"Mari! Did you hear the news?" Catherine asked, running over to her friend.

"No. What's the news?" Mari asked with curiosity.

"Kate's returning tonight."

"Please," Mariah scoffed, "like your boyfriend would let that happen."

"Well, I don't know what to tell you, but she's coming back. I'm not going to be performing tonight," Catherine sighed.

"Just don't let him kill anybody," Mari said, raising a teasing eyebrow.

"He's not Erik," Catherine laughed.

"You've known him for a week, Cath," Mari noted. "There's still things you don't know about him."

"He's not capable of murder," Catherine said seriously.

"Matthew Collins?" Mari shrugged. "Maybe not. Not as I knew him, but he's a different man than he was seven years ago. I can see it in his eyes."

"Yeah, okay," Catherine sighed, rolling her eyes. "Nobody can change that much."

"Cath, I'm not implying anything," Mari said slowly. "I'm just saying...be careful. Keep an eye on him."

"I know. I will...by the way, I read an article earlier about Mel. Is it true? They think he plotted her car accident?"

Mari's eyes narrowed, her lip trembling ever so slightly. "What?!" She snapped quickly. "Where did you read that?!"

"It was an old newspaper article that I found online."

"Cath, what have you gotten yourself into?" Mari sighed, shaking her head.

"I don't know, but if anyone ever sees my search history, they'll think I'm a stalker," Catherine laughed.

Mari didn't laugh in return. She instead looked gravely at her friend and gestured for her to sit down. "Matt will kill me...he would die...You're sure he's not listening?"

"He's probably still bickering with Josh. We're safe here," Catherine replied, eager to hear what her friend had to say.

Mari bit her lip and took a deep breath. "It all started about a month after Matt's wedding. Melody was in charge of make up and costume. She sang more than ever, just above a whisper. They spent their time between acts reading in the foyer, whispering to each other. They had decided that they didn't have enough money for a honeymoon, so he'd take her for long walks in the gardens outside." Mari closed her eyes and gave a faint smile.  "I'd never seen him happier in my life. It seemed to transform his performance. He had been stellar before, but this was beyond what any of us could have imagined. Angelic, human, twisted. He lived and breathed like Erik, every glance was poetry. It was toward the middle of the performance, the rooftop scene. We had been experiencing some electrical black outs throughout the night, nothing major enough to cancel. Caleb had been on stage finishing All I Ask Of You, and Matt came out to sing his solo. The pyrotechnics they-" Mari shook her head and shuddered. "It was a night mare, Cath. How loud he screamed...I can't ever rid my mind of that awful cry."

"Poor Matt. Fire is not something to be messed with," Catherine shuddered as memories of her childhood resurfaced. "What about Mel? I only read to the part where it said that Matt was suspected of plotting the car crash. I couldn't read any further. He's not capable, Mari," Catherine insisted.

Mari looked as though she might have broken into tears at any second. "Well, he collapsed, on the stage floor. Melody tried to run up from the audience but some of the orchestra members stopped her. The red was everywhere, Cath. Everywhere. A horrid amount. There was five minutes where he just laid there. We weren't sure if he was alive or dead. I was sent to talk Melody down, keep her calm and out of the way. She kept telling me it wasn't an accident through sobs, but I thought she was hysterical. Who would want to hurt Matt?...The ambulance came, hurried him out, and before I could stop her, Melody was in her car following. She ran a red light and died in a car crash. But the driver of the big black car that hit her was never discovered. About a month later, the driver was found and confessed to being hired to run into her, that his children would be paid a large sum if he succeeded in killing her...They found some notes in her backpack, threats. The hand writing matched Matt's, as did the ink and timeline. We didn't know- we couldn't have- By the time I reached the hospital, Matt was intensive care. They said he was continuous, but-" Mari covered her mouth through tears and shook her head vigorously. "They said we couldn't see him, because he was screaming. He wouldn't stop, he was in so much pain. He couldn't even remember his own name. The doctor thought he'd lost his mind, Cath, and when I heard he killed himself, I had no doubt of it. How could a man live after something like that?" 

Catherine put a comforting hand on Mari's shoulder. "He's strong. I have no idea how he made it through, but he did. He's my little warrior."

"I texted Josh last night for the rest," Mari sighed, her hand trembling ever so slightly. "He knows someone died, someone close to him. He hears her sometimes at night, but it's been blocked off to him. Everything, her smile, her face...Nothing's left but her name."

"He doesn't remember Mel?" Catherine questioned with surprise.

