Disclaimer: Me no ownee!

So, alas, we set the plot in motion! Humor shall grace this tale at long last!

Just for the record, I'd like to point out that this update took me all of like, two days! That's a record for me :blows party noisemaker thingy and throws confetti:

Note: Carmen ,the character, will be typed normally (Carmen). Carmen, the opera, will be typed in italics (Carmen).

Madame Opera Ghost: See? I did update :puffs chest proudly:

AngleoftheOpera: Hey, is your screen name supposed to say angle? I forgot about the ring part, too, but then I reread the book (that is, the entire book, not just the parts with Erik in them, which I know by heart...almost) and I figured I'd add that part into the story.

RavenPOTOGirl: I'm glad you likey!

kichi hitomi: I love the encouragement :hugs: It makes me hapeeeeeeeeeeee!

Chapter 4: Ice Cream, Chess, and Necrophobia

Twas the night before class starts

and all through the room,

both the tenants were pondering.

Carmen, her future. Erik, his doom.

When all of a sudden, there arose such a clatter,

Erik longed for a Punjab, should something be the matter.

And what to his half-awake eyes should appear,

but his good friend, Carmen, with books up to her ears.

"I could use a hand, here!" Carmen grumbled in Erik's general direction.

" You have two, I believe." he answered smartly.

Carmen glared at him... he could be such an ass! "You know, Erik, I still haven't shown you the electric keyboard, have I?"

" No. What of it?"

" It's sort of like a piano, only more compact and it can sound like a bunch of other instruments."

Erik couldn't believe it! It had been a week and a half since he'd appeared in her shower curtains, and she'd waited until now to mention to him that she had a piano. Of course, she hadn't mentioned until yesterday that she was going to school to earn a degree in music, specifically vocals. " What do you need help with?" he asked, resigned to the fact that he would have to help her if he ever wanted to see said piano.

" I have until tomorrow to write an essay on vibrato and how it should be used."

"What do you need to know?"

"Well, I could really use a decent definition for vibrato. The best I can come up with includes sounding like a sheep, and that just won't do."

Erik provided Carmen with a definition that did not utilize the word "sheep", or "wiggle", and proceeded to question her as to where to keyboard was.

" It's hanging in the closet, all folded up, leaning against the wall, and the bench should be right beneath it." she told him, not looking up from her work.

It took Erik a moment to figure out Carmen's odd little piano, and when he finally realized that it needed to be plugged into the wall outlet and began to play, he found it had a sound far inferior to that of a real piano. It was irksome, but a bad piano was still better than no piano at all. He sighed and sat down and began to play something from Carmen.

Carmen smiled a bit when she heard Erik playing something she actually knew. Carmen was one of her favorite operas, and not just because the title was her name. Carmen had been the first opera she'd ever been in... when she'd been seven... she could still remember shaking in her tutu before opening night. Before that performance, she'd insisted upon being called Ella, as her full name was Carmella, but that opera had made her realize that Carmen was the name for her.

Without realizing what she was doing, she started singing along with Erik's playing. To her relief, he neither cringed, exploded, swore, dropped dead, spontaneously combusted, nor stopped playing. He didn't join her either, even though there was a tenor part in that particular song, but Carmen certainly wasn't complaining.

"That was rather good." he said when the song was finished.

"Thanks." Carmen said, blushing scarlet.

Erik had been about to say more, but he was interrupted by a knock at the door. He felt a sudden, odd, plunging sensation in his stomach that got worse with every knock. Something about the visitor waiting beyond the door made him very nervous. As Carmen went to answer it, he slipped into the bathroom, turned off the lights, and locked the door. He heard Carmen answer the door, and immediately felt like a coward. He should have warned her about his bad feeling!

Carmen opened the door. What was Erik doing? He'd never been afraid of visitors before now, although she didn't really blame him, considering that her former roommate, the Morticia Adams wannabe, was on the other side of the door.

" Where is he?" her roommate demanded, her eyeliner-laden eyes boring into Carmen.

" What?"

" You know! Erik! I called him here the day before I left! I know he's here!"

" I don't know who you're talking about!" cried Carmen, putting on a good show of being confused and offended.

" Liar! I know he's here! I've heard him!"

"Heard who? And what do you mean, "you called him here"?" Carmen didn't know what this chick wanted with Erik, but somehow, she knew it wouldn't end well for him if this chick got her hands on him.

Stella sighed. Had this idiot girl not figured out what her chanting that night had meant? It had been a spell, of course! A spell meant to bring the past to life! Erik was the only proof she had that she'd completed the spell successfully, and she needed that proof to assure herself a higher rank in her cult (cleverly disguised as a study group). Well, perhaps the girl couldn't have figured that much out, but she couldn't possibly be this clueless! Did she even know who Erik was?

" That doesn't concern you!" she snapped. " However, it would be very wise of you to surrender him to me immediately!"

" I don't know who the hell you're talking about!" Carmen shouted. " Leave me alone!" She slammed the door and locked it, leaving her roommate to scream:

"I'LL BE BACK!"

It was a few minutes before Erik came out of the bathroom. He looked a bit worried.

" What was that?" he asked, " Did I hear my name?"

