You have no idea how sorry I am. I would have updated sooner, but last...Monday? I think it was Monday night or Tuesday morning I got my laptop taken away. It seems parents don't like it when your on the computer at 12:30 in the morning on a schoolnight. I had to do 8 hours of manual labor to get it back. I ould have gotten it back on Saturday perhaps but I went camping with my best friend and got back today. That was horrible by the way, she is not an outdoors person-I am. But I got lots of new story ideas from when I went canoing by myself. Anyway, it is now 11:57 pm and I think that I'd better get to sleep so I can go to school tomorrow. I also have my math AFLs, the Saskatchewan wide math test. I'm going to fail horribly by the way.... Oh- and for those of you subscribed to me, sorry about that double story posting and deleting some of your reviews, I accidently deleted this story and had to repost it.

Anyway, I don't own POTO. Gaston Leroux does and I took Erik's appearance from the ALW stage show....

Chapter 2

Christine looked over her shoulder nervously, she had a feeling that she had been watched ever since she had ran into that man. She figured that she was just paranoid. After what happened so many years ago she never had gotten over her paranoia that someone was going to jump out and do something to her again. It was her worst fear, the only one that came close was her fear of being alone.

When she had been left in that alley she had experienced for the first time in her life, what it meant to be truly alone. She had thought she was going to die. She had been hit with a blunt object to the head to knock her out and when she awoke she had a concussion.

She had thought she was going to bleed to death there. She was left laying on the ground, unable to move and she had thought that she was going to die alone.

That had scared her more than the accident itself. There was no way to describe the unbearable loneliness and pain thinking that you're going to die, and die alone to top it all off.

Luckily there had been an officer who was patrolling near there and he had heard her desperate cries for help. He had found her and called the ambulance. The rest had taken off from there.

Now, she had to have some kind of noise around her constantly. During the night she kept the radio, t.v or her ipod on so that she would always hear something comforting if she woke up.

She wondered how having Meg in her apartment would work. If she were asleep and Meg were to wake her up and she accidently hurt her...she would not be able to live with herself. She was better than that man who had ruined her life. She could not possibly hurt another human on purpose. It was against what her father had taught her.

But she figured that she could at least try, she put Meg on the couch and warned her not to go into her room when she was sleeping and to not, under any circumstance, sneak up on her or scare her.

She didn't give the reason of course, but she made it very clear that something bad would happen if she did.

Meg, promised that she would do this, how could she say no? Christine was giving her shelter, she would have to obey the ground rules at least. She wouldn't get herself kicked out of this place, not like her mother's house.

She felt incredibly guilty for doing that to her mother. She was always tempted to go back and apologize to her but remembered how angry she was before she left and decided that it was for the best that she had left. Her mother didn't want a whore as a daughter anyway.

She and Christine stayed up a bit later, talking about random things. Not deep things, stuff like pets and so on. It was a chance to get to know each other better. Meg learned something very interesting about Christine actually. It started out on a harmless topic, school.

"So, Christine. Where did you go to school?" Meg had asked her. Christine was hesitant at first but decided to tell her.

"Mostly in New York, but I've been to school in Canada and all over the U.S as well. There was no specific place really." She replied. Meg was curious, why had she moved so often? But she decided to leave it alone, she would have told her if she wanted to.

"What were you planning to be when you got out of school?" Meg asked.

"Before I turned fifteen I had wanted to come here and sing in the Paris opera house, become a star. If that didn't work out I wanted to sing on Broadway..." Christine replied, staring off into space, thinking back to those days. Her father had played the violin and she would sing, after he died she had no intention of singing ever again. To this day, she couldn't even hum a tune without bursting into tears.

"Can you sing for me?" Meg wondered. Christine looked at her sharply.

"No." She said in a voice that allowed no arguments.

They proceeded onto a safer topic after that. Meg wondered why Christine had stopped singing. Christine felt slightly guilty for being so abrupt but she couldn't help it. She wouldn't sing anymore. If Meg wanted, she could play some CDs of her when her father rented a studio one day and they sang and played music all day. She listened to them often, but she would not sing.

Meg eventually fell asleep on the couch and Christine dragged herself to the bathroom and then the bedroom. She was exhausted. None of the men, no matter how hard she tried, seemed attracted to her on the street. They always went for the ones that had more experience. She was glad that tomorrow she was working in the bar, not the 'pleasure district' as it had been dubbed. She needed a break.

She wanted to fight against what she was becoming with all of her soul, but no matter how hard she struggled her path of destiny was already set. And it did not look good from where she was standing. And there was really nothing she could do to stop it, nothing anyone could do, unless it was God himself.

She fell into a dreamless sleep for once, with her ipod earphones in her ears so that she wouldn't wake up Meg with the tv or radio.

