"Are you sure you know what you are doing, with this girl I mean?" Madam Giry asked her friend of many years.
Madam Giry and Erik were sitting in the living room, discussing important matters while Eleana was still fast asleep.
"Things are different this time, Elizabeth. I love her, not for her voice, but for her. I have changed, and you can hold Eleana accountable for that." Erik said convincingly.
Elizabeth smiled at her dear friend. She had noticed the changes in him, for one he was smiling again, more than ever. He was always humming a tune and his personal hygiene was under control. Erik was sober and didn't morn about Christine any longer.
"To be young and in love..." Madam Giry shook her head.
"I promise we will be out of your hair as soon as Eleana wakes up." The Phantom announced.
"Have you already come up with a plan on what to do?"
Erik shook his head while keeping his chin rested on his fist. He didn't have a plan, but he knew what needed to be done first to get things straight.
"I don't have a plan formed just yet, but I need to talk to Christine before anything else." He said hoping Elizabeth would not cause too much of a fuss.
Madam Giry hesitated before replying to Erik. She knew how profoundly Christine had effected him...talking to her would just make Erik loose his temper or worse, he would forget about the girl he claimed to be in love with and revert back into the Phantom of the Opera.
"Erik, I don't think that would be such a good idea..." Madam Giry said.
"I don't remember asking for your opinion." He snapped.
Madam Giry walked over to Erik and whacked him on the side of his face where it was not masked.
"Don't you get smart with me, remember who you are talking to." Madam Giry said motherly.
Erik felt ashamed of himself, and knew he deserved it. It was hard for Erik to phase back from the Phantom of the Opera to himself, especially with all the stress building up inside him.
"Please forgive me, I just...I don't know what else to do." Erik said helplessly.
The old women patted Erik's back. He seemed to be loosing all hope, lost in this big wide world.
"Look in your heart, my dear friend, it will tell you what to do."
The Phantom nodded in response, and waited for her to exit the room to drop his head down into his hands. Confronting Christine would be difficult...he had no idea how she would take it seeing him again. Or how Eleana would like the idea of him seeing Christine once more.
Erik felt a warm hand rub his back; he looked up relieved to see Eleana was in his presence. She was attired in a light blue dress that fell to her ankles and covered three quarters of her arms, obviously one of Megs old dresses, but it looked breath taking as ever to the Phantom on her.
"Good morning, mon ange." Erik said reaching out to her other hand and kissing it lightly.
Eleana sat down on Erik's lap, and he pulled her close, cradling her in his arms. She looked into his grey blue eyes to find him upset about something.
"Is everything okay?" Eleana asked softly while putting her hand on the unmasked half of his face.
Erik nodded his head and began to stare out into no where. He could not trick her that easily, Eleana knew something was troubling him.
"Tell me what is troubling you, don't shut me out Erik."
The old Opera Ghost sighed as he broke off his long stare and returned his eyes to hers.
"I have a plan, and I'm afraid my dear, you are not going to like it."
Eleana looked at him confused at first, but when she discovered he was not going to go on, she tried to make him continue.
"Try me." Eleana giggled.
Erik only shook his head, "What day did you say rehearsals start for you at the Musque Ange?"
Eleana's mind had forgotten completely about her rehearsals, not that they were at much importance anymore.
"Today, right now actually."
"Good, then we still have time." Erik said as he lifted Eleana off his lap and retrieved her cloak from the coat rack by the door.
"Erik, are you crazy? We can't go there, not when we don't know where Charles-"
Erik put his index finger on her lip to give him a moment to explain.
"My love, I have this all figured out, Charles will not be able to get you, not if I can help it."
And with saying that, Erik pulled her in for a kiss, reassuring her everything was okay.
They took Erik's black horse, galloping at full speed, to arrive at the Music's Angel. It took an half hour, and for those long thirty minutes Eleana pondered what on earth Erik had planned. Did he know Christine was going to be their? Should she tell him?
The Phantom took the back way of town to get to the Opera House. As the reached the back of the building, he hopped off the horse and then helped Eleana after. Hand in hand with Eleana, Erik walked the horse over to a post nearby and secured the reins around it.
Always finding a way in to places he needed to be, Erik effortlessy broke into the back door using a trick or two of his and sneaked into the building.
"Humphh..." Erik said he entered the building.
"What?" Eleana whispered.
"The building...I would of expected more from my former student who performed at my Opera House.
He was not very impressed with the building, it was in no comparisons to his. The colors were off, the interior was lacking eye pealing attention, and it was so very small.
Erik lingered in the shadows with one hand in Eleana's, feeling strangely at home.
"How can you see where your going?" Eleana said blinded in the darkness.
Erik only laughed, "Years and years of practice."
As they reached backstage of the Opera House, they could hear the voices of the managers rambling on.
"We are ruined, Andre, ruined!" Monsieur Firmin whinnied.
