Wandering Child
Chapter 11- Erik
A/N: I have based Erik's appearance off of the movie. He looks like Gerry Butler. The actual lair is based off of the book.
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Erik was just finishing writing a letter to the managers of the Opera Populaire when the room suddenly became chilly. A great gust of wind blew in from the lake. He shivered and wrapped his cloak more firmly around his shoulders.
The managers of the Opera Populaire would not be able to refuse his demands after he delivered these notes. They would be in utter terror of what might come. Not to mention that pompous windbag of a Vicomte. Erik chuckled softly to himself at the thought of the unnerved look that would be on Raoul de Chagny's face when he read the letter. Yes, things were going quite smoothly.
Christine would sing that night. He would make sure of it personally.
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I shivered in the darkness. I'll admit, I hate the dark. And, without light, I couldn't make it back the way we had come. If I couldn't go back, my only option was to go forward. Something like that could be disastrous. However, I had no other alternative. It was either that, or wait until the Phantom happened to come my way and strangle me from behind.
I decided to go forward. Better he think that I just got lost looking for a prop or something than have him think that I was actually waiting for him. I had forgotten all about AM4 and Joey's warning about not interfering with the events until after Christine left the Phantom.
I took one step forward and fell. I was sliding down a small tube-like thing. It was made of metal. I screamed.
As soon as I looked down, I saw a shimmering blue. "Aw, shit." I said, and plunged headlong into the water. I floundered as I tried to reach the surface. I hadn't a clue how to swim.
Well, I can add another alternative to that list. I thought. I had no time to dwell on the matter, though, because as soon as I opened my eyes under the water, I saw something dark coming towards me. I shut my eyes again and tried to do a sort of frog-swim upwards. It didn't work.
My lungs screamed for air and my head began to pound. I knew that there was only one way to prolong drowning, and that was to stop trying to swim to the surface. I stopped moving, and I felt myself begin to sink. I prayed, then, that God would save me. I didn't want to die.
My lungs were near to bursting, and I felt the world around me begin to fade. Just before I slipped into unconsciousness, I saw a blurry face coming towards me. Save me, I thought, and everything became dark.
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Erik was startled out of his thoughts by a clanging sound. The alarm had been triggered. Someone was in his lake.
He rose from his seat and crossed the room to the door. He traveled through the rooms of his house and swung open the front door. He dived under the water without a second thought.
He had to get to whoever it was before the lake monster did. It was possible that it was Christine. Although very unlikely, the possibility was still there, and he didn't want to lose Christine to the serpent.
As Erik swam deeper into the lake, he caught a glimpse of the monster. It was heading towards a small dark shape. The shape was struggling to swim upwards, but obviously couldn't. The serpent looked at him sleepily. It didn't like being disturbed from its' slumber.
Erik shook his head at the beast, and it turned back the way it had come. Erik headed towards the person. They had stopped struggling and were beginning to sink.
Erik's powerful arms brought him to the person in mere seconds. He saw immediately that the person was female. She was wearing a blue dress that was tied around her waist with a white ribbon. Her blond hair was cut short and she was wearing a delicate necklace around her neck.
All of this, he saw in seconds. He wrapped one strong arm around her waist and brought her to the surface of the lake. Her body was limp against his and he had to support her head against his shoulder. She was so small and slight that, from afar, she could have easily been mistaken for a child. Erik knew better, though. She was obviously somewhere around Christine's age.
He held her head above the water and used one arm to bring her to shore. They were a ways away from his house, but he would easily be able to make it while carrying the girl. The more important question was whether or not she was still breathing. If she wasn't, then there really wasn't any point in saving her. If she was, then he would be able to find out why she was there in the first place.
Erik reached his house in record time and dragged the girl's limp body onto shore. Before he brought her inside-IF he brought her inside-he would have to find out whether or not she was alive.
He lay her down on her back on the ground and put his ear to her face. He felt a slight tickling on his cheek. Satisfied that she was still alive, he began to push down on her stomach to remove any water that she might have breathed in. (A/N: His version of CPR, but without the mouth-to-mouth.)
For a moment, nothing happened. Then the girl coughed and rolled over onto her side and spit up water.
The girl sat up fully and took several deep breaths before looking around. As soon as she saw him, she gave a sigh of relief and lay back down on the ground.
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I coughed and spewed water on the ground. Am I dead? I asked myself. I looked up at a shimmering lake. Nope, I thought. I'm still alive. I took several deep breaths and looked around.