Christine woke up first the next morning, always being the early riser and prepared breakfast as Meg slept on the couch.

Eventually the smell of eggs made Meg's stomach growl and wake up. She briefly tried to remember when the last time she had eaten was but couldn't. She jumped up from the couch eagerly and walked into the kitchen where Christine was sitting on the floor, eating. She didn't have enough money for a proper table and usually just ate on the couch. But she didn't want to wake Meg up so opted for the floor this time.

They sat on the floor together and ate. Christine was running out of food and she hoped that she got enough money from her tips tonight so she could go buy groceries tomorrow. She told Meg of her plans and Meg promised that she would not go to 'work' without Christine. She said that she was going to try and look again for a real job now that she had an address. When she had been on the street she wasn't allowed to apply for good jobs because she didn't have an address. If she had stolen money or done something they wouldn't have been able to track her down. Even she had to admit, it was a valid and good reason.

Christine didn't have to start work till four which meant she had to show up at about three forty five, she spent the rest of the day helping Meg try to find a job. There had been some promising offers but nothing really substantial. When Christine had asked Meg what she was best at she had hesitantly replied that she had taken ballet all her life and her mother used to be a ballet instructor. This gave Christine a great idea, Meg had all the qualifications for it, and it might get her out of her job!

She practically dragged Meg to the place that she had wanted to work in so many years ago, the Paris Opera House.

She had approached the ballet mistress, and talked to her for a while, she wanted to know how she could get Meg an audition, she had some very impressive credentials. Her ballet teachers were known and very impressive. The ballet instructor set her up with an audition time and said that they had come just in time, there was a new opera starting and they needed a new corps de ballet member, one of the other ones had run off with her lover after she had found out she was expecting.

When Christine looked over she saw tears in Meg's eyes. She realized that was pretty much what happened to Meg. She had gotten pregnant, run off with her lover and left her whole life behind. Her whole life ruined because of one simple mistake. Christine felt intense pity for Meg because of this. Wasn't her life so much the same? Her whole life had been shattered because she had chosen to take a back alley home one night.

She thanked the instructor and took Meg home. She practically skipped home, they both knew that she was going to get in. Christine on the other hand was always looking over her shoulder and into the shadows, she felt like she was being watched again. It was a horrible feeling really, thinking that you're being watched. You jump at every sound and cry out at every physical contact.

Christine dropped Meg off at home and went to her job at the bar. She had just put her uniform on when one of her fellow waitresses came up to her.

"Hey, Chris, there's a guy over there who asked to see you, he said that it was important." She said as she pointed to a table in the middle of the room. Christine tried to squint and see but couldn't. It was too dark in the bar. Before, she used to have to squint through smoke but since the smoking ban in 2008 people weren't allowed to smoke in the bar anymore. And since the business couldn't afford a smoking room there were no smokers in the bar.

She walked slowly over to the table and wondered what was "important" unless it was Meg...no the waitress had said it was a guy.

As she got closer she saw a flash of blond hair from the table. When she could see the features of the man her heart constricted Please Lord no, not him. It can't be him! I left him behind in New York eleven years ago!

The man looked up and flashed her a smile.

"Christine Daae!" He greeted her. She felt her heart panic. She knew why he was here and she didn't want to explain everything to him.

"Raoul de Chagny." She greeted calmly, contrary to her emotions.

He motioned for her to sit down.

"Chris, we need to talk. What happened? Why did you leave me and our school so suddenly? I thought that you loved me." He said, his voice was clouded with emotion. Christine backed away and replied

"I'm sorry Raoul, I can't tell you. And I can't stop and chat, I have to work then go home. It would be best if you didn't get involved with someone like me." She said, leaving him with those words as she ran back into the kitchen to get someone's order. He tried to get her attention for the rest of the night but she refused to go near him.

When he realized he wouldn't be getting any answers he got up to leave. As he did so he 'accidently' ran into Christine as she was waiting on other customers. He slipped some bills into Christine's hand and whispered into her ear

"I'll find out eventually Chris, whether you want me to or not. I'll be back." With that he hurried out of the restaurant and into an awaiting car.

Inside Christine sighed and looked at how much money he had given her. He had stuffed ten, ten euro bills into her hand. She was hardly surprised, Raoul had always been rich. She wondered what he was doing in Paris. She knew that before he moved to New York he had lived in Paris and that his parents still lived here, but she had completely forgotten about that. As she had tried to forget him, no use crying over spilled milk.

But she couldn't.

Raoul had been her first and so far, last boyfriend. They had started dating when they were fourteen and they were still together when the accident happened. Then, she had disappeared off the face of the earth, to him at least. She had moved to a private school without so much as a word, then when he had gotten close to finding her she had moved to Canada. After that he had given up. Even the de Chagny's influences could only go so far.

