Author's Note: The first 2 postings were originally 1 chapter. I became exceptionally tired while reworking it so that it became divided. I am sorry to say that due to my fatigue and the split of the chapter some parts explaining why Eric was so willing to help her and yet didn't know why were left out. I do apologize and am enclosing it in the next few chapters. I know for sure that this chapter will be a flash back in her life and the next chapter may be the dreams she had in the first part that I left out. Those dreams (what she half speaks in her sleep) is why Eric stayed with her and even tried to wake her. That is all I will say on that matter for I do not wish to spoil anything for you.

CHAPTER 3

From somewhere deep in her memory Christine Angel DeChanney remembers all those years ago to the saddest day in her life. The day her mother left her to go join the angels in heaven:

French countryside ~ 1856 ~ the old DeChanney estate:

"Momman, why does father hate me?" the little six year old girl with a single line down the left side of her face from somewhere in her hairline straight down across her eye going still onto her throat, and a scar that looked eerily like a tear drop coming from the corner of that eye looked up at her mother with real tears threatening to spill from those beautiful ocean blue orbs.

The frail woman laying on the bed raises a hand to wipe the tear from her little ones face and pulls her to her for a gentle hug. "Your father is just hurt and confused right now. He does not hate you, you just need to give him time to get used to it just being the two of you then I believe he will come around."

This does not comfort the small child one bit for she then begins to sob and cry in earnest. Oh, what can I do? I can't tell momman he hurts me I just can't it would break her heart and I can't hurt my momman. "But momman, he really hates me! He told me so; he said that he would kill me..."

"What is this nonsense! Why are you in here bothering my wife?" a tall handsome man comes in with a mad glint in his eyes and grabs the girl half throwing her in the floor while kicking her harshly in the ribs to get her out of the room. "You never mind that thing my love. It doesn't need to speak of such things to you and knows not what it says."

Finally gathering the strength to speak after the shock of seeing and hearing her dear husband do and say such things of and to their own daughter. "I am beginning to think there is truth to her fantastic tales of your cruelty. There was a time that I would have thought it impossible for you to be that way. But seems time has changed us both." Sighing and attempting to catch her breath she continues after the pause. "Now, leave me and allow my daughter to come back to me. Oh and Charles, should you do as you threatened and kill her I will come down from heaven just to strike you down."

That night any hope for the small girl to grow up loved and sheltered died with her mother during the worst storm of the decade. While it is almost always said that it is darkest before the dawn that poor girl was going to find out just how much darker it could truly get before even the faintest of light was allowed back into her life. For as bad as that night was and as long as she cried for her momman at that point in her small mind there was still hope because she still had her father. Her father the man that helped conceive her and nothing else was all the protection she had left in the world. Soon, too soon, she would find that really there is not one bit of love or protection there with him. He would not allow any affection to be shown in his presence for the small child and he himself would inflict some of the most painful cruelties upon her.

She was not allowed to call him pappa like other children called their fathers nor was she allowed to give or get the slightest of kind gestures. No from the moment her dear momman died there would be no hugs, kisses, bedtime stories, or anyone to chase the monsters away when she had nightmares. She would find out over time that the man she was stuck with as a father was far worse than any monster from any of her dreams for unlike them he was very much real and truly wished harm upon her. That night he drug her to the stairs leading from the second floor where the bedrooms were and kicked her down them repeatedly "just to see if the devil would take back what was rightfully his". She suffered many broken bones, bruises, cuts, and her legs were left crooked and nearly useless from the fall and blows that followed.

One year later:

"Christine, dear, you need to stop crawling around and at least try to walk. If your father sees you crawling it will be another beating for sure and I don't think I would be able to stop him this time."

The young girl looks up at the maid that just said that and sighs. Weary from no sleep, no food, and having to clean every floor in the manor until it shined she tries to rise only to let out a shriek filled with pure agonizing pain as she collapses full on her face. "I can't my legs still don't work from when he kicked me down the stairs! What can I do? I am so scared and I know he will be home soon."

