I invented a disease! I only just realized I had it. It's called ALAC – Authoress Loneliness and Abandonment Complex. It's a mental problem in which, if an authoress is deprived of reviews for over two days, she becomes very depressed and neglected. Sadly, it's chronic and incurable, but help me hold off the effects!
Glad my chapters are going over so well…I'm having fun writing this. As soon as it's over, I'll have to spit out another humor phic to satisfy my fans. Heehee…I have fans!
Phantomraver: It does fit him well, doesn't it? HP are my favorite books, and I'm proud I could make a little reference. The gazelle names come from a game played by Kara (Kianra) – she told my about them in a review. Yeah, I have an Angel! Isn't it awesome! (gets all dreamy)
Phoenixthemenace: I like that round two idea, but I don't want my fans to get sick of the same old storyline. (Tell me, is it possible?) I'm considering doing a "Life With the Winner" fic though – the winning girl moves into the cellar and we follow their life for a while. But I don't have many ideas for that.
Lazy.kender19: I meant hope you're happy that I finally updated, not because of chapter length. More phangirls would have been there if they'd known about the show. It's not something Erik's going to make public, now is it? And I thought it was funny to just throw one random one in there. …I thought the gazelles were funny. (grins)
Graymoon74: (In response to ch.1 review) Not nice, yes, but it is Raoul, after all. Not nice, yet funny, and most of all, stupid.
Songwind: I didn't think you were really implying an E/R pairing anyway. I hate slash myself, or yaoi/yuri where I come from – Anime Universe. (For all you strictly English readers, yaoi are boy/boy pairings, and yuri are girl/girl.) It was shorter – I never know how long the chapters are going to be until I write them. If I scrape four pages on MicWord (including reader replies), I'm happy.
Willow Rose: I'd like to use that, but…oh. If I use it, the fic will be one chapter longer. Okay then! Ooh…cool. It's like he was visiting your bedside or something. Maybe when he died he became the legendary Angel and does all the things that the Angel in Daddy Daae's stories did. We should poll people who have been visited by ghostly, angelic beings singing to them.
Kianra: Yay! Internet buddies! (dances in an OOC way) I don't know what you didn't do, but okay.
Lackaz: The zoo wasn't my idea, it was a phan's. I'm using phan suggestions for the last dates. (gasp) There aren't even dates plural left! This is the last one! There's still two chapters though. So no more suggestions.
Lendlaer: It took years of practice (and I'm only 15) and a visit from the Angel. O.o
Raveene: …gnitirw sdrawkcab eciN
Han Futsu, Anti Normal: "BE FREE!!!" I can't get that image out of my head, that's hilarious! And thanks for believing me, it's 100 true.
LinhDog: You too shall have a cameo, my friend.
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Aislin met Erik late the next morning with a large plate of toast and different jams, grinning as if it were Christmas. He shook himself awake and took a piece. Aislin continued to beam almost proudly.
"What is the occasion, pray tell?" muttered Erik, spreading his toast with blackberry jam.
"Ready for it, Erik?" She seemed really excited. "Drumroll please…" Looking around, she saw neither a drum nor a roll, so she started drumming her hands on the desk by the bed. "Erik…today is the day of your final Love of His Life date!"
Erik dropped his toast on the floor. "Really? This will be the last one?" Happiness flooded through him. No more rabid phangirls! No more glomping, no more being forced to sing, no more shattered masks…the contest would be over! Then he remembered what the term 'contest' really meant.
"Aislin, tell me…what do I do when this contest ends?"
She dusted off his toast and set it on the table. "There's a ceremony where you consider all the entrants and select one to be the Love of Your Life, as per the title…the chosen girl goes with you to a romantic vacation spot for two weeks and together you test out your potential relationship. Oh, well actually…" She hesitated, as Erik's heart sank farther and farther with every word. Two weeks stuck with a phangirl…
Aislin started speaking again. "Well, we polled phangirls, and they all say that instead of going on a vacation with you, they'd much rather move into the house on the lake. So you'll try your relationship out for a weekend in that romantic vacation spot, then spend the rest of the two weeks back at the Opera House."
Erik stood tall and threatening. "I am not letting a phangirl move into my house. I draw the line there."
Aislin shrugged. "Let her live in the lake, then, but those are the rules. Anyway, for your last date, you'll be off to a dance club."
"I'm sorry?"
"You heard me – Club Cherry. Better than the name sounds – dark, full of that kind of gothic people you and I fit in with so well. Girl's name is Cassandra – heh, means 'inflaming men with love' – but you can go ahead and call her Butterfly, it's her nickname. She's going to meet you at the club, so go ahead and get over to it. Taxi's waiting." She handed Erik a new piece of toast and ushered him toward the door.
Aislin stopped. "On second thought, this is my kind of club. Think I'll go too." She quickly changed into a tight, knee-length black dress, with a zipper up to the stiff, high collar. She snapped the collar together, slipped into her black boots, and flipped her hair over her shoulder before striding out the door past Erik. Blinking confusedly, he took his cape and hat and followed her out.