She had missed him for the first few years. But she eventually stopped the heartache with the thought that he wouldn't have to tarnish his reputation by dating someone like her. She always imagined that if she hadn't been raped that they would be married right now and have children. But that was over, no possibilities whatsoever.

She was contemplating this sudden change and wondered what this meant to her now. Raoul had said that he would be back and that he would find out what had happened. She desperately hoped that he never found out. What would he think of her? He would be disgusted, she would be a freak to him. He would hate her. She didn't want her oldest and dearest friend to think of her that way. Why couldn't he just leave her alone?

When she was on her break she decided to sit at a table and watch all the customers while having a drink. Her break was an hour long so she had lots of time. She sat there with a strong brandy in her hand, she figured she needed it tonight.

Her boss, Jack came up to her and sat down. She feared the worst. The only time that she had ever met him was when she had applied for the job. He had given her the job almost immediately.

As he sat beside her she felt her breathing become faster and her mind immediately went through all the reasons why he would want to fire her. They sat there in a tense silence for a moment. Christine was almost quaking in her boots.

Jack sighed and looked at her with an intense stare. She shifted uncomfortably.

"Christine? There is someone who wants to see you." He said finally. She must have jumped about a foot in the air. She reached into her pocket to pay for the drink but Jack just shook his head and motioned for her to follow him.

Now she was worried. From day one they had been told that whatever they ate or drank they had to pay for, there were no exceptions to the rule. But now she was told to follow the manager and not to pay for the drink? She was in big trouble now, or so she thought.

He showed her up some stairs that lead to the upstairs offices. She had never been up there before, only the owners and the managers were allowed up there.

She was shaking very badly by the time she got up the last step. Jack had to carefully take her by the arm and support her back to get her to the last door in the hallway.

They reached the last door and Jack briefly let Christine go and knocked on the door. Christine didn't hear anything but he must have and he opened the door then held her again. She was afraid she was going to pass out at any moment, that's how hard she was shaking. Jack had to hold on fairly tightly so that she wouldn't fall. He had one hand on the arch of her back and the other across her chest.

They stepped inside the office together and were met with an angry roar. They both jumped at the sound and Christine looked around the office to see what had uttered it.

The office shades were pulled, the room was almost pitch black, the only light was coming from the open door.

She looked into one of the corners of the room and saw two pinpricks of light that almost looked like stars. The person who had expressed the roar was now growling a deep, menacing growl. It was scaring Christine and Jack looked quite pale.

"Get out!" The man screamed. Both Christine and Jack started to back out the door.

"No, not you him." The voice from the darkness commanded. Jack let go of Christine and backed out the door. He muttered one last piece of advice to her before taking off

" Whatever you do, don't argue with him and do not stare at his face!" with that little sentence he turned and almost ran out of the room, closing the door behind him and enveloping Christine in complete blackness. Well, almost complete blackness. She could still see the pinpricks of light.

She stood in the tense silence for what felt like forever to her. What she didn't know was that the man on the other side of the room was staring at her and taking in her exquisite beauty. He was too caught up in looking at her to realize that there was a tense silence between them.

Christine cleared her throat in a way to garner his attention. The man's head snapped up and looked into Christine's eyes. Though she couldn't see she knew that she was being looked at. Then she started to babble.

"I am so sorry for whatever I did-I swear I didn't mean to do, well whatever I did. Please, I need this job. I have an apartment and I just had a friend move in with me. My...other job isn't enough to pay the apartment, I'm starving as it is! Please, don't fire me!" She almost started sobbing at this point but held her composure. Though her voice was dangerously shaky.

"What were you doing with him?" The voice asked. Christine was confused, what did he mean?

"I...I'm sorry sir, I don't know what you're talking about." She said meekly.

"The man I sent to escort you up here, are you in a relationship with him?" He demanded. His voice echoed through the room.

"Wha-I mean, no sir. I was unsteady on my feet and he was supporting me so I would not fall." Christine replied trying to remain polite.

"He didn't have to hold you in such a compromising position did he?" The man spat. The tenor of the voice was consumed with rage, yet Christine could detect a certain familiarity in it.

Christine was growing angry with the man, how dare he? Why should he care if he was in a relationship or not?

"I don't know sir, but can you please tell me your name and why I am up here?" She asked, struggling to keep her manners as she had been taught to.

"Forgive me Ms Daae. I had assumed you would remember me but I suppose not. Here, I will turn on a light for you." At that, the harsh glow of a lamp was flicked on in the corner of the room.

Christine shielded her eyes with hands until her eyes adjusted to the light. She looked at the man and gasped.

"Y-you." She stammered.

The man in the mask merely grinned and said

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Erik Destler."

Yes, I know. I used the 1989 version's last name, as much as I hated the movie I really couldn't think of anything else. Please, please review, you have no idea how much they mean to me, I swear...