Chapter 2, Moving around with a shadow.

After I had led Erik through the house and the gardens we had sat down at the kitchen table. While I was making tea a question came to my mind; School... How was I going to explain this in school? "Erik?" He looked at me and I gave him a steaming mug. "Will you be following me in school too?" I asked while sliding into the chair that stood opposite of his. He nodded, my chest constricted and I sighed "So how do we explain your presence?"

"I wanted to tell everyone the truth" I sputtered as I chocked on my sip of tea and yelled at him "YOU WHAT?" staring at him in disbelief. He quickly handed me his handkerchief with a worried look on his face. I didn't accept at first, "The less lies we have to tell the easier it will be to keep them intact" still not accepting his handkerchief he lay it down in front of me on the table "If we tell everyone that your mom is being threatened, something in the lines of if you do not pay we will hurt your daughter, it will be close to the truth and explain my presence easily"

Stunned I looked at him, I snatched his handkerchief from the table and dabbed my face as always when it came to my alter ego I had over reacted. I lowered my head in shame "Sorry..." my cheeks reddened, he must think I am mad. "I understand Liliana, it's alright" I dared to look up at him and saw a face of compassion. I simply nodded, holding up the handkerchief I said "I'll wash this" as I tucked it in my jeans pocket. "You don't.." but I cut him short "I will" and stood up, grabbing my mug "I guess you would like to move in your stuff, so which room would you like?"

He looked apologetically as he started rambling "I... I know you don't like this but I need to be as close to you as possible, any room you can spare that is closest to yours..." I blushed, I understood as he had probably observed the Lords room was closest to mine, so he had to stay in there... "The Lords room is yours, you can use the bathroom that is connected" He looked at me in a puzzled way. Damn! That's my bathroom! I blushed even harder "But that's yours? "he said, I felt trapped "Yes, however I just realized the closest one besides mine would be my moms and I'd rather have you share mine than hers, I don't want her to feel any more uncomfortable due to this situation than necessary" He nodded "I understand" I was ready to kick myself. "I'll leave you to unpack" and I made my way to the door "Actually I will need to drive back to my apartment and pick up my things" I turned around "Ok, I will try not to get killed in the meantime" as I made a quotation move with one hand.

He gave me a look "Please don't joke about that... Can you please stay in the house until I return? It will take me no more than two hours" Sure mister shadow but I simply nodded, I had work to do, a melody had been stuck in my mind for a couple of days now and I to put it on paper before I would forget. So I made my way out of the kitchen and up the stairs, sitting down at my piano as I took a deep breath and started tinkering away.

I took me about an hour and a half to perfect the melody, the process had given me quite a head ache as I had gotten stuck on what would probably be the bridge part. However, as usual when a melody flooded my system the lyrics would never be far behind, so as I played the melody I started to sing what came to mind.

I hear the ticking of the clock

I'm lying here the room's pitch dark

I wonder where you are tonight

No answer on the telephone

And the night goes by so very slow

Oh I hope that it won't end though

Alone

I quickly scrabbled the lyrics down onto the music sheets I had used, and as I sang it again and again I created the song piece by piece. It wasn't long or extremely well composed as it still had parts I doubted, but I liked it. I had just finished a book about a student falling in love with a teacher and the song was based on how she felt, after she realized that how she felt, what she felt was impossible, it could never become reality. So in her state of mind she lived out their love life in her head, imagining what it would be like. As I tinkered along on the piano for another half hour I felt like the song was complete, and I wanted to record it so that if I had made the decision of including it in my repertoire Max, my sound guy, could help me with the touching up on the melody and tone levels.

I grabbed my voice recorder and pushed the record button, taking a deep breath I closed my eyes and poured my heart out into the song.

Raoul had led me into the house as I hadn't received a key yet, he saw me struggle with the bags and the suitcase that I was logging behind me, so he had offered to help me move some stuff. I had declined at first, I didn't like the guy as I had this feeling he and Liliana were close which made my blood boil "It's ok mate, let me help out" he'd said, so smiling I had handed him one of my bags, the heaviest one with my books. Can't help not liking the guy...

I had asked where Liliana was while we had walked up the stairs but I had no need for a reply as the moment I asked the question music came pouring down the hallway, filling the house with a chilling, sad melody. Raoul had simply nodded into the direction where the music had come from, a confirmation I had not needed.

Quickly dropping my bags in the Lords room, detesting the fact that I had to thank Raoul for helping me, I had sneaked towards her door and was elated when I saw it wasn't fully closed. Giving me a perfect sight of Liliana's figure hunched over the piano keys playing and singing, it was beautiful yet painful as she sang about being alone. She sang it with so much emotion that it almost hurt to listen to her, she was singing the song in a way that made you almost feel the pain yourself.

