Chapter 16 –

Erik arrived home at least a good five minutes before Elizabeth; he hurried up to his room, practically barreling over the maid as she greeted him in the hallway.

He slammed his door angrily and began to pace around his room, wondering where Elizabeth got the idea that she could speak to him about not only his romantic life, but his past with Christine and the opera house.

Elizabeth stormed into the house almost as fast as Erik did, and she swerved gracefully around the maid much more nicely than the man before her had. She got up to his room and didn't bother knocking. She just barged in. "You had no right, Erik! If you thought it okay to question me, why can't I have the same ability?"

"You had no right to bring that matter which affects my life so much into it."

"It has been six years, though. You need to get past that…"

"I did not mean her, I meant this." He pointed, yet again, to his mask.

"I didn't say anything about the mask until you brought it up."

"But you, Elizabeth, pressured me into it." he replied. "You pushed too far and caused me to come back to the one thing that has plagued my life for years."

"Only because you let it plague your life, Erik. You are one of the most amazing, talented men I have ever met. You have one of the most beautiful voices in the world and I don't see why you have to ruin your entire life because of whatever you wear that mask for." Elizabeth was beginning to tear up and she was not entirely sure why.

"You don't understand…"

"No, I'll never understand why you lived the way you did and why you pity yourself so much." She screamed at him. The entire staff of the house had stopped dead in their tracks listening to the scene unfolding. "This last month has been the greatest of your life – don't deny it either – and now you can't even see that you could have lived like this your entire life. You could have lived like a normal man but instead you chose to wallow in your own self-pity and kill anyone who ever spoke of your deformity. The worst part is that you caused all that. Had you not hid in the opera house dropping things on actors you didn't like and terrorizing dancers you could have become one of the richest and most successful men in Europe. You brought everything on yourself and it has nothing to do with that white thing that covers your face. All that your mask has done is given you an excuse to hide from the world."

"From the moment I was born, my deformity shaped the outcome of my life. My mother took one look at me and I was hated. Everywhere I went I was treated differently because of this curse…"

"Your mother, I'm sure, was nothing more than a whore on the streets of Paris and whether you had been the most perfect looking child in the world you would have been nothing more to her than something she was forced to spend her 'hard earned' money on." Her voice softened and she sat down on the mattress next to where Erik had dropped seconds before. "Erik, anyone who takes the time to get to know you, and see what there is beyond the mask can't help but admire you. I do not believe that I have ever met a man as talented as you are. Once you get past the dark side of your personality that you force upon the world, you can't help but love the man inside."

"You think too highly of people. None of them ever cared to take the chance to find out who I was." He replied, barely above a whisper. Tears had begun to fall down his face as he spoke.

"I did. Doesn't that count for something?" She still had tears in her eyes and for once didn't care if people saw. The whole world could have watched her cry and all she cared about was this broken man in front of her. She put her arm around him. "Your students did too. They think the world of you and you're the only person they want to teach them. Erik, they love you."

"Why do you care so much? Why, after everything I've done, do you still want to make me feel better? I treated you horribly; I yelled at you, I hit you. I don't deserve this!"

"That's what friends do, Erik. I'm always here for you; I want you to know that. No matter what happens. You do deserve this Erik, after everything that has happened. You still deserve forgiveness from me, and you deserve to be comforted for once in your life. This isn't the Erik I know; I want the strong, quick witted, powerful Erik. This isn't you." She knew that that wouldn't make him feel any better but he needed to hear that he wasn't alone, no matter how much he wanted to be.

He stood up and walked to the far end of the room silently. "Elizabeth, I want you to go." he finally said; it broke her heart. "I am not a vulnerable person and I will not let myself be vulnerable to you."

"It's just me, Erik! I just want to help you; I just want you to be happy and see what I see in you everyday."

"I want you to leave." He said it slowly but forcefully. Elizabeth looked to the door then back at him and walked away. When she got out in the hallway, she collapsed against the wall and it took all she had in her not to scream. He was talented and amazing, but he was probably one of the most stubborn people she had ever met. He was too proud to admit that she was right and as much as she respected him, she hated him at that moment.

Erik stood in his room breathing heavily. He was unsure of what to think. Elizabeth was there for him when no one else had ever been, yet he couldn't seem to let her in. He wanted to, and he knew it. He wished he were able to open his heart to her, because she would openly accept it. He did, however, know that she was no Christine and that he could never feel for this woman as he did his young soprano. Yet he wasn't sure if he wanted to feel the same way for Elizabeth. He loved Christine, but he obsessed over her, and he forced that love upon her, causing her to react in the most obvious way; to fear him. He would never do that to Elizabeth, it was different with her. He hated her at times, but there was something more at the same time. He wasn't sure if it was love, but he wasn't sure what else to call it. He hadn't been this confused since the night he let Christine go.

