A/N: THe last chapter was just a filler, as you have probably guessed, this is a bit more like sci-fi or fantasy. This Erik is a Mix of the Gerik and Leroux Erik, but he gets a little OoC because of my inexperience. Anywho, I don't own any Erik, PotO charrie, or PotO itself

Erik Eets Edjumacated

"Erik? What are you doing?" asked a confuzzled Aretha, "I always thought that you were one of those angst-ridden madmen with an inferiority complex."

He stared down at her with confusion etched on his face, not that it's easy to tell you know with the mask and the fact that his face is covered and all that. "What is angst?" he asked.

She opened her mouth, then closed it in thought. "I believe it has something to do with trouble or anger or something of that nature," she said, finally.

"I see."

"Yup, And sorry about the punch, I wasn't entirely in control of my thought processes."

"Oh, I didn't know that females had such upper-body strength." At his words, she bristled with indignity.

"What!" she screeched, her voice cracking comically as she threw his arms away from herself. "How dare you! If I had a glove right now I'd hit you with it, and challenge thee to a duel. I'd probably lose, But I'd fight anyway."

"You are very..."

"Obstinate? Pig-headed? inflexible? take your pick, there's plenty to go around."

"Stubborn is quite sufficient."

She growled in frustration. Then, glaring she stood up and went to the kitchen to bake a pan of brownies.

"Don't bug me." she snarled at him when he followed, "And if I see you dip your finger in the mix, I'll chop it off," while under her breath she said, "I already have to deal with my brother doing that."

He sat on one of the counters while she bustled around the kitchen area. First, she got the ingredients out, then the mixing bowl and measures, then she pre-heated the oven, and, finally, the pandemonium commenced.

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Three-quarters of an hour later she pulled out a pan of brownies to cool. She grinned in satisfaction and sat at the table with Erik.

"Erik, you know she couldn't have been able to love you, right?"

"Yes, I knew, I just hoped that she would have been able to see past the monster on the outside, and into the man on the inside." he sighed, "I thought that she would have been, I don't know, less shallow."

"No accounting for taste," said Aretha decisively. He stared at her again. As he looked at her, he remembered something.

"There was a dandy here earlier."

"hmmm?"

"I could have sworn he was Raoul. I like him better though."

"Oh, that was Robert. He's kind of... Raoulish, but otherwise a nice guy."

"Raoulish?"

"You know, he is a bit of a fop; likes his hair; acts somewhat less than straight; and has a crush on a girl cause she's talented, not because she's nice."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"He said that you were invited to a bal masque."

"Fun," she said in a falsely joyful voice, "better get my costume out. It's a female version of Red Death though, technically, Red Death is male."

"I see. Can I come?"

"I don't see why not. I'll see if I can get you a costume, or you can go as yourself since here you don't exist."

"I don't? Then how did you know about me?"

"Gaston Leroux wrote a book about you; then a guy called Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote a musical, and, i think, a play; Susan Kay wrote another book about you; Then when movies came out you became a hit. You've been played by the now infamous Lon Chaney Sr., also known as 'the man of a thousand faces;' Winslow Leach; Robert Englund, who is an assassin for good, but walks the tightrope between manic depression and ultraviolence;Claude Rains, created a shy, middle-aged you; Herbert Lom made you more British with Shakesperean training and gentlemanly behavior; Michael Crawford was youthful and romantic; Maximillian Schell; Charles Dance; Jack Cassidy; Julian Sands; and most recently by Gerard Butler, who has the most luscious lips I've ever seen. Yours are nice too."

He blinked slowly, lost for words. She blushed shamelessly.

"I also know what's behind the mask. There are different versions of it, but Chaneys is by far the scariest or most gut-wrenching; They had to have smelling salts in the lobby when it showed because plenty of women, and men, with weak constitutions couldn't handle Chaneys mastery of acting. I thought it was merely ugly and moved on, but I've been desensitized by modern movies. Believe me, they are far worse than a mere blemish."

His jaw dropped at her offhand way of mentioning his 'mere blemish.' She looked askance at him and began making a noise that sounded strangely like a cough and something else. When she composed herself and told him something that he thought was relatively confusing.

"Have you heard of a Phan?" she asked him.

"A what?" he asked curiously, not understanding.

"A Phan, spelled with a P-h."

"I can't say that I have. Why?"

"Dragonsteeth. You'll have to wear different clothes, and make-up."

"Dragons teeth? wait-what?"

"It's a thing i say randomly when frustrated and you heard me. Different clothes, and make-up. Until i can get you an appointment and a... other things you'll need."

"Right, so what are we going to do now?"

"edjumacate you on the happenings of the last hundred years or so?"

His visible eyebrow quirked at the word she used, but shrugged it off.

"So, what has happened?"

"Automobiles are commonplace; horses are outdated; music has shot to the gutter; france has been invaded..." she looked at her fingers, "twice, i think-"

"WHAT!"

"France was invaded by the Germans in World War II, then France, Britain and the USA came in and kicked the Germans out. Also, the Americans dropped an explosive device on Hiroshima, Japan and leveled it. They used the relatively new Aeroplane that carries things in the air to bomb Japan."

"You said world war.. 2? there was another one?"

"Yes, but i don't know a lot about it. Some eedjit shot the... duke, i think, of Austria and ev'rybody in Europe started fighting. Poland got ripped apart and Different countries claimed her. America sent support to Britain and pretty much stayed out of the war. Also a real madman, in WWII, took over germany and started killing Jews of all genders, races, and ages just 'cause he thought they were inferior. His name was Adolf Hitler."

"Hitler? I guess Nostrodamus isn't as false as I thought."

"Bah, humbug. He was just lucky, it could've been a river for all we know. Also the Czar of Russia is gone, his son and one of his daughters survived. It was either Anastasia or Marie i think."