Phantom of the Summerhouse

Teacher: Attendance! John.

John: Yeah!

Teacher: Mary.

Mary: Here!

Teacher: FreeMind... Annette?

Authoress: PRESENT!

LOL

A/N: Thank you for reviewing Celixir, your words have not gone unheard. I was just busy for the past five days (from work), and I needed ideas. But now I'm happy to publish Part II of the previous chapter, YAY!

P.S. I'm glad you like my fic "Erik for President". Though most of my work only gets one or two happy readers like you (I don't write just to get readers), for me it means a lot. Every review helps, and it's what gets me insipred and stay strong to my writing passion. Again, thank you.

Enjoy.

Disclaimer: Oh yeah, almost forgot. I don't POTO.


Day 2 Part II: Breaking and Entering

Christine, jaw-dropped and wide-eyed, was still in a state of shock when Erik told her that he is actually living in Raoul's summerhouse.

Erik walked up in front of her and waved his hand in front of her face.

"Ummm… Christine, are you alright, you haven't said a single word for three full minutes now?"

Christine made no reply.

"Oh c'mon Christine, don't give me the silent treatment. I didn't come here to stalk on you or anything like that, honest."

Still no response.

"Say something, anything!"

Christine's eyes began to shut slowly, and her head began to bob.

"I wonder if Christine's feeling all right, perhaps she's still in a state of shock… or she could faint anytime now. Maybe I should poke her to see if she is fine."

Erik walked up closer to Christine, his hand on the same level as his face, with his index finger ready in its poking position.

"Maybe I shouldn't do this; I mean Christine must be upset as it is already. Argh... but the temptation is killing me, and I'm so damn curious!"

He hesitated for a while, contemplating, whether to poke… or not to poke her. But after a few seconds, Erik finally gave into the temptation of curiosity.

"Oh what the heck… I'm just gonna poke her a little on the cheek anyway. I mean…what could possibly go wrong?"

Erik raised his poking finger and-

Poke… poke…

"Christine… Christine… Are you okay?"

Weak on her knees, Christine collapsed onto the floor without warning. Fortunately, Erik caught her in the nick of time before she fell flat on her face to the hardwood floor.

Erik took a good look at her face for a moment to realize that she actually fainted when Christine's eyes closed and was bobbing her head like a sleepy little girl. "Whoa, I did not expect her to faint at a time like this. I'll take her downstairs so she can rest up in the sofa, while I pour some champagne in the kitchen."

Filled with bliss, Erik carefully walked down the stairs, with Christine safe on his arms, more than delighted to be reunited with his one and only love.

"What a wonderful summer this is turning out to be! This calls for a celebration!"

Once he reached the foot of the stairs, the knob of front door turned, revealing the last person on Earth that Erik had ever wanted to cross paths.

"Christine, I'm done parking the carriage. Is there anything else that needs to be done- Oh my God!"

Erik turned around to see Raoul at the front door, and a couple of luggages that he unintentionally dropped on the floor, with a surprised look on his face.

"Erik what are you doing here!" Raoul asked. His wandering eyes had found its way into Erik and the fainted Christine, who was still in the arms of the phantom. "Did you come here to stalk on Christine again, like you did at the opera house!"

"I am not here to stalk on Christine," Erik protested, "why does everyone think that I'm nothing but a lonely, ingenious, masked, stalker?"

"Because that's who you really are?" Raoul said in a rather straightforward tone.

An angry streak came upon Erik's face; it seems he would snap very soon.

"Uh oh, he's got that 'I'm so pissed that I'm going to kill you' look." Raoul thought.

Erik calmly walked into the living room, and gently laid Christine on the sofa. "I suppose, it's time to clean up this unfinished business of mine."

"Unfinished business… what are babbling about!"

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" Erik ran up to Raoul and leaped at his target, filled with murderous rage.

"SON OF A—"

O.o

CENSORED! — Everything went black…


Several hours later… the sun had already set. The dark night came, and it was getting late…

Erik was sleeping in the living room chair, and across him was Christine, still lying unconscious on the sofa. But for some reason though, the living room is quite a mess, and Erik's clothes seem to be awfully filthy.

The silence was suddenly broken; sounds of glass shattering had disturbed Erik's peaceful sleep.

"What, he's back again for more!" Erik thought. "Well he won't get in that easily!"

Erik stormed out of the living room and dashed into the source of the noise, the kitchen.

Moments later, Christine was stirring on the sofa. She slowly opened her eyes and sat up.

"Huh… where am I?" Christine staggered, and she caught sight of the messy living room. "What happened here? The living room is so messy. Did I thrash in my sleep?"

Christine tried rearranging the knocked down furniture, however she felt a strong, dull headache.

"Owww… my head hurts. I wonder why?" Christine looked at her pocket watch to realize that it was ten o'clock at night already. "I can't believe I slept through the entire day! Well if that's the case, I must be just dehydrated from all the summer heat. Yeah… that's right, I remember seeing Erik and then things went black."

Christine paused for a while, "Not good! If Erik's really here then he and Raoul might be fighting right now! I must stop them before things get out of hand."

She ran towards stairs, only to be held back by her persistent headache. "Ow ow ow … on second thought, maybe I should get some water first before I go searching for them."

Making her way to the kitchen, she heard voices, familiar voices. But they seem to be a bit too quiet to be the sound of two men fighting.

"I hear voices that must Raoul and Erik." She went into the kitchen, witnessing a scene she had never dreamed would ever happen.

"Christine!" Erik said, astonished.

"Sweetheart!" Raoul shouted, surprised to see his wife be here to see him in his humiliating predicament.

