Chapter 3

On the next morning when Elisa woke up, she lied still and watched on the ceiling for a moment. Then she remembered what happened last night and where she was. She heard movement from her left side and turned her head just to see the man with a half mask on his face smiling at her.

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?"

Elisa jumped up fast and when she put the weight on her hurt ankle she moaned a little.

"Does the ankle still hurt?" Erik asked and took gently her arm.

"It is better, thank you." Elisa smiled weakly. "Thank you for letting me sleep here."

"It was my pleasure. And I couldn't let the granddaughter of Christine to wander alone there in night." Erik replied watching straight to her eyes. Elisa was breatless and she just nodded for an answer.

"I hope you slept well." Erik said when he noticed how flustered Elisa was.

"I did." Actually I slept better than for weeks. She thought."But where did you sleep?" She asked looking around. She didn't see any signs of that someone else would had slept in that room.

"I don't need to sleep so much."

"What are you?" Elisa asked again and there was a little frustration in her voice.

"Didn't we cover this subject already yesterday?" Erik smiled slightly.

"You didn't give me satisfying answer."

"I can see that. But that's all you need to know."

Erik saw the similar frustrated expression in Elisa's eyes like Christine sometimes had and that made him even more amused.

"What ever." Elisa threw her arms up. "I have to leave now. I'm sure Thomas is sick of worry over me."

"Yes, maybe it is best that you go now." Erik admitted quietly.

Elisa just nodded and when she was by the room door, she turned to look back to Erik who watched after her."Thank you for your kindness. Take care of yourself."

"You too, Elisa. See you soon."

I can't come here anymore, this all is just too much. I have to resist his power. I can't come back.

"No, Erik. We will not see again." She raised her voice a little. "I can't come back."

Then she continued her way carefully trough all dirt and fallen boards to the main door of the theatre. She heard steps behind her and stood by the door for few seconds before she opened it. Erik stared at her back and gave out a silent sigh of disappointment when she didn't turn.

"You will come back, Elisa LeCheval. You will come back to me." He said quietly when Elisa closed the door behind her.

Elisa was in the deep thoughts when she left the ruined building which used to be once so magnificent theatre building. She walked slowly and slightly limping towards the street, where she lived in the appartment building together with her boyfriend Thomas. They weren't married yet, but both felt that it was a best solution to live together now when it was a war time. She had a big appartment and it saved money from them both now when Thomas lived there too. On her way to home the strange man who she had met was mainly on her mind. She was very confused, but somewhere deep inside she started to believe that the man was really the Phantom of the Opera Populaire. She had already felt his power over her and she thought that Christine had felt the same. She wasn't sure if this was just a plain coincidence or was it meant to happen. She did still believe that one was responsible of his or her own destiny and there wasn't any 'bigger plan', but still she had a strange thoughts about those things what happened after she had entered the ruins of the theatre building.

On her way towards home she saw that the German bombs had caused quite a lot of distruction on the area which she went through just before she got to the area where she and Thomas lived. There was still couple of buildings on fire and she saw people crying and moaning on the street. She felt very bad for them, and she couldn't imagine how would she survive if the bomb had hit their building. She picked up on speed as much as she could with her hurt ankle and when she finally saw the building where her appartment was, she gave out a sigh of relief. The building was still standing and other buildings around it seemed also unharmed.

When Elisa got to the outer door of the building she hesitated a little before she opened it. What I'll tell to Thomas? I can't tell him the truth. I can't tell him about Erik though I will never see him again. She got carefully the stairs up to the second floor, stood by her apparment door and took the keys out of her pocket. Before she opened the door she took a deep breath to calm herself down and then she opened the door. Almost immediately when she had entered the small hall of the appartment, she heard Thomas' voice.

"Elisa? Is that you?"

"Yes. It is me." She replied and closed the door. Next thing she realized was that her boyfriend was holding his arms tight around her.

"Where in the earth have you been? I've been so worried." Thomas asked when he finally let her go.