" Yes. That was my old roommate. She moved out the night before you appeared." quickly she told Erik everything that had been said.

" Called me here? Who does she think she is? She can't call me anywhere! I am no dog!"

" Actually, I'm begging to think she uses some sort of witchcraft..."

" Well, that's the most plausible reason for my being here we've found yet."

" Yeah... Erik, are you feeling alright?" Carmen had just noticed that Erik had gone rather pale and was shaking ever-so-slightly.

" I'm fine. It's just that it's been a whole month since, well... nevermind." Erik turned away.

" A month since what?" Carmen pressed him.

" Nothing."

" A month since Christine left?"

Erik gave a sad little sigh. " Yes." Curse her for knowing so much! " I'd expected to die before this. I'd been setting my affairs in order even as I was sent here..."

" Well, you won't be dying on my watch-"

" And why not!" snapped Erik, " I have no reason to live! My heart has been shattered... why should you deny me my peace?"

" Because you dying would traumatize me! I'd need emotional therapy... again..."

"Why?" Erik mentally cursed his inquisitive nature.

" Because I have something called Necrophobia, and it's rather severe."

" A fear of dead things?" Erik wondered aloud.

" Yes. I can't even look at a dead fish without starting to shake all over, and dead people on TV are enough to keep me awake for nights... you can imagine what seeing a real human corse would do..."

" How can you, then, have looked upon my face without fear?" Erik asked, still a bit stunned. Carmen didn't seem at all to be the fearful type.

" Okay, so maybe I was lying when I said it wasn't that bad, and I won't pretend it didn't startle me in the slightest, but Erik, you are not dead. Whatever you may think, you are very much alive. Your face in life will never frighten me so much as the most beautiful face with the touch of death in it's eyes." Carmen was shaking, now. She couldn't force those suppressed memories of that woman out of her mind all of the time... the way she'd just lain there on the floor, moaning in agony, while that beast of a man had fired the final shot...

" What are you hiding?" Erik asked at once. "There's something you aren't telling me!"

" I saw a woman murdered once, when I was little. I didn't know her, but the memories still haunt me from time to time."

Erik would have loved to have consoled Carmen. Honestly, he would have, but somehow, he felt that he was likely to make matters worse. She knew far too much about him not to know how many murders he himself was responsible for.

In a few seconds, Carmen seemed to get a grip on herself again. " Hey, I know how to make you feel better," she said, as though nothing had just happened.

" How?"

" Ice cream therapy!" she cried, " Vast quantities of ice cream heal all wounds, or at least put you on a sugar high so you can have a bit of fun!"

Erik shrugged, " It's worth a try..."

One gallon of rainbow sherbert later, Erik had to admit that he was feeling much better, although it was probably just the sugar high...

" Carmen, if you come any closer with that lipstick, so help me I'll... I'll...hit you with this pillow!"

" Oh no! Not the pillow!"

Carmen held the lipstick rather threateningly, but only for moment, because a second later a pillow knocked it out of her hand, and another pillow hit her in the face.

"Erik, you dork!"

" I gave you fair warning!"

Carmen was not so fair. She picked up the pillow that had just hit her face and chucked it at Erik's head. He caught it and used it to smack her mercilessly.

" Okay, you win!"

"That's what I thought."

" You, monsieur, are very egotistical. Did you know that?"

" I am not egotistical, just very competitive... at times."

" Well fine then, but I'll bet you can't beat me at chess!" Carmen knew Erik would refuse a challenge, not when he was this incredibly hyper.

The chess match that followed, was long, hard, and caffeine-fueled. By the end, Erik was using ventriloquism to make the pieces trash talk each other, a display that Carmen found to be highly amusing, particularly since he was using Victorian slang and kept having the different pieces call her queen 'filth'.

Eventually, Carmen finally pulled off her promised victory, much to Erik's horror. He'd just been beaten in a game of strategy! This was unheard of! Preposterous!

" Don't take it to heart, Erik. I've never lost a game of chess in my life! Besides, that was the best match I've ever had."

"You beat me..."

"Yep."

" I'm impressed."

"Err... thanks. You know, we should probably get to sleep, as I have classes tomorrow morning... oh shit! I forgot to finish my essay!" Carmen's eyes darted towards the essay, half-typed, on her computer screen. She was going to have to pull an all-nighter... and classes hadn't even started yet!"

" Don't worry about it." said Erik, seating himself behind her desk. " You sleep, I'll finish your essay for you."

" But that's-"

" Cheating? I won't tell if you don't, daccord?"

" Oh fine... since I'm really tired..." Carmen said through a yawn. "Goodnight, Erik...and thanks, by the way."

"Think nothing of it."

Okay folks! What'd you think? You know what I think? I think I want Erik to do my homework! Or at least eat my homework, so then I could go up and be like "The Phantom of the Opera ate my homework..." and then they'd probably lock me in a nice room with padded walls, which is where I should probably be anyways...

So, love it? Hate it? Make your voice heard and review, please. If you don't, my poor puppy will STARVE! Nah, just kidding! I have no puppy...:sniffle:

Oh yeah, almost forgot the asterisk thing... for those who don't know, "Filth" is Victorian speak for "Whore".