Club Cherry was a shadowy little hole-in-the-wall difficult to notice if you weren't actually looking for it. The walls were dark, dusty brick, and the wooden door was done in chipping green paint. No one was checking IDs at the door.
"You don't have one anyway," Aislin told Erik, "and it's not an overage bar or something. IDs checked for drinks, but that's all."
Inside, the atmosphere was just as dark as the lighting. On one side of the room, there were lots of small, round tables surrounded by hard wooden chairs. These were lined up around a long bar stretching from wall to wall on the right side. Girls in purple miniskirts tended the bar. On the other side was an empty space full of people doing odd dances to rock music played from a DJ situated in the back corner. Comfy beanbag chairs were scattered around the dance floor at a safe distance. People sat reading books they'd brought with them, or some taken from a small dusty shelf by the DJ. They all seemed skilled at tuning out all other sounds. Red, blue, and purple lights flashed incessantly around the room. One flash illuminated several doors at the back of the building that led to karaoke rooms.
Evanescence seemed prevalent among the songs being played, and Aislin recognized Everybody's Fool when it started. "I'll be seeing you Erik," she shouted. "Come find me when you want to leave." She found herself a beanbag from which to listen – Aislin was not a dancing person.
"Hello!"
Erik turned to see a girl of sixteen or so waving from a round table near the bar. He made his way over to her. "Butterfly?"
"That's me." They were farther from the dance floor here, and didn't have to shout as loudly. She was pale, with blue-green eyes and short brown hair.
A bar girl came up to them. She had piercings in her nose and three times in each ear, with orange hair, and reminded Erik strongly of Mimi.
"What'll it be?" she asked, in a sweeter voice than Erik would have thought likely. Lacking IDs, Erik and Butterfly just got fruit juices. Cherries with the stems still attached floated in the glasses – apparently this is where the club's name came from.
After their drinks were no more, Butterfly wanted to go and dance. "I do not dance," Erik protested, but Butterfly dragged him out of his seat and across to the dance floor.
At once, he began to feel out of place. It was one thing to be uncomfortable, but here, he felt just plain stupid. He didn't trust himself to dance like these people, and simply standing here looked dumb. Butterfly attempted to get him to move his body, but made no progress. He moved away from her and the dancers and collapsed into an empty beanbag, sinking a little too far in for comfort.
Butterfly came over to him. "If you're not comfortable dancing, we can go somewhere else. I know there's a karaoke room reserved for our use if we want it – would you rather sing?"
This worked out for two people, two ways. Erik was much more confident in his singing abilities, and would definitely be comfortable doing karaoke, especially if no one else was listening. Butterfly, on the other hand, would be able to listen to the Phantom of the Opera sing. Everybody wins!
They headed to their little soundproof room, which instantly shut out all the noise of the dance floor. It had a square table surrounded by cushions in front of a small stage with two microphones and a TV screen meant for lyrics. Butterfly began to flip through the CD selection.
A few minutes later, she threw an empty case across the room in frustration, narrowly missing Erik as it hit the wall and broke in two. "There's no Phantom! There's no musicals at all!"
Erik had rarely ever sung anything other than his genres of opera and musicals. What would he do here, where all the selections were rock songs?
"Here, try this." Butterfly tossed him a Maroon5 CD. "Nothing here seems your style, so let's try you out on 'She Will Be Loved.'"
As Erik didn't know the words, he was forced to follow the lyrics on the screen as they lit up. He had never heard the song, but it was rather pretty, and he performed it well.
Butterfly had fun selecting songs for Erik to perform, some of which were completelt wrong for him, but all of which he had to try, as he had no clue what they would sound like beforehand. In turn, he began giving sings to Butterfly to sing, which he chose at random, enjoying the results. They even did a few duets, but there weren't many available.
After an hour or so, when their voices were tired, they headed back out to the roar of the dance club, and got more cherry-adorned drinks to soothe their throats. They didn't speak for a while.
They talked then, about pretty much anything. First, they discussed the ridiculous volume of the music – it was hurting Erik's ears. Then they contemplated music and movies, which had to be explained to Erik. After a few more minutes and another round of drinks, Butterfly chanced a look at her watch, gasping that she was late for a piano lesson. She quickly glomped Erik, and a little embarrassed, waved and departed.
Erik downed the last of his juice, and went to find Aislin.
He found her, with a book at her side, singing along with the music being played. When she saw him, she hopped up and left with him, continuing to sing as they exited and the music faded away.
"Watching me, wanting me, I can feel you pull me down…" Erik was left with these dark thoughts pulling him down as they made their way back to the hotel, where Erik took a nice long bath happily.
It was almost over…soon, he could be back in his homey little cellar…with his music…and…depressing memories of Christine. He sat up. Perhaps Aislin was right. Maybe he really did need to get his mind off Christine. Perhaps he did need a companion.
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It's nearly over! (cries) We'll be making another stop in Cameo City next chapter. All the reviewers are wondering, "What could happen now that the dates are over?" Review and find out! Oh! Also, all those who I promised a cameo, please submit the real name you want used – made up or otherwise. WHO WILL ERIK CHOOSE?! I've already picked the winner! Heheh…REVIEW!