A/N: Well, I actually finished it. I'm sorry it's taken me this long to post it... I had a bit of writer's block for the longest time. I'd like to thank those who have taken their precious time to read this story. It's not good at all, and I'm fully aware of that, but I had fun writing it, and it's that always the point? Maybe sometime I'll sit down and re-write it.

Anyway, I've had my Love Never Dies soundtrack for almost a two months now and I decided to loosely base this chapter off of Devil Take The Hindmost (Reprise), and the song Arya and Erik sing is Beneath A Moonless Sky. Not quite sure if it fit or not. I thought it did at the time...

Chapter 7: The Final Dance

I jumped up and down on top of the wooden suitcase that lay upon my bed, trying furiously to latch the blasted thing.

Meg crossed her arms across her chest, and then looked up at my tiresome face.

"How many times are you going to try getting that thing closed?" She spat.

I slouched my shoulders, "You know what? How about you get your lazy bum over here and latch it yourself."

I steadily sat atop the object as she waltzed over and snapped it shut.

"Thank the Lord!" I muttered.

Meg rolled her eyes then flopped onto her unmade bed.

"So…? I guess you're choosing Christian" She glanced down at my suitcase, "Considering you've been packing all afternoon."

I grabbed a pair of satin slippers from underneath the bed frame.

"Just because I'm packing doesn't necessarily mean I'm leaving with Christian." I pointed out.

"Well when will you tell me who it is then?"

"You're smart. I'm pretty sure you can figure that out when the time comes" I shoved the slippers into a small pack, along with another pair of shoes.

"Besides, if I tell you now you'll go off and gossip with the rest of the chorus girls." I said with a grin spreading across my face.

Meg rested her hands on her hips, giving me her trademark glare.

"I will not!" She protested.

She started grabbing a few of my belongings off of shelves in the closet.

"I actually think you'll choose Christian, he's more of your type."

She placed a china doll, that my mother had given me, into my second suitcase.

I crawled under my bed and grabbed what I could find in the dark messy pit.

I furrowed my eyebrows, "And what exactly is my type?"

Meg jumped onto my bed. "The sensitive man who dreams of love, but has never really realized what love is until he meets the girl that he's been waiting for." She rested her arm on the suitcase. "Which is you. Christian loves you, I can see that, but I think Erik is so madly in want of Christine that he doesn't really want Arya for Arya, do you understand?"

I crawled out from under the dusty bed, "Now that I have a headache from the explanation…maybe Erik is sensitive too and is in love with me, how on earth would you know?"

Meg rolled her eyes again, "Because obviously all Erik wants is Christine's body" She started twirling her blonde locks. "And her voice, but you already have both. He's in love with Christine, not Arya."

Meg had finally spoken some sense into me; she did have a point after all.

Erik only loved me because he thought I was Christine, he didn't love me for me, and he never would.

Everything that I had planned for that evening came crashing down before me.

"Meg. I need to speak to Monsieur Bouquet immediately!"

Meg seemed startled by my outburst, "Why now? I thought you were packing for your passionate night with Christian."

I barreled toward the door then turned around to face Meg, "How many times do I have to tell you?" I asked.

Meg smiled wickedly, "I'm going to keep bothering you until you tell me."

I smiled back forcefully, "You know, patience is a great virtue."

"Why be patient when you can provoke?" Meg batted her lashes; then scurried off the bed and into the hall.

I let out a huff then followed after her quickly.

"Monsieur! I need to speak with you!" I cried.

The plump man raced towards me, "What is it dear Arya?" He asked.

I started playing with my fingers franticly, "Sir, you know how I said I wasn't going to be performing tonight?"

Bouquet looked over me, as if he thought I was hiding something.

"Yes…?"

"Well, you see I kind of would like to now. It's very important!"

Monsieur Bouquet waved at one of the stage hands that was passing by.

"I already have someone to cover for you tonight, why don't you just take the night off?"

I was bouncing with anticipation.

"I can't do that you see, it's extremely urgent that I work tonight! I mean after all, I have worked really hard for this role."

He ran his fingers through his hair, "If it's so important to you, then you won't work for anything tonight. No payment, you got it?"

My face formed into a frown, "I guess that's fine."

I wouldn't be working here much longer anyway, when I ran off no one would know where to find me.

Meg came charging towards me, the brightest smile planted on her face.

"Well? What did he say!"

I passed two white note cards to Meg silently, "Uh, he said it's fine."

I clutched her shoulders. "Meg, it's very important that you get these cards to Christian and Erik" I pointed at the golden embossed letters.

Meg's face saddened "What are they for?"

"You don't need to know, just give the cards to them."

Her face started to look frightened, "I'm not going anywhere near that monster, what if he…" Meg tilted her head to the side twice. "You know… I could get assaulted."

This time it was my turn to roll me eyes, "Then leave it in Box 5, I don't really care, just make sure he gets it."

Meg nodded her head in agreement.

She turned around, ready to leave "One more thing!" She cried. "Can I read them?"

The look on my face assured her that she was not allowed to read them.

I watched her dreary face march off of the stage, I then chuckled a triumphant laugh.

