She hurried down from her room to the living room, where Dies Irae resounded on the piano, as only one person would be able to play it. There, she saw Erik with his back turned. Madeleine held her breath motionless in the doorway.
"Erik..." she walked towards him who did not seem to hear her, absorbed in his music.
However, as she made contact with him, her hand pierced him and the image of her son faded to nothing. In spite of this, the music continued as if it were a pianola or other automatophone instrument, but this wasn't the case. Madeleine lowered her hand.
"It was too good to be true..." she released a sigh.
She walked to the library accompanied by the requiem whose melody began to weaken as she walked away from the room, right there she picked up Erik's drawings, the same ones she had not dared to touch until then. She hugged the papers jealously on her way to her room. On the way up the stairs, it seemed to her that someone was accompanying her. She didn't want to turn around, as much as a part of her wished it were so, she knew it wasn't real.
As she put Erik's drawings in her desk drawer, she could feel a soft voice questioning in her ear.
"Why haven't you forgotten me?"
Instinctively she remembered the strange mirrored altar reflecting the sun and the dismembered figurine on the floor, surrounded by what were Erik's belongings: his violin, the architecture books, his sheet music and inventions... At the same time he thought of all the horrible things that must have gone through his head to make that decision. Finally that "forget me" resounded.
"No..." she replied with a trembling voice "I don't want to forget you..."
Her eyes watered and she whimpered. She took a seat on her bed and grabbed the handkerchief from the bedside table and wiped away her tears. "Forget me" came again in her head, that impossible request. She covered her face with her hands between sobs. Dies Irae had already ceased with its last notes.

The same day Erik disappeared, the first thing Madeleine did was to run to the church to see if he was there chatting with Father Mansart or playing the organ. 'If he already sneaked into the church once, he could have done it again' she thought. If anyone saw her running she didn't even care. Right there she found him but, to her misfortune, Erik was not with him. Father Mansart was surprised that he had changed his feelings about his son so suddenly.
"What was it that happened?" he asked.
"Last night some villagers killed Sasha, Erik tried to defend her and was injured in the process" she explained "Doctor Barye treated him and in the morning he was gone..."
Father Mansart couldn't do nothing but pity her for her situation.
"If he's not here, where else could he have gone?" she shrieked, his voice breaking.
"I don't know, Madeleine..."
Actually he could imagine several scenarios but none that were adequate to say.
"If someone from the village took him and did something to him I don't know what I'm going to do..." she sobbed.
"Calm down, daughter... Let's see if anyone has seen him or knows anything."
As if so much anguish wasn't enough, everyone in town denied seeing him while calling him a monster and being glad he was gone.
"Since that monster is gone, I might even invite you over for tea or something" proposed a woman out of so many people they talked to.
Of course Madeleine angrily declined the offer. On the way they met Marie who had overheard some whispering from the people of Boscherville.
"Madeleine!" She ran to her "I heard what happened" she announced worriedly.
She couldn't do nothing but hug her friend as she cried.
Marie couldn't credit the situation, on the one hand she just wanted to slap Madeleine for not giving her the slightest heed in changing her treatment of Erik, on the other hand, nothing else could she but pity her as her friend. By the end of the day she was escorted home, where she hadn't left since.

Her crying was interrupted by someone knocking on the door. Needless to say, Madeleine did not want visitors of any kind, so she waited for whoever it was to decide to leave. The person did not desist from her arrival as she knocked once more and heard a familiar voice call out:
"Madeleine!"
At that moment he knew who it was, and knew she had no choice but to attend to her. She kept the handkerchief in a pocket of her dress and went down to the entrance to greet her.
"Hello, Madeleine..." greeted with disguised impression, for apart from signs of having cried, she had signs of not having slept well and was also disheveled.
"Hello, Marie..." she replied muffled.
"May I come in?"
Madeleine nodded and led the way into the living room. On the couch even the sheet with which they had tucked Erik in after the tragic incident still remained. Everything looked as if it had happened a moment ago.
"He may be dead or worse because of me..." said Madeleine in a whisper.
"I've put an ad in the paper just in case."
For a moment Madeleine thought she saw Erik standing behind Marie, she ignored him. Beyond knowing it was only a vision, she didn't want to risk being thought crazy.
"I don't think anyone cares what happens to him..." she lowered her head.
"But maybe Erik will see it."
"What if he doesn't see it, or even if he doesn't want to come back?" she questioned.
"... Then we'll have done all we could for him."
"I don't want to just make the attempt, I want to know he's okay and find him..."
Marie sighed.
"Only time will tell what happens... Would you like some of tea?"
Madeleine nodded. As soon as Marie went to prepare it and was alone, she could once again see the vision of Erik in front of her. The mask disguised it but she could sense the sadness in him. She stared into his golden eyes.
"Forgive me, Erik..."