A/N: Sorry I've been gone so long. I'm composing as well as doing writing on Wattpad now. A big thank you to those who always wait patiently for an update. I appreciate your patience. Also, if you're feeling interested, go on musescore, search CLASSICDUH, and click on Beneath a Moonless Sky. Feel free to check it out while you read :)

Within the past few months, Gustave's face had healed and Christine no longer had it as a reminder of who she loved - even though she loved her son just as much, if not more. The repeated beatings got to him occasionally and she had to remind him who they both were every now and then. Christine was almost certain he wouldn't know his own father by the time they had a chance to escape - for how could she explain to him that his father was a strange masked man.

He was five now and barely grew mainly due to the lack of food they each received. Christine held onto him as they tried hard to get her out of the cage for her 'job'. Her strength failed as they bashed her shoulders with something sharp and hot, "You said you would behave," Raoul yelled.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Please! Don't take my son away!"

"No. As of tonight, you two are separate. Now, your next customer - a man with five children. His wife is dead and he wants you to-"

"Raoul, please! I don't want this anymore! There's got to be something else I can do."

"You're a beautiful woman, Christine, and you have the voice of a siren. There is nothing else you can do!"

"Raoul, please!"

"You should have thought about this before you slept with him, Christine! It's all you're good for anymore, you disgusting harlot!"

"I never wanted this. Please! Anything! Anything to get my son and I out of here!"

"You haven't paid the toll you put on me. Send her up!"

The two armed men pulled her up towards the top of the small concrete staircase, Gustave pleading for his mother to come back, "You've changed, Raoul! No one will love you!"

"It doesn't matter!"

Gustave cried out for Christine, reaching his arms out of the cage only to be struck with a hot poker on each arm. He recoiled into the corner, tears sliding down his now hollowed cheeks, "I thought you learned your lesson, you little demon-spawn!"

Gustave realized he was the only one who could look out for himself anymore. He still loved his mother, but she was taken away from him so many times that it was only him - no love to be received. He stayed quiet, staring empty-mindedly at the wall beside him. He realized how fast he had to grow up, feeling nothing but hatred now. He stared at the door, waiting patiently for his mother to return.

After a few minutes, he heard a slam and Christine was thrown inside her cage - shaking so hard that it seemed like she was having a heart attack. She turned in the cage, looking at Gustave as he cried silently in the corner. Something in her was desperate to get out and coddle her boy, "What did you do to him?!"

"Taught him a lesson."

"I hate you, Raoul! I hate you beyond all reason!"

"Well, thank you."

A/N: I know what you're thinking - short, right? And two Author's notes in a row?! Well, I'll update again soon and it will be much better. More action and less, well, me.