I began walking down the hallways of the Opera house, making sure I took in every detail that passed me by.

I was going to miss the musty smell of the halls, the Edwardian grandeur of the architecture, even the way Meg let her costumes lay where ever they landed.

Yes, she was a slob, but I had come to love her like a sister, after tonight I would probably never see her again.

A stagehand approached me from behind and lightly tapped me on the shoulder.

"Miss Arya! 5 minutes till curtain."

I turned around face to face with the bearded man; I took him in just like the rest of the men and women that passed me by.

I stared into this soft rounded face and smiled brightly. "Thank you, sir."

I turned away from the man and waltzed down the corridor, smiling like I never had before to the staring actors.

When I reached the opening to the stage and lightly wrapped my arm around Meg who was standing behind a wooden post waiting for her turn to perform.

"Oh Arya! You look absolutely stunning tonight." She cried.

I spun around in the black velvet costume I had put on just moments ago.

"It is gorgeous, isn't it?"

"Of course!"

I took Meg's hand in my own, and sincerely asked, "Meg, did you get the letters to Christian and Erik?"

Meg's shining smile faded, "Yes, but, I read them… Don't be angry with me, I didn't see why you didn't want me to read them. All it said was to come to the performance tonight instead of what you had planned."

I frowned, "Meg! That was private!"

The same stagehand that had come up to me just a few minutes before cried "Ready on the rail?".

Another man shouted from across left hand stage, "Ready on the rail!"

The man shoved me out onto the stage and forced me under a spotlight.

"Miss Arya? Are you ready?"

I slouched my shoulders, "I am now."

"George, curtain?" He winked to the man who I guessed was George.

The man ran off the stage and clung to a golden rope that hung from the thick curtain.

This was the first time I had actually heard him whisper, "And curtain…"

The curtain rose slowly from the smooth stage and gathered under the few spotlights that were hanging from above.

The large crowd whooped and cheered, some were standing on their feet and some were slowly tapping their hands together. As if they wished they had never been forced to come here in the first place.

Everyone hushed and sat back down in their golden seats when the music began to swell to the duet I was suppose to sing, but I couldn't find my masked partner anywhere.

The beginning of the duet repeated itself, waiting for Erik to arrive.

No Erik appeared.

I knew his part, but I didn't have the voice to sing it, but I was still stupid and naïve enough to open my mouth.

"Once there was a night beneath a moonless sky, too dark to see a thing too dark to even try."

It didn't sound the same as Erik's haunting voice; my voice was too high and operatic to sing his part.

Then suddenly, wearing his costume and ivory mask, stood Erik front and center behind me.

I smiled out of relief, and comfort that my angel of music was here at last to perform with me.

He nudged me playfully, his boyish smile teasing me with triumph, so I continued onto my own part of the duet.

"I stole to your side to tell you I must go, I couldn't see your face but sensed you even so…"

Erik grabbed my hand, then twirled me quickly and wrapped me in his arms.

He sang in the voice I had come to love "And I touched you…"

Then I continued the melody "And I felt you. And I heard those ravishing refrains…"

Erik's arm clung to my waist and moved swiftly to the flow of music.

"The music of your pulse"

His smile faded, but the smoldering look in his eyes made my heart beat out of my chest, his voice continued with the song.

"The singing in your veins, and I held you…"

"And I touched you.

"And embraced you."

"And I felt you…"

"And with every breath and every sigh,"

I was glowing with excitement, ready to burst with the energy that was in my body.

These lyrics meant everything to me, Erik had obviously written them to tell the story we had shared these past few days.

We both sang together, perfectly united.

"At last our feelings bared, beneath a moonless sky…"

Erik leaned forward and whispered in my ear, "Arya, I adore you and love you, and I want to spend every waking minute of the rest of my life with you."

I let out a gasp that would have ruined the song if it hadn't been for Erik.

I whispered in reply, "My god, you just called me Arya…"

Erik looked down upon me and quietly laughed.

"Should I sing the ladies part, or will you continue on?"

"Oh, right."

I turned around and faced the audience once more, but I didn't want to, I wanted Erik to sweep me up and take me off to his lair, I wanted him to make me his, and only his.

I glanced up at box five, where my beloved Christian sat on the edge of his seat. He said he loved me, but I no longer believed it, he was the one after all who didn't love me for me, not Erik.

I gave Christian a final look, shook my head once, and then clung to Erik decidedly.

"And blind in the dark, as soul gazed into soul, I Looked into your heart and saw you pure and whole."

I turned back to Erik and lovingly looked into his eyes, "Erik, I choose you."

There was nothing like his face at that moment, it was indescribable.

He finally sensed compassion, love, and happiness no one had ever shown him before.

Tears brimmed in his eyes as he cried the words to the music, "Cloaked under the night with nothing to suppress, a woman and a man no more and yet no less.

And I kissed you,"

I laid my head against his chest, "And caressed you."

"And the world around us fell away…"

Once again, we sang together pouring literal emotion into the gorgeous song Erik had wrote.

"We said things in the dark, we never dared to say…"

Then we continued blissfully singing the song that only my angel of music could compose, yes, he was mine and I was his. It would always stay this way; no one could come between us.

The End.