A/N: Hey guys. Thanks for all the reviews! The quicker I get them the quicker i update. I like you guys commenting! Anyways..urm yeah enjoy?
The days passed by for Christene. The schedule was set. Get up at the beastly hour of eight in the morning, eat breakfast, and go change into a t shirt and shorts. The cast would rehearse till noon, then break for lunch. Then Christene and Jeff would rehearse their numbers together, a thirty minute break and then it'd be Jordan's turn. The young de Changy and Ms. Daae made a beautiful team but all the cast knew that underneath it all was pure animosity. Only the two enemies, one chorus girl, and the phantom knew the truth.
Christene hurried back to her room after her shower. Her hair dripped silent cold dropets down her back but she didn't mind. Erik had been gone over a week. Christene was starting to worry. Where was he? Was he ok? She clucked at herself for sounding like her mother. Erik was a big boy. Oh yeah huge was the better term. He was trim alright but every inch of him that she had felt in that hug had been pure muscle. He was tall and lanky but with the hard, compact feeling of a fighter. She mentally shook herself, "now is not the time to be dwelling on his body, hott as it may be".
She grabbed the flashlight she had purchased after that night of the power outage and headed back down the corridor, hopefully to find her heart's desire among its many twists and turns. The last time she had music to light her way, a way to give her direction. She saw a wire glittering in the dark. She carefully stepped over it. Then she heard the gurgle of water close to the shore. She picked her way through many twists and turns mentally remembering each one, right, right, left, right, left, left, left, water! She felt the water swirl on her ankles and shivered. The house was unlit. That alone scared Christene to death.
Erik lay musing in his room. Maybe it was wrong but he had taken the music box Raoul had left on Christene's grave. It played a song that was a true lullaby to him, in fact he was half asleep, mumbling "Maquerade, paper faces on parade, Masquerade, hide your face so the world can never find you" He yawned as he sank lower into Sleep's embrace, then as if from the heavens floated a voice so pure. It echoed the song of the play, the song he was supposed to sing with Christene when she first saw him in the mirror, The Angel of Music.
Angel I found you,
I was so worried,
Why are you hiding down here?
Angel I don't know why you're hiding,
Sing for me my angel.
Erik's eyes sprang open. He thanked well, whoever that his mangled deformity was pressed into the pillow. He grabbed his mask hanging on the bust above his bed, and adjusting it sat up and sang a reply:
Flattering child you found me,
While in the shadows I hide,
You really wanted to find me.
Though I don't know why.
Christene was crying softly. She had been so afraid. Afraid that Erik had died or had left her. Each was a fate too horrible to imagine. Erik flung back the covers and ran to her. "Mon ange, mon ange" He stopped remembering that she most likely knew little to no French. "My angel, what is it?" "Oh Erik I was so scared." "Scared, of what?" Was so scared you left, you died, you I don't know that something had happened to you".
Erik sighed, "Oh my darling angel forgive me, please, I did not think you could really want my friendship" She looked up at him with a mixture of annoyance and curiosity "Why would you think that?" "I am a monster my angel, a demon who burns in hell" She smirked "Let me guess, but secretly dreams of heaven secretly" He smiled, "You are too smart for me darling"
She refused to look down, despite what she suspected, "Umm Erik, uhhh" "What" "Are you…naked?" He looked down "oh crap!" In his haste to get to her he forgot to put clothes on. "Don't look" She turned her back to him. He watched her shoulders shake with laughter and laughed himself. She wanted his friendship. She wanted his love or at least that caring sort of love.
"can I turn around now?" He looked down, "all clear" Christene turned and had to tell herself not to drool. She had been right about the muscles, he was all muscle right down to the last ab. The shirt he had carelessly draped over his chest was worse than no shirt at all and the pants were loose but still form hugging. He was so delicious.
Christene shook her head. "Erik, what am I going to do with you?" He shrugged. "Drop a chandelier on me?" Christene laughed. "I'll arrange it ok?" she hugged him, "Erik you are too funny, don't go away this long ever again!" He buried his face in her honey hair and promised. How could he stay away from such a perfect angel? It's a wonder he lasted a week.
Christene walked back to her room, alone. Erik had been so tired. She left him to sleep insisting this was the twenty first century a girl could walk by herself. She reached her mirror and glanced up, with a muffled scream she fled back down to the lair and the safety of Erik's protection.
The alarm went off. Erik sat bolt upright. Then moaned. "Oh god not again. We are not going through this again" He grumbled into the pillow. Then grabbed his mask. A door had slammed.
He walked out of his room to find Christene, white as a sheet, trembling and trying not to cry. "my angel, my muse what's the matter? What happened?" She glanced at him like a mouse caught in the eyes of a snake, "My my room…it's horrible. I can't, I can't" He grabbed her roughly, not meaning to hurt but trying to get her to come back to reality. "Hey! Hey! What. Happened?" She looked into his eyes and was calmed by the strength in them. " I was climbing to my mirror and I looked into my room and, O Erik it was horrible"
He led her to his bedroom. She sank onto the bed. "What mon ange?" She looked past him. Perhaps seeing her room so far away, "There was blood all on the wall and a dagger stuck into the bed, with a note. I could barely make it out. It read 'Daae filth'. Erik I couldn't go in that room. I can't go in that room, not tonight. Not while the shadows dance on everything.
He held her against his chest. "Shhhh shhh mon amie. It's ok. You can stay here tonight." She bucked, "What?" "I'm sorry mon ange it was a bad idea." "no no no it's not that, I, I just didn't expect you to want me to stay here. I know you're a loner and alone is how you like to be" He smiled, "Without you, everything is lonely" "Stay?" She nodded.
He stood and smiled at her. "Goodnight Mon amie. I will get you back into the opera before first light." She shuddered as she thought of her room. Understanding Erik smiled, "don't worry angel, The Phantom of the Opera knows more than one entrance to the Opera populaire. He bowed and left Christene to her dreams. He never thought they'd be of him.