A/N: Sorry for the very, very late update… Been working hard on this chapter, because there are SOOOO many things you shouldn't do in a period Erik/OC phic! And thank y'all for the kind reviews which literally warmed my heart! Yes, even you Guest who wondered what the f*** you had just read!

So… for the first chapter, well, I have to say at first that I'm not an Erik/Christine shipper at all. I'm one of the rare people in the phandom who isn't… Seriously, I don't even think that this pairing is a good idea! I personally think it's missing the book/musical/movie's entire point, but hey, if you like E/C, that's fine. ;) Just don't turn Raoul into a jerk, don't make Erik all fluffy and emo, don't make Christine instantly fall in love with Erik, because it's obvious that she didn't during the course of POTO, and (though I haven't pointed it out in the last chapter) don't give her suddenly a backbone. I'm not saying that Christine is a whiny, passive kind of person (like I almost used to say when I was in my phase where I wasn't really a fan of Christine, without hating her just because she didn't choose Sexy-Tortured-Masked-Dude, however), but she is very vulnerable. And you can't just ignore that. She does go through character development, but you have to show that it is progressive. And again, her backbone mustn't be too accentuated. Because, when you think of it, when she is brave, it's because of Raoul's presence. To sum it all up, writing a good, believable Erik/Christine romance is HARD. Probably the hardest pairing in POTO to write, despite it being the most common.

And here's chapter 2: Erik paired with the Cinderella girl. You know, the girl everyone hates and mistreats for no reason at all and who's all nice and pretty and peachy and perfect and coincidence! A good singer. And of course, she accepts Erik totally as he is. To resume it all: Mary-Sue alert!

Chapter 2: Cinderella gone Mary-Sue

A girl dressed in a patched yet clean dress made her way towards the Opera Populaire, with nothing more than a basket to carry all her things. There weren't much of those anyway. She had her dear papa's razor, her dear maman's scarf, her dear brother's toy train, her dear sister's earrings, her dear grandmother's brooch, her dear doggy's chew toy, her dear goldfish's sandcastle, and a whole bunch of other totally useless crap coming from people in her family and the family of the friend of her aunt's second cousin. No other clothes or stuff, because she has to look totally miserable. It hadn't cross her mind that she could sell some of her extremely precious stuff to buy herself food, because she hadn't eaten for days. But since she was as tough as shit (her asthma, her epilepsy, her allergy to giraffes and her sleepwalking put apart), she was still standing.

She wasn't beautiful at all. No, not at all. She just had golden blonde hair all tied up in a bun for now, but when she let them down, it would fall on the ground in perfect ringlets. She just had purple eyes with big eyelashes, and full red lips. And she was thin, and she wore a C bra. Nope. Not pretty at all.

It was night, of course, because she thought in her very innocent (and stupid) (A/N: Hey, how did that slip there! My OC is like totally awesome guyz) mind that it was 100% okay to walk in the night to go to the Opera Populaire.

Then, of course, since Paris is a gadawful place with monsters and drunken dudes all around, a random drunk guy came in, saw her, and since he was totally evil and that he was furious that France had lost against Spain in the FIFA World Cup finale (which is actually a pretty good reason to be angry, kinda like a Canadian team loosing against an American team in the Stanley Cup finals, but anyway), he decided to rape her.

"Help!" she cried ever so prettily as he grabbed her and ripped her poor dress. But then, suddenly, out of nowhere…

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it 24601?

MY NAME IS JEAN VAL–

Shut up, Jean.

So… where was I? Oh yes.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a TARDIS? Is it Batman?

No, it's…

Not going to say it because that would totally destroy the extremely unexpected spoiler in the beginning of this story. Lots of twists in store coming up, please R&R!

Everything happened in a blur, and the drunken jerk got hanged by some sort of lasso, and since the girl had fainted, her savior swooped her away and brought in the depths of the Opera Populaire.