Mari shook her head. "Enough to have her plague his dreams, but little else. What he does remember, Josh thinks he doesn't understand. He never asks, so Josh never tells him. He knows he was suspected of murdering a girl, that he's innocent by all means, at least he swears to Josh he is..."

"I believe him. He wouldn't have. I know that you've known him longer, but you don't know him like I do. You haven't seen the romantic side of him...Does he remember the accident vividly?" Catherine asked, her eyes filled with worry.

"I don't know," Mari answered honestly. "Josh didn't say. They met at at Mel's funeral. They were talking and well...when Matt told him of his situation, Josh suggested they try underground. He was working at the theater and knew the way under... Matt agreed of his own accord, of course. He couldn't bear anyone looking at him anyway. He faked his death in the Seine. But faking a suicide was practically a confession of guilt. The DNA match was entirely masterminded by Josh...He's a weird source of all sorts of illegal activity...He's hiding something too, I'm just not sure what," Mari frowned, as if trying to read Josh's soul right then and there, and then carried on. "When you told me about him, I had my suspicions."

"It's all very strange. I understand the entire burn victim thing, though. I still can't wear bikinis," Catherine replied with a nervous laugh, putting a hand to her side as painful memories crashed into her mind.

Mari didn't dignify her with an answer. She sat, eyes drilling into the floor, that horrible scream and night scarred into her memory. "There's a darkness within him, Cath. Without Mel here...God help us all, should he lose you too."

"He won't...Is it bad that I don't care even if he did mastermind Mel's accident? I mean, he didn't. I'm certain. But...I don't...I love him. I can't help it," Catherine sighed. "What's wrong with me?"

Mari stared at her with two pale cold eyes of ice. "Cathy, if he killed Melody, if anyone did, they're not capable of loving anyone. Melody was-" Mari's eyes brimmed with tears and her throat felt raw and coarse. "No one could have. Not her."

"I found a picture of her. She was pretty," Catherine noted.

"In her own funny way," Mari said with a soft smile. "Not pretty as most people would call it, I suppose, but she had this light about her. You can see it in photographs. She walked into the room and all would go a funny sort of silent, except for our Matt, who would take her by the hand and steal her away from the rest of us before we could say a word edgewise. She could have looked like anything in the world and he would have married her. Anytime, anyplace. Knowing he doesn't remember...it's almost worse than her dying."

"I can't believe that he forgot her...How bad was it? First degree? Second degree burn?" Catherine guessed.

"Josh says he thinks it's traumatic repression. There's cases that have been documented where the mind breaks and removes the troubled memories from the frontal conscience," Mari explained. "His face was the most exposed, it took the blunt. But the entirety of his left side..." Here she gave a shudder. "His clothes caught fire, we could barley extinguish them in time. I don't know exactly how bad it was, but it was enough to land him in critical care, unconscious for a week."

"Oh gosh," Catherine gasped. "Poor Matt. I can't believe that happened to him. And I thought I had a tough life."

"If he were to remember Mel, I don't know what he'd do," Mari cringed. "Keep this all to yourself, Cath. He can't ever know."

"Mari, I might be stupid, but even I am not stupid enough to bring up Mel."

"But if he asks you," Mari said sharply, "if he remembers something-"

"I won't tell him," Catherine said definitively.

"Thank you," Mari sighed in relief.

"I honestly don't even know if I'll tell him about my little accident ten years ago. I'm sure it was nothing like what he went through anyway."

"Whatever you decide, he'll know what to say," Mari stated. "Nothing's small or unimportant to Matt."

"I don't want to bring up painful memories for him," Catherine sighed. "Twisted every way, isn't it?"

"You really love him, huh?"

"Of course I do. He's the one, Mari," Catherine smiled. "Being with him, I get this indescribable feeling. He makes me so happy. It's happiness I haven't felt since my sister was alive."

"Well," Mariah said with a sad little laugh, "You won't be needing me anymore."

"Of course I need you!" Catherine exclaimed. "I'll always need you."

"Nah," Mari teased, "You'll get married and then have three psychopathic kids, and no time for old friends."

"And who do you think is going to help me not murder those kids?" Catherine asked, nudging Mari slightly. "I need you to keep me sane."

"When have you ever been sane?"

"I think, maybe once when I was seven," Catherine joked.

Mari laughed.

"Hey, when I get married, -whoever I marry- I was hoping that you'd give me away," Catherine said with a shy smile.  "You're the only family I have, besides my cousin, but we hardly get to see each other."

Mari gave a small gasp and smiled. "Of course I will," she exclaimed, tackling her friend in a hug.