When the song came to an end she opened her eyes, sighed and pressed a button on what I thought was a recorder. "That was beautiful" She jumped and turned around so quickly that her foot got stuck behind one of the piano stool legs and she and the stool fell over slamming into the floor. Cursing myself internally for startling her I sprinted towards where she was now lying, face first, on the floor.

As I finished the song I pressed the recorder to shut off the inflow, showing that the song lasted a little more than two and a half minutes. Which was like I had imagined a bit short but it still needed to be worked on. "That was beautiful" I jumped at the sound and tried to quickly turn around to see who had been spying on me.

My body however wasn't in line with my mind as I was still standing between the piano stool and the keys, so as I turned around my left foot got stuck behind one of the legs of the piano stool. Making me tumble forwards while I saw Erik stand in the doorway moving towards me as I smacked into the floor.

"Oawa" I mumbled as I tried to get up, "Liliana, are you alright!" he had sprinted towards me. Peering into my eyes, and checking me out for any damage. "I'm fine! Why where you spying on me!" but he simply ignored me and picked me up bride style, as I started protesting he called out Raoul's name and started walking towards the bed. "I'm fine, put me down!" I was only terribly embarrassed, as this was the second time I had gone flat out in front of him today. But he did not listen to me as he gently lay me down on the covers of my bed, still looking at me with a worried look on his face.

"What's wrong?!" A flustered Raoul was standing in the doorway, now I was getting pissed "I'm fine I just got spooked by Erik jumping out of nowhere, making me trip and fall on my face!" I yelled in an annoyed voice. Erik's face turned bright red at my accusation "She fell on the floor, hard" he said softly. Raoul walked over to my side of the bed, making Erik take a few steps back, watching intently from the side.

"Pain?" Raoul asked, which was his standard question. "Nope" I said plopping the P, just my ego being shattered twice in a day "I mean it Lils, ankle? Knee? Head?" I gave him a sarcastic look, "I. AM. FINE..." I almost spelled it out. God I hated being worried over, just let me be, I am fine! "Are you sure? You know you will have a concert tour in less than two weeks right?" I looked at Raoul one final time as I swung my legs over the side of the bed "I'm fine" I said dead serious and started walking towards my piano.

It better not be damaged because of that stupid stunt...

Erik had tried to apologize half of dozen times over the last two hours, which finally drove me so mad that I had locked my door and grabbed my headphones on my way to my bed. Sitting down and playing my favorite tracks as I pulled out one of my school books and started reading and highlighting what I needed to learn for the next mid-term.

I got so lost in the songs and my book that by the time it had turned dark I was still reading. Apparently Erik had been knocking on my door for fifteen minutes, gave up and finally my mom or Raoul had provided him with a spare key and he had managed to open my door. Receiving an angry glare from me as he rapidly approached my bed with an anger stricken face, I figured he was mad because I had shut him out, so I reluctantly removed my headphones. "You cannot lock the door on me! I was calling your name for fifteen minutes! You could have been hurt, or gone!" He shouted in my face as I looked down at my book, he had stood there for fifteen minutes? I truly hadn't heard him, yet I had locked the door on purpose. "Liliana I am sorry for before, I had not meant to startle you, I should not have been watching you. I just heard your voice and..." I looked up at him "I wanted to listen, it was so beautiful" he mumbled.

"Well just don't" I snared as I tried to escape him by jumping of my bed "When I sing like that, I don't..." I looked at the floor, it was private, it was my only moment truly alone with the music, something I could but not had to share, the decision was up to me! Not anyone else! "It's my choice" I whispered and stormed out of the room. As I stormed down the stairs I decided that it would be a great time to go and work out in the basement.

When I had started to become more and more famous I had started working out more as it was a great means to relief some stress, which I always had in overflows. So when I had saved enough money I had ordered a full gym to be installed in the basement, everything that you could imagine, weights for Olympic lifting, rowers, bikes, treadmills I wanted to try out everything. Right about that time I had also hired Raoul, as I wanted someone in house for training, health, nutrition the full package.

So now there was locker room with a shower and a closet which contained everybody's workout clothes plus a full blown gym just forty steps from my room. I quickly changed and hit the treadmill blasting music through the sound system. I loved running although truly I preferred the weights over everything, it was a game of becoming stronger every time, trying to beat your former personal record.

