AN:

Hey guys. This story is finally going somewhere. Erik has met a girl named Mirela. I hope you all like my OC.

X X X

Once Mirela woke up, Erik had began tending to the wounds on her arms and neck. She had bruises all over her body and she looked as if she had been beaten for hours on end

"What happened to you." He asked. "Who did this?"

She looked down at the ground.

"This is my fault. That's all I want to say. Please don't ask any more questions. "

"This all could not possibly be your doing."

"No but it's my fault all the same."

"I'm going to find out somehow. And if you don't tell me than I'm just going to make my own assumption?"

She rolled her eyes. " I am curious of why you are here Erik. Why did you come here?"

"I'll answer your questions once you answer mine. " He smirked

"You know now that you mention it, I'm actually not that curious. "

"You should fear me."

She laughed sarcastically"Well isn't that a great way to get to know a person 'You should fear me'?"

"No its just human nature. A normal girl who has obviously been beaten sees a strange masked man in her home would be at least a little scared or frightened."

She raised an eyebrow. "I don't fear you. Maybe I should but I don't."

They were silent for a good minute or two. Then Erik noticed blood stains on the back of her dress.

"Um you have wounds on your back I should-."

She rolled over onto her stomach. "Go ahead."

Erik then began to untlace the ribbon on her dress slowly. Something about this made his fingers feel oddly numb and tingly. . Once he could see her back he saw 2 giant lashes from a knife, or a whip. One was pretty deep, the other less so. He stared at the wounds and traced around them. He told himself he was trying find out how far the pain went around the wound. But he knew that he just wanted to touch her. For moments he was lost in the act of caressing her skin.

He drew his hand off of her back to awake himself from the trance. "You have to tell me what happened. At least what cut you." He asked as he began to put medicine from his coat. "These are going to need stitched"

She jumped at the feeling of the medicine. It stung when he put it on.

She shook her head. She didn't want to explain her sad life to this stranger.

"Listen Mirela." Said Erik as he traced her shoulder blade. "I've made terrible choices and have had terrible experiences throughout my life as well." He had begun lightly moving his figers along her back again. He hadnt even noticed. "There is nothing you could tell me about your past that could make me think little of you. Now tell me. What happened?"

Mirela sighed. His words flowed like a song and he was rubbing her back now which filled her with a sense of warmth and safety. It was almost hypnotic. She didn't want him to stop.

"It was a man." She said afraid he would stop of she didn't answer. "But it's my fault."

"How was it your fault?" He asked without focus. Sort of like a zombie.

He was memorized with her skin. She didn't shudder at his touch or pull away. She let him touch her. This was totally new to him.

"My parents were gypsies."

Erik then took his hands of of her wounded back. She exhaled as if being released from a tight spaces. It was like some sort of spell had broken.

He was silent. This girl was a gypsy? He would've walked away right then and there if he hadn't made a vow to himself to be a better person. And if wasn't so beautiful.

"My father was abusive and cruel and.. he was going to kill me." She continued the story.

"Why?" Erik asked staring at her face.

"He was enraged when he found out about a lover I had." She hesitated to continue. "I was thirteen it was stupid. He was a rich married man and I was naive enough to think that he loved me. But he didn't. He loved what I could give him."

"What was that?" Erik asked sarcastically.

"My virginity."

She laughed slightly obviously trying not to show the pain the story caused.

"Continue" Erik pressed.

"Alright, well my father was cruel and he found about the lover and he said he was going to kill me." A tear ran down her cheek. "One might ask how any father could murder his own daughter for a childish mistake but he was so enraged. And because of how he treated me and my mother, i knew he wasn't bluffing, so i ran. Far far away until I was to france. I stole money snuck onto trains and eventually made my way here. But of course I couldn't get any job let alone a decent one due to the fact I was a gypsy. I know I could've just found more gypsies and stayed with them but to be honest I never liked being one of them. So I came down here and lived on what I could I stole food and money but if that didn't work I would have to find other ways to afford food. Others ways to make money."

"Were you a-?"

"A prostitute?" She interrupted. "Yes."

"How could you let men take advantage of you like that." Erik asked.

"I had no other choice." She said offended by his question. " Do know what it's like to live alone underground with nobody to care for you? To have such hateful parents that you have to run away from them? To be abused in every way shape and form? You think I wanted to be what I am today. It was only 5 years ago when I ran away and I've become an addict in that small amount of time. Do you know what's that is like? The world is cruel and wicked. There is no one in the whole city I can trust. I don't even have one friend. Do know what it's like to be treated as an outcast, a monster? Do you even know?"

Yes he did but he wasn't about to tell this girl his life story. But he could tell her a bit to help her through her pain. He knew how she felt and he didn't want her to be alone.

"Today is my Birthday. "

"Well happy birthday to you Erik." She replied sarcastically while wiping tears from her eyes.

"No not really. You see the first and only birthday celebration I had was when I was five. My mother's friend forced her to give me a birthday dinner. My mother hated me and made me wear a mask to hide my face."

"Why?"

He ignored her and continued with his tale.

"When my mother asked what I wanted for my birthday I asked for the one thing I wanted more than anything. A kiss. A simple kiss from my own mother on my birthday. She refused. I was so angry that I stormed up to my room and began trashing it like a wild animal. Once I was exhausted I just sat on the floor and cried. I didn't know what was wrong with me. I didn't even know why I wore the mask so once my mother's friend had came I went down stairs without it. Just to make my mother angry. To prove a point. Once my mother saw me she started screaming at me.

'Why do I wear the mask mama? No one else has to. Why am I different.'

She then dragged me up to her room and forced me to look at my own face. I was horrified. I had never even seen my own face before. No mirrors. I didn't even know it was my face when I saw it. I thought it was a monster you see. But by the time I was around 7 or 8 the truth dawned on me. Once I was nine I ran away. I went outside to go get my dog and a group of teenagers came and tried to kill me. They stabbed me and killed my pet. I was only nine. That night after my wound was tended too, I ran away. I never went back."

"Where did you live after that?" Asked Mirela.

"Many places but the latest one was the lowest cellar of the Opera Populaire."

"You lived beneath the city?" She asked. "You must've been able to hear all the plays and operas every night."

"Yes I could, it was magical, it was beautiful. "

"I snuck into the opera house one night, and -"

"How did you sneak in? All doors are locked as well as the windows."

"I didn't use window or a door. I climbed the building and went in through the roof entrance . And watched from the wings. That old man was so drunk he couldn't even see me."

Erik laughed then remembered that he had murdered that man.

"You climbed up the opera house." Asked Erik shocked that a young girl could pull that off.

"It's fun, you should try it sometime."

"I've climbed down it in the pouring rain during and a thunderstorm, does that count?"

She laughed. She hadn't done that in a long time. She had lived alone for 5 years. She forgot what it was like to be around people who didn't want to hurt her or take advantage of her.

Erik laughed to. He as well forgot what it was like to truly laugh and smile.

Maybe nadir was right maybe this birthday wouldn't be as bad as he thought.