"What on Earth are you two doing?" Christine asked. "And why is my husband on a window?"

Erik looked at Christine, then his hand, realizing that he was still holding a kitchen knife, which he hid behind his back immediately.

"Hold on for a second," Erik raised his other hand gesturing her to stop for a moment, "did you just say 'husband'?"

"Yes, yes I did." Christine replied. "There's no sense hiding it from you now, Erik. Raoul and I are married. And secondly, this is actually Raoul's summerhouse."

"What?" Erik shouted. "That can't be, this is my house not his!"

"Raoul and I just came here to have a fun, carefree, summer vacation away from the city. Mind you I never expected to see you here. I hope Raoul's presence doesn't upset you."

"Could someone please help me get through this window?" Raoul interrupted. "Being stuck here is no fun, especially when you are being threatened with a kitchen knife!"

"Shut up!" Erik yelled. "Can't you see I'm trying to talk to Christine here! Or do you want me to kick you out of the house again, like you did to me this afternoon! I'm sure you'd be delighted to sleep outside tonight."

"Enough!" Christine screamed at the top of her voice, which startled them both.

"I am sick, sick and tired of your senseless fighting. If you two can't get along then I'll leave this summerhouse and go back home, ALONE!"

"You can't do that," Raoul said, "you are a horrible horrible driver. You won't make it back to Paris without an accident."

"I don't care!" Christine replied, in a voice louder than her usual tone, giving the message across to them that she really means business. "I've had enough of this! I can't stand it! That's why I'll leave, unless you guys behave like the real gentlemen that I had known to love."

An uneasy silence filled the kitchen, only the sound of the summer night breeze flowing through the open window in which Raoul came somewhat through are heard.

"I'm very sorry Christine." Both apologized in an unintentional unison, which resulted in a glaring contest.

"You've got some nerve to copy my words!" Erik angrily remarked.

"That's my line," Raoul snapped back, "how dare you copy me?"

"Let's put this all aside and help Raoul get out of this window." Christine suggested.

"Wait, Christine, before we begin pulling this pansy out, there is something else that must be done."

"What it is Erik?"

Erik placed the kitchen knife that he had back into the drawer and went upstairs into one of the bedrooms.

With Erik gone for the moment, Christine finally has the chance now to ask Raoul the one question that's been bugging her mind— "By the way Raoul, I've been dying to know, how on Earth did you end up stuck on this window?"

"Well, if you must know I'll tell you, although it's quite embarrassing for me to explain while I'm in such a situation— I came in and Erik tried to strangle me to death with his bare hands, and we ended up fighting in the living room, which is why it is such a mess. Then I snatch the key from his jacket, threw it in the tall grass and kicked him out of the house."

"But I still don't get how you got into this window." Christine asked.

"I'm not yet done telling the story." Raoul replied. "Please let me finish."

"Anyway, so after I kicked Erik out of the house, he found the key three hours later and snuck into the back door. Then he hit me on the head with what I believe was a frying pan, after that he dragged me outside, tied me to a tree, and he locked every single door and window in this house, except for this tiny window that I am unfortunately stuck right now."

Christine giggled from the story.

"Are you giggling?" Raoul noticed a trace of laughter on Christine's face. "This is not funny, my other half is numb and cold and I've been stuck here for almost twenty minutes."

"I can't help it," Christine said in between giggles and chuckles, "your story is just so funny that it would be crime for me not to laugh."

"At least Christine is back in good spirits now." Raoul thought. "I won't let anything get in the way of our summer vacation fun, even if Erik is to stay here with us… I promise."

Erik had returned at last, with a bottle of ink and a quill in his arms. "Now it's my time to have some laughs!"

"Don't even think about it!" Raoul protested. "This is absurd!"

Erik walked up to Raoul and began to vandalize his face with ink.

"Stoppppppppp!"

5 minutes later…

"That was fun." Erik snickered.

"Oh great, now I look like a foolish human doodle."

Christine laughed even harder at the sight of the Raoul graffiti. His face had a drawing of a huge French mustache, a goatee beard, a unibrow, and a black eye. He looked like a circus freak.

"Now… we can get you out of that window." Erik had put away his ink and quill, and grabbed one of Raoul's arms, while Christine grabbed the other.

"Finally, it's about time."

"On the count of three…"

"One…"

"Two…"

"Three…"

"PULL…"

THUD!

With one great pull, Erik and Christine had tugged Raoul out of the tiny window.

"We did it!" Christine happily exclaimed as she hugged her husband. "Thank you Erik, I couldn't have done it without you."

"…" Erik was speechless.

"Erik, are you… blushing?"

"NO!"

"See, see, you're blushing again!" Christine pointed.

"I do not." Erik denied, looking up the ceiling, avoiding eye contact. "That's such a childish habit."

Christine giggled. "Now that everything is taken care of, shall we call it a day?"

Raoul yawned. "Yes, let's got to bed now. Luckily there are four bedrooms in this summerhouse, so just to be safe; we'll all sleep in separate rooms."

"…" Erik made no comment.

"Are you sure you're fine with this Raoul?"

"I'm sure Christine, besides, if we're in the same bedroom Erik would definitely throw a fit."

"Okay then," Christine said and smiled, "what are we waiting for, let's hit the hay, after all you guys have been though I'm sure you're very tired and sleepy."

"Yes!" Raoul said.

"Indeed." Erik replied.

The trio had changed into their pajamas and slept soundly in their separate, adjacent rooms. The rest of the night was peaceful and quiet, a silence that is sure to be broken once morning comes.