A/N: Ok, I'm afraid this chapter is a bit of a short one, as I've been really busy recently… however, the chapter after this is when things will start to heat up a little! Just a few responses to my reviewers – I love you all!
sparklyscorprion: Thanks! (tries very hard not to look big headed and fails miserably) I am really thirteen, honest! But I've been writing stories since… well, since I learnt to write! Thanks for your comments, they were really useful.
AngelsExist: Thanks!
Hikishianara: Thanks – and here you go! Chapter Five!
Softiful: I made you cry? How?! It wasn't even meant to be sad! You're not gonna like chapter six then! Serious angst planned!
AingealFire: Thankyou. bows theatrically
Kaya DC Pandora: Thanks. A bit of a cliffy at the end of this one!
galabalesh: Thanks! Hopefully this chapter lives up to your expectations!
Chapter Five
A few days after Erik's roundabout way of asking Ellisa's forgiveness, and, in her childish way, being given it, he decided it was time he took her to see the opera.
She had, of course, seen such performances before, but only from the wings of the stage, and only at certain times. Erik felt it would do her – and her prowess in music – a world of good for her to watch the season's performance of Romeo and Juliet from his prime 'seats' in Box Five.
Of course, he did not actually enter the box – no, that would be far to exposed – and dangerous. Were he in a place where the mangers could find him, they would surely have themselves rid of him by any means necessary, for their friend 'O.G' was by no means a fond one.
No, he had, during his time as architect and engineer for the grand project of building the Opera Populaire, added his own… alterations, to the original design.
One of them had been a hollow pillar. It was, in a way, genius in its simplicity, for who would suspect such a thing? The pillar itself was quite large, large enough for at least two people to sit quite comfortably, especially if those two people consisted of one small child and a skeleton of a man.
Which was how, on opening night of Romeo and Juliet, the man recently named 'Erik' found himself clambering up the inside of the said pillar, little Ellisa hanging on determinedly to his back like a monkey.
Erik was indeed quite pleased with the young girl's progress over the past few days. It had been a challenge for her, and he understood that – in fact, in a way, he delighted in it. If she had been an instant prodigy (like he had been, he thought, a little smugly), then he would have little to do to help her. Her talent – for it was there, nonetheless – was flawed, but what she lacked in skill she made up for in enthusiasm. She would clump away noisily at the keys for hours, whilst he stood behind her and listened on, allowing her her mistakes, and praising her for her triumphs, small though they may have been.
A tugging at his hair caused him to shake these fond thoughts from his mind, and he turned his neck slightly so that he could see the girl out of the corner of his mind. She was smiling happily, enjoying the idea of watching the opera from a proper seat.
"Yes?" He asked her, his own smile unconsciously mirroring her own. His voice was deep, and of a comforting, gentle timbre. Ellisa loved his voice, for it not only reminded her of her father, a great, warm bear of a man, but also possessed a strange, almost enchanting, quality that she had never heard before, and felt instinctively that she never would again.
"Can you hear it?" Ellisa asked, her head cocked to one side, and the man laughed, surprised at how good it felt to do so.
"Yes," He replied, smiling once more, "I can." He paused slightly, also listening. It was the overture, in which every instrument of the orchestra tuned itself and warmed to the music. Her scowled as he detected a clear discrepancy in what should have been a beautiful blending of instrumental voices. "That third trombone is off-key again." He muttered in annoyance, shaking his head in disgust. How could the conductor not notice it? He was, in Erik's opinion, a fine, upstanding musician (certainly better than the last conductor to have graced the Opera scene, Erik had made sure that he had been sent packing quickly) but must have been deaf not to notice the god-awful sound emanating from certain instruments in the brass sect. And no doubt the dancing would be abominable as well!
Erik shook his head. Tonight was not the night for him to be dwelling on such things, for this was the first night he had ever watched the opera with company. He intended to enjoy it, to cherish it, so that every memory would be whole and perfect, for him to take out and review fondly in years to come, when he would surely once more be alone.
He had no doubt that she would have to, eventually, leave him alone once again. Darkness was no place for a child of such warmth and innocence – in fact, no place for a child at all, whatever their temperance. And, eventually – his stomach clenched at the thought – the girl's father, the man after who he had been unceremoniously 'named' – would soon want her back.
They were there. There was only one makeshift 'seat' – Erik had never envisaged showing any other person his secret ticket to the opera – but he found that they could both see quite comfortably through the carefully constructed grille he had cut out of the stage-facing side of the pillar if he perched upon the seat set back in the hollow of the pillar and set Ellisa upon his lap.
They were just in time for the end of the Overture, and the opening song. As they watched, little Ellisa was sent into raptures of joy at the sheer visual beauty, whilst Erik slipped back, against all his previous certainties, into his habit of critically reviewing the vocal display. Needless to say he, being the perfectionist that he was, found a great many flaws in the performance. There was only one person he would forgive mistakes in in matters of music, and that was Ellisa. As far as other adults were concerned, he expected them to play and perform to the same standards he would expect of himself, which was, of course, quite unreasonable.
And yet, despite his initial doubts, that night blossomed into a night he would long treasure as the most perfect of his life, for he was not, for once, steeped in darkness, for he was not alone, and he watched the opera, and Ellisa's joy at it, with the wonder of a little child…
Butlittle did he realise that this perfection was soon to be shattered...
888
A/N: What do you think? Love it, hate it? Tell me! And prepare for the next chapter… serious cruelty to poor Erik going on, I'm afraid!