Éponine leaned as far back as she could, trying to scoot away from him. He was terrifying her. Now that he had returned the mask, the stark expression of the mask and the way it shielded his emotions made him even crueller looking. The more she leaned away the closer he got.

"Why so silent?" Erik sneered reaching out to grab her jaw. "Are we...afraid?"

"You're a cold blooded killer." Her eyes were cast down, not wanting to meet his eyes.

"You would have never known until some large-mouthed ballerina came spilling my past." He jerked her head up, "How does that change what we had?"

"You have killed out of pure entertainment." Éponine muttered, afraid to speak any louder.

"I told you from the beginning that I am a monster. But, you wouldn't believe my warnings and my subtle hints. You're too stubborn and too sure of yourself." Erik rose abruptly and made his way towards his organ. "Your lessons begin now."

Éponine stared in disbelief at how quickly his moods changed. The longer she stayed and the more she thought she understood him the more she realised that he was everything he claimed to be. He was a crazed and disfigured monster.

Despite every warning he had given her, every seemingly self loathing thing he had said had been his attempt to keep her an arm's length away. But that was gone now; they had passed arm's length and went straight into within each other's arms.

"Come, come Éponine we don't have all day."

"I do not feel well." Éponine replied numbly as she stood on her feet.

Erik turned to stare at her, no feeling in his eyes or voice. "Come now. It is time for your lessons we have slacked enough."

"If I do not?" She took a step away.

"Five." He hissed, his jaw setting hard and his hands clenching into fists. "You would not want that to happen would you?"

Éponine swallowed hard, taking several slow and unsteady steps towards him. Had he threatened her life or someone else's? "Yes Monsieur."

"The music has a four count start, and then you begin to sing. It requires a lot of air to get the sound out, so I would recommend that you stop taking such trembling shallow breaths. It is a poor way to treat your diaphragm."

He began to play and Éponine studied the lyrics. Why must he write of love and make her sing it? She did not love him. She could never love him. She took a deep breath and began, "I don't know how to love him. What to do how to move him. I've been changed, yes really changed. In these past few days, when I've seen myself. I seem like someone else."

"Good." He crooned as she sang, looking up at her with his emerald eyes. Why had Antoinette ruined this? Éponine still sang for him. But not willingly, out of fear and out of worry. She would never been comfortable in his lair knowing she was being held by a cold blooded murder. Those words she spoke echoed in his mind as she sang. There had been a moment, when they were getting up this morning that he thought that she no longer felt like a hostage but like a guest/

That dream was gone now.

"I don't know how to take this. I don't see why he moves me. He's just a man. And I've had so many men before." Éponine took a sharp breath, the lyrics were her. When had he written this? Was this what he was writing the other day? "In very many ways. He's just one more."

"Sing."

"Should I bring him down? Should I scream and shout? Should I speak of love? Let my feelings out? I never thought I'd come to this. What's it all about?"

"Very good."

Éponine looked down at him, biting her lip before continuing. Why was he making her sing this? Why was it so close to the present truth? "Don't you think it's rather funny? I should be in this position?
I'm the one, who's always been so calm so cool. No lover's fool. Running every show. He scares me so." Éponine gasped, breathing fast. "I can't sing anymore Erik. Please let me go."

"You will sing." He hissed, replaying the part that she skipped.

" I never thought I'd come to this. What's it all about? Yet, if he said he loved me. I'd be lost. I'd be frightened. I couldn't cope. Just couldn't cope. I'd turn my head. I'd back away. I wouldn't want to now. He scares me so." She sank onto the floor beside the organ, "I want him so. I love him so."

"You let the music take control, épine peu."

"But the words weren't mine. They were yours." She brushed away a fearful tear from her cheek as she stared up at him.

"Were they?"

"How could you write this before any of this happened?"

"My feelings, your voice."Erik spoke in a hushed tone as he rose from the organ, searching for a blank piece of music.

Éponine watched as he played and wrote, murmured lyrics and played again. The pattern repeating over and over again for an unknown amount of time. Erik was beautiful when he worked, he was diligent and studious like a master craftsman at his trade. But his beauty was marred by the knowledge he was apprenticing in the art of murder.

Éponine sat beside the organ, never moving as he worked. She didn't want to upset him or anger him, make him lash out. She had seen a glimpse of his anger when she had removed his mask and again when Antoinette revealed his dark secret. She would have to be more cautious of what she said and what she did.

"I need your voice," He said, motioning for her to sit beside him. She obeyed quietly, sitting and looking over the music.

"A duet?"

"Yes." He finished drawing out a note and then played, "There is a short interlude and then you will come in on this chord."

"I am here to tell you we can never meet again. Simple really, isn't it, a word or two and then.
A lifetime of not knowing where or how or why or when. You think of me or speak of me and wonder what befell. That someone you once loved so long ago so well."

" Never wonder what I'll feel as living shuffles by. You don't have to ask me and I need not reply
Every moment of my life from now until I die. I will think or dream of you and fail to understand.
How a perfect love can be confounded out of hand. Is it written in the stars? Are we paying for some crime? Is that all that we are good for? Just a stretch of mortal time. Or some god's experiment?
In which we have no say. In which we're given paradise. But only for a day."

"Nothing can be altered, there is nothing to decide. No escape, no change of heart, nor anyplace to hide."

"You are all I'll ever want, but this I am denied. Sometimes in my darkest thoughts, I wish I'd never learned."

Their voices combined together in the one line of entwining. "What it is to be in love and have that love returned."

She took a quavering breath before continuing, "Is it written in the stars? Are we paying for some crime? Is that all that we are good for? Just a stretch of mortal time."

His voice joined in with hers, their song soaring through the air. "For some god's experiment. In which we have no say. In which we're given paradise. But only for a day."

Éponine chest was heaving for the singing and the adrenaline and the fear. How could a monster write such passion? Passion that soared into her very soul and made her want to give him everything she could.

A/N: First song is "How Do I Love Him" From Jesus Christ Superstar; Second song is "Written in the Stars" from Aida. Most of the songs I have used are songs I've heard Ramin Karimloo sing and want to use since he's my Phantom but "How Do I Love Him" is purely for the sake of the lyrics fitting and being a Webber piece.