Erik immediately realized something was wrong, but it was too late. He was caught.

He thrashed and hissed and tried to bite the bars on the cage, causing Raoul to jump back and fall to his bottom.

"Erik!" Christine cried.

She heard the clink of metal against metal and dashed forwards, tunneling under the curtain to see what was wrong, giving no thought to her own safety. She stared in dismay at how he was caught in the rat catcher's trap.

Raoul inched closer, fascinated by the strange creature dressed up in clothing.

Christine took notice of him for the first time.

"Raoul!" she ran up to him, pressing her head against his hand. "Please! Help him! If the rat catcher comes back-!"

Great big tears rolled down her face at the thought of the rat catcher harming Erik.

"Christine!" Raoul said cheerfully as he picked her up. "Isn't it wonderful? He's going to come live with us!"

Christine could barely believe her ears - was Raoul telling the truth? Was he going to let Erik live with them? But Erik lived here!

Raoul placed Christine in his pocket and picked up the cage containing a still frantic Erik, and, with a huge grin on his face, made his way to the lobby, and from there, he got into the de Chagny carriage waiting outside. Philippe, he knew, wouldn't be too much longer.

Once inside the carriage, Raoul set the cage on the cushion of the seat, then sat on the floor so that his face could be level with the cage.

Erik had stopped turning in circles, but was now pressed flat to the bottom of the cage, his tail in the air, and was making a continuous noise that was a cross between a growl and hiss. Raoul thought it rather sounded like the noise a cat made right before vomiting. Was his new pet okay?

Erik was terribly angry. Who was this devil? What made him think he could stare at Erik when Erik didn't have a mask on? What gave him the right to remove Erik from his home? Humbug! Humbug!

Christine climbed out of Raoul's pocket and up onto the cushion. She went right up to the cage and reached her paw through, stretching it towards Erik.

"Don't be frightened, Erik!"

Erik ceased his hideous noise.

"Christine! This horrible fiend has stolen you too!"

Christine looked surprised.

"He's not a fiend! He's Raoul! He'll help you, Erik - he can help you out of the trap!"

"Oh, Christine!" Erik wailed. "This man has put you under a spell!"

She wrinkled her nose. She wasn't under a spell!

"Raoul doesn't have me under a spell," she huffed. "And besides, he's not horrible - he's saved you from the rat catcher, didn't he?"

Erik paused. His poor Christine - didn't she see that vicious man - this Raoul - was the one who had trapped him in the first place?

"You're not so bad," Raoul said after studying how his two pets were interacting.

He stuck a single finger into the cage, and had only the briefest of fractions of a second to pull it back before Erik tried to bite him.

"Erik!" Christine scolded. "Don't treat him like that!"

Erik turned to see the scowl on her face, her ears laid back against her head.

"He tried to poke Erik!"

"He'll be good to you if you're good to him," Christine assured him. "Just be patient with him. Be a gentleman!"

Erik glared at Raoul, who was staring at him with great interest.

"I've never seen a fellow like you before," Raoul said, a hint of awe in his voice.

Erik sniffed. That was right! There were no other rats like Erik!

"Feast your eyes and glut your soul, boy!" Erik stood on his hind legs and bowed just slightly, his voice holding both a bit of malice and a bit of pride - he was an ugly rat, there was no denying it, but he was a talented rat, too.

Raoul squinted his eyes.

"Where'd you get your clothes?"

Erik had no time to answer, as just then the carriage door opened and Philippe entered. Raoul scrambled up to sit on the seat and not the floor.

"Did you enjoy the party?" his voice was a little too high, too nervous - he was afraid Philippe would inquire as to where he had gotten the cage.

"I met the most interesting man! He's from Persia, wouldn't you know it - I've invited him for dinner one night, you simply have to hear his stories, Raoul - he's practically an expert on opera, and he-"

Philippe stared at the cage Raoul was so obviously trying to hide.

"What's that," his voice was flat as his mind catalogued the possibilities of what creature would be coming home with them now.

