Music drifted from the lake front room of Erik's home and the door to the guest room opened slowly. Helena peeked around the door cautiously. She was clean and dressed in a robe which had been simple enough for her aching body to put on. She had also slipped on a worn chemise and white slippers in an attempt to be dressed appropriately.
Helena looked at the small amount of the lake front room that she could see. Her mouth dropped open in awe. She pushed the door open more and stepped out, taking it all in. She turned around looking all around her and then her eyes landed on Erik at the organ.
The music he played confused her. She had never heard anything so beautiful and intricate but it made her want to cry just by listening to it.
She walked quietly to him and stood back and to his right, watching him play. Movement caught her eyes and she turned her head to find an exotic cat looking at her. The cat was sitting on a corner of the organ watching her without blinking. Helena stared back and moved to step toward the cat when Erik's music changed. It went from sad and lonely to angry and hopeless in an instant. It was played like that for merely a minute then returned to lonely and hopeless tones.
'He's not reading any music,' she realized. 'This isn't just any song it's from his soul. What happened to make him feel like this?'
She reached forward her right hand to touch his shoulder. But drew it back a little when she felt the cat's glare. She glared back and then reached forward and barely touched his shoulder.
Before she could react his hand reached up and grabbed her hand and twisted her wrist hard. She hit her knees with a whimper as he whirled to glare at her. She didn't see the hatred coming from his eyes because her own were closed in pain.
Suddenly the pain was gone and so was Erik. She looked up and saw the edge of his cloak disappear through a door at the opposite end of the room. He closed the door behind him as Helena cradled her throbbing wrist holding back tears. She heard a soft thump and looked up into blue eyes. The cat sat, looking down at her, and if she could talk Helena imagined the cat would tell her it was her own fault for surprising Erik. Then the cat turned with an air of contempt and pranced to the door. She gently scraped the door with her claws and a second later the door opened. The cat walked in and the door soundly closed behind her.
Helena pursed her lips and stood up to walk back to her room when she heard a growl and crash come from the room Erik was in. Then she heard another crash and more animalistic yells. Helena stumbled back to her room's door and listened to Erik yell and growl and throw things with her back pressed against the closed door. The roars of anger echoed through the cave-like house but before long they stopped abruptly. Helena was frightened even more by this and so she checked that the door was locked and retreated under the covers of the bed.
Helena slowly opened the door to the main room to find it empty. She had hid in the bed for at least an hour and had heard nothing further when she decided to check if he was alright. She crept softly to the door of what she guessed was his room and tapped gently.
"Monsieur Erik?" She called softly through the door afraid to wake him if he was asleep but afraid of him being hurt and needing her help. 'I need him to survive down here,' she thought. "Erik, are you well? Do you need anything? Is there anything I can do?"
"You can leave me alone," said his voice inside her head.
Helena looked around surprised but didn't see anyone. She nodded hesitantly, "As you wish." Then retreated from the door and went to sit in an armchair.
When the door to Erik's room finally opened the cat pranced out of the room followed by Erik. The cat jumped on the organ bench and then onto her perch beside the organ, waiting for the normal routine to continue.
Erik however did not sit at the organ to play from his soul but instead walked to his dark red arm chair to look at the girl curled up there with her head on the arm rest. Helena was asleep and did not notice him lift her right arm gently to look at the bruised and swollen wrist.
"She startled me," he said by way of an exclamation.
"I'm sorry," Helena mumbled without opening her eyes. One tear escaped to roll across her nose and fall on the velvet upholstery.
"Sorry for what?" Erik's voice was only minutely thawed.
"For you getting hurt."
Erik put her hand down and looked at her thoughtfully. He hadn't been hurt, she had. What was she talking about?
His mind didn't connect his hurt from Christine with the hurt she had sensed. This would be one of the few times in the last year that his mind did not connect something with Christine.
"Mreow," came the call from his organ and he looked over to see Ayesha sitting there watching him.
"Not tonight Ayesha," Erik answered. Then he walked into the guest room. A minute later he came out and draped a red blanket over Helena. Solemnly he moved a wavy blonde lock from under her nose to behind her ear. Then he went back to his room.
