past musicals and performances, Erik had to have been the best one. None of the others even compared to how he moved with me in that dance.

He dipped me as the song ended, almost making me drop the instrument in the process. That would've been bad because he had dipped me on a ledge hanging over the lake. He took the violin and bow from my hands, setting them on the ground beside us. As he looked into my eyes, he muttered, "I think that would be a minor key…"

We said nothing more as he pulled me up and turned us around, his back facing the lake. What he wasn't expecting was for me to push him into the lake. What I wasn't expecting was for him to grab my hands, pulling me in with him.

It all clicked. He was wanting me to dance with him as we did then. Erik, you sly dog…how did you even pull this together?

My musings were cut short as the men started to dance, Erik hanging back behind them. As I played, he caught my gaze and held it, something in his own that I couldn't recognize yet sent chills down my spine.

At the next key change, the women and the men converged, moving from one partner to another as I went to the front of the stage. Erik came up behind me as the notes took a higher tone and picked me up by the waist, spinning me around once as the other dancers behind us did. Once he put me down, I spun out of his grasp, going en pointe and lifting my leg up to a 90 degree angle, toes pointing in front of me. As the song took a folksy-like tune, Erik came right up to me, our chests almost touching. The other dancers behind us had spun one to another, a woman to a man, and looked at each other as if they had found the love of their life. When I began to play the next part of the song that led to the best part, they began to circle their partners as Erik and I did the same. Now came the fun part…

As everyone behind us began to dance with their partner, going all over the stage like a beautiful merry-go-round, Erik and I were facing the audience. I was still playing as he did a little jig that reminded me of Jack and Rose from Titanic when they were at that lively party below deck. When the section started again, it was my turn to dance. I did the same thing, only with more spinning, my skirt flaring out as I did so. The music slowed down a bit when Erik put his hands on my waist, pulling me closer to him. He picked me up to where my feet weren't touching the ground and went in a great circle. As the music started to pick up, he put his mouth to my ear and whispered, "Spin."

Like you have to tell me twice…I thought with joy as the euphoria of spinning and playing took over. The deviance in the melody pattern was accentuated with a little head bang action that I almost broke my neck with, but paid no mind to it. I skipped all around the stage, 'visiting' each dancing couple. I got a few weird looks from Christine and Meg, as if they were asking what in the world was going on. I also paid them no mind. My mind was reeling with the feeling of happiness that nothing could bring me down. Once I reached the last few notes of the song, I twirled to center stage…unexpectedly being dipped by Erik as he did in the lair.

My breath was already labored a bit from all the dancing, but the look in Erik's eyes as he held me made me gasp for oxygen. His gaze was intense, his golden eyes seeming to be on fire. Huh, I just now noticed he has gold eyes…how did I not notice that before?

The sounds of applause and cheers brought me out of my thoughts. I looked out to the crowd and saw that everyone was on their feet, shouting and clapping. They were even throwing roses on the stage for me. Erik finally relented me and stood back. I took my bows, grabbing a rose from the stage as I came back up. I looked back at the dancers and motioned them forward. They all rushed to the front of the stage, interlocked hands, and bowed. They then dispersed and motioned to me, but I didn't notice them. My eyes were on a certain man that was on the stage with me. I motioned him forward, and when he shook his head, I went and grabbed his hand, almost dragging him back to center stage.

I bowed, his hand still in mine, so he was almost forced to bow with me. But you know the Phantom, never one to go out with simply a bow. There was always a flair of drama whenever he exited a room.

This case was pulling me close to him and a trap door opening…right beneath us.

I heard the gasps from the audience and the dancers, as well as Meg exclaiming, "He's here, the Phantom of the Opera!" It was all I could do to keep from screaming as we fell. Granted, it wasn't that far from the bottom, it still scared the daylights out of me. As we landed, none too gracefully I might add, Erik pulled me up and drug me to a staircase leading upwards.

"Erik, what are-"

I was interrupted by his finger on my mouth as he whispered, "Stay silent, I don't want them to hear us."

"But where are we going?" I breathed.

He pointed upwards. "The roof."

I stayed silent for the rest of the journey, wondering what he was up to now…

I do (not) own the song. Credit goes (not) to me.