The pole supporting the rising platform, a victim of Rachel's sabotage efforts, snapped in half and dumped the two singers on the floor. The countess was about to descend from her box and catch her rival in the confusion of the aborted opera when she heard singing. Erika's voice, clearly distressed, sang out, "Don't look, oh please, don't see!"

Erika was, without a doubt, a gifted actress. She'd timed the fall so that Christophe landed on top of her, keeping him from serious injury and allowing the production to continue. Once Christophe had righted himself and reached towards her to help her up, she'd covered her face with her hands. The mask had fallen off in the confusion of the fall, which played perfectly into the next part of the scene, where Christophe unmasks her. The line she'd just sent spinning through the audience was the line signaling for the next piece of music. Using that line, she signaled to the orchestra where they were heading and kept the play back on track.

Christophe picked up on it and continued the piece, pulling her hands away from her face. "I won't care!" The hands were finally pulled away and her face, Erika's true face, made the audience gasp.

Four ghastly strips began at her torn ear and ascended into her hairline. It was a mercy the girl still had her eye, since two of the scars marred her eyelid. The audience had to wonder what had caused such disfiguring scars.

Christophe, although he had seen her scars before, reacted as Von, seeing his beloved's horrid face for the first time. He leapt back, away from the girl. Upon seeing his reaction, Erika, now completely inside the character of Trisha, began to sing, a sad, pleading edge to her voice.

Stranger than you dreamt it,

Can you even dare to look,

Or bear to think of me,

This loathsome harpy

Who burns in Hell, but secretly

Yearns for Heaven,

Secretly, secretly.

Oh, Von…

Fear can turn to love.

You'll learn to see, to find the girl

Behind the ghastly,

This repulsive carcass

Who seems a beast but secretly,

Dreams of beauty,

Secretly, secretly,

Oh, Von…

The orchestra began a soothing section of the music as Von took Trisha in his arms and began kissing each of the claw-like scars on her face. He took her in his arms and began his own song.

Beautiful victim of darkness,

What kind of life have you known?

God give me courage to show you

You are not alone.

And as the music swelled beneath him, Von kissed Trisha passionately, mirroring the couple playing the roles. The musicians finished the phrase and the lights went dark as the audience went wild, ecstatic at this new opera that tugged at their hearts and made them want to see it again. Erika's first complete opera was finished, and it had been an unbelievable hit.

Rachel turned around to leave so she could plot a better strategy to take out the woman who had blocked her at every turn, when she saw her husband glowering at her.

She swore.

Her husband, the Count, and a very powerful and possessive man, frowned at her. "That is not language for a lady. I hope you enjoyed your opera, as it will be the last you see for a while." And in that moment, Rachel knew her unfaithfulness had been discovered. Her life was about to get very unpleasant.

The instant the curtain closed, Von and Trisha disappeared as Christophe and Erika raced down to their secret home, laughing and smiling with the occasional kiss thrown in. What an incredible night.

Epilogue

"Stop, stop, STOP!" Christophe shouted after little Von as he ran towards the violin stand. The little tyke stopped just short of crashing into the delicate piece of furniture and reverently looked up at the instrument proudly displayed there. When Momma held it, it sounded beautiful, but when it was just sitting there, nothing happened.

Christophe stopped running after his eldest son and watched as he gingerly picked up the instrument, put it under his chin, and stroked the bow over the strings. His five year old son filled the cavern with his mother's music.

As if in response to the music, Erika entered the main cavern, coming out of the kitchen area with tiny Trisha in her arms. It may have seemed funny to some that the couple would name their children after opera characters, but anyone who knew the couple understood that the names were really pseudonyms of their own.

Erika walked over to Christophe, watching as their raven-haired son stroked the violin, letting the cavern fill again and again with the same simple note. He tickled his daughter's feet, making her open her blue eyes and laugh at her daddy.

Then Erika handed him Trisha and walked over to her son. She took away the adult-sized violin and picked up the child-sized version she'd had made in the hopes that one of her children had inherited her talent. Slowly, she helped Von fix it underneath his chin and fitted his hand around the end of the smaller bow. "Try stroking it over two strings at once." He obeyed his mother and two beautiful notes rang through the cavern.

She smiled at his awed expression and said, "Now try putting your fingers on the strings." Erika pulled his pointer finger away from the wood and placed it on the closest string. "Now stroke that string." He did and a completely different tone vibrated out of the instrument. Then the boy began experimenting, moving his fingers up and down the neck of the instrument, stroking string after string with the delicate bow, letting a cacophony of unorderly, but in its own way beautiful music fill his father's, mother's, and sister's ears.

Christophe watched as his son learned the rudimentary skills of playing the violin. Perhaps Von would play in the orchestra next year, in the sixth anniversary showing of Erika Triumphant, the opera that had made both of their careers and allowed them to openly admit they were married.

Watching his wife instruct his son in the ways of melody and harmony, reveling in the warmth of the squirming cutie in his arms, Christophe couldn't help but be the happiest man in the world.

There were some things I wrote earlier in the story that prevented me from doing the canon ending, mainly the fact that Rachel is a married woman and her husband came back in an earlier chapter. I also tried to include more of the original music. What did you think of her scars?

Even if it is finished, I will always love comments.