The maid rushes to her aid and gently lays her down on the fainting couch as she sees their master coming on unsteady legs up to the house. "He appears to be too drunk to pay you any mind. Let us pray he just goes to bed and leaves you alone."

"Where is the demon spawn at that I am cursed with? Bring it to me at once. Damn the consequences, my soul is already hell bound so I will finish it now." Afraid for the young child's life the maid quickly and quietly picks her up and runs with all her might to the servants quarters hoping beyond hope to hide her for good.

To no avail she was unsuccessful for he found them and took the child away cursing as he went. Some hours later her screams still pierced the air as if her very skin were being ripped from her body bit by bit. By dawn he had passed out with a combination of liquor, frustration, and fatigue to aid him into a very deep sleep. So deep that the maid was again able to retrieve the small child and try to nurse her back to health. Health may find the small ones body again but her face would never be the same for it was burnt almost beyond recognition from where her father took boiling rags placing them on her face then ripping them off the whole night long.

French countryside ~ 1859 ~ the old DeChanney estate:

"Come cousin Phillipe we have to hide!" the young girl with knowledge beyond her years is trying to coax her even younger cousin into hiding with her away from her father before he can find them and hurt them.

"I don't want to. I want to play now. Christine why are you so scared? Why do we always have to hide?"

Christine takes his hand and leads him outside into the garden. "We have to hide because my father will hurt us. He will hurt you for playing with me and talking to me. He will hurt me for even holding your hand. Now come we must hide but if you like we can make a game of it like I use to. Hide and go seek...father is it...and we DEFINATELY do NOT want him to find us at all costs!"

As they lay under the thorny rose bushes Phillip begins to think and knows what he must do. He will protect Christine no matter what. It will be worth it to see her smile again and for her to not be afraid to eat, sleep, or play. With that in mind the young boy charges out from under the bush and toward his father and uncle. "I am here! I am here! You don't have to go into the garden. She isn't out there I haven't seen her since this morning!"

With that they all three went inside while the girl in question was left behind to lay under that bush and cry til she was asleep.

1860 ~ French countryside ~ the side of a road

"All girls are pretty. What is wrong with yours that you are so quick to get rid of her even offering to pay me money to take her from you?"

"Just look at it. The devil himself wouldn't even take it back. I can't stand the sight of it. Just take the thing, the money, and leave. Please or do I have to beg?"

The fowl smelling gypsy eyes the girl and nods. "You shall make an excellent addition to my show and a perfect replacement for the devil's child I lost a few years ago. What sort of name shall we give you...Demon Temptress? That's it! That's perfect! Come now my little Demon Temptress you have money to make me."

Once in sight of the rest of the traveling band the man picks her small body up and rips off her mask, dress, and all underclothes. Completely naked and unprotected from the impact he very roughly throws her into a small cage filled with hay and smelling of a dead body. Turning to the rest of the group announces they are going to Paris. That is where they lost the other one and just maybe he would turn up and double their profits.

A few days later ~ Paris France ~ a crudely built fairground

"Come! Come see the Demon Temptress! Come and stare into the very thing the Devil himself refused to swallow!"

In the cage a small naked figure was curled up trying miserably to cover her naked body for the sake of decency. As the audience looked on they jeered, laughed, and called cruel names while throwing whatever happened to be in their hands to make the demon show its face. When she finally looked up after recieving a few lashes accross her back with a whip the screams began and things including money flew at her even faster causeing her to curl up and try to hide again while whimpering for them to stop.

Eric didn't know why he was here. If anyone saw him and recognized him he would be dead or worse thrown back into that cage. Suddenly at the sound of a whip he looks up and pushes his way to the front to see what is happening. The sight that he is greeted with was one he was not prepared for. For in the cage that he use to occuppy was a female version of himself. Only two differences met his eyes: first, she was completely nude and second, her whole face was ruined instead of just part of it.

1870 ~ Paris France ~ Opera Populaire

Why can't I stop thinking about that day; about my past? Why can't I just forget that I once had someone that loved me completely for me and would have given anything for my happiness? Why can't I push from my mind what happened to me after losing you? "Oh momman, I miss you so much. When will it ever stop hurting? I truely do not feel well at all. Will you come get me and take me to heaven with you?"

