A/N:

Wow! I'm glad that you all really liked the way I did Erik! I was so nervous that everyone would read him and go, "This is horrible! This isn't Erik at all!" Though I'm glad that you liked him…I'm trying my best to capture Gerard's version of the Phantom – because the Broadway Phantom just can't make you cry! Well, Hugh Panaro made my eyes water, but that doesn't count…but not bawl my eyes out like Gerard did at the end of Phantom!

There was much debate over this chapter – Do I let the Phantom bring her to his home? Or do I just make them part? Either way, I hope you like what I did!

Alright, enough of my rambling for one Author's Note!

Then 22 whole reviews! THANK YOU SO MUCH! This has got to be the most reviews I've ever received from a story! So I dedicate this chapter to the kind words of my reviewers – you guys make me keep writing!

Many thanks to Arco (I can't spell the longer version of Cyber-Eyes' new penname!)!


Chapter 6

The Phantom of the Opera is Here…Inside my Mind

The Phantom must have heard my gasp, for he turned around and I found those piercing eyes landing on me. I was in too much shock, the man standing before me was the Phantom, and there was no doubt in my mind now! This was the same man that had terrorized Christine Daae; this was the same man who had murdered countless people, sent a chandelier falling down over the crowd of a packed opera!

I stood dead in my tracks; my feet neither letting me run away or follow him. I just simply stood there, in shock. I didn't know what to do now…I didn't know what to do.

He looked at me with mild interest; I could see it in the expression on his face. He regarded me with that same look for a few moments before saying, "Do not be afraid Mademoiselle," His voice was soft, yet at the same time giving at order that was not to be disobeyed.

I nodded once, swallowing the lump in my throat, as he took my hand again, his strong fingers grasping my own weak ones. He reached around and took the oil lamp from my hand and held it in front of us, spreading light throughout the dark passageway and it was then that I realized I had no clue where he was leading me to!

The thought echoed throughout my mind, bouncing off every possible cavern in there. I stopped suddenly, jarring him, as I looked around, my mind reeling with the possibilities of what this murderer might do to me.

"What do you want with me?" I breathed, my voice coming out not as strong as I would have liked it to.

He stopped and turned back around to look at me, the lamplight making him seem demonic again. I stepped backwards, as he took another step towards me, his hand outstretched. His hand moved towards my face for a few moments, before he immediately snapped it away.

"You see, after the events of the opera, the managers neither knew if I were dead or alive, so it was nearly impossible for me to leave my cellars to retrieve the basic necessities of life," he explained, "When you came along, my dear, it seemed to me that if you were helping everyone else out in my theatre, you should also be helping me out," he said, irritated.

"I do not wish to help a murder," I said shortly, turning my back to him, my arms crossed stubbornly.

"Ah, of course," he breathed, his thick voice consuming me, "It seems that you have already heard of my little reputation," his hand landed on my back. "I assure you that what those ballet rats tell you could not be shorter of the truth," his hand slid down my arm, drawing me closer to him.

I went into him; suddenly feeling lost in the intoxication of having such a powerful man hold me. I suddenly felt safe from the world; no one could now harm me! I felt him lower his head against my neck, his dark hair tickling my face, as I leaned against him.

I felt as if I was drowning in his power, as he lowered his lips against the back of my neck, while his hands made his way down my thighs. I breathed in relief, as I felt his gentle touch. I slouched into his arms, feeling weightless as he scooped me into his muscle toned arms and carried me down the hall, through the darkness.

In all too short of a time, he had returned me to my room, though I was still in a blissful daze as he placed me carefully on the bed. I longed for him to lie next to me, to have our bodies entwining, defenseless and silent. I longed for him to hold me like a man would hold his wife or lover.

Though as he backed away from me, the warm touch of his hands leaving my body, I began to feel the coldness of reality slip back in. I watched him cast a fleeting glance over my shoulder, before touching a secret panel on the side of the mirror, which opened with a slight sliding sound.

As he stepped inside, I felt reality began to consume me again. I watched as he turned around and said in that rich, silky voice of his, "Perhaps you can learn to trust me, Carolina." Then with that he disappeared behind the mirror, out of my sight, back to his lair somewhere beneath the opera house.

As the mirror slid shut behind him, I was rewarded with the harsh caress of humanity and anger flared up inside me. How dare him! How dare that man touch me in such a way! Then, how dare I? How dare I allow that man to use me, touch me in places that I generally allowed no man to touch?

He had used me, in those brief moments, for his own pleasures! I was his puppet, his willing slave, now forced to do whatever he asked me to do! I could never get away from him now…he knew where my room was, in fact he had a secret door so that he could enter and exit my room whenever he pleased!

I angrily crossed over to my bed, and slammed my first, hard, down into the pillow pretending that it was his smirking face. I let out a yell of anger, before collapsing on the bed in mental and physical exhaustion.

I couldn't believe myself, me, who hardly allowed a man to be in the same room with me just allowed a man to touch her in unthinkable ways! Then I couldn't believe him, this man who I hardly knew, in fact, didn't even know, played with me like that! He used me to do his errands, because he was too lazy to do them himself! He certainly had enough secret passageways in this opera house that he could sneak into the costume room to get his own clothes! But did he do that? No!

I blinked back tears of anger as I lay on the bed, silently shaking with an unstoppable rage. I turned over, wiping a weak hand to brush away the tears that I didn't want to shed. Though eventually my dam broke and I cried for everything.

I cried for my family, dead, gone, deceased, now rotting away in a grave at the cemetery at Perros. I cried for my brother, who had run away in the night, taking the family's fortune with him. I cried for myself, not begin able to continue living a normal life. I cried as I remembered all of those nights I had spent in different men's beds.

I cried as I remembered the snap of my wrist, as the man grasped it. His dark, beady eyes filled with anger and contempt. I cried for all the people here at the Opera who had taken me in, given me food, shelter, and I place to start over. They didn't have any idea of who I was! They didn't have any idea that I was aiding the Phantom of the Opera – a man with a bounty larger than my family's fortune on his head!

I don't know how long I lay there, weeping like a small child who had been punished. I didn't know what the time was – I didn't know if it was night or day! I had lost all track of what was going on as I was so caught up in my own misery.

Eventually, I rolled over, my eyes catching my reflection in the mirror. I looked like the devil himself had slept with me. My eyes had large black circles around them, making my thin face looking even thinner. My eyes were also swollen and red from all of the tears I had shed. My cheeks were blotchy, the stark redness from my crying standing out against the normally pale shade of my face. I looked like an ailing person on death's doorstep.

Unable to look at myself, I collapsed back onto the pillow, welcoming its warm feeling that encircled me. I snuffed out the candle on my bedside table, for once welcoming the darkness that consumed me.


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I promise there won't be any emotional breakdowns in the next chapter!