"I was safe." Elisa said quietly.

"I was afraid the worst. I thought that you were dead on nights bombing and I was just going to look for you..."

"I wasn't in danger. When the bombing started I went to a safe building. I am alright, really." Elisa put her had on Thomas' arm to calm him down.

"Are you really alright?" Thomas watched her closely still worry in his eyes.

"Yes. I am." Elisa smiled a little. "But I am starving. Do we have anything to eat?"

"There is some eggs and bread in kitchen." Thomas replied.

When Elisa passed him and went towards kitchen, Thomas watched after her.

"Elisa, are you hurt after all? Looks like you are limping a little."

"Ah, it's not serious." She turned back to her boyfriend and forced a little smile to her lips. She had to choose her words carefully. "I just twisted my ankle a little last night. There was some ..." Think Elisa, think! "People who helped me to strap it. It's just a minor injury."

"So, you weren't alone last night?"

"No, there was... Others." Elisa said on a bit avoiding way and went to the kitchen.

Later on that day when Elisa had Thomas convinced that she had been in safe place last night, she went to take her violin from their bedroom. She loved to sing, but her true passion was playing violin and she was very good on it. She had been five years old when she got her first violin and since then she had practiced almost daily basis. She played few sounds as like for test first, but then she took her notes and started to play. It was Saturday, so Elisa didn't have to go to Academy and Thomas didn't have to go to work. She played almost for an hour because she needed something else to thing and when she finally stopped, her fingers were hurting a little, but she didn't feel any better. She looked to Thomas who had been listening her playing and smiled a little.

"So how was it?"

"Marvellous, like always. I really enjoy to listen you play." The brown haired and green eyed man smiled to her.

Elisa got serious again and stood up going to the window.

"I hate this war. Paris is such a beautiful city and look it now. It's ruined." She had sadness in her voice.

"Yes, I know. But you are safe with me. Nothing's going to hurt us." Thomas said when he came to stand behind Elisa and put his arms around her waist.

"Yes." She said simply staring out of the window. There is so much you don't know about me, Thomas. And I can't tell you anything about my life outside of home and Academy, not even I want to tell you so much. And now there is Erik... One more secret in my life. You wouldn't understand. If those secrets were revealed I would get hurt really bad. Specially now when Germans and specially Gestapo are here in town.

Elisa and Thomas spent the whole day at home. She didn't specially want to go anywhere because her ankle did still hurt a little. Thomas was a little worried about her. He was a police officer by profession and he was trained to recognize if someone was hiding something. He knew that Elisa was hiding something from him, but in the other hand he thought that it was just this war, which made her act in a strange way.

Later on that evening Erik sat on his torture chamber beneath the theatre building and thought what Marc Villeneuve had told him last night. Marc was the only one of who Erik trusted in this world and he was the only one who knew who Erik really was, but it didn't seem to bother the man, who had been saved by Erik during the first World War when he was just a teenager. Marc Villeneuve was also Erik's connection to Resistance. Erik wasn't himself part of it, but he hated Germans like most of the French did.

When Marc had seen Elisa, he had recognized her immediately. Also the younger man who Marc called Robert recognized her. They had told Erik, that she was in Resistance and they knew her as Jacqueline. They also told him that she didn't participate on the attacks which the Resistance did against Germans, she mainly printed leaflets and carried some notes to others in Resistance, but it didn't make Erik feel any less worried about her. On the morning when Elisa woke up it had been difficult to Erik to hide it from her, that he knew she was in the Resistance, but he thought that he had managed to do it rather well. He was amazed about the effect which Elisa made to him from the very first sight, and he didn't even know yet then that she was connected to Christine by blood. Somewhere deep inside his mind Erik knew that the fact that she was a granddaughter to Christine had nothing to do with feelings he had now.

Erik sighed heavily and stared the wall of his chamber.

"Where have you put yourself into, Elisa?" He whispered.