Raoul's POV

There I was, sitting in the bar like usual, when Meg came strolling in from the stormy weather. I tried to pay no mind to her, but I couldn't help but take notice to how happy she seemed. I slammed my empty glass down on the bar and looked her way.

"And what are you so damn happy about?"

Meg took a seat beside me, never for a single moment giving up on her smile.

"Oh, I just put Christine and that monster through hell."

"Oh, really?" I sarcastically groaned. "Amuse me."

"I saw Gustave on the beach this morning. He was obviously looking for his mother. Though, I knew exactly where they were."

"Which was?"

"I saw Christine walking with him into the Phantasma Hotel last night. Oh, he's got a big surprise coming to him in the morning when the press gets the morning paper out. I knew what they were doing in there."

I had to hold myself back from squeezing the glass to pieces. How dare Christine sleep with that beast! How dare she!

"Enough!" I growled. "I will have that monster's genitals hanging from his neck for this!"

"He hates the press." Meg continued. "Which was why I told them all about his late night rondevu with Christine. Not only that, but I told Gustave that they left for Paris…You should have seen his face. He went running…Oh, it was so amusing."

"You're childish, Meg!" I snapped. "Childish! When are you simply going to grow up and stop acting like a five year old?"

"Five year old?" she growled. "I am not a little girl, Viscount! Besides, I'm not the one whose wife ran away with another man…a hideous one to boot. Oh, how I would love to ruin Mister Y's life. How I would love to just ruin his world, just like he ruined mine."

"Wouldn't we all love to do it."

There was a brief silence, and then, an idea popped into my head. And oh, what a wonderful idea it was.

"I want to lay something down on the table. It's an idea of sorts, one that could possibly get us each what we want."

"Which is?"

"Well, you want to ruin Mister Y's life, and I want my wife back."

"I don't wish to go to jail, Viscount." She replied. "I'd rather continue with my childish games."

"We could make it look like an accident, Meg."

"And what exactly are we making look like an accident?"

"I wish to get Christine so annoyed with that demon that she crawls right on back to me. He's weak right now, Meg…Weak from having his liver or whatever he had removed from his body just last week."

"Kidney."

"Whatever…The point is that if we could somehow injure him severely, my angel will come back to me. We could leave this hellhole for good, go back to Paris and start a new life together…"

"What's in it for me?"

"You get to ruin his life." I said. "Plus, with him out of the way from running Phantasma, your mother could probably take over all the duties of running the park."

"You're right…" Meg gasped. "He did teach mother everything on how to run Phantasma. She even filled in for him every so often when he was under the weather."

"Right, and with your mother taking over his daily duties, you'll be sure to be the star again."

"How severely injured is severely injured?"

I sat there thinking a few moments. Whatever we were going to do to him had to not only look like an accident, but also injure him enough to where he became a burden on Christine. How else was I going to win her back?

"Any ideas?" Meg questioned.

"Do you have any? You know his body better than I do."

"And just what is that supposed to mean?"

"You know what I mean! You've seen him work the past ten years. You know what he does every day, you know his weak spots."

"Um…" Meg paused, thinking as hard as I was about what to do. "Oh! He has nerves and arteries exposed on his deformity."

I shook my head. "No, one wrong move and we could kill him that way. We just want to injure him, Meg, put him through the worst pain and suffering he has ever been through."

"Tomorrow is closing day." She said. "Every year on closing day, he is usually in his office, filling out paperwork and getting ready to close. What if we set his office on fire? Make it look like an accident…"

"No fires…" I barked. "They can be traced. What else does he do on closing day?"

"He goes around to every ride and moves their cars into the garages."

"Alone?" I questioned.

Meg nodded. "Always."

It was then that the perfect idea came into mind.

"Come along, Meg." I said. "It's going to be a long night."

"And just where are we going now?"

I grinned. "To toy with his coaster cars."

Erik's POV

Never had I ever been so worried about anyone in all my life. And yet, here I was, pacing the hospital waiting room, awaiting word on my child. I held Christine in my arms as she and I stood there, soaking wet and exhausted.

"Mama?"

When we heard our son's voice, we turned around to find him walking out of the emergency room draped in a large blanket. Christine ran to him, scooping him up into her arms and holding him close.

"Oh, Gustave, you scared us half to death."

Gustave sobbed into her shoulder, sobbing the very words that angered me to the core.

"I couldn't find you anywhere," he cried. "Meg found me on the beach, told me that you and Mister Y left for Paris. I was so scared."

Christine looked up at me with eyes that were filled with concern.

"You're sure it was Meg?" I questioned.

