Disclaimer: I don't own anyone

I had no Beta reader, so if there are some errors, please don't bite my head off for it, I wasn't able to find one for this chapter either, everyone I know is on a far off time zone.

Concrete Angel

Chapter Two: The pain behind the mask

Two years after the Opera House incident

Christine is married to Raoul, but Raoul had gone off to train and fight in the war, leaving Christine to watch over the De'Changy household. She still wonders about her phantom's whereabouts, but does not know if he is even still alive.

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It was a long night, and a long ride back from the cemetery. Erik's plan didn't go, for once, as smoothly as he had suspected. He had just wanted to spook the girl to grab Christine's attention, not actually cause harm to her. In his cool panic, he had scooped up the unconscious girl into his arms and fell back into the shadows before Christine and Beast could find them. From his shadows he watched his angel look around frantically for the girl, seeing that Molly had left her things and seemed to have disappeared. The large dog seemed to sniff around, his nose picking up the trail, Erik had been careful not to leave foot prints, but even a dog could sniff out his path. So he had kidnapped a small orphaned blind child, Erik had no real clue about how to go about this. He mounted Caesar, positioning Molly in his lap, awkwardly, in a way so that she wouldn't fall.

From behind him he could hear frantic barking and whimpering of the large demon of a dog that was this child's protector, so it seemed. Erik was coming very close to being discovered, and he wasn't about to have his plan totally backfire on him quite yet. With a sharp nudge in the ribs, Erik got Caesar into a fast paced canter, whose sounding hooves were dampening in the snow. He could hear Christine's frantic calls fade into the background as they rode into the night. The bumpy ride jostled Molly in her seat, tossing her from side to side and from her pocket fell a small gold necklace with a small round locket on it.

The locket was given by the orphanage saying that it was her mothers at one point in time. She always keeps it with her and rubs her thumb over it like a worry stone when she gets nervous or needs strength. Some of the features on the locket had been worn down from her constant rubbing; all that could be understood on the markings were her mother's initials.

The trip was relatively quite, a few moans and groans from the girl, and the snorting of the horse through labored breath. He brought Caesar back to the stables, exactly as he was before, no one was to know he was still alive, and yet now he had a witness, but the witness did not have sight to confirm it. He picked up the girl and swiftly started to bring her down into the dark damp cellars. The phantom kept his stoic features through out this whole ordeal. Once he had gotten far enough into the cellars for safety he stop and set the girl down gentle so that he may examine her.

Above Molly's eyebrow was a large cut bleeding and a bit nasty, his rush to get them out of there was so overpowering before he had hardly noticed it.

"Damn girl." He muttered and scooped her back up into his arms with ease and started towards the underground lake where he knew a Persian man would be waiting for his return. Erik set the orphan into the gondola and started to push his way across the lake. He couldn't help but hum a dark tune along their crossing, for he was slowly devising a way to capture Christine once more, since her Raoul was away at war, she was vulnerable now.

As he reached the shores of his home, Erik could already see the Persian on his way to meet them, though it he didn't seem too delighted. The boat came to a jerked stop as it hit the shore. Erik hopped out into the shallow water and pulled the boat ashore.

"Erik, What were you out doing?" The Persian asked quite darkly as he helped bring the boat in and looked at the child in the boat. He gave Erik an odd look, and the phantom just replied back with a smirk.

"Bring her out of the boat, Nadir, she needs some medical attention." Erik did a graceful turn, his cloak billowing slightly as he did so and headed towards his room to find something to stop the girl's bleeding head.

"Erik, have you gone mad? You can't bring a child here! What happens when she wakes and sees all this? I thought we said you'd stay low for at least another week." Nadir said as he followed his orders and took the young Irish girl out of the boat and looked for a place to put her.

"She's blind Nadir, she won't be causing us any trouble unless I help her to do it my self." Erik said coming out of his dark room with some bandages and alcohol. He gave Nadir an odd look, wondering why he was still holding the child.

"Nadir, go and place her down on the couch, or do you like to hold small children for so long." Erik said walking over to the 'couch', which an old organ bench with cushions on it. The Persian nodded and went and laid the girl down, who was acting very limp at the moment. The phantom cleaned up the cut, lightly put some alcohol on it, to which made Molly twitch, and then carefully wrapped her head on some bandages.

"What are you going to do with her Erik; I know you wouldn't bring her down her just because you want to play nurse." Nadir said watching the masked man in front of him take care of the girl much like he takes care of his music.

"She is a new part of my plan, I will get Christine to be mine and this girl will lure her to me." Erik said dryly. Nadir wouldn't be able to do much to stop him, since the Persian now realized that the girl was his hostage. Erik hadn't noticed though that Molly had awakened and heard the last part of the plan.

...and this girl will lure her to me... Molly was going to panic; she had been kidnapped by the man she always tried to steal from. She flung herself from the bench and began to wildly try to find her way out. Her hands move around in front of her trying to seek out a path. The two men's voices were drowned out by her panic as she stopped when she came to the edge of a small hanging over the lake. Her head pounded as a delayed reaction from sitting up to quickly, and she felt like a cornered rabbit. Molly took a few steps back from the edge and landed in the arms of one of them, who held her in a tight restraint.

"It would be best, Little O'Mallory, if you didn't try to run. The lake in front of you is filled with the most horrid of creatures that wouldn't mind a sweet little girl for a snack." Came the dark and soothing voice behind her.

"Sir, I'm not scared of you or water." Molly said quite firmly, her hazed over blue eyes moving back and forth beneath her closed eyelids.

"Well then, O'Mallory, I hope you enjoy your swim." Erik then pushed her off the small ledge. The Persian was already up and yelling at Erik who just gave him a devious smirk as Molly splashed into the water.

"Get her a towel, the water's no more then a few inches deep. It was a lesson to teach her not to defy me." Erik said in a grim, but amused manner and strided over to his organ for practice. This would be an interesting experience for Erik, havign to take care of a child as part of his capture plan was not what he had first intended, but it would make things alot more fun.