A/N: Thank you for all the fast and wonderful reviews, I guess I will keep this story going. Just so all of you know, the reviews that I received previously that I mentioned were nasty, I do not have them posted, so don't worry, all of the reviews I thought are helpful and just plain nice are posted!

Chapter 18

The same church that Erik and Gabrielle were married in was now filled with people to say goodbye to Gabrielle. Erik felt extremely nervous as his carriage pulled up with Christine and his daughter also with him. He knew that Gabrielle's family had to have known of his affair so he felt as if he had no business of even being there.

As the carriage parked to let them out at the door, Erik took a deep breath and Christine squeezed his hand.

"She would have wanted you to be here." Erik gathered himself together and opened the door. He stepped outside and helped Christine and his daughter out of the carriage and into the church. People were all over the place talking of Gabrielle and how wonderful she was. Erik saw Gabrielle's mother, Catherine who was surrounded by Gabrielle's sisters and Raoul. This angered him; he could never be rid of that stupid boy, even at his own wife's funeral. Catherine looked up through her tears and saw Erik. She stared at him and he stared at her until she finally burst into another flood of tears and Gabrielle's sisters glared at him. He turned the other way and tried his hardest to keep his emotions inside.

Jean saw Erik standing alone with no one talking to him so he hurried over to him and said,

"Erik, I'm so sorry. I know that you have been ill and everything and now this." Erik stared at Jean as if he didn't hear anything that he said and quietly replied,

"Yes, yes." Jean looked at him but knew that he was oblivious to his surroundings. Christine and Adrienne came up to Erik and Christine latched onto his arm trying to comfort him. Gabrielle's sister had been watching Erik from a distance and leaned into her other sister and said,

"That girl, he sleeps with her."

"How do you know?"

"I just do. Our sister's bed is not yet cold, and she is climbing in." The other sister began to cry and the other sister just glared at him continuing her watch on Erik.

Christine led Erik up to the front of the room where Gabrielle's coffin lay with flowers all around it.

"Christine, really, I can't do this." Erik said to her.

"It's for the best." She said and continued leading him up to the front of the room. Erik stood next to the coffin and just stared at it. Christine left him alone and stepped back sitting in one of the pews with Jean and Adrienne on both sides of her.

"He's not doing so well." Jean said. Christine nodded her head and said,

"This is really bad."

Erik continued to stare trying to hide his emotions the best that he could. He never really showed emotion for anything and tried his hardest to keep his feelings bottled up inside, but this was too much. Suddenly the tears began to flow and they were running as fast as he could wipe them away. He suddenly jumped forward and laid himself on top of her coffin screaming her name over and over. Everyone jumped up to watch the scene that was happening in the front of the church. Erik suddenly flung off his mask and wig and yelled,

"It's me! I'm not hiding anything and I love you. Come back to me, please!" He leaped off of the coffin and began prying it open with his bare hands. Christine ran past Adrienne and grabbed onto Erik's arms to stop him from this outrage, but he pushed her away from him and she stumbled backwards as he pulled open the coffin and pulled Gabrielle's body out kissing it all over.

Catherine gasped and began screaming and crying until she fainted at the sight of her daughter's dead body. Jean leaped forward also and began pulling Erik off of Gabrielle. Erik finally lessened his grip and let go turning around and falling on the ground crying.

Jean and some other men began putting Gabrielle back into the box while Christine led Erik over to the pew to sit down.

"Just calm down." She said as his chest heaved up and down and she put his mask and wig back on him. Christine left Erik sitting next to Jean as she walked to the back of the church to make sure that Gabrielle's mother was doing all right. She walked to the back room and saw Gabrielle's sisters and Raoul hunched over Catherine.

"Is she all right?" Christine asked as Catherine looked up at her sleepily.

"Get her away from me." Catherine said in a whisper. Raoul pulled Christine by the arm over to the opposite wall.

"You have a lot of nerve to show up here and he has a lot of nerve too. Typical for the Phantom to show up in places he doesn't belong."

"That was his wife you know!" Christine protested.

"You and Erik are the reason why Gabrielle is dead. It's funny because I remember a long time ago you said you would never be with him for all he did was murder all that's good but yet you are somewhat of a murderer yourself. I thought you were someone you're not." Raoul said and his words shot her like a pistol in the chest. Christine had no idea what to say back to him; instead she walked away and took off down the church aisle where Erik was sitting. The priest came out and began stepping over the disheveled mess of flowers around Gabrielle's coffin, cleared his throat and began speaking about Gabrielle.

When the funeral service was over, everyone was over at Erik's house, everyone except Gabrielle's family and Raoul. Erik tried his hardest to play the perfect host, especially after embarrassing himself at the church. A lot of the women gossiped about how mysterious and handsome he was and how he was now available. Unfortunately society had no sympathy for a young woman who died or the grief of her husband.

After everyone was gone, Erik remained in the sitting room drinking his favorite whiskey and staring at the gold ring on his third finger of his left hand. He talked to Gabrielle secretly inside of his head telling her how much he really did love her and how he wished it could have worked out differently. He apologized over and over to her even though she wasn't there. Christine sent Adrienne upstairs to get ready for bed and walked into the room where Erik sat staring at the empty bottle sitting on the coffee table.

"Erik, why don't you get ready to go to bed, you've had a long day." He remained staring at the bottle for a minute and finally spoke.

"You know, for the first time in my life I have someone who loves me and people of society respecting me. What do I do with that opportunity? I fuck it up." Christine sat silently for a moment and said,

"Erik, people still love you now. You've made a life for yourself and pulled yourself into an accepting society."

"What? I have one person who talks to me like a human being. Jean. I have one confidant and even then I don't tell him anything."

"What about me Erik?" Christine asked.

"Oh come on Christine, I have history with you and I still even to this day don't think that you look upon me as a human being. You once thought of me as a father figure and now you're having my children. I should trust you least of all people. I have committed too many crimes for your sake, killing three men and my wife for you. You make me crazy. Maybe I am crazy!"

"Erik, don't go pinning Gabrielle's death and three other people's on me. You committed them yourself and it's not like you weren't a murderer before you met me for you killed a lot of innocent lives for the little Sultana in Persia. You let too many people walk all over you, you always have and now you're in a ditch and you can't get yourself out, but you're too proud to admit all of this. You've been moping around all week saying that Gabrielle's death was your fault, until now. It suddenly is my fault." Erik was angered by Christine's true words and stood up towering over her. She sunk back into the chair for he looked as if he might hit her, but instead he took his glass and threw it into the blazing fire in the fireplace. He looked back at her and stalked out of the room and up the stairs to another guest bedroom where he laid down on the bed trying to find a peaceful sleep.