"We need a replacement for the prima donna by next week our else we will have to refund a full house." Andre whinnied along with him.
The two managers paced the floor completely out of ideas. Christine stood with her husband, her head resting on his shoulder and Charles stood off in the distance.
"That's out of the question, we can not afford to refund every seat." Raoul said shaking his head. He looked down at his beautiful wife, wondering if maybe she could replace Eleana, just for one night...
"Little lotte, do you think you could perform Eleana's role since we have no whereabouts on her after the Phan-"
"You mean, Monster" Charles sneered. He was now fully informed on everything about the Phantom of the Opera, but not about Eleana and Erik's relationship, that Christine kept to herself.
"-tom kidnapped her?" Raoul finished, ignoring Charles comment, remembering when he was in Charles position.
"Raoul you know I can't in the condition I am in. But also may I ask you, why are you not doing anything about this? Why haven't you tried to look for Eleana?"
Christine said to Charles, knowing that if the situation were flipped, Raoul would come after herself in a heartbeat.
"Well you saw them disappear into thin air, how am I supposed to know where to look?" Charles said to Christine.
"Where he held me captive would be for starters. Down in the labyrinth of the old Opera Populaire, I don't think it was burned down with the rest of the Populiare."
"And what in hell makes you think I know where that is?" Charles said disgustingly to Christine.
"Hey! I will not have you talking to my wife like that." Raoul outburst protectively.
"Raoul, why don't you and Charles go and look for Eleana there. Poor girl must be going out of her mind right now." Christine said as she remembered the feeling when the Phantom sang to her how she didn't know if she was alive or dead.
"Will you be okay by yourself?" Raoul asked to his wife.
"Of course, and remember; keep your hand-"
"To the level of your eyes, how could I forget?" Raoul laughed, and leaned in for a kiss from his pregnant wife.
"You two keep safe," Raoul said addressed to Christine and the baby, "If I am not back by nightfall, send the police."
"Don't try anything reckless, Raoul, remember it's not me he has kidnapped."
"I will my love, Je'taime." the viscount kissed her forehead, and exited the Opera House with Charles.
Eleana and Erik stayed quiet, until they Firmin and Andre announced they had to go, leaving Christine all alone.
Erik told Eleana to stay where she was, and gave her a kiss on the forehead before silently making his way up to the backstage stairway leading to a box seat. He found his way to Box Seat five, as he saw Christine on the stage, starring out into the seats.
He wondered what was going on in her mind, and how he was going to approach her.
"Who knows when love begins?"
Christine asked out loud to no one but herself.
"Who know what makes it start?"
Eleana sat backstage, wondering if Christine was talking the Erik.
"One day it's simply their, a life inside your heart."
No longer capable of not knowing what was going on, Eleana disobeyed Erik's orders, and as quietly as possible made her way up the backstage staircase to a the box seat directly from the one Erik occupied.
"It slips into your thoughts, it infiltrates your soul. It takes you by surprise, then seizes full control. Try to deny it and try to protest"
Christine looked up into box seat out of habit, scared to say the next line, but remembered her old teacher was not their watching her.
"But love won't let you go, once you've been possessed."
Eleana watched as the young viscountess looked up into the box seat, and wondered if Christine knew Erik was their.
"Love never dies, love never falters
Once it has spoken, love is yours
Love never fails, love never alters
Hearts may get broken, love endures
Hearts may get broken, love endures"
Erik closed his eyes as his former student sang such a beautiful song he had never heard before. He was sure it was one she'd written herself.
"And soon as you submit, surrender flesh and bone. That love takes on a life much bigger than your own. It uses you at whim, and drives you to despair. And forces you to feel more joy than you can bear. Love gives you pleasure and love brings you pain." Christine looked back at the box seat, having a strange feeling she was being watched. And spoke the next line quieter than the rest.
"And yet, when both are gone, love will still remain."
Eleana loved how Christine sang with so much emotion, she seemed so heartbroken and in love at the same time.
"Once it has spoken, love is yours
Love never dies, love never alters
Hearts may get broken, love endures
Hearts may get broken..."
Christine looked back at the box seat, but this time to her utmost surprise she saw a white mask. She knew who it was...her mind did not decive her. It was the Phantom of the Opera, it was her Angel whom she was singing about. She felt a cold chill go down her spine, a familiar sensation she got anytime she was in the presence of the mastermind. Christine took a step forward, wanting the Phantom to hear her sing like never before.
"Love never dies, love will continue
Love keeps on beating, when you're gone
Love never dies, once it is in you
Life may be fleeting, love lives on
Life may be fleeting
Love lives on!"
A light clap echoed throughout the Opera House as her triumphant performance for two had come to a closure. Christine returned her gaze to the box seat, locking her eyes on the white mask.
"Angel of Music hide no longer, come to me my angel." Christine whispered as remembered the night those exact words escaped her mouth.
"Ah, Christine..." Erik whispered.