In the name of our love

1. Away from the past and into the present

He knew that it would be no use hiding, but he still did. It was the only thing he really knew how to do. Not many of his belongings had survived the fire at the Opera house where he had lived for his entire life. All that Erik had left were the clothes on his back, his Opera Don Juan Triumphant and Cesar whom he had stolen from the Opera house's stables.

Erik stood beside the white horse, panting from running to the horse's makeshift home in the cellars beneath the opera. Erik heard voices in the cellars, running in his direction. It was probably the workmen but he couldn't take a chance... he had already taken too many in his life and it was starting to get dangerous. He packed his music in a small compartment of Cesar's saddle bag and he packed canteens filled with water in another. The only remaining space in the bag was big enough for the extra black mask which he always carried when he rode the horse. He had packed everything that he had left from the fire... everything that was truly important to him.

The Phantom mounted the horse and murmured in it's ear, "Go, Cesar. Away from this place." While the horse galloped through the underground streets of Paris, Erik searched desperately for somewhere--anywhere to go. Erik couldn't believe it. His home, the place he had built of his own hand was being destroyed by a fire. Here he was, on the run again for the sixth time. It seemed that running and hiding were his only past times.

Erik could think of nowhere to go. Nobody would accept him on the surface, nobody would know who he was--or what he was. They would all tear at the mask on his face, desperate to get a glimpse of the horror that lay underneath, the unseen beauty that they thought he was hiding didn't exist--it never had. Even his mother and father had cowered before him in fear. Fear, hate, and betrayal seemed to be the themes of his life so far. There had been only one person in this world who had looked at him without fear--who had loved him and adored him, but even she had betrayed him. She had broken the rules and went with a man when forbidden, she had loved another man. She had abandoned music for love: Christine Daae--or he assumed she would be known as the Countess de Chagny by now. He looked down at the ring which he wore on his finger. He wore it as a reminder of what she had done and what she might do in the future.

The Phantom couldn't think back to what had happened with Christine without a kaleidoscope of emotions going through him. She had ripped off his mask without so much as a question, then given it back with the slightest hesitation. She had sung for him but given her love to another. His heart had been broken too many times by Christine Daae. The only thing left to do was to let her go and give his heart away to another, but he couldn't... he couldn't bear to let her go. Where else was he to find a woman which could gaze upon his face without fear...but instead with love?

There was nothing left for him in the world above, but he couldn't go back to the Opera House. The only choice left was to go underground. He would have to start from scratch... all over again with nothing to start with. It was like deja vu. Erik didn't want to go back to square one, but he could think of no other way. He would have to build up his life again: his music, his reputation, his home... and his love.