I raised my self on my arms and looked around. In an instant, I saw him. He looked almost exactly as Joey had described him. He was tall, and was wearing a white shirt that was slightly open and showed a bit of his chest. His hands were gloved and he was wearing black boots. His legs were clad in black pants, and he was wearing a white mask on the right side of his face.
I sighed, relieved, and lay back down on the ground. I was glad to have been saved. I sat up again and looked at him. That was when I noticed his cruel stare. I remembered about his lasso and my eyes darted to his hands. They were empty. I returned his gaze, defiantly. His face held no surprise, but his green eyes gave him away.
"Who are you?" I asked, trying to make myself sound a little scared. That part wasn't too hard; I was scared. He said nothing and continued to glare at me. I pretended to be uncomfortable, and I shifted my gaze.
I tried to ask another question. "Where am I?" Again, he said nothing.
Then he stood up. He reached behind him and I saw something black. My heartbeat quickened, and I immediately raised my hand to the level of my eyes. I pretended as though I did that because I thought he was going to strike me. I turned my head away.
Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw him pull out a black rope. At least, I hoped it was a rope. He flicked his wrist and I ducked. That was a mistake. He then knew right away that I had been warned about him. The only logical conclusion to draw from that would be that I had come here on purpose.
I kept my head completely turned away, even as I felt the whip sail past my ear. I lowered my arm so as to steady myself. I heard the crack of the whip, and it encircled my neck. Immediately, the whip tightened, and I made a gagging, coughing, sound.
"Why are you here?" He hissed in a deep voice, as he tightened the whip around my neck.
I gagged and managed to choke out sarcastically, "Hello to you, too." I tried to pry the lasso away from my neck with my fingers.
The lasso tightened even more around my throat. "Answer me." He growled.
"I-" My voice broke off and I felt myself begin to lose consciousness. I knew it would be death by lasso, I thought wryly.
I felt Erik's breath tickle my cheek as he leaned in to whisper menacingly, "Tell me, or die."
"I-can't-breath-" I gagged and a gurgling noise came up from somewhere deep in my throat.
Erik removed the lasso from around my neck just before I fell unconscious. I collapsed onto the stone floor, coughing and gasping for breath. Erik stood over me, holding the whip menacingly. The situation didn't exactly look as though it was in my favor. I wondered if now would be a good time to scream.
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Erik was extremely angry. The girl was obviously someone who had been here before. She acted as though she was familiar with the place. And the way she had raised her hand to the level of her eyes was very suspicious. No one had ever sighed in relief when they saw him. No one but her.
When he released her from the lasso's grip, she fell to the ground, coughing and breathing heavily. There was something about her that frightened him.
Fear. It was not a new feeling for him. He had felt frightened before. When he had been part of a circus, when people had laughed at him, when that terrible man had beaten him, called him names.
That man had shown Erik how worthless he truly was, how he was just something that had been created for other people's perverted pleasure and entertainment. Erik had killed him for it. Erik had enjoyed watching that man die. He had relished the horrified look on his face when he saw that the "monster" wasn't as dumb as had been thought. He was smart. That was something that Erik had always prided himself on: being smart.
But this girl wasn't like the man from the freak show at the circus. She frightened him in another way. It wasn't anything that she did to hurt him that made him feel fear again. It was the fact that she openly defied him; that she was obviously not afraid of him. At least, not in the same way as the others who had seen him.
Erik hauled her up onto her feet and she swayed on unsteady legs. He looked her up and down briefly. She was a short, skinny thing and her damp hair was plastered to her wet forehead. She glared at him in obvious defiance.
"Why are you here?" He demanded again.
"I got lost." She replied haughtily, and she crossed her arms over her chest.
Erik examined her appearance and the manner in which she carried herself. She certainly had the figure of a ballet rat. But the ballet rats where terrified of him. Even that bimbo daughter of Mme. Giry's.
"You need to dry off." Erik stated matter-of-factly. He grabbed her arm and dragged her towards his house. He would have to find out why she was really there later. In the meantime, it couldn't hurt to let her in his home. It wasn't like he was going to show her the torture chamber.
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If there was one thing I knew, it was that Erik was not happy about my arrival. I just hoped he wasn't planning on shoving me in the torture chamber that Joey had warned me about.
A/N: I apologize to all those of you who like Meg, but I think she's a self-absorbed bimbo without an intelligent brain cell to speak of. Review, please!