Erik had been hiding in the church for the past six months after fleeing from nearby Paris and the debacle at the Opera Populaire. He was bound and determined to find a new sanctuary in which to sink into his solitude once again, and when he found the old church, it seemed like the perfect place. He hadn't anticipated finding that it was also a musical sanctuary for this young violinist, but he found that he welcomed the time each day when she would come in and unknowingly give him a private concert.
He had seen the girl come and go in the abandoned church nearly every day for the six months that he'd been hiding out there. He listened to her practicing, noticing where she'd improved with each day's practice and where she needed more work, desperately wishing he could reveal himself and guide her through her practicing. He saw that she had immense talent, but she lacked the proper direction, and he longed to be able to give that to her.
He had picked up on a fairly reliable pattern of when she would show up each day and for how long so that he was able to situate himself in such a manner that it was not difficult to remain absolutely quiet and not give himself away. He found himself enjoying her playing, despite the occasional wrong notes or style with which she played the music.
He had even come to identify her moods when she played; whether she was enjoying her day and putting forth her best effort, or if she was distracted and playing only out of habit or perhaps an attempt to temporarily forget her troubles.
He had vowed to keep his silence and resisted the urge to show himself and offer her his musical guidance, though he found it more and more difficult with each passing day. She was a very pretty girl, small figure with long brown curls, and when she played from the heart, her inner beauty radiated, and Erik felt as if it might be possible that this girl could take Christine's place in his mind and in his heart.
When he had heard the girl pray for an angel of music several times before, he debated hard with himself each time as to whether or not he had the strength for a second attempt at what he had tried with Christine, to guide this girl with musical lessons, allowing only his voice to be known and staying to the shadows. Each time, he came to the conclusion that he did not, in fact, have the strength to start something he was afraid would end the same way, thereby ignoring her pleas and forcing himself to be content simply to watch her from the shadows.
Nevertheless, something in her voice this time caused a reaction in Erik, and he surprised himself in his snap decision to give in to his desire for at least a tiny bit of contact with this beautiful and talented violinist. He was tired of seeing her each day and not being able to call out to her, even if it was only from the shadows as an unseen voice.
He knew he was risking a lot of potential trouble by trying the same thing again, but in his thirst for human contact and need to satisfy his curiosity to see if she was as kind a soul as he believed her music showed her to be, he decided it would be worth the risk, though he would make sure to take more precautions than he had with Christine.