Disclaimer: I do not own Erik, or Meg, or Madame Giry, or any other characters from the ingenious mind of Gaston Leroux! Or anything by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. Anne, however, she's mine...well, she resides in my head until her story is done.

AN: So...you may not celebrate Christmas and that's okay, but during this season of giving I have something I wish to give to you. The past few days have been a whirlwind of excitement and thrills for me. I have now finished writing the end of Anne and Erik's story. So, these last few chapters are my seasonal gift to you, my dear readers. It makes me so sad to post this but it also makes me joyous. I have loved this journey and am thrilled to start the next one.

Chapter 57

The Following Day

I awoke to sunlight hitting directly in my eyes, and I held my breath waiting for the next blow to come. Everytime I had opened my eyes, I had been forced back to unconsciousness. I was surprised, however, to find that there was no new strike from the unknown assailant. I also found that my hands and ankles were bound and a gag had been placed over my mouth. My captors wanted to make sure that I could not escape or to call for help.

I took a deep breath and tried to control the fear that was quickly rising. I looked about the room, not seeing anything familiar around me. I was cold for there was no fire, and the walls about me were stone. I was in a bedroom which was evident by the plain dresser and small bed. But that was all. There was a window which I could not see out of for she was tied to some sort of post in the floor. Closing my eyes, I could hear the unmistakeable sounds of the sea: birds, bells from boats, and the waves.

Resting my head back against the post, my mind went wild trying to figure out who could have done this to me...and why? A thought flashed across my mind that someone had discovered Erik and would use me as some sort of bate to capture him. I knew that Erik would come for me...if he discovered where I was. He had promised that he would and keep his promise to protect me even if it would mean his life. I struggled against my bonds but it only seemed to make them tighter. I couldn't let Erik risk his life for me. I had to find some way of escape. I tried to hide the sob that escaped me, but to no avail. The reality of my situation and what it could mean for Erik struck my heart. To lose Erik...I feared that more than death.

A door I had not seen opened and my breath caught as I realized that I was about to meet my kidnapper. However, I was confused when I saw a man standing there who was looking at me with such an indifferent expression. It was as if he could care less about who was tied up in this room.

"You are Anastasia Hillcrest, are you not?"

I gasped. This man was English, not French! How could an Englishman know of the Phantom of the Opera and why would we have such knowledge? I hesitantly nodded, hoping that if I answered his questions I would gain some sort of trust or loyalty so that I could answer my own.

"Well, you are to await your punishment hear, while our mistress comes to deal with you."

"Punishment?" It was what I had said, but with the gag over my mouth...it only came out as muffled sounds.

"No noise, or you will have to face the consequences." The man turned and left, closing the door behind him with a resolute slam.

I wanted to scream and to cry at the same time. I thought back over my last evening at the Populaire hoping to find some sort of answer. I recalled Madame Carrolton's words, cryptic though they were.

"You have caused great pain to others and you must be answerable for it."

What great pain had I caused? None of it made any sense to me. Sighing, I rested my head back against the post and examined the ceiling. It was thus that I heard the door open again. I looked to the door and I gasped in astonishment. No...there was no way that it could be her!

"Elizabeth?" I asked, feeling as if someone must be playing a joke on me.

"Hello, Anastasia. Comfortable?" Her voice was like ice and it made me shiver. "I hope not. I can't have you thinking that this is going to be easy for you."

"Elizabeth...what's going on? Why am I here?"

She laughed, but there was no mirth in it. "Oh, Annie, it is so like you to be oblivious to the goings on around you. I daresay that's is your attraction." She walked over towards me and I felt a fear like I had never known before. Her expression was dark and sinister, and I felt like she truly meant to do me harm. I screamed in pain when she grabbed at my hair and pulled me close to her face.

"I can assure you that when I'm done with you...there will be no attraction about you. I'll have you ruined and broken and thrown into the gutter where you belong!" She pushed me back and I hit my head on the post to which I was tied to. I saw stars briefly before shaking my head to clear my mind.

"Elizabeth, where am I?" I asked in hopes of momentarily detering her from her present monologue.

"You're in Le Havre. We're in one of Manchester's properties that gets little to know attention. Don't even think of trying to escape or believe that someone is coming to rescue you."

Le Havre?! That was a two days distance from Paris! I felt tears fill my eyes and then fall down my cheeks. She was right. Elizabeth was right! There would be no Erik to rescue me for no one knew where I was and if Madame Carrolton was behind this as well...wait!

"What about Madame Carrolton? What did you do to her?!"

She laughed again and walked to the window. She looked out but didn't appear to really be seeing anything. "She was so easy to maniulate. Your performance at the New Year's Ball practically sealed your fate. That evening I had her go through your belongings and find the necessary information I needed to plot my revenge. With you singing so well, the rumors of you replacing her were only too easy to circulate and she was only too willing to believe."

