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Cesar nickered and snuffled at Erik's gloved hand, searching for any treats that may be hidden there. Erik chuckled lightly and rubbed the black horse's neck.

"Nothing today," he murmured.

The young stallion snorted and nibbled playfully at the hem of the cloak. Erik pulled it away and tapped his nose good naturedly and looked around the dark stables. Another horse poked its head out of the stall and whinnied at the sight of Erik.

"Shhh," he hissed, reaching out and placing his hand firmly over the horse's nose. It gave another quieter whinny and snorted loudly.

"Oh, why are you making such a ruckus?" an older lead groom asked.

He reached out and patted the horse's cheek affectionately. As he did so Erik dashed towards the stable yard and behind one of the opera's coaches. The man caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and frowned.

"Who's there?" he called, "I saw you, come out here right now."

Erik hunkered down behind the coach, hoping that the shadows would conceal him well enough. The man was older and his night vision probably wasn't that good, but then again he had seen him dash behind the carriage.

"Come out from there," the man repeated, now standing right in front of the coach, "you shouldn't be out here at night. Someone might think you're a thief of some sort."

Erik met the man with nothing but silence as he backed into the stone wall. He had no escape now, with the wall at his back and the coach and the groom blocking his escapes.

"I'm not gonna hurt you," the man sighed, coming around the side of the coach.

Erik took the opportunity to roll underneath the vehicle. It wasn't the best place to hide, but it provided enough shadow that naught but the white mask showed in the darkness. As the man rounded the other side Erik rolled out from underneath the coach and dodged to the side.

The man stared at the empty space in front of him and frowned slightly, "Now where did you go?" he asked, half to himself.

Erik smirked slightly and hurried to the closest secret entrance he could find. Once safely in the pitch black tunnel he released a held breath and shook his head slightly. He would have to be more careful the next time he visited the stable. He could not have his cover blown by an overly wary young horse.


Erik watched as Christine sang, sketching her features on a sheet of paper. It had been a long time since he had practiced drawing people and found that it was more difficult than he had remembered. Of course he was never truly satisfied with his own sketches.

"Very good," he murmured as he smudged the sheet, "but I would like you to practice more. I can tell that you have not been doing your scales as of late."

"I'm sorry Angel," she said quickly, "but its been so busy that I haven't had any time."

"Make time," he replied irritably, glancing at the sketch before him, "you will not improve or maintain your voice if you neglect it. You do not need much time to do scales Christine."

"Of course Angel…"

"You may go now if you wish, there is nothing more for you to do today."

"Good night then," Christine said, "I promise that I'll practice."

"That is all I ask of you," Erik replied gently.

Christine smiled and left the chapel, Erik sighed and began to go back to his lair. Once there he tacked the sketch up and wandered over to the organ to play. He knew that Christine had been busy, rehearsals were on again and they were at the height of them for I puritani and had started them for Fidelio.


Meg and Christine sat together and watched the performers move across the stage. Carlotta was squawking at one of the others on stage for stepping on her dress. The poor woman looked as is she feared for her life.

"She really is a witch," Meg commented, "its not like Marie meant to step on that ugly costume."

"But its her," Christine pointed out, "to la Carlotta everything is an offence and everything is done on purpose."

"I hope the Phantom tells her off some day," Meg said with a devilish little smile.

"Meg! That is an awful thing to say."

"Aww come on Christine, nothing too terrible. Just hit her in the head with something."

"That still isn't very nice…oh, we're on again!"

Meg gasped and they both got to their feet and joined their lines. They both caught Antoinette's frown as they passed and offered weak apologetic smiles.

The rest of the rehearsal went well and Christine and Meg were soon giggling as they made their ways to the dormitory.

"Move, move out of my way dancing girls!" Carlotta demanded, pushing past the two.

"Hey!" Meg exclaimed as she jumped out of the way.

"Be quiet you little girls," Carlotta grumbled.

"Stupid, fat cow," Meg muttered under her breath, eliciting a small giggle from Christine.

"Come on Meg," she scolded, "that's an insult to the cows."

"Christine," Meg gasped, "that was positively unlike you…I'm proud."

"Meg," Christine said, hitting her friend playfully.


Erik stared at the music in front of him, the tune was nice and had been going well up to this point. He gave an irritated growl and tried to work it out again, nothing seemed to work though and with a final sigh he cast the paper aside. He had lessons with Christine today and decided to go up early, after all there seemed to be no point in sitting in the lair for another hour. At least above ground he could determine how the theatre was running and whether he would like any changes made.

Erik decided to go the long way which took him past the stables. He paused when he heard two of the grooms arguing amongst themselves. One of them was new.

"Well I don't care what you all say. I don't care about any stupid ghosts," he snorted.

"I'm serious!" the other insisted, "he's there, everyone knows it. Damn Ghost has caused a lot of trouble round here you know. Breakin' things and the like."

"That's just stupid people messin' up and then blamin' some figment for it. You're all just a bunch of superstitious loonies."

"I don't think many people could mess up that badly. I mean sure, some people do blame the Ghost for their own mistakes, but a lot of the time they really didn't do it."

"Well I think that your Opera Ghost is stupid."

"I wouldn't go saying that," the other warned, "he doesn't like to be insulted and he 's got ears in every wall. Sees and hears everything you know?"

"Oh, so now this ghost is God?"

"In this opera house?" the other man asked, "he might as well be. The manager doesn't do anything without his approval and if he's unhappy, everything seems to go wrong."

The new groom rolled his eyes, "You guys really are all loony."

Erik frowned slightly, he hadn't done anything dramatic in a while, the theatre had been doing too well to disrupt it. Now however he considered doing something, just to convince the new workers that may not believe that he was , in fact, very much a real threat.

By the time he made it to the chapel Christine was already coming in and he had to be careful not to make any noise.

"Hello Christine," he said, "have you been practising?"

"Yes," she said somewhat despondently.

"What is wrong Christine?" Erik asked, frowning slightly at her tone.

"Could we not do our lesson today Angel?" she asked.

"Why would you want to skip our lesson Christine?"

"I just got…umm, I have a bit of a stomach ache," she murmured, "so I don't feel like singing really."

"I see…well then we do not have to sing today Christine."

"Thank you Angel," she said with a weak smile, "I promise that I'll sing next time."

"Would you like to come tomorrow instead?" Erik asked, finding himself somewhat hopeful that the answer would be yes.

"Oh…I guess I could come tomorrow, but I don't really know. The performance is in two days so we're doing a lot of work right now…"

"That is fine Christine, we'll wait until after the performance."

"Thank you Angel. May I go now?"

"Of course Christine, but make sure you practice. And I hope you feel better soon."

"Oh…umm yes, thank you," she said as she left the chapel, "good bye Angel."

"Good bye Christine."

Erik waited until she left to slump against the wall. He was disappointed that he didn't get his lesson with her, he found himself looking forward to the short time with her. In the entire theatre she was the only one who always listened to him. It was not as if he could tell her everything, after all to her he was an Angel. But he enjoyed being able to mentor someone and to be able to see them grow. With a heavy sigh he stood up and started to make his way back to the lair.


A/N: Sorry that I haven't updated this in so long, I was just finishing up this chapter and it took longer than I expected. ANyways, I hope you enjoyed it. So read and review. Love you all!