I got out of the tub and went back to the dormitories to find that Christine and Meg were just waking up.

"Welcome to the world of the conscious mind ladies, where cats cannot speak Russian." They looked at me, surprised that I was up before them. Or at the way I chose to get them up. Either or.

"What are you doing up so early?" Meg asked. Usually she and Christine had to drag me out of bed before seven.

"I had nightmares and I couldn't sleep." No use lying.

"About what?" Christine sat up, bleary eyed. I really didn't want to talk about it.

"I don't know you well enough to tell you yet." I didn't wait to see if I had offended them before I turned around and left the room calling over my shoulder that I'd watch them practice from box 5. I got my cleaning stuff and went to the box, hoping that Erik wouldn't make an appearance and use his super keen senses to deduce I was in a crappy mood. I still had my ballet lesson with Madame Giry after practice and I decided I had to try and perk up before that. I hope I can go home before the Devil's Carnival comes out, I've been waiting months to see it, ever since I saw the promo for it with Terrance whatever-his-last-name-is. I loved the song and had already memorized it.

"The ship, it swayed, heave ho, heave ho,
On the dark and stormy blue,
And I held tight to the Captain's might
As he pulled up his trews.
You haven't slept, heave ho, he said,
In many suns and moons.
Oh, I will sleep when we reach shore,
And pray we get there soon.
He said, Now hush love, here's your gown.
There's the bed, lantern's down.
But I don't want to go to sleep; in all my dreams, I drown.

The Captain howled Heave ho, heave ho
And tied me up with sheets
A storm is brewing in the South
It's time to go to sleep
His berth, it rocks, heave ho, heave ho
The ocean gnashed and moaned
Like Jonah will be swallowed whole
And spat back teeth and bones
He said, Now hush love, here's your gown.
There's the bed, lantern's down.
But I don't want to go to sleep; in all my dreams, I drown.

Captain! Captain!
I will do your chores
I will warm your cot at night
And mop your cabin floors
Scold me, hold me
I'll be yours to keep
The only thing I beg of you
Don't make me go to sleep

The sky it flashed, heave ho, heave ho,
His pillow toed to the brink.
The curtains ran between my legs as we began to sink.
I closed my eyes, heave ho, heave ho,
As the ship was rent and fell.
Eddies in the water headed to the mouth of Hell
Hush now, hush love, here's your gown.
There's the bed, lantern's down.
I'm begging you please wake me up
In all my dreams I..." I let my voice trail away from me as the song ended. I had cleaned all the chairs and the curtains through the song. Although singing had always made me feel better the song wasn't a good choice, though Terrance has a deep sexy voice. It was a pity that he was married or I'd have to hit on him. If I ever met him. Most likely not.

"Your voice is lovely in alto or soprano." I looked up from cleaning under the chairs to see Erik standing behind me.

"Jesus darling, don't you know how to make a sound?" I could've wet my pants. Dress. Whatever.

"I hardly ever speak to anyone, I don't need to talk to people in my line of work." Did he just make a joke? The Phantom of the Opera just made a joke. Holy crap.

"Well you're talking to me now. And you planned to talk to me so why did you sneak up on me? Trying to give me a fright?" I winked at him and went back to cleaning the box.

"Why did you have a nightmare?" I was so shocked I stopped cleaning for a second.

"That's none of your business Erik Destler. Whatever torments my psyche should be of no concern to you." My voice came out fast and harsh, like the rocks that knock against your legs when a wave comes in to meet the shore.

"What have you to hide?" Erik asked softly, I could hear the hurt in his voice.

"I don't know you well enough to get into my personal problems with you darling." I caressed the unmasked side of his face. He stiffly accepted the touch of another human being. I knew it was hard for him.

"You know about me, I suspect that you know quite a bit more than you're telling me but I know next to nothing about you." He was right, I knew everything about him, well, the various versions of him. I just wasn't ready to tell him about me.

"My favorite color is blue," I said smiling up at him. "That's something to start with." He looked a little amused. "I'm going shopping with Christine and Meg on Saturday; we're going to give your bank a work out." He looked confused and I laughed. "It means I'm going to spend your money on girly things." I bit back laughter as Erik's face went pink.

"I hope you have fun." He turned away to go out the door and disappear like he would as a Phantom.

"Did you want to talk about something?" Did he just want to find out what I was dreaming?"

