Erik smiled as he took Gustave, "have you ever yarned to go past the world that you think you know?" He smiled wider as the young boy looked around in amazment, "been enthralled to the call of the beauty underneath! Have you let it draw you in past the place where dreams begin? Felt the full breathless pull of the beauty underneath?"
Gustave continued to look in wonderment at the scene laid before him.
"When the dark unfolds it's wings do you sense the strangest things?
Things no one would ever guess, things mere words cannot express?"
Erik felt close to the boy and it filled his heart with delight.
"Yes!" Gustave turned to Erik but something quickly turned his attention to something else.
"Do you find yourself beguiled by the dangerous and wild? Do you feed on the need for the beauty underneath? Have you felt your senses surged and surrender to the urge?" Erik walked away a tiny bit, "been hooked as you looked at the beauty underneath? When you stare behind the night can you glimpse it's primal might? Might you hunger to possess? Hunger that you can't regress?"
Gustave walked around and saw the strange and odd people walking around, "yes! It seems so beautiful. So strange, yet beautiful. Everything's just as you say!"
"And he's so beautiful...perhaps too beautiful." Erik whispered to himself, "what I suspect cannot be...and yet somehow we both see the very same way!"
Gustave ran over to Erik and pulled at his sleeve, "is there music in your head? Have you followed where it's led? And been graced with the taste of the beauty underneath?"
Erik kneeled down so they were at eye level. Gustave continued to talk excitedly, "does it fill your every sense? Is it terribly intense? Tell me you need it too, need the beauty underneath!"
"When it lifts it's voice and sings," they both said at the same time, "don't you feeling amazing things? Things you know you can't confess, things you thirst for nonetheless."
"It's all so beautiful."
"Can it be?" Erik stood and turned away as he asked himself if it was true.
"Almost too beautiful."
"Do you see what I see?" Erik raised his hand to his mask and he and the boy continued to say the same thing.
"Heavenly!"
"To him it's beautiful. My world is beautiful!" Erik cooed as he started pacing back and forth, the thoughts in his mind were driving him crazy.
"How can this be what it seems?" Gustave looked at the bearded lady and little person as they walked by.
"All of my most secret dreams somehow set free!" They both belted out together but only Erik noticed as Gustave was too intrigued by this new found beauty.
Erik quickly turned to him and looked at him, "you can feel it?"
"Yes!"
"Come closer!"
"Yes!" Gustave stepped closer as his eyes filled with pure joy.
"You have no fear of the beauty underneath. You can face it."
"Yes!"
"You can take it."
"Yes!"
"Let me show you the beauty under-"
Gustave screamed when Erik took off his mask. Erik stood and turned his face away from the child who seemed so beautiful.
Christine and Meg ran out and Christine hugged Gustave.
"Do you think I wouldn't guess?" Erik put his mask back on and turned to Christine, "Do you think I wouldn't know?"
Christine was silent.
"Do you have something to confess? I want the truth right now if so!" He was enraged at her.
Christine looked at Gustave, "go with Miss Giry to the room." She looked at Meg, "Meg would mind?"
Meg nodded and brought him into the theater.
Christine turned to Erik and sighed.