With her memories haunting her every breath and thoughts of her beloved momman filling her head she falls into a fitful sleep in the chair in front of the vanity in the dressing room that Eric carried her to that morning. A few moments later Eric is there to aide her to the bed so she can get a proper rest before the busy day that lay ahead for both of them. "Angel, you need to awake so you can change and go to bed."

"I am so tired momman. Can I come to heaven with you?"

"Woman, you need to wake up. I am not your mother."

She mumbles unintelligible nonsense for a few minutes then settles back to sleep where she was. Eric watches this and is frustrated but doesn't move or make any attempt to move her. Moments pass into minutes then she begins to dream again and to talk in her sleep revealing some of her past to the audience that she is unaware of as of yet. Just as he is about to give up and at least put her on the bed someone knocks on the door.

"Ann, what are you doing here? I was just about to lay her down on the bed and leave." Eric gestures vaguely to the sleeping woman at the vanity.

Ann walks over to her and places a gentle hand on her forehead as if checking her for a fever. "Get her on the bed and under the covers. NOW!" She then begins placing wood in the small fireplace and builds a fire to warm the room and hopefully help the feverish woman recover some.

"Momman, is that you? Momman! Momman! Come back please. Take me with you to heaven. PLEASE!" Ann is back at her side instantly with this and tries to soothe her but fails for every touch seems to send her into hysteric screams.

Eric picks her up and now knows why Ann was so concerned. The woman in his arms is burning up with a fever, but what would have caused it? She was in the building all day and in a warm bed for most of that day. "I will stay with her Ann, you go get some rest. I do believe she knew this was coming because she told me to get some rest earlier if I truly wanted to be of any help to her. She looked at me so strangely as if we had met before and said something that made no sense but that may have been the fever talking and I just didn't realize at the time."

"What did she say?"

"I would not let you help me then all those long years ago but if you wish to come to my aid now, you may. Then she smiled the saddest smile and mumbled something about a cage not being between us now."

When this was said Ann realized where she knew the woman from. A few years after rescuing Eric he had ventured out at night alone and came back only to place a note at the foot of Meg's bed. The note read: "There is a young woman called the Demon Temptress that is in need of your help and understanding. She told me to leave and forget her and what I have seen but I can not fully push her from my mind. Please help her like you did me. E" Looking around to make sure all the ballet was asleep and noting that Ms. Daee was not in bed. She set out to first rescue another lost soul; then, she would put Christine Daee back in her bed with a stern warning about wandering at night. After reading the note a second time she got her cloak and headed into the night to find the girl in question and hopefully save her too.

Snapping back to the present with a start she looks at Eric and realizes that he truely does not remember sending her to rescue that girl. He had managed to push it truely from his mind, but why?

"Eric, some years ago you sent me a note asking me to rescue a young woman like I had done for you. I did and she is that woman. Do you remember any of this?"

Shaking his head he says, "No I do not. I think I would remember trying to rescue a young woman."

"Well, I did as your note asked and brought her here after getting her out of her cage. The next morning when I came to the chapel to bring her breakfast and ask her if she wanted to stay she was gone. I did not see her again until a few weeks ago at my first meeting with the new manager."

"This is interesting but why should I care? What has it to do with me?"

Ann takes a breathe and shakes her head. "Just take care of her, please. It would not do for our new manager to die of a fever. I will check on you in the morning. In the mean time keep your eyes and ears open you just may learn a few more things of her and she may even tell you something of yourself. Good night Eric." With that and one last look at the sleeping woman Ann leaves until the next day sometime near lunch time.

"What does my manager have to teach me on this night?" As he says this he places a cool damp cloth on her forehead careful not to disturb her or her hood as much as possible and sits in the chair next to her bed bracing for what looks like will be a rough, long night.

A/N: I was going to go into more detail on her flashback but am already growing weary. The next chapter will pick up with the last paragraph and continue mainly from Eric's POV as he tries to delve into his memory to find the woman. He will also watch her sleep and learn more from her half mumbled feverish ramblings of her past than from his own memory.