Chapter Four: So She Remains

Elodie

The lounge would have been soft had she some sort of natural cushion for her bones. Sitting made it feel as if her bones were poking through her skin. It was quite painful and she shifted often trying to alleviate some of the irritation.

She was in the middle of doing so when the door opened. It was not incredibly fast as if he were in a hurry nor was it slow and suspenseful. She was amazed at the way it seemed so natural, so lacking in dramatics. Everything, she thought, should be done in extremes. It would make life much more interesting that way.

He stood for a second as if confused at seeing her then the blank look of uncertainty on his face was replaced by a look of cool composure. He stood, tall, his broad form stretching for what seemed a glorious eternity. She watched him in silence, unblinking. For a fleeting second she wondered if he were real, if he were mortal. Her head filled with spectacular fantasies of such a figure. He did not seem to belong in this insignificant tiny location off of no where.

Their eyes locked for a brief second before she forced herself to look away at the floor beneath him. His gaze was intense and painful. She worried he would see through her.

He seemed untroubled by the silence that filled the air. He seemed not to notice the creeping awkward sensations that were filling her head, the anxiety of being in front of another human being, the antisocial screams inside her head. To her it seemed as if hours were flying by and they were just staring at one another. Neither brave enough to speak a word.

"Thank you." She blurted out. Her hands fluttered nervously to her face and back to her lap. "I-well you see-ummm." She bit her thin lip and blinked back tears of fear. "Just thank you." She muttered as she twisted her dress around her bony fingers.

She glanced up to see him staring at her still. She wanted to crawl into herself and vanish into thin air. The silence was excruciating. Her mind could think of nothing else to say so she said nothing, only staring down at the floor, his feet, her lap. Her eyes began to water as she cursed her lack of humanity, her lack of understanding what was happening at this particular point in time.

"Yes, well, I couldn't very well leave you there." His voice was gruff, deep and scratchy as if he hadn't spoken in a long time. She exhaled with relief and watched as his feet disappeared into the small kitchen. She fought the urge to stand and follow him in. There was banging and then more silence.

Squeezing her eyes closed, she counted her heart beat slowly. His footsteps returned and her eyes flicked open. He held out a chunk of bread to her. He watched her with curiosity as she hesitated before she gently took it from his hand and placed it in her palm. "I can't remember exactly what happened." She admitted as she rolled the bread around her hand. "I must have fainted." She said thoughtfully as she stuck a thumb into the bread, feeling the soft texture of it.

"You do know that you eat that, right?" He said. She looked up to see him eating his own chunk and watching her hands play with the food. Her face flushed despite herself. He transfered his gaze the window behind her. "You're from the sanatarium." He declared. Her heart skipped a beat.

"Yes." She said quietly. There was a pause in which she began to panic again. "You won't take me back, will you?" She breathed out rapidly.

"It's of little concern to me what you do." He said. "I am not your guardian, your parent, or your keeper." He chewed for a second. "I am curious though. How did you get out?"

"There are passages. Secret ones that they think we don't know about. I'm not sure why they are there but they're harmless enough and they lead to all sorts of places. One leads to the cellar. It's terrifying down there. There's this misery clinging to the air and all of this equipment that I've never seen before. It's dusty and cobwebs cling to every crevice. I discovered one that leads to a little garden. It's completely run over by weeds and the stone bench is cracked and moss is growing on it. And-" She shut her mouth, realizing that she was rambling away. "then I found this one." She finished abruptly. She tore a miniscule piece of bread off and stuck it decidedly in her mouth. She chewed until it had practically evaporated in her mouth.

"None of them were blocked off? None of them were locked away?" He asked curiously. She shook her head.

"I'm sure the building is quite old." She said. "Some of the attendants probably don't even remember they are there. We aren't supposed to be able to wander around but it's easy to slip out of your cell." She paused to glance at him. His gaze was once again focused on her completely. "Well, at least it is for me. All you have to do is make sure you don't get caught." She said with a slight grin as she tapped her thin wrist with her forefinger.

