Erik felt the blood run down the side of his face,

"Damn," he cursed as he dropped the pistol and lifted his hand to the side of his head,

The bullet which he had intended for himself had zoomed upward; grazing the side of Erik's head before it lodged itself harmlessly in the wood of the ceiling. Erik had not missed on purpose; he had wanted to die at that moment. The only thing which had prevented him had been the loud bang. It had sounded as though something in the house had collapsed; and the noise had startled Erik and caused his arm to jerk upward.

Erik rushed to the small, dingy mirror and looked at his temple; it was a superficial wound; he had failed even at taking his own life.

He felt a rage rising with in him, life and death both kept cheating him; keeping him trapped in a constant state of misery in which he could neither live nor die.

"What is responsible for this!" he shouted, and he ran down the stairs; searching for the source of the noise which had made him jerk his arm,

Erik looked into every room; however nothing looked as though it had fallen or collapsed. Then Erik saw the door by the stairs; the one which led to the music room. The door was now wide open, even thought Erik distinctly remembered shutting it tightly.

He walked slowly to the open door and peered inside;

Every thing he had painstakingly set up now lay in ruins on the floor. Erik walked forward toward the things which he had brought to be his companions; the things which reminded him of Christine. The music they had sung together was now scattered about the room; the porcelain replica of her was now dashed to bits on the floor, the chest in which all the things had been transported to the house had also been smashed apart.

Erik fell to his knees among the ruins; the only thing he had brought from his former life was now destroyed. He sifted through the rubble, all of his drawings of Christine were torn apart; and then he thought about the ring she had left him. He ran to the chest where he had kept the ring. Of course, now the chest had been reduced to random wooden planks and the ring was nowhere to be found.

Anger rose in him again and he yelled violently, "Damn this room! Damn whoever is responsible for this!" and he did not know if he meant responsible for this accident or for his harsh life,

Erik felt trapped; he could neither live nor die. He had felt as though he was in a cage all his life; sometimes the bars of this cage had been more visible than at other times; when he had been trapped in the cellar by his parents, and for one horrible night in Persia when he had been arrested, but these bars had always been there. They blocked him from the rest of the world; set him apart in a way which only made him lonely and miserable. They had barred his heart from loving for so long, and when he finally thought he had broken free of the oppressive cage; he realized he was in it still, attempting to force another to share in his captivity.

He learned the hard way that is could not be so; he was destined to be alone for the rest of his life. Angrily he pounded his fist into the wall of the room; why did it have to be him that was always alone? He hit the wall again with greater force this time; why did everyone hate him so? He beat the wall with both fists, why did he have to look like such a disgusting creature? Why was he so cursed as to not even have a human face! He turned to the window and smashed his fist through the glass, sending shards ever where and splitting his hand open.

"Damn this life! What are you doing to me!" Erik yelled into the silence of the room. He felt a great pain in his hand and he looked down; the hand which had gone through the window was bloodied and had bits of glass lodged into it, "I deserve this," he stated, "I deserve this pain, this heartbreak,"

The words of his mother traveled back to him; 'you are a mistake, a plague on me,' Erik stumbled forward,

"I do not deserve to live; and yet death seems too good for me as well," he spoke aloud to the room,

He had the intention of going up to the bedrooms and throwing himself out of the window to try to kill himself again; and if it did not work the first time he would not give up until he was dead;

However, poor, unhappy Erik tripped on an uneven plank in the wooden floor. He fell forward and hit his head most unluckily on the piano. Suddenly Erik felt nothing and knew nothing more. He fell forward and his unconscious form hit the ground. He lay sprawled on the wooden floor amidst the ruins of his past. His head was still bleeding, as was his hand; staining the light wood red as he lay unaware of what was happening.

As poor Erik lay on the floor, resting at last, the day outside drew to a close; ending in one last grand finale of reds and pinks and oranges as the sun bowed below the horizon.

Night had fully taken its turn and set its stars shinning before Erik woke again. And it was not by his own will that he opened his eyes;

Erik had been slowly coming to his senses, but refusing to admit it, for some time when he heard the music start. It was a sweet tune; a charming ballet and for a moment Erik thought it had all been a dream and he was back at the opera.

He eagerly opened his eyes; hoping to see his old house by the lake and Christine sitting by the piano, ready for her lesson. However, all Erik saw was the dark room and the scattered debris of his shrine to Christine.

It all rushed back to him; her leaving, the house, the gun, the noise…and the music. The moment Erik opened his eyes the music had stopped. He groaned and pulled himself into a sitting position; his head ached and his hand was throbbing. He was sitting in a pool of moonlight and in the dim illumination it offered he could see him mangled hand. He reached up and touched his forehead; it felt swollen but it was no long bleeding.

"Damn," he muttered; he was still trapped in his cage, he was still bound by his face to loneliness, and he still felt as though Christine had been the ultimate double edged sward. She had given him the idea of love; she had been the one thing he had ever loved and that had made him feel truly happy once; but at the same time she had broken his heart more severely than anything else ever could have, and now he felt as though she had taken his heart and torn it in half, then she took the remains with her, leaving him empty. Christine was at once his only happiness and his ultimate source of despair.

Then the music started again; but it was not the music from the piano; it was coming from the broken window. Erik stood; he felt at thought something was drawing him to the window. He approached the sill; taking care not to touch the jagged teeth of glass still jutting upward from the edges,

Leaning out as far as he could he heard it; all the sounds of the night. A chirping, a hooting from the nearby trees, and a croaking from the river. Erik had lived in cities all his life and he had never heard anything like this before. And there was a light, an odd light covering everything. And then there was a light beside him, a mist was floating into the room.

This mist traveled through the room; and Erik watched it. It moved to the door of the room and then it disappeared. Erik shook his head and blinked; he had imagined it. He moved cautiously to the door of the room. Back in the hallway he cradled his throbbing hand in his other arm and walked toward the stairs.

There was a bang behind him and he spun around; the front door was wide open. Muttering, Erik went to the door to close it. As he reached it the noise of the outside came to him again; the soothing sounds of insects and owls and frogs.

And a mist was dancing over everything; glittering in the moon beams. Erik felt a wind at his back and he stepped out into the night. Walking into the tall grass waving in the wind, Erik closed his eyes and listened.

His life was in ruins, his heart was broken, his hand hurt, and he was most likely living in a haunted house; but for a moment Erik just stood and listened to the music of the night.

Note: this is not the end, even thought it sounds like it could be; I have a lot more planned and I will try to update as much as possible, but I have college to worry about now so it may take me awhile!