Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to The Phantom of the Opera.

Chapter 23

Aubrey and Erik had gone out to the movies and dinner after school had ended and Aubrey sat on the edge of her bed brushing out her wavy hair. Things between Harry and Erik were finally starting to become normal again, and that pleased Aubrey. She wanted nothing more than to have Erik's love, and Harry's friendship and that looked like it was planning on happening.

Aubrey pulled her pj's on and crawled under her covers snuggling down deep, and she quickly fell asleep.

Aubrey opened her eyes and heard beautiful music surrounding her. It seemed to actually enter her body, but she was confused, this was Erik's chamber, she was sure of that from just looking around, it was the place where she had been visiting in her dreams for months now.

What confused her was the music, it was so pretty. Phantom Erik had been a bit on the nasty side, well not a bit, he was flat out being terrifying. To a point where Aubrey was afraid to actually go to sleep.

Slowly Aubrey took one step towards where she knew his piano was. When she was in sight of his organ Phantom Erik stopped and turned around. Aubrey didn't know if she wanted to reprimand him or ask him to continue playing but he spoke first.

"Aubrey, please come over here." Phantom Erik said quietly.

"I'm not sure I want to Erik, you have treated me like crap recently and I don't trust you anymore."

Phantom Erik hung his head. "Yes I have treated your rather horribly lately, and for that I apologize, there was no need for that type of behavior." Phantom Erik replied standing up. He stretched out his hand towards Aubrey.

Trembling slightly Aubrey stepped forward and grabbed his hand. "There is no need to fear me, I will not harm you."

Aubrey looked up at Erik with doe eyes, silently praying that what he said was true. "You have made me not want to sleep." Aubrey whispered.

"For that I am truly sorry."

"So what is the purpose of these dreams still? I'm with Erik, and I love him. I don't want anyone else, isn't it time for you to help someone else?"

Phantom Erik paused and looked down at Aubrey. "You do not know everything." He said simply.

"So what am I supposed to know. You can just tell me, I'm tired of trying to figure everything out on my own." Aubrey said shaking her head slowly. "Do I even know what it's about?"

"Yes and no. You've thought of it in the past, maybe more of just wished, and it is true."

"What is it!" Aubrey said loudly. "You owe me this, after everything you have done to me."

"Don't you take that tone with me!" Phantom Erik shouted.

Aubrey pulled her hand out of his and backed up. Phantom Erik sighed. "I do apologize again. I can not control my temper from time to time."

Aubrey just nodded her head. "Accepted." She said simply.

"Yes, you do deserve to know. You are the one who can finally break this so called curse."

Aubrey was stunned slightly. "What. How?"

"You have always connected to my story correct?"

"Well yeah, but that's obvious."

"Think about why though. I know there are plenty of fans, but haven't you thought it as more of an obsession that just a fan."

Aubrey knew what he said was true. How often had her friends told her she was obsessed over a movie, of the book, or the play. More than once.

"Well so what. There are plenty of people who are obsessed."

Phantom Erik sighed in frustration. "You were meant to become obsessed."

"Pfth." Aubrey blurted out and rolled her eyes. "Was it destined?" She said with sarcasm.

"Yes! You are the decedent of Christine."

Aubrey's mouth dropped. "There's no way that's possible."

"Yes you silly girl there is a possibility. Your great, great, great, great, grandmother was Christine, and your great, great, great, great, grandfather was...Raoul." Phantom Erik spat out his name.

Aubrey shook her head. "No, I just don't believe it."

Phantom Erik laughed. "You don't believe me? Well here." Erik said opening a door. Aubrey had just now realized that they had been walking the entire time they were talking, and he brought her to a room that was filled with different drawings, sculptures, and so many other things of Christine. "Just look at her features and you will see the similarity."

Aubrey walked into the room astounded by everything that was Christine. Aubrey walked up to a huge drawing of Christine that was against the wall. She looked at her eyes first. Christine's were brown, and Aubrey's were green, but she had the same shaped eyes, with the same eyelashes and eyebrows.

Next Aubrey noticed how Christine's ears were like Aubrey's. Aubrey had one ear that was lobed, and one that was connected, and as Aubrey looked closer Christine had the same ears.

