Chapter Thirteen: Of Blank Pages
Olivia peeled away the haze of her sleep to find herself resting in the warm folds of a bed, the thick covers tucked up to her chin. This was not she and Erik's bed. She looked around. This was not a room she knew either. The presence of light showed the wooden walls of the small room supplied with only the essentials of a room. The only thing that was familiar to her was the dark outline of her lover standing by the window looking out passively onto the bustling city streets below him. Olivia wrestled her arm out from beneath the layers and reached out to his back. "Darling," she called softly.
Erik spun on his heel and the step was halfway across the room. He knelt down at her side and ran a gloveless hand across her forehead. She leaned into the texture of his touch, gentle yet powerful. Her hand encircled his wrist and kept it close to her. "What happened?"
Erik looked up at the wall behind Olivia's head. "I set the Phoenix on fire to smoke Barum out. He came out the entrance just after I had set Caesar and Shakespeare loose. I had gone ahead to block off the bridge and to watch the backside of the opera while was beginning to journey to the front. I saw the three of you exit and Raoul saw soon after. All I had to do was wait."
Olivia looked up at Erik the masked half of his face facing her so she could not gage his emotions. "Is the Vicontess safe?" she asked.
Erik nodded, "Christine is safe in the arms of her husband. Raoul fired at Barum and he turned her lose before I got to you." He paused. "I killed him."
Olivia let out a long breath before shifting slightly towards him. "Good."
Olivia winced at the movement she made and Erik turned his full face towards her. "What's wrong?" he demanded gently.
Olivia shook her head. "Nothing. It's fine. I'm just…sore."
Erik winced at her pain and also at his own failure. He rested a hand lightly upon her abdomen and turned his face away form Olivia again. "I promised that no would hurt you again. What you must think of me now."
Olivia tilted her head to one side her eyes softening. She pushed herself up so that she was leaning against the headboard, releasing his wrist to grasp his chin. She turned his face toward her. "What I thought was that I knew you would come for me and make me safe again."
Olivia leaned in and kissed him gently, as if she treasured being able to do such an act. Erik slowly wrapped his arms around the small of her back and held her for a long time.
The sun was setting and Erik and Olivia were on their mounts at the edge of the city of Paris. For the first time they both looked back. "With the Phoenix burned," said Erik, "our life, our future here is gone, and we can take nothing from it."
"Where will we go?" asked Olivia.
Erik turned his horse around towards the road that lead to the rest of their lives, together. "This is a new beginning. I thought it would be nice to return to our beginning.
Olivia turned her horse around stopping at his side. She looked at the road as well. "To Budapest?" she asked looking at him.
He nodded. "To Budapest."
Finis
Well there you have it. Hope you enjoyed it. I will publish a one chapter epilogue so be on the lookout for that. Reviews are still wanted. AND for your future reading pleasure I give you The Amnesia Years, an Underworld based story that already had a few chapters on it. Im sorry this took so long but you know sometimes that happens. Thank you to everyone who reviewd and stuck with the story. Peace!!