A/N: Thank you to Fox of the Nova who manages to write a review for every chapter I post, and to everyone else who keeps giving me positive feedback. It really makes my day. It also unfortunately makes me neglect my homework in order to write updates, but since I've finally reached second semester of senior year, I'm not too worried. Don't worry, Lady Nessa– Remy has too strong a survival instinct to do something that stupid, but the mask will be coming off soon..very soon. And now, the longest chapter I have written yet, hope you enjoy!

This time I limped down the steps, I managed to remain upright, a feat I was quite proud of. Erik was once again sitting at his organ, scribbling on a sheet of paper. There was no music this time, and all I could hear was the scratching of his pen on the paper. Everything else was silence, so thick I felt I was wading through it. He didn't seem to hear my bare feet as I padded down the stairs, and towards him. I stopped a few feet away, not wishing to startle him, and cleared my throat. He glanced up at me, and I could have sworn I saw a hint of a smile. Or it was a trick of the candlelight, and I was simply imagining things.

"You are feeling better, I trust?"

"I am, thank you."

He rose from his bench and held out a black-gloved hand, which I took. He led me to a chair, and pulled it out for me, as I silently marveled at his impeccable manners. My etiquette teacher would have loved him. After I was seated comfortably at the table, he placed some fruit and water before me, and silently went back to his organ. Apparently he meant to leave me here in silence, something I felt I could not bear.

"So...you live here"

I mentally kicked myself. Of course he lived here, why else would he have brought me here?

"I do."

Thankfully, he did not seem annoyed by my question. I tried again.

"If I may ask, why is it that the opera house remains empty? I would think a valuable piece of property such as this one would find many buyers willing to restore it."

My question caught his attention, and he turned to me with a sarcastic smile.

"Did you not hear the stories?"

"Where I am from, in Alsace, we do not get much news from Paris."

He got up and walked towards me slowly.

"They say that there is a monster who haunts the opera house, who hides in the darkness, who cannot be seen but is always there..." He circled around me as he spoke, then drew away, his back towards me. His posture was tense, and he walked stiffly, as though filled with some kind of pain. "Who kills for the fun of it, who is so horribly ugly that no one can look upon him without screaming and fainting, who started the fire that destroyed the opera house, and who remains here still, killing anyone who dares disturb him."

I don't know what stupidity possessed me to say what I said next.

"But you live here. Surely you would have seen this monster if he existed?"

He turned quickly toward me, disbelief written on his face. I realized my mistake as soon as Ispoke, and dropped my eyes as I felt my face turning red with embarrassment.

"Oh...I see. They think..."

He moved swiftly toward me, until he was standing directly in front of me, and crouched down so that his eyes were level with mine. I still did not look at him.

"No, Mademoiselle Neuvillette..." This was the voice I had heard in the basement before I fainted, cold and quiet. "They know that I am that monster."

Something in his voice, a deep pain beneath the chill, tore at my heart, and I could not help but pity this man, even as he threatened me with the closeness of his presence. What had he done to deserve this life, so alone and so silent? I met his eyes with mine, pleading him to accept my pity.

"And yet you saved my life."

He straightened, and stalked away.

"Now, if you are done with your prying, I have some questions of my own."

"Ask what you like."

"Why are you here?"

"Because you brought me here." Probably not a good idea to make him angry, just in case he regretted saving me and decided to remedy the situation. "I was running from someone, and the opera house seemed like a good place to hide."

"From whom were you running?"

I wondered how much I would have to tell him before he was satisfied. I owed him my life, the least I could do was tell him the truth. I took a deep breath to steady myself before I began.

He had tried to maintain his calm demeanor, but when she appeared before him, he was struck by her appearance. She wasn't beautiful, not with her ragged hair and her clothing hanging off her starved frame, but she stood as tall as if she were dressed in silk. Her chin tilted slightly upward when he glanced at her, as she smiled in his direction, and the candlelight emphasized her the sharp slant of her cheekbones. She had taken his hand like instinctively, as though she was used to being offered gentlemanly gestures like that. He wasn't sure if he was attracted to the light of her smile, intimidated by her regal bearing, or angered by her audacity in looking at home in such an odd situation.