"You seem unwilling to share what I want to know, so I will not force it out of you." He walked out of the room with a swish of his cape. I quickly followed him out into the hall but he had disappeared.

"One day when I feel comfortable enough I'll tell you all you want to know." I walked back in the room to finish cleaning.

ERIK

When Danielle called me darling a little hope filled in my heart. Maybe she'd stay and fulfill all of my dreams of her career. Christine still was too shy to sing the lead, too unsure of her voice even though it was angelic. It would be hard enough to convince Monsieur Lefèvre to fire Carlotta as it is.

What was Danielle's nightmare? Maybe it was a secret fear. She always seemed so strong and confident that a weakness could shatter her self image. Maybe she had a horrible childhood like I did. I decided to watch tonight as she had her lesson for dancing. I knew she said she'd never danced ballet before, maybe she would have a talent for it. When she moved she was very conscious of her body and Antoinette had explained that was important in a dancer. I pulled myself into one of the secret doors in the walls I knew about as I heard Danielle come out of the room.

"One day when I feel comfortable enough I'll tell you all you want to know." I heard her say as she walked back into the room. This raised so many questions. What was it that was done to her that was so horrible that she couldn't talk about it?

DANIELLE

I sat in box 5 and watched Carlotta throw a grade A bitch fit. She should start acting like she deserves the prima donna roles she gets, why does she still get the lead if they have to put up with her constant bitchiness? I wondered if I could lob a wadded up rag and bean her in the head. No, bad Danielle. I'd get in more trouble than it was worth, even if it was funny. I watched Carlotta storm out, leaving the rehearsal the day before they performed. If I did that back home I'd get fired. Or kicked out of my Drama class, whatever you wanna call it.

We all knew that Carlotta would come back, she loved the spotlight too much to stay away. The cast was told they could leave early, that they needed to rest up for the show tomorrow. Madame Giry insisted that they stay an hour longer but they still got out two hours before they usually did. I walked back to the dormitories with Christine and Meg and changed into the white tutu.

"Why are you in a tutu? I thought you were a cleaning girl." One of the ballerinas asked as she peeled off her own tutu.

"I asked Madame Giry to teach me how to dance. I wanted to be in shows with you guys but I figured I needed to at least know the basics." The girls squealed and encouraged me to do my best, saying how much fun it would be to dance together. I bowed out of the room and went to meet Madame Giry on the stage.

"Good, you came." She smiled at me as I walked up to her.

"Did you think I wouldn't?" I asked

"I wasn't sure. I want you to know it's going to be hard to learn this, ballet isn't something you can give up on and walk away from, you have to keep going." I knew it was going to be hard, but I wanted to do it anyway.

"I know, I still want to try." She smiled at me again.

"Alright, let's start with the basics."

We worked on the basics until about five minutes dinner was going to be served. "That was very good for a first try. You are getting the hang of this quite quickly. Now, go wash up for dinner and I want you to stretch all of your muscles before you meet me after rehearsals on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays; is this schedule unconflicted?"

"Yeah, it gives me something to do every day besides clean that box." It kinda got boring doing nothing for most of the day besides walk around the Opera and I wasn't brave enough to spontaneously go visit Erik, setting aside the fact that there was never any guarantee that he'd be home. I'd be able to start dancing in between working and dinner, since it only took me about four hours to clean the entire box, it wasn't very big, it wasn't exactly small but it was about as big as a small kitchen without all the nooks under furniture that were really hard to clean. I washed my face, changed and went to get dinner, meeting up with Christine and Meg at the dining hall.

"How was your first ballet lesson with my mom?" Meg asked.

"It went pretty well, I mean she only taught me the basics but she said I was a pretty good beginner." I took a bite of the chicken before I continued. "I used to make up dances with my friends back home to our favorite songs and perform them on the streets." Christine looked at me with wide eyes.

"You danced on the street for money?" She sounded horrified.

"Yeah, during street fairs and farmer's markets or just for fun; when we went back to one of our houses we'd divide the money between us." I remembered our first performance, we had been so scared, but as soon as we hit the stage our act became electric. I still wonder how three awkward Sophomores got the guts up to dance in the talent show. "Come to think of it, one of my friends is a ballerina so she must have taught me some ballet things in the past." I shrugged.

