A/N: Thanks to all of the many of my reveiwers! glares, reaching for punjab lasso. THIS IS THE THANKS I GET! 4 REVIEWS! GRRRREEEEAAAARRRRGHHH! (Every chapter waits for at least 3 reviews before I post the next one! I like pretty reviews!)

Kate: What has problems with the movie? The story or you?

Disclamer: I do not own anything from the silent POTO film…yea.

Chapter 3—Stranger Than You Dreamt It

Ari awoke slowly the next morning. Why hadn't her alarm gone off? When her eyes opened, she remembered a little of why. She glanced around—Stella lay in a bed next to hers, still asleep. There was music coming from outside the room. Her feet touched the floor silently, and she sang softly as she emerged, looking around.

"I remember there was mist, swirling mist upon a vast, glassy lake.

There were candles all around, and on the lake, there was a boat,

And in that boat there was a man…"

She looked for the source of the music, and found Erik, sitting at his organ, gazing at her with something in his eyes she'd never seen in anyone. She moved toward him as he continued to play.

"Who was that shape in the shadows? Whose is the face in the mask?"

He remained seated even when she drew close enough to reach out and touch his face. His eyes closed, and she suddenly had to know. Her other hand went out and pried his mask off.

"Damn you! You little prying Pandora! You little demon!

Is this what you wanted to see?"

He stood abruptly, clutching his face, and moved away from her. She had remained still. He really could have looked worse, she thought, yet here he was, raving at her as though she had killed something dear to him. Which, she admitted, she had. She set the mask on a nearby table as he dropped to his knees, then followed him.

"Stranger than you dreamt it!

Can you even dare to look or bear to think of me, this—"

She put a finger to his lips, cutting him off. He looked at her, confused, and her hand moved to cup his disfigured cheek. She sang quietly.

"This haunted face holds no horror for me now.

It's in your soul that the true distortion lies."

His eyes asked her desperately, "Why?" He allowed her to take his hands and pull him to his feet. Her own hands seemed to have minds of their own as they moved lightly up his arms until they met behind his neck. After a moment, he wrapped her in his embrace, burying his face in her hair. She leaned her head on his chest, which his open shirt left bare. She heard his heartbeat and her grip tightened. She wanted to hold him forever.

Suddenly he stiffened and drew away from her. She looked up, disappointed, and saw him staring over her shoulder. She turned, and there stood Stella at the door to the bedroom.

Erik immediately spun around and hunted out his mask. As he passed Ari, she heard him mutter something. Had he said, "Curse you"? She wasn't sure, but there were other things to worry about.

"Ari," said Stella, coming over to her friend and speaking softly. "What about our parents?"

Both of them looked fearfully at the newly masked Erik, who clapped a hand to his head. "Oh, God, I'd forgotten!" he said. "I'm such a fool!"

"What are we going to do?" asked Ari.

"Wait," said Erik slowly. "I think this may work out. I do not think you know that I was once personally acquainted with both of your mothers."

"What?" The girls were surprised.

"Yes," he continued. "Perhaps we can call them on my telephone."

"You have a telephone?" Ari said stupidly.

He looked at her kindly. "Of course." He noticed Stella rolling her eyes. "It's all right—even I forget that it is not 1870 anymore. Do not worry." He moved to show them his telephone, and Ari and Stella exchanged confused looks.

i

Not long later, the three were moving through an underground tunnel to a secluded place in the forest. It was not far from the school, but far enough that no one would see them. For the girls' disappearance had, of course, been discovered, and police and caution tape as well as news cameras surrounded the vacated building. They could just see it from their hiding place.

Ari sank to the earthen floor of the woods, shivering for a reason unbeknownst to her. Erik noticed this and sat next to her, putting an arm around her and drawing her close to him. Stella sat on his other side, and his other arm embraced her.

"Taking care of our daughters, Erik?"

The familiar voice surprised the three, who looked up to see Stella's mother, Christine, approaching them.

"Just like you did us," said Ari's mother, Meg, coming up behind her.

"Of course," replied Erik, smiling beneath his mask. "You were my girls, and now they are."

"I still cannot believe how long it has been," Christine remarked. "Were they as curious as we were?"

"More so," said Erik, pretending to glare at Ari, who blushed.

"As it is, Erik, I do not think that it is a good idea for you to be back in the school at the moment," Meg said, glancing over at the brick building. "Would you like to come with us to Christine's house—for tea, and a needed discussion?"

"I would be honored, Madame," Erik replied, rising and giving the girls his hands. "Let us hasten."

i

And hasten they did, over to Stella and Christine's lovely residence. They sat in one of the several parlors and drank herbal tea from china mugs. Erik regarded his two former students with a sparkle of humor in his eye.

"What are you laughing at?" Stella wanted to know.

"It has been a long time," Erik replied, not directly to her but to the room in general.

"Wait," said Ari, perplexed. "If you were their teacher when they were our age, then…"

"How old were you the last time you counted, Erik?"

Erik looked upward, thinking. "One hundred…sixty, I think."

The two young girls began to look very confused.

"How…?" said Stella, wonderingly.

The three elders looked around at each other. "One can never quite tell," said Erik, his voice very different. "Perhaps it was a blessing—or a curse."

"A curse?" inquired Ari and Stella together.

"Stella, we don't believe in curses," her mother reminded her gently, for the whole family was strictly Jehovah's Witnesses. Ari looked at Erik, pleading.

"Some other time," he assured her. She sighed and took another sip of tea.

"What about the police?" asked Stella.

"We have made your excuses," said Meg reassuringly. "They still want to examine the building—school's out all next week."

"Oh, darn, no school," said Ari. Erik laughed.

i

A/N: Ahem. Reviews. Please. And answer my poll that was posted last chapter. If you will. Or I may have to create a disaster beyond your imaginations. Hope you like it, love it or hate it let me know. Honestly, it's not that hard to hit that little button in the lower left hand of your window, then hit keys at random to form words. Then click the other little button that says "Submit." Then you will have a HAPPY authoress who does NOT grab her Punjab as soon as she sees you. grrrrr