hello everyone! sorry it has taken me so long to get this ups, but i was grounded last week and we went on a cruise for a while. well here's the next chapter. i hope you are enjoying the story. this chptr is rather slow, but the next chapter i promise you is killer. must be off!

Chapter 7

Alone Once More

Meg raced back to the opera house. She did not want to waste time hiring a driver, so just ran as fast as she could to the opera house, nearly plowing a few people in the process.

She couldn't waste any time, because every second she used was another agonizing hour for Christine. She went straight throw the grand front doors, instead of using the staff entrance near the rear of the opera house and just ran to the stage where she found her mother coaching some new ballet rats on proper posture.

Usually Meg would wait for her mother to be finished to talk to her, but this was an emergency and she brisk fully approached her mother. Meg quickly tapped her shoulder and the elder Giry turned to face her.

"What is it?" she asked rather loudly and clearly annoyed.

"It is about Christine," Meg whispered.

"It is just another rumor I suspect, I do not have time for those." And she turned away from her daughter.

"No Maman! This is different! I saw her today and she is in terrible shape, I must speak with you."

Madame Giry saw the sincerity and dedication burning in her daughter's eyes and it surprised her. She had never seen her daughter in this way. "Okay, let me get these amateurs in line."

She quickly explained a complex stretch and pose position. Then continued to tell them she would be back in a few moment and she expected them to be working the whole time, or else. She left the girls with very scared looks on their faces.

Meg and her mother went to the silent back of the theater and sat down in two vacant seats.

"Christine gave me this," Meg began pulling out the envelope.

Madame Giry gasp as the note fell into view. "She… gave this to you?"

"Yes, only about an hour ago. I need to find Erik, I need to find the phantom."

"No. I can't let you go down there. If you don't get lost the traps will surely get you! You can't go."

"Maman, I must go, because if I don't Christine will die. I shouldn't even be wasting time here, I should be trying to find him."

"Meg you silly girl, she will not die, she will be…"

"No Maman," Meg cut her off, "if you saw her you would know." Meg quickly told about the situation Christine was in and Meg knew the look on her mother's face meant that she would let her go and find Erik.

"Okay. I guess I have no choice, I will lead you to the entrance, but no farther, because not even I dare to enter his lair."

"Thank you Maman." Meg wrapped her arms around her mother.

"Just be careful my darling." Then Madame Giry turned and led Meg off towards Christine's dressing room.

Erik was a total mess… well he'd always been a mess, but more so now than usual. What little hair he had, had not been combed in days and he not eaten for a long time either. He quit wearing his mask, what was the point? His organ had endured the longest period of silence it had even known and the even the dank cellars he lived in, seemed darker.

Why had Christine abandoned him after everything she had said and everything they had done? That night she had come down to him and rescued him, he had really thought she had loved him

It didn't seem right, he knew Christine, and she would never run off like this without telling someone. Yet that pesky Viscomte was gone too… no… it cannot be, but it was so obvious. Why hadn't he thought of it before, she had run off with him, but hadn't she said she love him, didn't she say she loved poor Erik? Yes she had and Christine would never lie, the fop must have convinced somehow… but why would she go with him?

Could it be… no… the only other reason why she left was because… she didn't really love him. She DID lie, she DID love the creature named Raoul de Chaney, and now she has sentenced Erik to die a slow and painful death. Alone…

Again.