"Oh, I thought you meant that you meant that you flaunted your body for money," Christine said. I almost choked on my water.

"That's a pretty big assumption, Chrissy," I said back at her. I didn't know women flaunted themselves like that, but there's a lot of French history I didn't know. Hell, all I knew was the horrible story of their revolution and how they had left their boy king in a tower prison where he lost his mind and slowly died.

"I'm sorry, I know it must be different where you're from." Christine went red. Serves her right. God, I could start to feel my muscles aching, I was in for a hell of a time tomorrow.

"Danielle what do you do all day while we're rehearsing?" Meg spoke up for the first time. I guessed she was extra hungry from doing those crazy moves she had to do with only two other girls, I guessed Meg was the Prima Donna ballerina or whatever you called it.

"I mostly wander around the Opera, finding little rooms or helping out some of the staff with their work. I like working with the cooking staff, I've always been good at cooking. And baking." A few weeks ago I learned how to bake brownies and cakes from scratch. I definitely had to stop using the ready made mix when I got home.

"Have we eaten anything that you made?" Meg asked.

"You remember that ugly ass cake monster thing? My earliest creation." They began to laugh.

"My goodness, that looked horrible, but it tasted wonderful. I could've eaten three of them." Meg laughed. I was happy that they liked my Frankenstein pastry.

"Well, looks aren't everything." In every sense of being.

"I can't wait for our shopping trip Saturday, it'll be so much fun. Christine and I know a store that had good quality clothes and low prices so you can save some of the money your benefactor gave to you." I could tell she was curious as to whom my benefactor was; it was too bad she'll never find out. Well, not until Don Juan. Or maybe he'll completely leave me out of his plans to get Christine. I felt guilty for considering it, Christine was my friend, no matter how much she hurt Erik.

"That sound great. I don't really know what I need to get, seeing as I'm not from around these parts. Are there dresses that I wouldn't need to wear this death constrictor with?" The snickered.

"Yes but they have a built in type of corset instead, not much more comfortable than a real one." I felt my hope drop into a pit in my stomach. Why was it always the corset? It'll deform me and everyone else that has to wear them.

"Yippee. Really, I'm jumping for joy inside. Pardon me if I sound a little lack luster." I rested my hand against my forehead and pretended to swoon.

"Oh you're so dramatic." Meg nudged me with her shoulder. I nudged her back.

"So the big day's tomorrow, you excited?" I could almost feel the energy radiating off of them.

"Oh yes! I can't wait for Faust to be performed in front of an audience, we've been working so hard!" Christine turned red from acting so "unladylike." Christine always tried to be calm and collected and when she let all her emotions out she felt embarrassed. It was cute; I could see why Erik loved her.

"I can't wait to watch it. I'll be in box 5." The look on their faces was priceless.

"Don't go in there for the play! The Phantom always watches the performances from there, if he catches you there he'll kill you." They whispered to me like they were telling me a dark secret.

"Please. We've come to an understanding and he'll leave me alone as long as I don't absolutely screw up his box." They looked terrified; I wonder how Christine would act if she knew who her teacher really was. "Just because you two are as deep as a puddle and stay away doesn't mean I have to follow your example."

"What do you mean? The Phantom is a murderer!" Meg said as Christine went pale.

"Does he ever kill without a reason? Just because someone is portrayed as a bad person doesn't mean you shouldn't give them a chance. And he's been very civil to me." I almost choked on my tongue trying not to say that Erik was my friend.

"I highly doubt that he acts or thinks like a human being." Christine said curtly. I hope Erik didn't hear her, that'd break his heart.

"Your call. He hasn't hurt me in any way and I'm 'invading his territory'." I wouldn't waste my breath trying to persuade them otherwise.

"I hope you don't actually try and watch Faust in his box. We just don't want to see you hurt," Meg said.

"Thanks but I'll be fine." I tried to calm their fears but they were there. I just hoped the play went well with them being distracted by my well being. I tried, and failed, to hide a jaw cracking yawn. "Sorry, I'm beat; I think I'll just go to bed." I got up,brushed my teeth and climbed into bed thinking about how sore my muscles will be tomorrow.

Hey guys! Sorry it took so long to update, I have a lot of school stuff I need to do and could only find a little time to write. I'll try to keep a steady updating schedule, but I'm really busy for the next two weeks. Remember to review and the characters belong to their rightful persons.