"It's a new friend! It's Christine's friend!" he said, a strange mix of cheerful and nervous.

Erik's ear has perked up at the mention of Persia, but it was wiped from his mind upon hearing himself called a friend. Did this boy truly think they were friends? Or did call every potential dinner a "friend" too?

The one called Philippe leaned over to frown at the cage, and Erik made an ugly face right back at him. If this Philippe person was offended at seeing such a terrible face, well, it was no more than he deserved for trying to look at Erik.

Philippe looked nervously between the hideous beast and the grinning Raoul. He didn't want to upset the boy, but the animal didn't look long for this world. There was clearly something terribly wrong with it, and they would be quite lucky if it didn't expire on the trip back to the mansion.

"What's, ah- what's his name, then?" he asked, hoping to humor him.

Had he known the rat still had more than a decade's worth of life in him, he would have insisted that it be turned out of the carriage immediately.

"Charles Garnier," Raoul said decidedly with a nod.

Philippe searched his mind for where he'd heard that name before.

"The architect who designed the opera house?"

"Yes!"

Philippe sighed as he watched the animal.

"Why did you dress him up like that?"

"I didn't. I found him that way."

Philippe gave him a long stare. Raoul was not one to lie, usually, but he simply couldn't believe a rat was running around the opera house dressed in a tuxedo of its own free will.

"I don't think he likes wearing that."

"Oh?" Raoul looked surprised.

"No. He's probably uncomfortable."

Raoul looked worried. He didn't want Charles to be uncomfortable!

He undid the little latch at the top of the cage and removed the tiny panel, allowing his hand to reach in to the cage.

Philippe cringed away.

"Don't let him loose!"

The very last thing he needed was for the beast to get loose in the carriage.

"I won't!"

Raoul grabbed at Erik's clothing, making short work of the little buttons and fasteners and pulling his clothes away.

Erik squealed with indignation. Christine squeaked in defense of him - let him have his clothes! But Raoul payed them both no heed.

"Do you think he feels better now?"

Philippe nodded.

"I'm sure of it."

Raoul smiled as he folded the little clothes and put them in his pocket - he wanted to do right by his strange new pet.

"Did you win the card game, then?" he asked his brother, and Philippe's expression soured for a moment.

"Sorelli did," he muttered. "I lost twenty seven francs tonight."

"Better luck next time," Raoul offered.

Erik huddled in his cage, all this chatter passing over his miserable head. He cared little for how much money the man had lost on a hand of cards, or what the next show at the opera was going to be, or whatever other nonsense they were babbling on about. Couldn't they see he was suffering? Or did they simply not care? He gnashed his teeth at them. Let him have his clothing back! This was the worst indignity he'd been forced to endure in recent memory.

He felt cold and vulnerable, but what was worse was that he was embarrassingly naked in front of Christine, and though she was being polite about it, he knew she could see everything.

Her eyes darted over him as she sat next to the cage, and then away again - she didn't want to stare because she knew it would be rude, but she had never seen any animal that didn't have fur before. She looked as much as propriety would allow, and then a little more. She was terribly curious, and he was terribly bare.

He was currently sitting hunched over with his face directed at the floor of his cage, too ashamed to look up. His back was smooth and could almost be described as plump, but around his arms and neck he looked wrinkly. In the moonlight, Christine could see a number of faded scars and scratches across his skin, and her heart ached for her poor maestro. What kind of life had he known?

She wondered what she might look like without fur, and if her skin would look similar in the way it bunched and stretched. It made her shiver to think about, and she was grateful that she'd never have to find out. Still, she felt a great sympathy for poor Erik, who didn't have fur to protect him from the cold and, apparently, from the claws of other rats (though she was certain she also saw some teeth marks as well).

They both pulled out of their deep thoughts, however, when the carriage arrived back at the mansion.

"Don't worry, Erik," she tried to keep her eyes focused on his own red gaze, but it kept wandering over him. "We're home now, everything is going to be okay."

But as Raoul picked up the cage and took him inside, Erik had the sinking feeling that nothing would ever be okay again.