After the incident Angelique refused to leave the Opera house. She spent her days looking at books, cooking, listening to Erik read or sleeping. In fact, she would sleep for most of the day.
The sparkle in her eye had disappeared. Erik had not even realized it had been there until it was gone. It was as though something haunted her now, something that she had almost succeeded in escaping, that had suddenly caught up to her.
Sometimes he would walk into the room and catch her staring at nothing lost in her own thoughts which seemed darker than they ought to be and then that unwelcome emotion would come again, unbidden. Concern.
One night, not long after, he was awakened by a terrible scream. Realizing immediately who it must be he donned his mask and ran out of his room to find Angelique thrashing about on the floor. She was still asleep, he realized. Her hands were balled up into tight fists, and there were tears streaming from her closed eyes.
"Angelique! Wake up!" Erik knelt down and grabbed her by the shoulders, trying to shake her awake.
She would not wake. She struggled against him, trying to escape him, or perhaps something in her dream. He forced her to sit up. "Angelique! Wake up, it's me! Erik!"
Finally her eyes snapped open, and she realized quickly were she was. "Erik…" With that, she threw her arms around his neck, buried her head in his shoulder and began to cry without restraint.
Erik's eyes opened wide at the unexpected contact, but he did his best to comfort her. "Shhh…you're safe now. It was only a nightmare. It wasn't real. "
"No, you don't understand, it was real." She said with a sob.
"I know sometimes nightmares seem real, but-"
"No! It was real. It is real!" she yelled with such force that Erik was shocked.
There was a moment of silence before he spoke.
"What do you mean?" he asked quietly.
"Nothing." With a sigh she released him and sat back. "You're right it was only a dream. Only a dream, and nothing more." She said, but her words sounded hollow to him. She sat across from him, staring sadly at the floor, as if she were remembering something.
He suddenly realized that her condition was growing worse. Without intervention, she would slowly spiral down deeper into a pit of depression that she may not be able to escape from. It seemed that the memory of the deed she had done was slowly eating away at her, consuming her spirit from within.
Ironic now that Angelique had turned into what he had been when she first arrived. For the first time he saw how her being here had changed him. He no longer wished for death as he once did, even if he did not fully long to live. She had given him a reason to be, to simply exist. It seemed she had saved him from himself. He would have to try to do the same for her.
"Erik, I'm tired. I think I'm going to try to go back to sleep."
Erik considered her for a moment. "Would you like me sit up with you?"
"No thank you. I'm fine, really." She attempted a smile, "It was only a dream, after all." With that she curled up beneath the blankets and turned away from him, thus ending the conversation.