(Authors note) Finally! I have come up with the fourth chapter! I'm sorry it took so long, I was so stumped and clueless as to how to take this story, but finally it came to me. It's still not that great, but it's better than nothing right? Thank you all for the reviews, but i'll have to kindly ask you not to request characters to be put into this story. To put it bluntly, this is my story, not yours, and I have already planned out it's characters. So thank you, but no thank you. Anyways, the disclaimer still holds, I do not own any of the characters from Joel Schumacher's The Phantom Of the Opera, so, enjoy!

The three of them sat together at the table, a plate with eggs sitting in front of them; but Amy and Elizabeth could not eat, for Erik had taken away their appetite. He ate ravenously and without wasting any time. Egg dribbled out of his mouth as the two ladies sat watching him, their mouths gaping slightly. He ate like he'd been raised by monkeys. Finally when he was done he dropped his fork and wiped his face off with a nearby napkin, looking to the two of them with furrowed eyebrows.

"Who is Christine"

The table fell silent, and automatically all eyes went to Erik. He sat frozen in place, his hands hidden underneath the napkin. He knew that some time he would need to explain, but so suddenly had Elizabeth asked the question had thrown him off guard. How did she know her name…? But suddenly his question was answered.

"You moaned her name in your sleep."

Amy gave her sister a swift kick under the table, but Elizabeth just winced and continued to stare blankly in Erik's direction. Sometimes when she looked at him he could swear that she was boring into him, like she was burning into his soul.

"Christine… she was… she was my everything. I loved her… And for a while I thought she loved me as well… But no."

He clenched his fists as he sat, staring at the vase of dieing flowers that sat as the centerpiece of the table. He reached a hand over and with the tips of his fingers he pushed the bloom of the flower upwards to try and make it look alive; but it proved to be rather hard, for it was browning and looking quite ugly.

"She was as beautiful as this flower used to be… shining like a glorious star in the night. She was all I ever wanted…But she left… No, She was TAKEN!-"

He snatched the bloom off of the flower and grinded it in his hands, feeling it breaking in his hand.

"Christine Daae' was stolen from me! From that patron…"

He opened up his hand and the petals fell out of his palm, littering the table in front of him. He closed his eyes and fell silent, and the entire room seemed to ring with the silence.

"Erik… Things like that happen.. It… it's a part of everyday life. I was engaged to a wonderful man before he met… Diana…"

He opened his eyes and looked towards Amy. She was looking away, out the window to watch the people scurry by on their daily business. He couldn't see very well because she was turned away from him, but it looked like there was a glint in her eye that looked like a tear, but she closed her eyes, and he could no longer tell.

"Where did you come from Erik? You look too well taken care of to have lived on the streets"

"It was an opera house… Perhaps you've heard of it? The Opera Populaire'. I was a… singer, there"

He looked up towards the ceiling, avoiding both of their eyes. He knew he was lying, but he didn't care right now so long as it saved his skin and gave him a place to stay, to hide away from the police for a couple of days. But perhaps maybe they thought that he had died in the fire. At this point, anything could be plausible in the eyes of those dim-witted policemen.

"Yes, we have heard of it before. And you say you performed there? Wow… you must be a very experienced singer to be able to get into something like that…"

"When you are blind you tend to listen to things more intently then others normally would because your other senses are sharper since you're missing one…"

Elizabeth said this through slightly gritted teeth. He looked over to her and she was staring blankly past him, but her eyebrows were slanted in a look of anger. Why was she angry all of the sudden? Could she tell that he had been lying? His hands clenched up for a second, but then relaxed after she explained that;

"I could tell that you were a singer, from the musical way you carry your words. Almost kind of like you're humming underneath your breath as you speak."

Her eyebrows came back to their original state and she smiled politely, giving off a clueless look. He smiled to himself and then looked out the window once more into the busy street. The gray clouds that had sinned the sky earlier that morning had began to disappear, letting rays of sunshine filter in through the puffs of vapor. Maybe today would be a better day, one that God would not frown upon because of Erik's sins towards man-kind.

"Pardon me ladies, but I think that I will step outside for a moment since this is such a lovely day…"

He pushed himself away from the table and stood up, pushing the chair back into the table. Amy and Lizzy nodded as he walked towards the door and then in a split second, he was out of it, closing the door behind him. Amy knew that he wouldn't go far… where else would he go? Elizabeth reached her hand over and placed it over Amy's hand, squeezing it gently.

"Amy… your hands, they are cold as ice, what is the matter?"

"It is nothing Liz, do not fret over it alright?"

Amy smiled as she reached her working hand over and rested it on her cheek, brushing her hand across her cheek. Elizabeth sat dumbly in her touch, closing her eyes as she nuzzled her cheek into her hand. Amy stopped smiling and then looked back out the window, wondering if Erik would go farther than he really should. She was really starting to worry about him, worrying if the decision to bring him into their house was a good one or not. She looked back to her sister, Liz staring dumbfounded at the ceiling. She smiled sadly and then rested her elbows on the table, crossing her arms in front of her and then burying her head into her arms.