Phantom's Journey (Phantom of the Opera/Love Never Dies)

XVII

 "Claudette and her family are coming for supper tonight," Raoul said as he and Erik entered the house.

 "Again?" Erik groaned. "I do not mind your sister, Chagny, but I hate her husband, and those beasts they call their children."
 
 "I hate Philippe and the little brats as well, but I couldn't say no to Claudette. I feel sorry for her, being married that troll and having four beastly children. She seems to think I am lonely here."

 "Are you lonely?" Erik asked.
 
 "No. I have Gustave, and you seem to think it's your job to look after me. Would you like to join us for supper, or have you had another excuse ready as to why you cannot join?"
 
 "I am not sitting at a table with them. Don't you remember the time I did, all the questions I was faced with? They all look at me like I am a common criminal, except your sister."
 
 "Erik, you are certainly not common." Raoul gazed around the entrance hallway. "Where do you suppose Gustave went off to?"
 
 "I have not seem him since breakfast. You prepare yourself for Philippe, and I shall look for Gustave."
 
 Erik climbed the stairs and walked to Gustave's room. "Gustave? Are you in there?" He opened the door, but there was no one inside.
 
 Erik searched the entire house from top to bottom. He asked the few servants the house did have, but none of them had seen Gustave all day. The butler told him that he'd seen Gustave leave the house in the morning, but had not seen him return.
 
 "Raoul, I can't find him anywhere. He left this morning and never returned home." Bit by bit, Erik had slowly begun to panic, and now he was beginning to fear the worst. "Where could he have gone?"
 
 "He's a man now, Erik," Raoul reminded him. "Surely he can look after himself."
 
 "He has been gone all day. I have no idea where he could be."
 
 "Then we will have to wait for him to come home."
 
~~~~~~

 When Raoul's family arrived, Erik did not join them in the dining room. He wouldn't have been able to eat, and he didn't want anyone to see the fear in his eyes, or the way his hands were trembling. He didn't know how Raoul explained Gustave's absence, but no one came looking for him, so it must have been a good one. 
 
 Erik sat at the piano, trying to continue where he had left off the night before, but found he couldn't concentrate. He kept glancing toward the front door, hoping it would open and Gustave would step inside. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore. He reached for his coat and hat. He would go search for his son himself.

 But before he could, the front door opened, and in stepped Gustave, slightly disheveled but alive.
 
 "Gustave!" Erik dropped his coat and hat and wrapped his arms around his son. "Where were you? No one had seen since this morning, and you never came home."

  Gustave did not hug his father back. Erik released and held him at arm's length. Something was clearly wrong. He was pale and trembling slightly, and there was fear, real fear, in his eyes.
 
 "What's happened?" Erik asked.
 
 Gustave looked around the hallway, as if to be sure no one was watching them.
 
 "Come with me." Erik took his arm and pulled him up to his own room and locked the door. "There. We're alone. Now, tell me what happened. And do not say 'nothing', because I know it is something."

 Gustave sat down on Erik's bed. "I went to the cemetery today, to visit Mother. I watched you and Raoul from behind a tree while you visited her. While I was hiding, a man came to me and told me he was an old friend of yours, Amir Attar, from Persia. He asked me to walk with him, that we had something to discuss."
 
 "And what was that?" Erik asked as calmly as possible.

 "You. He's in love with you, Father. That is what he told me. He said he wanted you to run away with him, but you said no because you chose to stay here and take care of me."

 "And did he threaten you in any way at all?"
 
 "He...wanted me to convince you that I didn't need you anymore, so you would be free. He said he would kill me if I told you the meeting ever took place."
 
 "Did he say how he would kill you?"
 
 "He had a noose."

 "The Punjab lasso," Erik corrected him. "He taught me how to make one and use it many years ago." He paused.  You should go join everyone for supper, Gustave."

 "But what of-"
 
 "Do not worry about Amir. He will not harm you, ever. I promise you."
 
 Gustave got up and silently left the room.

 He had dared. Amir had dared to threaten his son, his only child, the one good thing in his life, whom he loved more than anything else.
 
 He had dared.

 It had been a long time since Erik was the Angel of Death. It was time that Angel returned.