Author's Note: First of all, thank you for all the reviews, they are very much appreciated. Second, I appreciate the constructive criticism and believe me when I say that I am taking everything said into consideration for the upcoming chapters. So once again, thank you very much.

I groggily awoke at what I assumed was morning. I pulled out my phone to check the time; it was seven in the morning. As my consciousness started kicking in, I could hear voices coming from outside the door. Could it be another intruder?

I gingerly opened the door to see Erik sitting in the main entrance with a dirty skinny Armenian boy who appeared to be in his late teens. I kept forgetting how acute Erik's hearing was because I barely took a step out when he looked up. "Ah, ici elle est," he said standing up. He took my hand and led me to the boy. "Saro, c'est Julia, la jeune femme que j'ai été tu raconter." He turned to me, "Julia, this Saro. He's a homeless gypsy who I've hired to be my errand boy. I suppose you could say he is my window to the outside world."

Saro took my hand and shook it. "Bonjour mademoiselle," he said.

"Bonjour," I responded with an awkward smile.

"I should mention that Saro only speaks French."

"Ah," I replied. My gaze transitioned from Saro to the overflowing bags on the table. "What are those?"

"Oh, mostly groceries."

"Monsieur," Saro spoke up as our focus shifted to him. "Je n'aime pas interrompre, mais je vais prendre mon congé."

"Très bien. Au revoir Saro." Saro waved goodbye and walked out. Erik turned to address me. "Well I can imagine that you must be famished. Please," he gestured toward the bags, "help yourself."

"Oh, thank you." As much as I hated to admit it, I really was hungry. I reached into one of the bags and pulled out a smaller bag of bakery fresh croissants. I reached for a small plate from the china cabinet and put a croissant on it as I slowly ripped a piece off. I looked up and noticed Erik keeping his distance. "Aren't you going to have anything?"

"Oh, no, I rarely eat. The food is mostly for you."

"Incredible," I mused. "You barely eat a thing and yet you are still alive after all this time. How is it that you haven't starved to death?"

Erik released a sigh of frustration. "I swear, if you ask me one more time how I am still alive, it will be your last." Taking his threat seriously, I never brought up the subject ever again.

After breakfast I decided to get dressed. In order to prevent myself from wearing the same thing as the day before, I decided to wear one of the dresses in the closet. As soon as I was dressed, I left my room and found Erik at his desk writing a letter. He didn't even acknowledge that I was in the room until he sealed the letter in an envelope. "What do you think?" I asked referring to the dress.

"It's very nice," he said rather unimpressed. It had then dawned upon me that to Erik this was just a regular every day outfit, nothing special to him. He gathered a bunch of envelopes and stood up. "Look, I'm afraid I'm going to have to deliver a few things at the moment, but I will be back soon."

"Isn't that what Saro is for?" I asked, a smile growing on my face. But the smile didn't last long for I could see Erik's bony body tensing up and his hands clenching as if he were strangling air.

Finally he sighed and released his tension. "I have to deliver these within the walls of the opera house," he said through clenched teeth. I followed him out of his room as he put his cape and hat on. "Don't even think about leaving," he said as he walked out the front door.

I waited a few seconds before I tried pulling the front door handle. "Yup, it's locked," I said to myself. "It's not like I could leave if I tried." Once again I was all alone in Erik's house. I made my way back into Erik's room and looked around and against a wall was a piano. I approached it and ran my fingers along the keys. I wanted so badly to play it, but I didn't know when Erik would be back and I didn't want to risk getting caught. As I sat down I realized that I wasn't necessarily afraid of Erik himself as much as his mood swings. It scared me that one minute he is kind and sane, the next he is crying like a pathetic child, and the next he could kill at the snap of a neck if he wanted to. But then I figured that if I left the door open, I would hear him come in. So I decided to just go ahead and play. Little did I know how wrong I was.

I don't know if I was just so caught up in the music or he was very quiet, but regardless I didn't hear him sneak up behind me. It wasn't until he grabbed me by the neck and threw me to the ground. "How dare you!" he shouted. I tried to sit up, but my neck hurt too much from his grasp and my body hurt too much from the fall. "No one lays a hand on this piano besides Erik!"

Once I finally had enough strength I stood up. "What is it you want with me exactly?" I asked breathing heavily. "You wanted me to stay, I stayed. If you want me to go, I'll go."

"I let you stay as a favor to you. You're lucky I didn't just kill you on the spot!"

"Really? I believe it was you who were crying as I almost walked out the door. And besides, if you were going to kill me, why didn't you, huh? What stopped you?"

"One more word out of you, and so help you I will change my mind!"

"Alright!" I pulled out his Punjab lasso from his desk drawer and put it around my neck. "Go ahead, kill me! I dare you!" I grabbed his wrist and placed the rope into his hands and put my hands on my hips as he looked down and stared at the rope. "What are you waiting for? You wanted to kill me so bad, just do it already!"

After what felt like an eternity despite it only being a few seconds, he finally looked up and approached me, taking the noose off from my neck. "Go back to your room," he said quietly. "Leave me." I took the lasso from him and threw it to the ground before stomping out and slammed the door to my room.

French translation: "Ah, here she is. Saro, this is Julia, the young woman I've been telling you about." "I hate to interrupt, but I'm going to take my leave." "Very well. Goodbye Saro."