A Phantom and His Family

Chapter 17: Going Downhill

Erik's POV

I sat on the chaise lounge, my wife's head against my chest and my hand stroking her hair, the children surrounding us. The excitement of the newest member of our family was contagious and all I could do was sit there in utter amazement. I was almost giddy with glee as the woman I loved kept on talking about what we needed to do when we got back home. All I could do was nod in silence, too happy to speak. Life was perfect.

To my surprise, this was the best trip that I had ever been on. I had my family to come and support me, my mother and I were able to put the past behind us and we are finally able to reconnect after all these years, and now, on the anniversary of the best day of my life, I was going to be blessed to be a father once more. Nothing could possibly make this day go wrong.

We continued to sit there in contentment when my mother rushed into the door, her faced flushed and filled with fear. Concerned, I gently got up from the couch to go over to her.

"Mother? What's wrong?"

"You need to leave this place. Now!" She cried as she rushed upstairs to grab all of our luggage to take to the carriage outside.

"Leave? Why do we need to leave? What's going on?"

She didn't say anything until all of our belongings were in the carriage and she was pushing us out the door.

"The Gipsys are after you and your family! .They won't rest until they have captured all four of you and make you into their sideshow attractions. They're on their way here!"

Gipsys? Here?! Not again! I thought in a panic as I ushered Evangeline and the children to go inside the carriage.

"Wait a second," Evangeline stopped us, "How do you know all this?"

We all turned to her as she stood there, her face growing pale and a guilty look on her face. She was trying to keep something from us. Something that was very important.

"Mother, how do you know that the gipsys are after us? Why would they be after us if I had never sought them out? To their knowledge, I had vanished without a trace after killing their leader."

"I know because I-I-"

"Because she was the one who led me to you, Living Corpse." A new, all-too-familiar voice interrupted her.

We turned, my eyes widening in disbelief and an overwhelming feeling of terror ripping through my soul. There, standing before me, was Javert, leader of the gipsys and my tormentor for five years of my childhood. I had thought that I had killed him after strangling him with his own whip in order to get the keys to my cell, but here he was, the source of my nightmares, still alive and just as terrible as he was on the day I left. And now, he didn't just want me, but he wanted my family as well.

"Surprised? I know I am. My little corpse is not so little anymore and, shockingly, has a family of his own. And to think, I would have never had known hadn't this lovely lady come to me, begging me to take a certain monster and his little horde off her hands. And all for a few hundred francs. Not the standard 30 pieces of silver, but it was an offer I couldn't refuse. "

I turned to my mother, feelings of betrayal coursing through my veins.

"Mother? It's not true, is it? Please, tell me that what he's saying isn't true!"

"I-I-It was at first, but then I was able to reconnect with you and learn who you really were-"

"I thought you had changed! And to think, I was beginning to trust you!"

She shut her mouth, her face riddled with regret as she turned to the gipsy leader.

"Look, I gave you your money back, the deal is off. Now, please leave them alone!"