Voices filled the catacombs, echoing from the stone walls and floors. Some two hundred armed men filled the darkest places of the opera house, torches and weapons in hand.

They didn't much care if they strung him up by the neck, impaled him, or tore him limb for limb; all that mattered was he died a cruel death at their hands.

Track down this murderer he must be caught.

Meg Giry held the Phantom's mask in her trembling hands while the mob spread out through the deep places in the earth. By candlelight she studied the stark white leather, an article of myth and fear within the opera house.

She stood abruptly and turned back to the chair where the mask had been left. She knew he was still there, watching, waiting.

"Phantom?" she whispered softly. "Erik?" she tried.

Just as she expected, there was no reply—at least not from his voice. She stepped back and found an envelope tucked beneath the velvet cloth discarded at the base of the chair. With one glance around the room to ensure she was alone, she plucked up the note and tore open the seal.

Ann,

One final act of kindness. Please tell the newspaper Erik is Dead.

"My God," she whispered.

He was always dead.

She inhaled sharply, her head snapping up to the voice filling her ears. For a moment she wasn't sure it was real, but the curtain draped over the mirror rustled. In silence she folded the note and tucked it beneath her arm as several gendarmes entered.

"Mademoiselle?" they questioned in unison.

"There is no one," she said, her heart hammering. "He's disappeared."

"Our search will not end until he is dead," they assured her.

"Thank you," she replied awkwardly.

As soon as they turned, she ran toward the mirror and pulled the curtain aside, finding herself within a long, dark tunnel that curved into the distance. She held her breath, eyes straining in the dark.

"Did you hear them?" she whispered, her slight tone burgeoning with anger. "Did you hear what they said? They will not stop until you're dead."

She felt him there, standing behind her, his body almost pressed to hers. She paused, unsure of whether he would strangle her for intruding in his home or if he would mercifully allow her to go free. She decided not to tempt him.

"Meg Giry," he said softly, his voice distant, as though he stood a world away. It startled her, as she had sworn he stood only inches from her. "They shall never find me," he assured her. "And I was never alive."