"You manipulated her!"

"She allowed herself to be manipulated. A fault that she will one day have to reconcile herself with. However, she is no longer my problem. My only dilemma is to decide whether or not to actually let you live at the end of this. Your travel here as already wasted so much time."

"How many others have you brought into your web of lies and deceit, Elizabeth?" I asked of her.

"There is one other," she replied, a fond smile on her lips. "The dear vicomte has been crutial in most of my plan...not that he was aware of it of course."

I blinked at her. "The Vicomte de Chagny? Christine's husband?!"

She giggled. "The one and the same. Anne he has been quite wonderful in giving me a glimpse of what life will be like when you are gone. I can finally have the happiness I've longed for."

"He's declared feelings for you?"

"No...not quite. But his obvious attentions to me and mine to him...well...it is only a matter of time."

"Oh, Elizabeth...no!" I hung my head in sorrow for what my sister had gotten herself into. "Lizzie, dearest, you don't understand. You can't possibly believe..."

"Jealous that I'll be happy when you're gone, Annie?" She cut me off, glaring at me.

"No! I worry that you'll get your heart broken!"

"Hearts?! Who thinks of hearts? Men don't have them. But he can give me so much more than Manchester can."

I could not understand what was going through my sister's head. She'd willingly married Manchester and was now prepared to throw away her life for a man...who didn't even love her. The thought of the person Elizabeth had become made me tremble with fear.

"What have I done to cause you to hate me, Elizabeth?" The question fell from my lips without my thinking.

"What have you done?" She withdrew a small knife from the sleeve of her dress. She smiled an evil smile and turned the blade over in her hands. "You took everything away from me. You who live a life of poverty and misery, are far happier than I ever could be. And I wonder why that is?"

She walked back over towards me and knelt down, resting the tip of the blade against my neck. There was no pressure applied but the threat was still there.

"Christine told me all about your monster, Annie."

My eyes widened and I opened my mouth to speak but she stopped me.

"No, no. It's my turn to talk. She told me all about the Opera Ghost and I can assure you that I'll deal with him after I'm finished with you."

"You'd have to capture him first," I replied, smiling. "And the only way that will happen is if he will let you."

She cocked her head to the side. "Well, then I guess I'll keep you alive then...so that he can 'let me' capture him." She laughed, seeing that I'd given her the opportunity she so desperately wanted.

"But to do that...you'll have to let him know where I am." I was grasping at straws, though I knew if she did let him know where I was...an escape was easily made.

"Well, we'll just see then, won't we Annie." She removed the blade from my neck and smiled down at me. "Until then, you may rest assured that there is no way out for you, and I will grant you one last day of peace before the real pain begins."

"You still haven't explained why you're doing this," I whispered, hoping she would actually tell me what was going on.

"Don't you see, Anne?" It was the first time she'd called me that and it terrified me. "From the time we were little, you were always the favorite. Mother and Father thought you were something special. Mother always took you to her gardens and Father doted on you."

"Elizabeth you were so young! How could you remember such things!"

"Grandmama told me!" Her eyes were filled with such terrible hate but with such an undescribable madness at the same time. "I read Mama's will! She left everything to you! The house! The jewels! Everything!"

"What's your point?"

"We could have lived there and not have had to be with the Wetherington family!"

I laughed. "What sort of misery you could have known living there? You were treated as a companion to the daughters! Given an education!"

"Oh, but I was scorned and ridiculed and laughed at! They did not see me as an equal where as you! You were happy and carefree and you were merely a servant girl!"

I struggled against my bonds in an attempt to reach out to her but couldn't break free. "Elizabeth...appearances are not how things truly are! I was not as happy as you may thought me. I too had my own problems."

"Like what?! What could you have possibly had that was so terrible? You were even given music lessons without any cost to you!"

A bitter laugh escaped me. "Cost? How about my innocence? My virginity stolen from me by that music teacher? Does that not sound like a cost to you Elizabeth?" There was a flicker of hesitation in her eyes and I saw that she might not have truly had it in her to kill me...or even truly harm me. But then in a flicker, the hate was back in her eyes again.

"More lies, Annie. And I will not fall for your insipid excuses again." She turned to leave the room. "Enjoy your final day of solitude, sister. I leave you to the fear of tomorrow. For that is when I will exact a cost from you for all of my pain."

"She's mad," I whispered to myself as the door closed behind her. My sister had lost all sense of reason and had been fed so many lies that she had come to believe them. And now I was held in her grasp, with nothing on my lips but a prayer that Erik would find me and take me away from my peril.