Chapter 13

Sasha and Kat traveled down the winding staircase, that lead to the lower cellars.

"Can you here that?" Kat whispered as she grabbed a hold of Sasha's arm. They paused, and listened to the sound of pebbles dropping into water echoing up to them.

"It's nothing." She reassured her sister.

"Someone's down there." Kat voice had risen in it's pitch. Most likely from fright.

"Maybe it's the ghost." She joked, but lost her smile when she turned to look at her sister. Kat's usually tan face was now almost as pale as her own. "It's probably just a rat."

"A rat." She reassured herself, then continued down the stairs, slowly, seeing as they had no light source. They walked along the edge of the stairs, so they could look over the side. With each step, they could hear the rock chipping underneath their feet.

"Maybe we should walk along the wall. Look, the rail fell off up a head." Kat whimpered. Sasha nodded, and lead her to the other side of the stairs, flat up against the wall. Kat clung to her sisters arm, to the point were she broke Sasha's skin.

"Could you please let go?" She motioned to her arm.

"Sorry." Kat look her hands away, as her face turned red with embarrassment.

"What are you so scared of? I thought you didn't believe in the ghost." She teased.

"I don't. It's just so dark in here."

"Isn't it wonderful?" Kat scowled, then gently nudged Sasha forward.

"You know how I feel about the dark."

"Yeah, your afraid of it."

"I'm not afraid! I just don't like it, I'm not a vampire like you."

"A Vampire? I like that." Sasha smiled. "It's charming."

"Only you, little sister, only you."

When they finally got to the end of the stairs, they froze in uncertainly. Before them was the lake, that seemed to extend on forever into the darkness. Only a small ledge on each side of the stairs was the only type of solid ground was visible.

"What do we do now?" Kat looked for guidance from her younger, braver sister. Sasha stepped out onto the ledge, but stopped when she felt Kat's hand on her wrist.

"What are you doing?"

"Continuing on." Sasha grabbed hold of Kat's wrist, and pulled her into ledge. She yelled if fright.

"Calm down."

"But, wha-what if we fall?"

"It's a lake, not a cliff, you know how to swim." Kat whimpered, but followed her. While they were walking, Kat kept freezing up in terror, when she hear every little noise, she was convinced some was following them. Each time Sasha had to calm Kat down and reassure her that it was just the rats.

"What in hellfire?" Sasha whispered, as she approached an opening in the wall. There was a door, It hung open, revealing a passageway.

"What is it?" Kat whispered, as she peered over Sasha's shoulder.

"I'm not sure." She slowly approached the doorway, and peered in. "It looks like, a parlor?" Sasha stepped into the darkness. Kat looked around at the dark, damp tunnel, then back at the door way.

"Sasha?" She took a step forward, but didn't enter.

"Come on, it's absolutely beautiful!" She heard come from the room.

"But," She bit her lip, still uncertain if she should enter, or if her body would let her. The sound of pebbles hitting the water came from behind her. Before she had a chance to turn, she felt harsh, raw rope wrap around her throat.

"Sasha!" She choked out, as the rope tightened, she knew whoever help her must have been over a foot taller, because she could feel their hot breath on the top of her hair.

Erik quietly followed the two girls, mostly for spite, but partly because they were heading towards his home. He cursed under his breath when he saw that Christine had left the door wide open so many years ago. The first figure entered his home, without fear, but the second stood right outside, scared half to death.

'An easy target.' He thought. Silently he slipped his Punjab out from his pocket, and crept up behind the girl. It had been so many years since he used it. He forgot how it felt to hold a life in his hands, to fell the heat of his victims body on his own, the smell of their frightful perspiration enchant his nostrils, to hear their shortening breath in his ear, and sense their shear terror with ever fiber of his being. He wasn't sure if he should kill her, or let her run back to the dormitories, and spread the recent stories of his haunting. She choked something out, but Erik's euphoria seemed to deafen him. In the corner of his eye, he saw something flash in the shadows. He looked up, to see a single golden eye, wide with fear, staring back into his own golden eyes.

"Kathrine!" The golden eyed girl screamed, as she ran towards his victim. An unknown feeling flooded his body, pity. He took the rope off of the girl, and pushed her to the ground. She crawled over to the other girl. Who cradled her on the floor.

"Sasha, Sasha, Sasha." The muffled sound of her sobbing filled the room. Erik fumbled around his old home, looking for his stash of extra candles. When he found it, he pulled one out, and lit it. The faint glow of the flame reviled the golden eyed girl was stroking the hair of the weeping girl, who clung to the skirt of the other with shear terror. Despite the other girls, the one kept her frightful eye on him. The names of the girls rang in his head.

