Erik sighed, pouring out the tea. He walked into her room and set it down on the table.

"Adellade?" He reached out to touch her and she flinched. "I brought some tea."

"I don't want any," she murmured, curling up under the blankets.

"You need to sleep," he pointed out. "And it helps you fall asleep."

"I don't want to fall asleep. I don't want to fall asleep and I don't want the nightmares!"

"Adellade…."

"Just stop. Please, Erik? I don't need sleep. I don't want to go back to the nightmares. You don't know how awful they are. I'm frightened of them and I don't ever want to return."

"You can't keep yourself awake, Adellade. You simply can't."

"I have before."

"And look at what that's done to you. You need to sleep, Adellade." He sighed and handed it to her. "Please. For Erik?"

She hesitated before nodding and he helped her sit up as she drank the contents. He stood and closed the door behind him as she fell asleep, resuming tidying up the rest of the flat.

He gently set her books on the shelves, taking care to inspect each one to ensure that nothing had been damaged. He smiled as he saw the spines, seeing which ones she had read over and over again. One fell open when he picked it up, revealing the Angel of Music story she had always loved. Erik flipped through the pages, seeing the parts where she had written in the corrections so that it looked more like the one he had told her.

There was a portrait there, gently placed in the pages. He took it out and smiled, seeing that it was Adellade holding Gustave, both of them smiling as snow softly fell around them while Gustave reached out, trying to catch a snowflake in his hand.

"What are you doing?" Erik asked as she fell into the snow.

"It's so cold!" she giggled.

"And you'll fall ill if you remain there any longer," he pointed out, reaching to help her up.

She pulled him down on top of her. Adellade laughed even more and he couldn't help but join her as she threw some snow at him.

"One might think that you've never seen snow before." He sighed and crawled off of her.

"It's been so long," she pointed out, sitting up. "And it's so cold…."

"You'll fall ill before too long." He stood and helped her up. "Come. Time to return. There will be plenty of other times when there's snow to enjoy."

He led her back and she stopped, staring at the opera house, a look of amazement on her face. He went to where she was and saw the snow softly glistening on the lights, gently covering the building.

"It's wonderful," she whispered.

He looked over at her and smiled, seeing the snow that stuck to her hair, the soft flakes in her eyelashes, the gentle smile on her lips of pure happiness…. "It is."

She had always loved the snow. The amount of times she would risk falling ill just to enjoy the cold night air. He could recall taking her up to the roof of the opera house, watching as she practiced her routine, her feet making patterns and circles in the snow, kicking up soft piles as she giggled.

Erik sighed as he saw how many books were often read for children, knowing how little times she had been able to enjoy her childhood the way Gustave could. He could play and laugh and make friends. Adellade though had been unable to do any of that. She had to be a perfect and obedient daughter wherever she went. Then afterward she had to dance and entertain to keep the gypsies from punishing her. Even when they had been on the streets she had to worry about food and safety…. By the time they had reached the inn, her childhood had long passed.

And yet the books had given her something to enjoy. Some small part of her childhood that could be enjoyed within those pages…. The books she had grown to love all these years later…. The ones she could still escape into no matter what happened or how horrid things had been.

XXXXX

Her eyes opened and she stared at the wall, her muscles too exhausted to move.

"Look at what that monster has done to my poor daughter," Madeline pointed out. "Sending her to the nightmares over and over again without a second thought or even a single apology."

"He said I needed sleep."

"You need rest," she corrected. "You need a good proper rest with good proper dreams. All he's given you are nightmares."

"Erik cares about me. Unlike you ever did."

"I cared for my daughter."

"I was never your daughter and you never cared for me."

"Then why is it that he's only given you nightmares and fear? How could anyone who ever cared for you give you only fear? How could he continue to give you nightmares and still say that he cares about you?" Madeline walked over and sat on the bed. "The monster must learn his lesson for giving my precious daughter so much pain and suffering-he must pay for what he's done."

"I could never do anything to Erik! Never."

"The way you could never do any harm to your own mother?"

She gasped, seeing as Madeline held onto the revolver, turning it around to face Erik…. Adellade went to the floor, picking up the one Madeline had dropped, turning it over in her hands, taking aim.

"Erik! Watch out!"

Shots rang out, surrounding them in a blanket of explosions before everything finally silenced into nothing….

"That was an accident," she whispered. "I never meant to do anything! You were going to hurt him-were going to kill him-and I-I had to do something to stop it…. You were going to kill him…."

"And now he must know exactly what he's done."

"I can't hurt Erik. I can't. I won't."

"The monster must be stopped, Adellade. Whatever it takes."