"So, your name is Ayesha then?" Erik's eyes flew open as Helena's voice drifted into his room through the cracked door. "Ayesha," she said thoughtfully. Erik eased out of his coffin bed and to the door, looking out to the lakeside room.
Helena was on her knees behind his organ bench her chin resting on her left hand looking at Ayesha who sat on the bench looking down on Helena. "Ayesha is nice name," she said gently. "But is it for a tomcat or…?"
"Ayesha is a lady-cat," Erik's voice said in Helena's right ear. She jumped and looked around to find Erik near his door on the left side of the room.
She jumped to her feet and backed up, her eyes large and her left hand gently holding her right wrist.
"I'm sorry I woke you," she said meekly.
"Do not fear me." His voice commanded her and she felt as though she wanted to obey but his very presence struck up a counter attack on her will. Her heart said to trust him and her mind said he was dangerous. Ultimately she felt confused.
'His voice is incredible. I've never heard anything like it,' she thought in awe. 'It doesn't sound like it would fit in the world, but it fits here…' Suddenly a thought rushed into her mind and she opened her mouth to voice it. "Where-?"
"I will not tell you where you are. You must let go of that question and trust me," he told her soundly. There would be no arguing with him on this she could tell.
He stepped forward and she instinctively stepped back. He stopped and watched her. Had she been closer she would have seen the hurt in his eyes. "Might I see your wrist?"
She swallowed, nodded, and walked forward extending her hand. Erik nodded tightly and walked forward as well. He took a hold of her hand and brought it higher. He twisted it to look at it from each angle and then grazed his fingers over it to check for swelling. Helena winced as he pressed on one of the dark bruises, his eyes studied her face each time he pressed looking for where it hurt and where it didn't. "Make a fist," he said and she did. "Twist your wrist." She made her fist go in a twisting circle and Erik dropped her hand.
"You'll be fine, nothing is harmed I think, just bruised." He stepped back a bit.
"Oh," she said at a loss for anything else to say.
"Does anything else hurt?"
"Everything hurts, though not as bad as… before. How long have I been here?"
"Three days. I will have to leave to get supplies to make a burn ointment. And to get you food."
She nodded, not really knowing what to say.
He watched her sad face waiting for her to speak. Finally though he decided she would not. "While I am gone you can treat your other wounds."
She opened her mouth suddenly but he cut her off before she could speak, having anticipated the question, "No you may not come with me. You may not leave this place yet."
She closed her mouth. Her lower lip further out than her bottom in a slight pout. She nodded, showing that she would not argue and Erik turned to go behind a curtain. Light showed under the heavy red drape and he came out a minute later with two bottles dwarfed in his big hands.
"This one is for bruises," he said indicating the larger, green bottle, "and this one for cuts." The smaller bottle was black glass. He handed both to Helena who took them and nodded her understanding. Then he pointed to his room. "Do not go into that room and do not touch my organ or papers. If it is locked leave it alone and if it is hidden you should not have found it in the first place. When I come back I want my things where they are. If I find that you have disturbed my home further you will not enjoy your stay. Is that clear?"
"Oui monsieur. M-might you acquire a paper while you are out? Perhaps one that the lower of Paris might read?"
"If I find one…" he let the response go, he would not go looking for special things for this girl, he was doing enough already.
"Oui monsieur, merci." She turned to go back to her room as he walked to the side of the lake. Erik waited until she was in her room before opening the gate and pulling out his gondola. His eyes looked around his room before he stepped into the boat, memorizing the placing of everything so that when he came back he would know what she had moved.
"These balms have the most interesting texture," Helena told Ayesha who lay on the bed with her legs and paws tucked under her, watching the girl. "The green one is more liquid than the other, more like water or oil. But the black one is like a paste. I bet both of them stain though."
She stood in the room naked but for the slippers on her feet. She looked at herself in the mirror. She looked better than she felt that much was certain. "I don't suppose all of my wounds are physical. I wonder if this will ever heal." Her eyes looked at her left cheek but her mind was on her heart.
She tipped the green liquid onto a rag and dabbed it on all the bruises she could reach, which were all but the ones on her back, and when she finished she found that the skin she had dabbed it on first was tinted green.