When the girl woke up, she was wearing a new dress, and it didn't occur to her that however put her in that dress saw her like totally naked. There was an elderly woman with a severe bun and all dressed in black that was waiting for her to awake, as if she had nothing else to do.

"I'm Madame Giry," she said. "And who are you?"

"I'm Belle Georgina Tabitha Laetitia Patricia Philippa Rebecca Victoria Pollyanna Amelia Rosita Julietta Natasha Carmilla Cordelia Anastasia Suzetta Geraldina Perdita Jenna Clarissa Portia Sophietta Kate DeVere," she answered. "But you can just call me Belle or give me my nickname Angel."

Mme Giry sighed.

"Why is every single one of his crushes somehow an angel?"

"What?"

"Oh nothing, nothing at all. So Belle, what where you doing in the streets of Paris in the middle of the night?"

"Oh, I came to the Opera Populaire for no reason at all," she said, afraid of talking of her evil step-mother and step-sisters and step-brothers, since the mere mention of their name was probably going to set the place on fire. Kinda like when you said Voldemort's or Sauron's name, or when you start talking of Gerik on Tumblr. And she was also conscious that her story had to be really angsty. "But I guess that at the Opera Populaire, they take every wandering pretty girl to work as a servant or something."

"Of course," Mme Giry said. "So for now on, you'll be working in the costume department, the kitchens, the cleaning up…"

And the list went on and on, and Belle went to do it all while singing and with little mice coming all around her and doing the job because they were sick of the place being so dirty and the new servant just sang Green Finch and Linnet Bird from Sweeney Todd all the freaking time and wasn't doing her job properly. But oh, was she ever singing in the sweetest voice ever!

And of course, there was the Phantom, who was still in the Opera Populaire, who would hear her sing. And he would also stalk… uh, sorry, guard her from the shadows to make sure everything was okay.

The managers Twiddledee and Twiddledum (i.e. Firmin and André) were really mean to her for like no reason at all, and she was forced to clean up the gums they would stick everywhere. She also had to take care of La Carlotta (who was back, since now she had the place all to herself, and that she also probably suffered amnesia after the fire and that she forgot all about Piangi), who was throwing tantrums all the time, was forcing her to sleep with her doggie, was whipping her, was obliging her to eat only Brussels sprouts and spinach, and all sort of evil stuff like that. And she didn't want to hear her sing either, for a reason so darn obvious I won't be writing a novel about it, because the authoress is just interested in writing Masked-King-of-Sex-Appeal/Belle fluff.

But Belle just kept on singing. She loved singing so much. Especially when she was on the rooftop. Birds would come all around her. Well, pigeons, since they were the only birds around. And she didn't mind them pooping around her either. Because as you all know, and you don't need to do a Wikipedia search about it, all that pigeons do are hanging out on rooftops, eating bread crumbs coming from nice old ladies, and poop.

And she was like best friends with all the ballerinas. They told her about what had just happened in the Opera Populaire a few months ago. The Opera was haunted by a Ghost, who was either described with yellow parchment as skin and no nose or body-built and sexy like boom. Then the Phantom fell in love with a beautiful soprano called Christine Daae, but since she was totally evil, she broke his heart in a thousand gazillion pieces and ran away with a stupid fop called Bob or Gary (the ballerinas couldn't remember his name) who was totally evil as well. And all the poor Phantom had done was giving her his music, lying to her all the time, loving her very much, and blackmailing her with the life of her fiancé. Yes. Christine was a witch. So the Phantom wrote an opera for her to make her fall in love with him, but she ripped his mask in front of everyone, so, he let the chandelier fall and kill people, and it provoked a big fire in the Opera Populaire that destroyed everything. But since Christine was totally heartless, she just abandoned him there.

The Opera Populaire had all burned, but since you could get things built back in a flash since builders didn't spend their time drinking coffee and eating donuts from Starbucks all the time, the Opera was all built back within a month. Sheesh. And of course, thanks to superglue and duck tape, the great chandelier was back in place as well.

