A/N: This is interesting to write. I love the way Ari's developing. I'm really playing up the Phantom's powers in this, and I like the way it's working out…I hope you guys do, too! I tried to keep him as in-character as possible, when dealing with a seventeen year old girl.

Thank you loads to those of you who have reviewed! You keep me writing, so keep it up! )

Angel of music: What's confusing you? Specify, and I might be able to clarify it!

-Cali


-Truths -

Ari gasped when he whispered in her ear, sounding exactly like the wind had, sending chills down her spine. "It was you!" she exclaimed, then realized it must've been him she'd felt watching her so often in her bedroom. Gasping again, this time indignantly, she lashed out with her left hand and slapped him hard enough to send echoes through the room. When he drew back, holding his cheek and glaring ice cold daggers straight into her eyes, she realized she'd just slapped the Opera Ghost. Oops.

"Sorry," she muttered quickly and quietly through the hand she'd clapped over her mouth in surprise at her audacity She felt horribly embarrassed, but mostly scared he was going to kill her, especially with the look he was giving her. "A-are you going to kill me now?" she asked timidly, trying to hide her shaking hands.

The Opera Ghost glared at her silently for what seemed to her like an hour, and then sighed, his gaze softening. "No," he said, and brushed past her, walking into the hall she'd come through to find the room.

"Wha-" she started to ask, then just followed him instead when he didn't show any sign of hearing her. When he got to the candelabrum she'd been completely unable to move, she watched him in complete awe as he lifted a hand and moved the ornate sculpture - without touching it. "How...?" she was stunned. How could anyone move anything without touching that which they were trying to move?

"Telekinesis, Aria," he said simply, and moved it back directly in front of her.

The girl stopped and glared, speaking to him as she slid between the wall and the candelabrum. "Er, Monsieur Opera Ghost?" she began a little awkwardly. "Where am I?"

"Erik," he corrected her. "You're in my...lair," he said, glancing back at her with an amused smirk when he heard her trip over the candelabrum's feet.

Ari righted herself and brushed off her dark jeans, straightening her black tank top. "All right. Erik. Your lair? Right, and where, pray tell, is this – lair – of yours? Or are the myths and legends completely right about you?" she asked, raising her eyebrows at the back of his head, where she thought his eyes would be were he facing her.

Erik stopped and turned to her. "How much do you know about me?" The suspicious tone in his voice stopped Ari in her tracks. He watched, interested, as she stopped and looked anywhere but at his eyes.

Those eyes…those startlingly blue eyes of his seemed to bore into Ari's soul, and frankly, it scared her. She couldn't look at them. "N-not much," she said quietly, and he repeated the question. Ari felt her body relax and suddenly, she was speaking. It felt like someone was pulling the words from her. "I know you're a prodigy."

"What else?" That same tone of voice he'd used before sent waves of calm warmth over Ari, and she answered.

"You're a killer. You're deformed –" At that, she stopped and gasped. She'd said that?

Erik looked away and broke the spell. "Yes. You, Aria, are also a prodigy. You have an audition for the Paris Opera Company in less than two weeks, am I correct?" he asked quietly, walking towards her. His movement, she noted subconsciously, was always fluid, but deliberate.

Ari's jaw dropped and she lifted her gaze. "How did you…how – I mean, what makes you think that?" she asked, trying too late to deny it. She'd started to tell her choir director, but she'd thought Ari was too young. After that – after the one person who knew Ari's voice as well as she did had told her she couldn't do it – the girl stopped telling people.

Erik grinned at her attempt to deny that she had the audition. "I heard those…Managers – Messieurs Lecarte and Jaques supposedly "run" my Opera House – talking about you. They've heard of you," he told her, amused. "You don't think the soprano in Paris's top school-age quartet goes unnoticed, do you? Especially not with the solo you had in that last song. Aria," he started, "your training is lacking a lot. I can help you fill the gaps in your technique," he said, close enough again to touch her. "Your voice –" He reached up with one thin finger and drew an invisible line down her throat. "– is phenomenal, but you could be better. You could be truly incredible, and I can help you transform," he said, dropping his hand when she tensed and backed up.

"I don't want your help," she snapped, and brushed past him, bumping into his shoulder as she walked past. He caught her wrist when her arm swung back and tried to pull her back towards him. Ari turned and glared at him for a split second before turning away and yanking her arm hard out of his grip.

"Whose help, then, do you want?" Erik asked, calling after her as she walked away from him, looking for a way out of the room.

"Let me out!" she yelled angrily, looking for the entrance or exit. From where she was, she could see nothing. How the hell had he gotten her in here?

"Your father doesn't appreciate your abilities, and doesn't care about them. Your choir director is jealous of your voice," he called, speaking louder as she rushed further away in search of a door, slowing down in her steps. "Your mother's gone, Aria. The only people who appreciate your talents never say anything about it."

Ari stopped where she was and wrapped her arms around herself, her throat tightening. He'd really struck a nerve. Her mother had been the only person who'd loved her daughter's voice and really cared about music. Her father never told her, but that was the reason he hated music, and hated to hear Aria sing. When her mother died, he'd ridded the house of everything that reminded him of her – except Ari of course. He couldn't have done that legally. He never went to her performances. It was only her friends if they had time. She didn't even have any siblings, so it was just her. Just her. She was completely alone.

And then he said it. "Let me help you," he murmured quietly, directly behind her, and rested a hand on her shoulder gently. At his tone, a cross between a sob and a gasp escaped from her. How did he know all this? She never let anyone know anything she didn't want them to, and he was voicing everything she thought about, day and night, everything she'd told no one, not even her diary.

He didn't flinch when she clawed at his hand. "Let me help you," he repeated more forcefully, but gentler at the same time.