Even her hands were the same shape. Small palms, but long fingers, but they didn't look skeletal, like some people did who had long fingers, her fingernails were shaped the same as well.

"So do you believe me now?" Phantom Erik spat at her from the doorway.

"I just can't believe it." Aubrey said astounded.

Aubrey turned around to face Phantom Erik, but he was no longer there. She walked to the hallway and saw Erik's retreating backside walking towards where they had just come from. Aubrey took off after him and caught up with him when they entered his music room.

"You just left me there!" She shouted at him.

"I do not enter that particular room."

Aubrey could understand that. He was obviously very much in love with Christine if he could put that much detail in everything he had done.

"Why do I need to know about Christine?" Aubrey asked.

"Because you need to know that you can break the curse." Phantom Erik stated.

"But why is it so important for me to know that?"

"You love your Erik, and I know you eventually want kids, but Erik does not. He doesn't want to worry about his grandchildren going through the same things he has gone through, and there is something else you don't know about the curse."

"More good news?" Aubrey asked hopefully.

"You know about Erik's father, every marriage through all these years have not been good. There have been murders, abuse, people turning to liquor, prostitution, everything you can think of that's bad in a marriage, it has been done, but you, you can change all this. He is very devoted to you, he loves you, and he is my blood, and you are hers. You can be together and live a happy life." Erik said and quickly turned to face Aubrey. He grabbed her by the shoulders. "Don't ruin this, he can finally be happy, and you can make this happen for him. He deserves to be happy."

Aubrey's eyes got big when he grabbed her, but he wasn't hurting her, just trying to show her how much he was committed to this. "Erik does deserve to be happy, and I want to be the one to make him happy."

"Then I think I can finally go." He said releasing her.

"You mean no more dreams?"

"I don't think so."

Aubrey didn't know weather to feel relieved or sad and she knew she would be sad, even though Phantom Erik had put Aubrey through a kind of small hell. Aubrey took a step closer to him and put her arms around his waist. He was so much taller than her, there would be no way she could put her arms around his neck. She felt like a child hugging an adult and Aubrey felt Phantom Erik's arms slowly come up around her shoulders.

"I really do thank you for coming to me. If it wasn't for you, I'm not sure Erik and I would even be together, and I wouldn't want that. I do love him, and I couldn't imagine my life without him now."

Aubrey could no longer feel Erik and took a step back, well tried to and she realized she was laying down in her own bed. She had finally waken.

She sat up and looked at the clock. It said 7:00 exactly. Aubrey let out a sigh and fell back on her pillows. It was way to early to be up for a Saturday morning. She closed her eyes and willed herself to go back to sleep, and she did, and it was dreamless.

Aubrey heard a knock at her door and she opened her eyes to find that it was 10:45.

"What?" Aubrey said in a cracked and wheezy voice.

"Rutie, Erik is here to see you." Aubrey's mother said.

Aubrey's eyes flew open and she sat up very quickly. "You mean he's here?" She asked in a clear voice.

The door opened. "Yes, he's downstairs. Your not even up yet!"

"Go tell him I'll be right there." Aubrey said jumping out of bed and throwing clothes out of her closet. She quickly got dressed, brushed her hair and teeth and almost flew down the stairs. She threw herself into Erik's arms when she got to him.

"I'm so glad your here!" She said with a huge smile on her face.

"I hope I'm not too early." Erik said grinning.

"Nope, I'm just glad your here."

I had a lot of people ask about Phantom Erik, so I thought I would give you more of him. I want to thank Evilquail for adding my story favorites and their alerts, Christean1830 for adding my story to their alerts, jcboils for adding me to the author alerts, and anyone else who reviewed my story, I love hearing from all of you, reviews really make my day. I also wanted to say Happy Halloween, even though it is a bit early, just be safe and have fun out there! So please review my story, even nif it's just to say good job, but if you want to give me some ideas your coming up with, or anything that would be awesome. Oh and I just wanted to give a heads up that this story will be coming to an ending soon, though I'm not sure if it's going to be the next chapter or in five, but it's coming to a close. Thanks for reading.

Desiree'