She remembered when she realized she could squeeze herself through the unusually large space where the door to her cell swung open. Most of the inhabitants wouldn't have made it through but she had lost so much of the mass of her body that it only took a little effort and manuevering. The hardest part was her head and she always cried with frustration in silent tears when she got to the point where she had to find a way for her head to fit out.

"How long have you been there?" He asked.

She paused and stared at him. Thoughts flooded her mind. When she told him would he be put off? She had been there for so long. She was labeled as hopeless. Would he see her as mentally instable? "Two years." Her voice said before she could stop herself.

"Quite a long time. Do they not feed you there?" He asked as he studied her incredibly thin body.

She choked back a laugh. They were always trying to feed her. She didn't answer just returned to playing with the chunk of bread. He would never understand her desire to avoid food. No one did. They thought she was mental, crazy. They thought she was an odd, spoiled child.

----

Erik

He watched her as she rolled the bread from thin palm to thin palm, letting her thumb roll into the hole she had previously made. She sneered curiously at her lap and didn't answer his question. He was struck by the thought that she had taken no more than a bit of the bread. Her silence at the question was curious. He wanted to know why she had been at the sanatarium for two years but not enough to ask her. It was intrusive and she might be much more skittish than he'd first thought.

"It's of no matter." He said gruffly as he popped the last piece of his bread in his mouth. He chewed, thinking about how she studied the bread so intently but didn't snatch a bite. He had once gone a week without eating and when he had managed to grasp food he devoured it with a manic speed, letting his stomach expand with the nourishment that had been deprived. Here she was resisting the bread despite the way her eyes traveled across it over and over again.

"Are you going to make me leave?" She asked quietly, her voice wavering. His heart jumped. She sounded so desperate. So terrified by the thought.

"Do you have no where else to go?" He asked, determined to steer her away.

She laughed bitterly. "Where would I go? My parents'? They sent me here. I have no friends. I have no family who would not send me immediately back. I am very much alone."

"Then why did you leave?" He asked.

"Would you want to stay locked up for the rest of your life because no one understands you?" She said, turning her large brown eyes on him. He looked away embarrassed. His own memories started to flood back. Memories of bars and cruel staring people, of looks of horror. He pushed them away.

"What do you plan to do now that you escaped?" He asked frustrated. "If you have no where to go and no one to be with what do you have of a life? You cannot spend the rest of your life among nothingness."

"I-" She faltered. "I had not really thought that far." She admitted. "I don't know."

"Foolish." He said with annoyance. "Impulsive actions can lead to death. If I were to make you leave right this moment you would most certainly die."

"Will you?" She asked again.

"Not today." He decided finally. "You will think of something, somewhere you can go, however. You cannot stay with me forever."

"Why-" She cut herself off, her pale cheeks flushing slightly with blood. She looked timid and shy. She looked abandoned by everyone, including herself.

He needed to leave her. He needed to be with his thoughts now. He was suddenly saddled with someone, a mere child. Someone too weak to live on their own. He had not wanted this. He had not thought about this when he took her with him. The thought of another person living in his solitude was too much. "You may stay here for the time being." he grumbled. "I will be gone for a few hours." He declared. "There is not much to do, I'm afraid." He moved toward the door. "I'll be back." He said. He detested how it sounded like a promise. He hurried out the door, not looking back at her.

This was too sudden. This was too much. He had not wanted this at all, he was fairly sure. He had just not wanted her to die. Why? His mind questioned. Why not let her die when you, yourself, have killed countless times? You weak pathetic fool.

He shouldered off the thoughts and headed into the winding forest a few paces away from his could walk for hours and ease his thoughts. Then he would think of what to do with his new, unwanted companion.

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A/N: So I have a fairly good idea of how I want this story to go now. I'm actually kind of excited to write each chapter and that hasn't happened since my last Phantom fic (the finished Mistress Of Song). I'm really happy now that I'm back to writing and I keep thinking about when I saw the broadway musical a few weeks ago. Oh I missed the Phantom so much! ^.^

I hope you're enjoying this so far!