From Shadows to Starlight

Fugitive

Chapter Twenty-six

“Don’t apologize for all the tears you’ve cried, you’ve been way too strong now for all your life. I’m gonna get there soon, you’re gonna be there too…”- Mat Kearney

A Fugitive

Madame Giry walked quickly down the street, as fast as she could without drawing too much attention to herself, trying not to make eye contact with the groups of soldiers and gendarmes passing by her. They were on horseback or on foot, and they were heavily armed. The news had gotten out fast: the most wanted man in Paris had been seen in Parc de Seigneurs, and he had once again attempted to abduct Madame Christine de Chagny.

Her eyes darted about, searching for any sign that might help her find Erik before it was too late. Her heart was racing. She couldn’t let him be captured. She couldn’t let him die.

She was approaching the Chagny house now. The gates were opened, revealing a swarm of law enforcement officers in the garden in front of the house, talking amongst themselves or investigating the grounds. Several well-dressed passersby had stopped in their morning walks, curious and fearful about what was unfolding before them. Thank goodness for the neighbors. Antoinette was able to walk behind them and stay out of sight, but not before she glimpsed a distraught Christine talking to a soldier in the garden. Madame Giry glared at her a little as she passed by, willing the Vicomtesse, who looked quite hysterical, to keep her mouth shut.

All right, Erik. If I were you, where would I go? She knew he’d been injured badly, and he couldn’t have gotten far. She scanned her surroundings, and decided to make her way around to the back of the house. Looking past the foreboding iron fence at the elegant balcony stories above her, Antoinette thought she might be getting somewhere. The balcony was so Shakespearean, so romantic. Erik had to have been here. It was only a hunch, but it was all she had to go by.

“Madame?”

Antoinette spun around to face a stern-looking gendarme, armed to the teeth. “Yes, officer?” She managed to say.

“Surely you’ve heard, madame. An extremely dangerous fugitive was seen here last night, and is most likely still at large. He could be somewhere close by. We’re advising all civilians to get indoors and stay there until he’s found, so I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

“Oh, yes sir, right away,” Madame Giry said, thankful that the gendarme was not suspicious of her. For once she was grateful to be away from the world of the opera house, where everyone had known she had some special connection with Erik, or the Phantom as they’d known him.

She turned the corner, out of the man’s sight, and breathed a sigh of relief. The back gate was just feet away from her, she noticed, and she turned to look into the wall of trees that surrounded the entire Parc. There was a little path leading into the shady forest, barely visible. But Erik could see in the dark better than anyone she knew, and he always found the most obscure pathways to take. Antoinette thought it over for a brief moment, then hurried down the path before anyone could spot her.

The area of forest was small, but the path was lined by old, tall trees that blocked out much of the sunlight and completely hid Antoinette from the prying eyes of the police or any of the civilians. As she walked she quickened her strides, searching desperately for any trace of Erik. Her every thought was a prayer for his safety. He had to be all right. He just had to be. After everything he’d been put through in his life, he didn’t deserve to have it all end this way.

Madame Giry stopped for a moment to catch her breath. Though the shade of the trees cast shadows all across the way before her, she glimpsed something darker to the side of the path. She moved closer. It looked like…