My son wiped away his tears and nodded.

"I'm sure…She said you didn't love me anymore."

Oh, how I would kill her! I would search my park until I found that lying wench and strangle the very life out of her. While Christine stayed with my child, I signed him out of the hospital, the doctor reminding me to keep my eye on him for the next few days in case he developed a cough. My child had been out in the soaking rain for a long period of time, making me fear for his health. I ordered my carriage, having it take us home as quickly as it could. When we were finally out of the dreadful weather, I stormed into the kitchen to prepare some hot soup for my son while Christine bathed him. The entire time, all I could think about was Meg and what she had done! How could she want to hurt an innocent boy? How could she want to scare him half to death?

When I heard Christine humming, I looked over my shoulder to find her sitting with Gustave on the couch, running her fingers through his hair as his head rested on her lap. The boy was terrified, and there was no reason why he shouldn't be. When the chicken broth was finished cooking, I poured some of it into a bowl and carried it to the couch.

"I'll take over." I said, lifting Gustave into my arms. "Why don't you get yourself a warm bath, Christine?"

My angel pressed a kiss to my forehead, before scurrying off towards the bathroom, leaving my son and I alone.

"All right, Gustave." I cooed. "Let's get something warm into your body."

Oh, how my child was lifeless as I spoon fed him the broth. His flesh was pale and chilled, his body still shaking in fear.

"Gustave, it's all over now." I said. "Mother and I will never leave you again, this we promise. We only stepped out…"

"I searched everywhere for you." He sobbed, new tears streaming down his cheeks. "I searched everywhere."

"Shhh… It's all right, son."

"I'm so scared, Mister Y."

"And there is no reason to be frightened. Your mother and I are here now. Come, eat your soup so you can go to bed. You've had a rough day…"

"I don't feel well."

"Would you rather me save the soup for another time when you're feeling up to eating it?"

When Gustave nodded, I placed the bowl of broth aside and laid him down across the couch.

"Soon, Gustave," I assured. "You will have your own bed in your own room."

"Really?" his eyes were looking into my own now as I covered him with a black quilt.

I nodded. "Yes, I promise. I'm going to find us a nice house to live in, one with lots of rooms. I'll even let you chose any room you want to be your bedroom."

"Can my bed be in the shape of a pirate ship?"

"Of course. I'll make up your room any way you like. For now, however, I really need you to sleep."

"I can't sleep yet." He cried. "Could you sing for me?"

"Sing?" this caught me by surprise, for only Christine ever begged me to sing her to sleep.

Gustave nodded. "I like your voice."

"What would you like me to sing?"

Gustave rolled over onto his back and looked up at me with half open eyes.

"Mama used to sing me a lullaby every night back in Paris. Could you sing that to me?"

"And just how did this lullaby go?"

"Night time, sharpens, heightens each sensation…"

My breath became lodged within my throat, for my angel had sang our son to sleep every night with my song, the song I had written for her all those years ago. A tear escaped my eyes as I took over singing him "music of the night."

"Darkness stirs, and wakes imagination." I ran my fingers through his locks, smiling as he closed his eyes and began to drift off to sleep. I sang him every line the way I sang it to Christine all those years ago. And when I was finished, I rose from my seat and walked with the bowl of broth back into the kitchen.

"Gustave is asleep?"

I spun around to spot Christine approaching me in her night attire. I nodded, rolling up my sleeves to start the dishes.

"Indeed. Though, he begged me to sing him a lullaby. How strange it was to hear him sing the lyrics to my music of the night."

Christine and I looked into one another's eyes, a small smile forming at the corner of her mouth.

"He loves that song. I sang it to him every night, Erik…"

"Why? Why did you surround him with memories of me? You knew he was my son, and yet, you still raised him to be like me, even though Raoul was the one raising him."

"Because he is you, Erik. Ever since I sang that very song to him a few hours after his birth, his eyes brightened and his smile grew… He loved that song so much, that he begged me to sing it to him every night before bed. I would sing it twice, and sometimes three times in a row before he would be satisfied enough to go to sleep."

"And you never told him about me?"

"You were there for him in his music, Erik. How badly I wanted to blurt it out at times…some days more than others. But, I knew it was best to keep it from him until he was older. If not for you laying on that pier last week, he probably still wouldn't know the truth. I would have kept it hidden until he was old enough to make his own decisions. But, I did the right thing…I told him about you at the right time, I guess."

I finished washing the dishes and walked towards my bed with my angel.

"Come, Christine, it's been a long day. We both need rest… Tomorrow, I must go around my park and close up shop for the season."