Then she took the other end of the rag and let some of the black paste roll on to it. She took the rag between her thumb and fingers and spread it around. Then she spread it in a thin line along a scratch on her abdomen. She sucked in breath through her teeth, the paste stung. Gritting her teeth the spread it along her other cuts and scratches.
Finally she was standing there with green, pink, and black skin with nothing to do but wait for the black paste to dry. At first she stood with her arms and legs spread to let it dry but found that she grew cold like that so instead she opened the closet to look at the clothes there.
The dresses ranged from the gaudy to the plain, at one end of the closet were velvets and silks and at the other end worn cotton. The higher line dresses were new and looked as though they had never been worn; the common clothes looked like they had been worn well and long but not in years.
Looking in the chest of drawers Helena found that the clothing there ranged in quality as well.
Helena lay back sideways across the bed and looked over at Ayesha, "Whose clothes were these? And why the difference of styles and wear? It's as though two completely different women lived here, one who used her clothes well and one wore nothing. I wonder what happened…"
She felt a scratch on her cheek and found the black paste had dried so she sat up and went to the chest of drawers. She needed to figure out what she could wear in the closet and dresser and the best way would be to try it on. The pulled out five corsets and laid them out on the bed. Then frowning she went to the closet and looked at the dresses more closely. Everything was the same size, all of the old and new clothes looked to be made to fit the same person.
Frowning she slipped into a thin chemise and then into one of the corsets. It was featherbone and silk, a durable mix of high quality and expense. She had difficulty tightening the corset but eventually managed.
Looking into the closet Helena now had to choose which dress to put on. She chose the least flamboyant of the high end dresses, a maroon dress with minimal lace and a more relaxed style.
She unbuttoned the dress and put it on, then struggled to fasten it correctly. Finally she shook her blonde hair out and straightened the dress. Turning around in the mirror she studied herself.
"Obviously," she said speaking aloud, "whoever these clothes were made for was taller than I and her body was more mature then mine. Well I say that," she said looking down. She filled out the dress well except that her hips seemed more slender than the woman the dress was made for and the top of the dress could do with a little more room. "I can wear these, I won't have to tighten the corset so much since I am so small, but I might have to hem the dresses. I wonder if Erik has a needle and thread that I can use."
She continued to look at herself critically, "I would be very pretty in this dress were I not a hideously scarred monster." Then angrily she hurried out of the dress, hung it up and pulled out a worn white blouse and faded navy skirt. After she had put them on with shaking hands she looked at herself again.
"At least I look more like my station in life now. None of those dresses are appropriate for me. I could have lived my life and never gotten to touch such beautiful things and all would be normal." Then she looked at Ayesha, "But I'm not normal am I? No, I am strange and different and should be kept away from all human kind. As soon as I find where the Monster Men live I will join them. Or maybe I'll die before then and save everyone the trouble. You don't like me so why would you care."
She flopped back on the bed and was silent for a while then she spoke softly, "I'm sorry. I wouldn't be talking to you so much if I had my cat. You would like him, his name is Perrault, he's quite the gentle-cat."
Suddenly very somber Helena rolled onto her side and tucked her legs up close to her body and rested her head on her arm. "What will happen to me? Will I heal? Will I ever be able to go back?" She closed her eyes but no tears came instead she fell into a semi-slumber.
Helena didn't hear Erik's gondola hit the shore or hear him unloading his purchases or close the gate, she did however feel Ayesha jump off the bed and heard her scratch at the door. When Helena opened the door she saw Erik disappear behind the red curtain he had gone behind earlier.
Straightening her rumpled commoner's clothes she sat in the deep red armchair to wait for him to come out. Soon he stepped out from behind the curtain and moved around the far end of the room. He didn't look at her and she began to wonder if he had seen her until he threw a couple of papers at her.
"Found these, not sure if they are what you were wanting but I'll not go out again for merely a paper."
Helena nodded and picked up the papers and started to cart them off to her room when he spoke to her again making her spin around to face him, "The burn balm will be ready tomorrow it must stew for now."
"Merci, monsieur." Then she fled back into the room mouse-like.