Elizabeth slowly made her way to her room. She hated what she was feeling, and what she was doing to herself. She hated him, but at the same time knew she cared so much for him. She hated to admit it, but she might have fallen in love with him, and that scared her more than anything else. She had never been in love before and the thought itself almost made her sick. She had promised herself long ago that she would avoid love, hoping that she would also avoid pain.

Unfortunately, the more she ignored her feelings for Erik, the more pain she felt. The man's friendship meant more to her than most she would ever experience, yet every chance they got, they hurt the friendship that they both cherished. She doubted they'd be able to get through another month with a friendship and anything more seemed impossible. For that reason, she decided that she would fight for the friendship. Anything else would just be ignored for good.

Neither spoke for the rest of the night. Erik refused to come down for dinner and Elizabeth didn't eat her meal in the dining room anyway. She had her plate brought up to her room.

The next morning when Elizabeth woke she almost forgot what had happened the night before, but was reminded of it moments after she woke up. It was going to be a long day.

When she reached the breakfast table, she found Erik sitting silently, eating. She sat at the opposite end of the table.

"We did not get to work on anything for the show last night." Erik finally said.

"The reason for that being completely obvious." Elizabeth replied.

"I wrote some more music for it. I thought you could do the lyrics. That way we would be able to work by ourselves more often."

He set it down as he walked out of the room. Elizabeth just looked at it and sighed. She knew it would be wonderful and that the two of them would have almost no reason to spend any length of time together anymore.

She suddenly felt completely full, and hurried to get to the school to bury herself in paperwork. During lunch, she decided she couldn't put it off any longer and she looked over Erik's work. As usual, it was a work of genius and he made it very easy to write lyrics to it.

Things carried on for a week like that. Erik and Elizabeth spent as little time as possible together, and she didn't visit his classroom at all that week, which was something all the students noticed. The only productive thing from the week was that they had somehow managed to get fairly well started on the pieces for Cinderella. Erik would stay up for all hours and write the music and Elizabeth would find time to write lyrics.

On the Friday afternoon, Erik was avoiding going home, knowing that he was going to be spending the entire weekend around Elizabeth without being able to use work as an excuse. He looked up from his desk, where he was working, marking theory assignments from the class, and found Emily standing there. She began to collect her books that she had forgotten.

He looked back down at his work, but realized the little girl had something she wanted to say, because she was obviously stalling before leaving the room. "Can I ask you something, sir?"

"I though you might want to - so yes."

"Where's Miss Bennet?"

"At this time of day she is probably in her office; you know that, Emily." he replied, confused at her question.

"Of course I know that, but I want to know why she isn't coming to our class anymore. Before the break she used to come almost every day. One of my friends in the ballet class says she still visits them all the time. What happened? What did we do wrong? Can you ask her? Then we can fix it? We miss her."

Erik bowed his head and let his forehead rest in his palm. He sighed and began, "Emily, you didn't do anything. None of you. She just is busy right now, so don't blame yourselves. I'm sure that next week, Miss Bennet will come to hear you sing again."

"Are you sure?" She pried.

"Positive, now run along and get ready for dinner." Erik said, trying to sound happy and upbeat, but it hurt him to know that he had caused it and the students were blaming themselves for Elizabeth's unexpected absence.

After Emily left the room, he turned back to his work. "You're lucky she is only five and oblivious to what is going on." said a voice in the other doorway of the classroom.

Erik turned see who it was. Standing in front of him was Caroline, looking a bit angry. "Most of us, however, aren't as oblivious as to why Miss Bennet doesn't visit the class anymore." She sat down in a chair near his desk, facing her teacher. "Just apologize, it usually works."

"You don't understand, Caroline. There is more to this than you think."

"Truthfully, sir, we don't care. We love you both, but what you need to realize is that it's not about the two of you. It is about us, and what you are putting us through. It's your job to teach us, and your fight with Miss Bennet is getting in the way of what we are used to. You are my favorite teacher ever, Miss Bennet is very nice, and you two are very sweet together, but we should not have to suffer because you hate each other right now. Argue and ignore each other all you'd like at home, but here at school, we come first. That is what our parents pay our tuition for." She smiled sweetly. "Have a good weekend Mr. Erik." She got up and exited through the door she came in.

Erik sat, completely bewildered. it was not very often than he was put in his place by a twelve year old, and he wasn't sure he liked the feeling. Sadly, she was right and he knew it. Now he just had to talk to Elizabeth, and that task made him want to stay and grade papers for as many hours as possible.