And after a quick goodnight kiss, she and I crawled beneath the covers of my bed and slipped away into a deep slumber.

If there was one thing I didn't want to do the following morning, it was get up and go to work. I was entirely exhausted when my pocket watch chimed in the hour of seven the following morning. Oh, I hadn't been this tired since I began building my part eight years ago. I groaned and rose from beside Christine, heading to my wardrobe to dress for the day. The rain had finally stopped, but the fog and cloudy skies had not cleared. This would make things easier for me to go from attraction to attraction in order to close up for the winter.

"Erik?"

I looked up from my mirror to find Christine rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Go back to sleep, angel." I said. "I'm going to head out to close up Phantasma. I should be back by five. Perhaps if Gustave is feeling up to it, we can all go out to dinner?"

Christine yawned. "That sounds wonderful."

After placing on my jacket, I approached Christine and kissed her on the cheek. Oh, how wonderful it was to kiss someone goodbye. In all of the ten years that I've lived here, never had I ever gotten to kiss a woman goodbye. It made me feel good inside to know that there would be someone waiting for me at home when I returned from work. Usually, I wished that my work would never end, due to the face of how lonely I was, but now that I had Christine, I couldn't get through the day fast enough.

My usually schedule of closing down Phantasma consisted of locking up the maze of mirrors, draining the water in the tunnel of love, and making sure all of the cotton candy and concession stands were bolted shut before making my way over to my roller coaster in order to push the cars into the nearby garage that was attached to the tracks. When I entered through the gates of Phantasma, I was already happy to find that my employees were shutting everything down. Mr. Squelch was busy with cleaning out the roasted peanut stand, while Miss Fleck was putting away props that were used in many of the games around my park. As I passed by them, they would wave, and I would nod to them.

"Hosing out the tunnel are you?" I questioned, approaching Dr. Gangle, who was spraying a hose into the tracks of my tunnel of love. When he heard my voice, he turned, the end of the hose still in hand causing the water to spray me on the bottoms of my pantlegs. I cursed beneath my breath and took a step back.

"Oh, sorry, sir…" he gasped. "I didn't mean to…"

"As you were…" I said, looking down at my soaked shoes.

"How is Gustave this morning?"

My eyes rose to his own. "He's doing all right, considering the terror he went through yesterday."

"When will Miss Daae be returning to Paris, sir? Wasn't she supposed to leave a few days ago?"

"That is none of your concern, Gangle…" I growled. "It's best that you mind your own. Anyway, has anyone been to the coaster yet to lock up?"

Dr. Gangle shook his head. "No, sir."

"And has the track been turned off?"

He nodded. "Yes, the breaks were secured last night. The only thing that needs to be done is the cars need to me rolled into the garage on the other end of the track."

"Very well, then…"

"I'll do it, sir…" Dr. Gangle was about to put down his hose, when I stopped him.

"No, you finish this. I'll do it."

Without another word, I walked across the way to my roller coaster, climbing the stairs to reach the top deck where my cars were parked. Long, and with eight cars attached to each one… This was one of my most popular rides within the entire park. After opening the garage door, I stepped down into the gully where my track was. I walked up to my first line of cars and hopped inside the front car, releasing the break and letting it slowly make its way into the garage on the other end of the track with me standing in the front seat. Once inside, I hopped out and locked the train of cars in place, exiting the garage to walk back to the last set of cars. I was standing in front of my first car, getting ready to unhook it from the track, when I heard something strange…It sounded like wheels…wheels rolling on the track. Curious, I turned my head to peek over my shoulder, and what I saw knocked the life straight out of my body…There, coming straight towards me was my train of coaster cars that I had just placed into the garage! It was rolling backwards at lightning speed! I didn't even have time to jump out of the way, for before I could react, the three hundred pound caboose slammed against my back, pinning my legs and body in between the front car of the coaster I was about to move into the garage. Every bone within my body cracked the moment I became lodged between my two cars. I couldn't feel my legs; I couldn't feel my body… I had yelled upon the car hitting me, causing my employees to come racing up the stairs of my coaster platform… I wasn't even sure what was going on around me any longer, for I collapsed over the front car of my coaster, finding it extremely hard to breathe. How had this happened? How had my coaster rolled backwards out of the garage? I had locked the breaks…My life began flashing before my eyes, the life I would have shared with Christine if this hadn't happened to me…But it was too late, for death was now greeting me with open arms.

DUN DUN DUN... Well, I started a new story titled "Help me through this sadness" There are still ten chapters of this story left, but, I always start a new one when I'm close to ending a story, so, that would be it. Check it out. And please review everyone...