**********Author's Note********************
I know it's been a while but I was trying to wait for more reviews but I haven't gotten any and I don't want to make anyone wait any longer. So here's the next chapter, I hope you enjoy. And please, please review.
I still couldn't believe it. Here was Erik standing right in front of me…without a mask on, it was crazy. He looked incredibly handsome but it was just weird not seeing that ivory mask covering half his face. After a few minutes I realized I was still sitting there staring with my mouth wide open in shock. Finally, I snapped out of it and spoke.
"Erik, I…I didn't think you were coming back." I said trying desperately not to stare.
Erik smiled softly, but did not come fully into the room. "We have a lot to discuss, and I have a lot of explaining to do. Could we go somewhere else, I know that it is late but maybe we could go get a drink or some coffee. Yes, that sounds like a good idea, get dressed…..please."
I had opened my mouth to tell Erik that he could not waltz back in here after months of being gone and start making demands. When I saw the pained look cross Erik's face and heard him say please, I shut my mouth deciding to let it go for now.
"Sure, we can go somewhere else. Just let me change. I'll meet you in the lobby." I said standing up and walking to the door to shut and lock it behind him as he walked out.
I met Erik in the lobby 5 minutes later, wearing jeans and a grey sweater with grey knee high boots. I had recently cut my hair into longer layers with bangs and had decided to pull it back into a pony tail, I thought it felt more casual and I didn't want it to seem like I had tried to dress up for him.
Erik and I began to walk down the street towards the little coffee shop on the corner. "So I know this is a stupid question but how did you get into the building after the show when we had already locked all the doors? Is there a broken window or door somewhere in the building that I need to have fixed?"
Erik snorted, and shook his head as he walked beside me. "You're right that is a stupid question. First of all, I was in the building before you locked the doors. I've been in the building since the doors opened; I watched the show and then stayed behind after everyone left. Second of all, if I were going to sneak into the building I wouldn't have to break anything. I lived in that building the majority of my life; I know how to get in and out of it very well. You of all people should know that"
"Yea, I guess your right. So….where have you been?" I sat in the chair that Erik pulled out for me on the patio of the coffee shop.
"Look this will be a lot easier if you just listen and let me explain…everything. If after I'm done, you still have questions, I'll gladly answer them. Ok?" Erik said after he came back with our coffees.
I shook my head and looked at him, indicating that he could begin whenever he felt ready.
"I'm sure that you have many questions about me and my life. How I came to live in the Opera House, why I wore a mask, what the fire and the kidnapping in the Opera House have to do with me, about…..him, the Phantom. I'm going to try and explain all of these things as best I can and hopefully you won't be running away from me by the time I'm done. I'll start from the beginning, before I was born…just bare with me."
I nodded, but did not say anything. I was eager to finally hear Erik's story.
"I know you read the articles about the original opera house, about the kidnapping, the killings, and the fire. Well, all of those things were caused by my great great great grand father. He was born in 1825, here in Paris with a deformity on the right side of his face. The skin looked like he had been in a fire and stretched from his hairline down to his chin. The skin was so transparent that it was almost see through. The skin of his nose was bubbled and scrunched; it didn't even look like a nose. Because of this deformity his mother hated him. She abused him, physically and mentally. When he was 6 years old she took him to the traveling circus that was in town and left him there. She gave him to the owner of the circus. He spent the next 7 years in that circus, where he was shown off to the customer's, he was known as the Devil's Child and was further abused. When he was 13 he killed the owner and escaped from the circus, he would have been caught and killed by the police if a little girl by the name of Annette Giry had not helped him. She snuck him into the catacombs of the Opera Populaire where she lived and studied. My great grand father lived in those catacombs for the next 32 years. He could not leave for fear of being caught and for fear of getting Annette in trouble. During his many years in the opera house he read about everything he could get his hands on, he was a genius, in all subjects but especially the arts. He loved music; he had the most beautiful voice and could play almost any instrument. The opera house was his home and his playground. As he got older he made his presence known to the inhabitants of the Opera House and eventually came to be called the Phantom of the Opera. All of the years of abuse had turned him into a bitter, angry, soulless man. He had an incredible temper and when people did things in the opera house that he didn't approve of, he killed them. In 1861 when my great grand father was 36 years old a young orphan girl named Christine came to the Opera House to study ballet under Annette's guidance, who was now the ballet mistress for the Opera House. Erik saw this girl and instantly loved her; he spent the next 9 years teaching this girl to sing, teaching her about music and how to use her voice. With every day that passed by he fell more in love with her, became more obsessed. In 1870 Christine began singing for the Opera Populaire and a childhood friend Raol came back into her life and they ended up engaged. This made my grand father insanely jealous, murderously so. In his head he believed that it was Raol who was keeping Christine from admitting that she loved him and that as long as he was around, Christine would never truly be his. He kidnapped Christine and took her into the catacombs of the opera house to the very caves where I brought you. He hoped that Raol would follow and he would have the opportunity to trap and kill him. But, his plan didn't go perfectly. In the process of kidnapping Christine he also started the fire that would consume the building and turn the building into what it was when you first arrived. Also, when the opportunity came to kill Raol, Christine caught up in her own emotions kissed Erik and because of this he could not kill Raol and he let them both go. A mob followed the trio down into the dungeons destroying them as they went, when they reached Erik's lair, Christine and Raol had escaped, but the men in the mob assumed he had killed them and they in turn killed him. But, there was one fact that was unknown to everyone but Erik and Christine. It was that when Erik first kidnapped the young girl, he raped her. A month after Christine and Raol's "escape" the couple found out that Christine was with child, Raol of course assumed that the child was his but when the baby girl was born with black hair, soft as silk and emerald green eyes Christine knew the truth, although she took that fact with her to her grave.
That baby girl was my great great grand mother. After having the baby and realizing that Erik was her father, I assume that Christine must have been thrilled that her precious child had not been born with Erik's deformity. My grand mother, Rose as she was named, lived a normal happy life, with her mother and "father" in a little village outside of France. It was in this village that she met my great great grand father, Luke. They married and moved to Paris where my Grand father worked as a black smith and my grand mother as a piano teacher, as it turns out she inherited her father's musical abilities. My great grand mother was born in 1901 in Versailles, she lived there her entire life; my grand mother was born there in 1921. When she was 18 she married my grand father Ralf and they moved to Paris and had my mother in 1951. My mother began working at the Louvre when she was 20. This is where she met my father. They married in 1973 and had me 8 years later.