Ari felt a sudden rush of adrenaline and anger, and whirled, slashing at his face. She missed him completely, but got him to let go of her. "No!" she screeched. "Let me out!"

"Stop yelling. You'll just hurt your voice," was all he said in a calm tone.

Ari knew he was right, but she wanted nothing more than to scream at him nonstop. He was verifying everything she knew subconsciously to be true but didn't want to admit. "Let me out of here," she said quietly, shaking in anger. She didn't even notice tears that were running down her face.

"Not in this condition," he muttered calmly, walking closer to her.

For every step he took, Ari stepped away from him, winding between things. She didn't even notice when she smacked her hand into another candelabrum. Erik continued to follow her speedily, and Ari continued to get more and more enraged by the fact that he wouldn't leave her alone. He caught up to her at one point and she whirled on an impulse and tried to slap him. He dodged – barely – and she jogged away, almost going in circles until she got to the hall she'd gone down to find him. She almost dove through the tiny space, and managed to get through it fairly quickly.

Erik, of course, didn't have to dive through it – he moved everything away telekinetically and continued to follow her down the pitch-dark hall. "Will you stop running and look at me?" he asked, getting a little frustrated by the way she kept trying and thus far, actually succeeding in getting away from him. He didn't want to really run after her, but if she forced him to, he would.

Ari didn't answer, but kept walking speedily away, continuing down the hall, past the organ room where she'd first discovered him. She sensed him gaining on her and sped up, turning right at a fork. She had no idea where she was going, but she was getting away from him. Suddenly, she hit a dead end. Literally.

Erik heard the thud and winced. "Aria, stop running away from me," he said calmly, from the mouth of the hall she'd gone down, walking towards her.

Ari said nothing, but instinctively stayed where she was. She couldn't see anything anyway. Listened to his footsteps in the dark, she panted quietly as she tried to catch her breath. She'd really been running. Once she thought Erik had moved far enough away from the mouth of the hall so she could get past him, she kept the fingertips of one hand against the wall on her left and walked quickly towards him – and the way out.

As she walked past him, Erik caught her by the upper arms, and she struggled hard as she could to get away. He finally let go when he thought she was going to make him bruise her, and he really didn't want to hurt her just to make her stop running.

The girl tripped over her own feet trying to get away from him as soon as he let go of her, and turned, watching her go down the other side of the fork. She didn't even register the fact that this was indeed the labyrinth the legends had spoke of.

The Opera Ghost followed her quickly, and shook his head when she turned right and went straight into another dead end. He could see fine in the pitch dark, being used to it. He heard Ari swear loudly when she smacked into the other dead end.

"Aria," she heard him call in that distinctly relaxing and hypnotic voice of his. She tried her hardest to walk out the entrance of the hall, but found herself caught again. "Let me go," she hissed at him, breathing hard.

"Let me help you," he retorted, and kept a tight hold on her right wrist as he lifted his left hand to lightly trace her jawbone.

Ari relaxed involuntarily at his touch and stopped fighting him. When she opened her mouth to speak, she realized he had her backed against a wall in a dark foyer, and they were nose to nose. "I…don't…want…your…help," she whispered shakily, unnerved by his proximity to her. She also found that she was quite literally forcing those words through her vocal chords.

"Aria," he whispered close enough for her to feel his warm breath on her lips.

"I don't…want…" she started, still feeling winded, but couldn't finish the sentence. The words really wouldn't go through her vocal chords. Did she really not want his help anymore? She didn't know the answer to that one. She felt insanely curious, but almost afraid of it at the same time. "What would you do if …I…refused to let you…" Every time she tried to say she wouldn't let him help her, the words got stuck.

"I would have to keep you here until you consented to my help," he told her quietly, his words gently caressing her lips as his fingers lightly drew invisible lines down her arms, reminiscent of what the wind had done to her earlier that day.

"Well then you're going to have to keep me here," she whispered stubbornly, but she could feel her defenses going down..

"Aria," he whispered again. "Let me show you what you can really do…"

"N…no…" she whispered, trying to turn her head away, but couldn't. Was he keeping her there, or was it her subconscious? Either way, she felt utterly stuck.

"Let me help you." He murmured quietly in that hypnotic tone of his. Ari would definitely have to ask him if he knew he was doing that, or how he did it, or something. That was, of course, if she remembered to ask him.

Ari gasped quietly when she felt him touch her throat gently, drawing swirling lines on it. Thinking about it later, she realized he'd drawn a treble clef. Her heart was pounding a lot harder than she cared to admit, and her breathing had become a bit ragged, on top of being winded. "Fine," she said without even realizing it, and almost collapsed when she sensed him draw back.

"Good," he said and offered her a hand, which she knocked into as she walked past him, barely remembering anything that had just happened. It had felt like a dream – or a nightmare, depending on how she looked at it. She hadn't even been able to see anything, just feel. Touch was her favorite sense, though, aside from her hearing.

Erik cleared his throat. "Ahem. Other direction," he corrected her. "You are trying to get out of the labyrinth, are you not?"

At this point, Ari was very glad for the darkness, which hid her embarrassed blush rather effectively. She said nothing as she brushed past him with her hand on the wall she'd been leaning against. When it dropped off, she turned to the left and kept her hand against the wall, suddenly able to see the candelabrum that blocked the entrance to the labyrinth. She immediately began jogging towards the light and climbed out of the maze when she reached the end of the tunnel. Blinking at the light, she stood in one place until her vision cleared and she could see straight.

"All right," Erik said from behind her, stepping out of the maze himself. "Lessons start now."


A/N: Well, half of that was rather unexpected…What did you guys think?