"Sasha, Kathrine, Sasha, Kathrine." He whispered to himself, as he stared at the girls. He remembered the name of Christine child was Kathrine, and Nadir mentioned a Sasha.

"Shhhh," Sasha spoke softly in Kat's ear.

No more talk of darkness,

forget these wide eyed fears.

I'm here, nothing can harm you,

my words will warm and guide you.

Kat picked up her head. Her cheeks puffed up and were red from her tears, which made her eyes seem an even clearer blue.

"Christine." Erik had forgotten he was standing before them, instead of his usual well distanced observation. Sasha's eye widened with his word.

"What did you say?" She asked, but he remained silent. Slowly Sasha rose from the ground, and approached Erik with caution.

"What did you say?" She spoke louder, and slower.

"Your English?" He asked, picking upon her accent, hesitantly she nodded her head, and took a step closer.

"What did you say?" She repeated the question. She was short compared to Erik, her eyes only meeting his neck, but something about her manor sent a quiver down his spine. She walked with such grace, it looked as if she floated. Her thin, slender figure stood completely composed, stiff, yet unusually comfortable in a situation such as this. Her face looked threatening, with the fiery gold eye, and sinister lips, the deep contrast between her eerie pale skin and haunting hair gave her half face a corpse like horror. Her voice drifted over to him with the same haunting elegance. He knew her, but he didn't know how, or why. He was sure he would have remembered someone so frightening and strange, someone like him.

"None of your concern child." He spoke softly, as he laid his long, graceful hand on her shoulder, surprisingly she didn't flinch back. "Go home, never speak of this." She took a step back, but the stopped.

Sasha couldn't take her eyes off of Erik's. They were so similar to hers, Exact copies. Never before had she seen someone with her eyes, she had always wondered why no one had them, but she never pressed the issue. Erik turned his face away from hers. He felt like she was borrowing into his soul with that haunting eye. No one had ever stared at him in this way, when people stared at him, it was with disgusted curiosity.

"Your eyes." She whispered softly and dropped her gaze to the floor. She felt his strong, Leather-gloved hand under her chin. He lifted her head, and lowered his, till they were almost at eye level.

"What is your name?" His velvet voice made her whimper, but not in fear, but pleasure. "I won't hurt you." He reassured her. She nodded.

"Sasha De Chagny." She bite her lip, then continued. "What is your name?" Erik chuckled slightly, he had only been asked that only a handful of times, but never from such a frightened, and frightening child.

"Erik, but not many call me by it." He was unsure why he was telling her this, he hadn't even told Christine the first time she asked, and she had been taking lessons from him for months. He had just seen this girl for the fist time just minutes age, and he was already talking about himself, his least favorite subject.

"What do they call you?" She asked timidly.

"Many things, young child, Opera Ghost is a popular one, The Phantom Of The Opera is another common one, and Angel." He faded off on the last word.

"Angel?" She questioned, remembering her mothers stories of her angel of music.

"Yes, my student once called me that." Sasha's golden eye twinkled with her thought.

"Your, Your student...Christine?" A grin crept across his face, but was covered by his mask.

"So your mother told you about me?"

"Just that she was taught by a beautiful angel." Erik hung his head.

"You should leave, if your mother found out you were down her, she would surely faint!"

"Why? What does she have against you? Her eyes always twinkle when she thinks of her angel. I have never seen such a gay women when she thinks of you, not even when she thinks of father." As she said the last word, a scandalous thought crossed her mind. She looked up in to his eyes again, her eyes. Erik could tell by the look on her face what she was thinking.

"You see my dear, in her eyes, I am dead." He bent down closer, so that the sobbing Kathrine wouldn't be able to hear. "It seems you appear so, how old are you Sasha?" She looked back at Kat, who was still collapsed on the floor.

"Why, Thirteen, Erik." She whispered back.

"And is possible." He commented. Her eyes widened with hope.

'My father, not that man who I have lived under all those damn years,no, he's not my father, this man, this Erik.' Her mind raced.

"Child, go home, Your mother will worry, she doesn't know you are at the Opera House, does she?"

"No, she doesn't, she told me not to go any were near this place." Sasha said plainly.

He placed his hands on her shoulders again, this time, she stepped closer to him.

"Good day, Sasha." He said in a tender, almost fatherly voice. His words shocked himself, he had never spoken in a tone like that before.

"Good day, Erik."She stood their for a moment, not sure what she should do. She finally made up her mind, she stood on her toes, and kissed the cheek of Erik's mask, then turned to her sister. She grabbed Kat arm, and helped her off the ground. "Pull yourself together Kat, come, we must go." Kat nodded, then followed her sister out. Erik stood there for the longest time, pondering what just happened.

"Sasha."