La Carlotta was back as prima donna, even though her boyfriend had been killed by the Opera Ghost, and she screeched even more than ever, and everyone hated her, except for the managers who for some weird never-explained reason wanted her absolutely to stay.

Then, one day, the managers decided that they were going to perform Hannibal again, and as La Carlotta was going to sing Think of Me during the rehearsal, a set fell on her, and she refused to perform that night.

"Oh, Belle!" said the ballerinas when Carlotta left in a huff. "You HAVE to take her place since there's no understudy! You were awesome during the Katy Perry karaoke yesterday!"

"Why not?" Belle said. She then went cheerily in front of the managers and said: "I can sing Elissa's part!"

Twiddledee and Twiddledum gloated evilly. "No one can be better than La Carlotta!" they said.

But Belle made such a big case of puppy eyes that Reyer accepted to let her sing.

And she sang like a boss, ever so better than that witch Christine, even though she had never taken singing lessons for ten years with an Angel of Music!

And that night, Belle sang and saved the day.

Even if Carlotta, Twiddledee and Twiddledum had agreed in secret that she should be kidnapped and sent to Siberia and sold as a slave the next day.

It was a triumph! Adoring fans were now at her feet.

The next day, Belle's evil stepfamily came to the Opera Populaire, since Belle had completely forgotten about them and that her big triumph OBVIOUSLY was going to put her on the newspaper's first page. I mean, d'huh.

They discussed very secretly with the managers and La Carlotta, and, in the middle of their evil gloats, they decided that they were going to hire a killer to get rid of Belle for good.

Erik heard it all of course. But he did nothing for now, since he wanted to level up the angst a bit.

That same morning, at eleven o'clock, Belle was still asleep and snoring loudly, with a drool line and all, but ever so prettily. It was then that the killer came in, and, at the moment where he was going to kill her, she woke up, and screamed.

"Help!" she cried. And at that moment, a dark shadow came in, and because of all the emotion, Belle fainted.

When she woke up, she saw the killer hanging from the wall, his body all ripped off to the point she could see his guts. Which is kinda weird, because this clearly isn't a vampire!Erik story, but anyway. But the only thing on her mind was the dark shadow who had saved her one more time.

"Thank you!" she said ever so melodiously. "You truly are an Angel!" she said, as she put the corpse of the killer in a chest and started scribbling Mrs. Lovett's address on a tag. "Oh, how I wish I could see you! I have a feeling you are really, really sexy, ya know," she said, making innuendo brows in the sweetest way imaginable.

"I am your Angel of Music! Come to the Angel of Music!" she suddenly heard someone sing. She turned to the mirror, to see a masked dude all dressed in black summoning her to come. Forgetting everything her teacher in kindergarten had told her about not following strangers, especially in dark, creepy places, she simply headed towards the mirror and had for a moment the impression that she was going through it.

(Insert here My Heart Will Go On from the Titanic film or any fucking Disney song)

And they went down, and down, and down, and down, and into Erik's bat cave, while singing, and that Belle did it like a boss, way better that that slut Christine ever did, despite her having never taken any music lessons and that Erik had taught Christine like for years. Therefore, this is quite an insult to his supposed genius, since he has apparently taught a girl who can't sing better than some random girl, actually, but anyway.

It was only then that Belle finally remembered that she hadn't introduced herself.

"I'm Belle Georgina Tabitha Laetitia Patricia Philippa Rebecca Victoria Pollyanna Amelia Rosita Julietta Natasha Carmilla Cordelia Anastasia Suzetta Geraldina Perdita Jenna Clarissa Portia Sophietta Kate DeVere. But you can just call me Belle or give me my nickname Angel."

