Thank you all for reviewing! Sorry for the delay on this chapter, but my sister had her baby and so i was a little busy with that. But the baby is healthy and it's a cute little girl! Yay! Well, enjoy this chapter! And review!

Chapter 7

"Oww," I groaned. "Where am I?"

I looked around and all I saw was a dark, dank cellar. I slowly stood up, but then immediately fell back down. My whole body ached. Looking up, I saw how far I had fallen. Only seeing a little patch of light, I realized how bad of a situation I was in. The room here had no passageways, no windows, no doors, absolutely nothing. The walls were wet, which made them impossible to climb.

Not knowing what I should do, I just sat in the middle of the room and put my head on my knees. I wondered if Erik would notice that I was missing. And if he even did, would he come looking for me? He had just punished, so would he want to come save me? Being in this predicament gave me some time to think over things. Like what Erik had looked like, what my parents were up to, if I would ever see them again.

Thinking about my parents gave me a sad feeling. I had not thought about them over the past few days, and had no clue how they were doing. The last time I saw them, my mother was a mess. But were they not even looking for me? At the time when I saw them, it seemed to me like they were just moping around. Here I was, about to die, and they weren't even looking for me!

"Fine," I said to myself. "I'll just stay down here and die. Nobody will miss me."

After telling myself this a couple of times, I was content with being away from my parents. Abruptly, I heard faint footsteps coming from above me. Looking up, there was shadow at the top of the chamber. I stood up, hoping that is was somebody here to save me, but then the shadow left, and I was again alone.

As I sat back down on the dank floor, I heard a clunk, clunk. Then the floor on which I sat began to rise and rise, bringing me closer to the light at the end of the tunnel. Then the floor was part of the hallway at the top, and I hesitantly walked off. After I was safely off of the mechanism, it fell back down to its rightful place and the hallway became whole again.

I heard footsteps coming from behind me and I briskly turned around to face Erik. His face was set in a hard line and only looked at me for a second. He walked passed me and back towards my room and I just followed a few steps behind.

When we got back to my chamber, Erik walked over to the side wall and said, "Come here."

I did not know what exactly to do, so I walked slowly towards him.

When I got close enough to him, he said, "What were you thinking when you went down that hall? Or when you opened the mechanism?"

"I – I was bored, and the knob over there was shiny so –"

"So when you see something that you like in other people's homes you just – use it?" He chuckled. "I would have thought that your mother would have taught you better manners."

"She did teach me good manners! I just don't see why I have to use them here! This is not my home and you're –"

"What? What am I? A monster? A lunatic? What! What were you going to say!" As he said this he shook me fiercely.

"Nothing," I mumbled.

"Oh really? Nothing you say? Well --"

At this moment I started to cry. I did not ever mean to upset him, but his house was just so amazing!

When Erik heard me start to cry, he stopped shaking me. He stood up straight and in a low voice told me that I was to stay in here and to not press any switches or contraptions that I may see. And with that he left me alone again.

As soon as I was sure that he was gone, I began to frantically look around for another button or anything that looked like I could push it. I looked and looked, but it was to no avail. There were no other switches that I could find beside the first one that I came across. But I did not dare to venture down that forsaken hall again. Disappointed, I went over to my bed and lied down. I was hoping to go to sleep, but sleep did not come. I was there in my bed for what seemed like forever.

Just when I was about to get up and look around some more, Erik came into my room.

"Come," he said. "It is time for dinner."

"I do not want any of your food."

"Well you shall eat it or… or I will put you back in that chamber that I rescued you from earlier."

"You wouldn't do that," I scoffed at him. "You may not be the nicest person, but you are not cruel." He was glaring at me. "Are you?" I asked him as I began to back away.

He looked away from me and said, "No, I would not do that. But you must eat something!"

"Fine."

And so I walked after him to his little table and sat down to begin to eat the bread. But instead of pulling out his usual basket, he got out a bowl of fresh greens. I must've had quite a startled look on my face for Erik said,

"I thought that I'd try to get a good meal for you to eat and this was the best I cold do."

"But, how did you get all this?"

"Remember? I am a musical genius and people give me… things."

This time, I knew he was lying. He was not getting paid, and I knew it. But not wanting to say anything, I gratefully took the food and began to eat.