Disclaimer: I don't own anything Phantom. I own my characters.

Josie

Chapter 11 – Telling Erik

Kayla raced to Kendall's side, nearly knocking Erik over in her sudden excitement. On Kendall's lap was a Siamese cat wearing a diamond collar. Kendall hugged the cat close, pretending to fight Kayla off.

Erik raised an eyebrow. "How do you know all this about me?"

He swept behind us and sat on the bench. "You know Ayesha, you know me, and you obviously knew how to get here. How?"

Sam looked up from Ayesha. "Are you… mad that we're here?"

His gaze flicked over her. "I'm not mad per se, more curious than anything."

"Where should we start?" I asked.

"Shall we start with your names?" he suggested. "Ages, where you're from…"

"Okay, I'll start," said Kayla. "And I'm adding a category to that list: why we each came. First, my name's Kayla, I'm seventeen, and… well, we're from the future; if this is 1873 like I think it is."

"And how did this… time-travel occur?"

"Well, we were at her house," she pointed at Kendall, still cradling Ayesha. "And we found a mirror on the wall in her basement, and we came through and there was the passage, and we got in the boat and came down here, but you weren't home. That was a few days ago."

"And your reason for returning to this place?"

"I've read so much about you!" she could hardly contain her excitement. "I've read three books, seen the movie, seen the musical, all of this, and… I just… I don't know how to say it…"

"How do you know about me in the first place?" His voice had acquired the dangerous tone again.

"Well, you're… famous. This novel was written in the early 1900s, a movie was made about it in 1925, a play was directed in 1986, and the movie based on the musical just came out last year in 2004. I was you for Halloween last year, too," she added.

He simply stared at her.

"I readily admit I border on obsession and insanity over this topic," she said, grinning.

Erik shook his head, and I snorted with laughter. "Kayla, give him a break already."

He turned his gaze on me. "Moving on…"

I blushed slightly. "My name's Josie, I'm sixteen, and… we're from America."

"I surmised as much," he said. "You don't have a British accent, but you speak English. I was rather surprised to hear you speaking French, however. How much of my language do you know?"

"Enough to order something from a restaurant, say where we're going, what we're doing, tell time, the weather…" I trailed off, thinking. "And a few other things."

"I used to know that stuff," Kendall chimed in. "But I couldn't take French last year, so I forgot a lot of the verbs and things. But I can still say bonjour," she added, laughing. "Okay, my name's Kendall, I'm seventeen, and I love cats. I have three at home."

"Erik," I said on an impulse, "what do you usually have for eats around here?"

"Pardonnez-moi?"

I heaved a sigh. "Qu'est-ce que vous mangez?"

"I don't eat," he said nonchalantly.

We stared at him.

"Well, no wonder you're so thin. Not that it isn't attractive," Kayla said, grinning.

"Pardonne?"

"Well, I'm sure we could do something for dinner," she continued, indicating Kendall, who nodded.

"I'm going to culinary school back in our… um, time," she said.

"And she's the best," Kayla gushed. "She made these little chocolate roses the other day, they were delicious."

"I don't keep much, just salmon and milk for Ayesha. There's some horsemeat in an upstairs room, if you think you can eat that…"

"Gross!" I cried. "You people eat horses? That is the most disgusting thing I have ever heard of!"

"I never said anything about me eating them," he protested. "People who live in the outside world do; they're all starving. They eat cats, too. I saved Ayesha before someone got to her though," he said quickly, seeing the look of revulsion on Kendall's face.

"I'll see what I can find later," he muttered.

He noticed Sam on the floor next to Kendall, stroking Ayesha's head.

"I'm afraid we never got around to you, my dear," he said quietly.

Sam jumped. "What else is there to know?" she asked. "You know where we're from and how we got here."

"Name," the four of us said in unison.

"Fine," she said, "I'm Sam, and I'm thirteen."

"Sam?" Erik echoed. "What kind of name is that for a lady?"

She pouted. "It's short for Samantha, but I hate how long that is. So I shortened it."

"Well, I'm lengthening it," he said, his eyes gleaming. "Pleasure to meet you, Mademoiselle Samantha."

We laughed, and she went back to petting Ayesha.

Okay, 11 chapters down. You're probably wondering when this will start to pick up, and the answer is as soon as I get ideas! People steal mine! I had the idea that since Kayla has a laptop they could go to a buddy chat room, but that was already done. I don't care what y'all say, he's still gonna watch the DVD!