He remained silent because he wasn't sure what he could possibly say to her. He had thought she would be frightened by him once her initial shock wore off, but she had seemed so very comfortable in his presence that he felt a twisted desire to frighten her. When she had asked about the opera house, he had his opportunity. Then, she didn't pick up his very obvious hints about his identity. For some reason, it had not occurred to her that he was the monster, and her innocence had angered him, even as his traitorous thoughts told him that he should be gratified that she had not made the connection.

When she had responded to his intimidation attempts with complete calm, and looked straight into his eyes, he wondered briefly if perhaps he ought to just remove his mask and send her running on her way, so that he would have his solitude once more. He dismissedthe thought quickly, knowing that he couldn't send her back to whatever she had been running from. He struggled to resume his cool facade, not wanting to let her see any of the emotions running across his face.

He decided to take this opportunity to satisfy his own curiosity, and asked her why she was here. Her first response dripped with sarcasm, but she seemed to remember her manners and modified her answer, though she appeared not to want to talk about herself. When he asked her who she was running from, a flash of pain ran through her eyes, and she breathed heavily, as though steeling herself for some great ordeal.

"I was running from my fiance."

He hadn't been expecting that. She kept her eyes on the floor, unwilling to meet his.

"Well, not him directly. I mean, he wasn't chasing me himself, he got the gendarmes to do it... and the men he hired, obviously... it is a little complicated."

She trailed off, not sure of how much he would want to hear. He kept his eyes firmly on her face, silently asking her to explain. When she spoke again, her voice was flat, as though she had run out of emotion and was telling a story about someone else.

"The man I was engaged to, Leon Villeforte, was the only son of the oldest noble family in Alsace. The most powerful as well. He and I became engaged secretly, because his parents would not have approved of the match; my blood was not as noble as his in their eyes. I wanted to be married quickly, and didn't fancy waiting until his parents died to do so. I told him that if he loved me, he would risk his parents' disapproval and marry me without waiting for their consent. He didn't want to be cut off without their money, so he found another way."

He realized that her hands were shaking slightly.

"He poisoned them, I'm not sure with what. When I found the bottle of poison he had used, he admitted everything to me, then called thegendarmes and told them I hadkilled his parents and attacked him. Then he told them that he suspected me of practicing witchcraft. He had me thrown in jail, where I was put on trial. He bribed the officers who had arrested me to testify that my strength was unnatural. When the parish priest refused to find fault with me, Leon had him removed from his position, and payed a bishop who had been friends with his parents to testify that I was a witch."

Her voice shook as her narrative continued, and he could see anger building inside of her, until it seemed to light her from within, like a flame burning beneath her pale skin. Her pale eyes met his, and he could see a coldness there that mirrored his own, the kind of coldness that comes from cruel treatment .

"They branded me with this – " here she pulled back the sleeve of her blouse, allowing the cross shaped scar to show, "and condemned me to death."

"Why?"

Her voiced turned sarcastic. "Why do you think? Because he was greedy and insane, and I was the perfect scapegoat for his crime. Because he knew that no one would have believed me over him." Her voice increased in intensitywith every word. "He was right, you know. My own grandfather refused to take my side, refused to find me a lawyer. He came to visit me once, to tell me that I had disgraced him, and that my disgrace was God punishing him for adopting me!"

The words seemed to spill out of her now, venomous and wrathful, and she spit out the word 'grandfather' as if it were a horrible curse.

"I managed to escape, and came here. That was three weeks ago."

When she was done, the hate that had given her energy to speak left her body, and she dropped her eyes once more, and sunk back into her chair. He wanted to know more; how she had escaped, why she had come to Paris, and most importantly, who she was. It struck him as odd, the way she referred to no family but a grandfather, and her cryptic comments about not being as noble as her fiancé. He decided, though that any further questioning ought to be saved for another time, as she seemed not to have any strength left in her.

A/N: Alsace is a region in the Northeast of France, which I chose because it is relatively isolated, relatively far from Paris, and my Mom's family is actually from there. Brownie points to whoever can guess from what French book I stole Leon's last name from. I'll give you a hint: Jim Caviezel was in the movie.