"Angel sounds cool," Erik replied. "Of course, that doesn't remind me of Christine What's-Her-Name-Again at all, because like three hours after she left, I decided I actually didn't love her after all all on my own like a boss, though I'm still keeping the creepy dolls and drawings I have of her because I'm a total emo bitch and I'm still not sure."

"WHAT? You still have drawings of that stupid whore that I never even met? Oh, I thought you loved me! And I'm so sure of it, and I know that we are made for each other, even if I've seen you face to face for like five minutes only!"

"And I'm a monster!" Erik said ever so randomly but ever so sexily. "I don't deserve you!"

Oh, the drama! The angst! The wow! The blablabla! The zam!

And they bawled ever so prettily/sexily for hours.

"I need a Kleenex," Erik finally said eight hours later, trying hard not to wipe his runny nose with his sleeve.

"Oh, here you go, Angel," Belle said, with wide, innocent, compassionate, calf-like eyes, who somehow weren't red anymore after crying the shit outta herself for the entire day for something stupid.

"Thank you Angel, and to prove that from now on, I will love you forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever, I'm going to burn all the Christine stuff I have!"

And so Erik did so, and after, he started singing songs with her, pretty much any song from any freaking musical/Disney movie whatsoever, and of course, Belle sang them all like a boss.

And Erik was falling in love with her more and more and more and more.

And then, finally, he decided that it was maybe about time that she went back to the surface, since everyone was panicking since Belle had disappeared for a week and that they had called the FBI.

So Belle took back her place as prima donna as if nothing had happened, because thinking of all the consequences in a realistic setting is too much for Super-Authoress' amazing brain. But her evil step-family came in, and insert here tons of angst, rape attempts, Erik always saving the fucking day and it ending up in lots of smooching and almost-smut scenes, and when you're lucky, you actually get one, and it creeps you out to know that the authoress is like twelve years old while writing this. And in the end you have Erik being kinda tired of all this, he punjabs the evil stepfamily, and Carlotta, and the managers, and you even wonder why the heck he didn't do that earlier, because anyway, Belle still loves him after all that, because she's a wonderful woman able to look beyond appearances, and anyway, her name is a homage to Beauty and the Beast (as you can see, the references here are very-well thought of and researched).

And you have our two heroes marrying, Erik becoming the manager of the Opera Populaire since Firmin and André are screwed, just because he's the Opera Ghost and everyone is begging for him since they all had to put up Grease 2 and everyone wanted something a bit more of quality.

And of course, Erik and Belle had quintuplets, and they lived happily ever after underneath the Opera house.

The End.

A/N: I have nothing against Erik/OC stories. I am currently trying to write one myself, which you can find under the title Let It Go. I think it's pretty decent… I think.

Just, creating an OC is hard. You really have to give her a distinctive personality to make her interesting. Not make her some sort of everyman. Unfortunately, everymen heroes are getting more and more often in teenage literature, to the point they border the Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu. It's sad… because often, such characters show the author's wanna-be. You know, when you're a teenager, you spend your entire freaking life at high school getting told by others that you're not cool because you're not doing the popular stuff. So, you create yourself a character who is pretty much you, only paired with either Prince Caspian, or Legolas, or Enjolras, or Erik, or the Tenth Doctor, and the list goes on and on, and of course, the handsome male lead finds your character totally awesome.

It's really sad. And I feel bad for those people because I've experienced the same thing.

High school sucks ass. Believe me. They say teenage years are the best years of your life… heck no. You're constantly putting yourself back in question, you're constantly wondering if you're worth something. If you're a reject, all the popular kids keep on telling you you're worth nothing. If you're popular, you realize how empty your life is and how shallow your friendships are.

Finally, you can't expect Erik to fall instantly in love with your OC either. He has to forget Christine and the obsession he had for her. And that's a long, rocky road.

Sorry for the useless rant. So next chapter: Erik paired with Christine's twin coming out of nowhere. And if you have suggestions or clichés of bad phanphics you'd like to see her, leave a review or a PM. ;)