Well, this chapter turned out more angsty than I had planned. Lots of crying. Lots of tears. (Really full. Lot of sap.) Anywho, thank you to all who reviewed/ read last chapter :) much appreciated.

PhantomROX1870: haha thanks! and he doesn't do much to them in this chapter...I'm trying to figure out exactly what his plan is ^^;

Awesome: heehee :D you're very welcome ^^ it was so much fun to write haha and I get weird looks for squeeing in public a lot. xD I deliberately made her an alto...I am, and I kinda hate a lot of sopranos... they get all the harmonies -shakes fist at sky- And i believe Raoul was confused as a child and thought Christine's name was Charlotte... But the world may never know! Gahh i wish i got Dr. Who on my TV D; but alas. and yeahh, ahah Erik's severely romantically deprived ;P and I have seen it before, no worries!

That crazy girl with glasses: I'd die if he was in love with her too haha three guys hounding her is enough to drive me batty ^^ and thank yaa! :D heehee i love that line too :)

Read, Review, and Enjoy! :)

Love,

SarcasmIsTheBestMedecine

AKA: Maura

The Introduction

Chapter Nine: Past Occurences

I whipped around and put a finger on his nose, a determined look settling on my face

The seductive look on his face melted into annoyance.

"Amazing how you went from immensely attractive to a chipmunk in five seconds," he grumbled, trapping me in the twin bars of steel we call his arms. Mm, comfy...NORA STOP IT.

I smiled sweetly and traced the triangle of his nose with my finger, crossing over porcelain to skin and back again. "That's what I'm here for!" He scowled at me, but his eyes were lit up like fireworks. My eyelids started to flutter as he pulled me tighter to him. I looked up at him through my eyelashes, seeing his masked face nearing mine more every second. His lips were a few centimeters from mine when I sighed out a breath I had been holding since he had started moving closer.

He stopped and froze. I opened my eyes, looking up at his face, a mixture of fear and longing stuck on it. We stopped breathing, and something joined in us. For a second, I was in his world. A world where everyone had hated and shunned me. A world where no one had ever shown even a minute sliver of love to me. A world where I was alone, and where all I wanted was to come together with someone who knew what it was like. For a second, I was a broken, despised man in a city of love. For a second, I got him, and in the same second, it felt like he knew me, even though he knew nothing about me.

The connection in us broke as soon as we started to breathe again. I blinked, and he was no longer the scared, alone man he was a moment ago. He was a shell, pushing me away and stalking to his organ, running a hand through his hair. I stumbled backwards, shocked and confused. Did he feel what I just felt…?

I pulled the cape tight to me, reveling in its warmth and comfort, and sat down in a nearby chair. I pulled my knees to my chest and thought about my family for the first time in a few days. Did they know I was missing? Were they looking for me? I winced, seeing my brother's pain stricken face clear in my mind. Beck wouldn't believe it, I thought. He'd think I met up with someone and got caught up. The phases of my brother's acceptance of my disappearance shot through my mind, each more painful to see than the last.

And my parents. I closed my eyes tightly, trying to rid any thought of them from my mind. They would die if I went missing and was presumed dead. After all the shit that's gone on in my life… Even when I was a baby and some psycho family kidnapped me and said I was theirs, and I believed it until I was six, when the FBI finally caught up with them and took me back to the Mom and Dad I know now.

Tears threatened to break through my eyelids when I thought of what happened six years ago, back when I was fourteen and popular and everything everyone wanted to be. Back when I was still so naïve and I didn't want to believe he was using me, back when I cried futile tears during the worst night of my life, clinging to those dirty sheets like they were life itself as he took my innocence, both figuratively and literally. Back when all my friends left me, because who wants to be near to someone who's been date-raped and thought she was pregnant?

My shoulders shook, and I gasped as the tears started to fall. I pulled my legs tighter to me and put my face in the nook between my knees, sobbing loudly, feeling the same pain and the same fear again, and remembering the doctors and the tests and the worried and disappointed glances from my parents. Feeling my brother's hugs, feeling his shoulders shake in time with mine, so worried for me it broke both of us in two, healing us tighter and stronger than we ever were before.

"Lenora…"

I looked up to see a blurry Erik, reaching out to me slightly. I couldn't see much of him, but I could tell he was carrying a towel and clutching flowers in one hand.

"What," I blubbered, "Have you come to ruin me also? To take my trust in you and then snap me in half?"

He walked forwards more, handing me the cloth. I furiously rubbed away the tear tracks and looked at him with red eyes as he held a group of white, bell-shaped flowers out to me.

"What are these?" I sniffed, holding them gently in one hand and wiping tears from my eyes with the other.

"White heather," Erik murmured, kneeling before me and wiping my eyes with a handkerchief. I stopped sniffing and looked at him, confused. "Protection," he said, moving over to the left arm of the chair and taking my hand in both of his, bringing it to his mouth, softly kissing my knuckles. He looked me in the eyes, and said evenly, "I will protect you against whatever you fear." His thumb started rubbing circles on the back on my hand, and I was shocked into a memory.


"Len," the blue haired boy said, pulling me close to him. I giggled and snuggled to his chest, feeling his heart beat at the same pace as mine, ticking, counting the time left in our lives. He took my hand and put it to his face, staring into my soul with his dark gold eyes. His thumb started to make circular motions on my hand as he leaned down and kissed me, slowly and softly, mesmerizing me and slowly pulling me under…


Irrationally, I pulled my hand away and stood up, walking towards the exit. "I don't need protection!" I screamed, tripping over an outcropping and stumbling against a wall, bursting into fresh peals of sobbing, burying my face in my arms.

"You don't want my help?" I heard Erik growl from somewhere behind me as I collapsed in a pile onto the floor. "Fine! I won't try to help you!" I heard a door slam behind me, and I pulled myself up the wall, attempting to stand again. I fell once more, feeling the pain of Jared's hand on my face, hearing the jeers in the hallways, knowing that I might be pregnant – that that evil boy's child might be in me – and not wanting to get rid of it…

I fingered the heather, putting one of my fingers into the tiny bloom, almost hearing a bell ring.

"Erik," I whispered, curling into myself, trying to erase the suffering and the angst I had forced myself through just now. "Erik…" I pulled the cape to my face, breathing in soap and leather and darkness. Breathing in Erik. I closed my eyes, letting the silence of the empty room around me cover me like a blanket before slipping into a fitful bout of nightmares one could call sleep.