After twenty minutes Raoul appeared at my side, grabbing the remote and lowering the sound level until he was able to talk to me. "Lils you need to give the guy a break, he is here to have your back, not to make your life a living hell" I stepped on the sides of the treadmill. Taking a few breaths "Raoul, I never asked for this!" he nodded "I know Lils, but do you like being Christine? Do you love to perform?" I sighed he always did this "Yes... yes to both" I reluctantly said. "Well, there is your answer you idiot" he said as he ruffled my hair. "I hate you" I said jokingly, while slapping away his hand.

"Simply reminding you about some important facts" he laughed as he avoided another punch from my right hand. "Just let him do his job Lils" I huffed but nodded, as I knew that unfortunately he was right, as usual.

After completing my run, and doing weights for an hour I decided to grab something to eat and study some more. I walked into the kitchen, snatched a protein bar from my always stocked stash and started my climb of the stairs. Avoiding Erik's room and walking into mine, munching on my last bite, it was now six o'clock and I knew mom would start 'cooking' soon 'which meant she would order food' so I stepped into the bathroom to take a quick shower. Stripping off my wet workout clothes and turning on the shower, stepping under the flow of warm water I felt my muscles relax. sooooo gooood...

I washed my hair and when I knew I could no longer avoid stepping out into the cold I turned off the water supply and quickly wrapped a towel around me. Shivering as indeed the bathroom was cold, I took another towel and started drying my hair. "Liliana?" Raoul's voice rang from my side of the bathroom "In here" I said "Just a moment" and I dropped both towels and slipped on my plush dark green robe. "What's up Raoul?" I said while throwing the door open stepping into my room. He handed me a tube, which looked like something medically.

I looked at him quizzically "What's this?" he chuckled "Against bags, I ordered it for you as lately you are looking like a corpse" I gave him a disapproving look "Geez thanks Raoul" he gave me his charming smile "no problem lils, you need it though, seriously" I knew he was right, lately my sleeping hours had been so poorly that I indeed looked like a corpse, nightmares about someone hurting my mom plagued my dreams, turning them in to blood chilling nightmares. Leaving me we sweated through pajamas and restless nights. "Oh and your mom said dinner is almost here" I laughed, we had no dinner is ready in our home, we had dinner is here. As we were simply either busy or busier than usual. So we ordered almost every meal, except breakfast which was easily made so we never ordered that, yet.

"Thanks" I told him as I wiggled the tube of cream in my hand as he made his way out of my room raising his hand like the guy in breakfast club and I chuckled.

After an awkward silent dinner, which my mom tried to liven up by asking Erik about his job, we all said goodnight and made our way to our rooms, which meant Erik gave me dibs on the bathroom so I quickly brushed my teeth and applied some of the stupid creme on my face before knocking on his door signaling that I was done.

Walking over to my bed I shook of my robe and curled up under the sheets setting my alarm for five in the morning as I would have an interview over the phone which I was not looking forward too.

Staring at my alarm clock I had seen all the numbers going on from 11 o'clock. It was now 2 in the morning. I've had enough, I could survive another day on two hours of sleep, I had done so for most of last week. Grabbing my headphones I put on a Nocturne by Chopin, sneaking out of my room on a hunt for the kitchen and some late night, correction early morning snacks. I knew there was still a tub of Ben and Jerry's in the fridge. Strangely I had always liked the combination of tea and ice cream, they perfectly offset each other.

As I made my way through the hall and into the kitchen I started rummaging through the drawers, successfully finding a spoon and a mug in one of the cupboards, putting on the kettle and making my way over to the fridge. Going through the drawers in search of the tub "Bingo" I whispered as I found it stashed behind some frozen fruit packages, ripping off the lid and scooping up a big spoon, which I almost dropped as I turned around. Wanting to check on the kettle I had almost ran into Erik's chest, letting out a yelp as I hadn't seen or heard him enter the kitchen.

He was wearing black satin pajama trousers, which to my astonishment looked really good on him, paired with a dark emerald green robe. I quickly looked away, removing my headphones and putting the spoon in the tub. "Did I wake you?" He sighed "No" I looked up "You were awake?" I could hardly believe that to be true. He gave me a small smile as he saw my doubt "You went to bed at nine, you woke up at eleven and you haven't slept since until you decided to grab your headphones and started a piano piece and you walked downstairs" My jaw hit the floor "how..." I was severely impressed and creeped out at the same time "I listen Liliana, it's my job" I sighed of course mister shadow "so why can't you sleep? A craving for ice cream?" A beep came from the kettle and I moved over to pour my cup "tea?" I looked at him "Yes, please" he said. I grabbed another mug and poured him a cup too.

He accepted it and sat down at the kitchen table, as I still wanted to eat ice cream I felt the obligation to at least ask him if he wanted some too. "I uh, you want some too?" I pointed at the tub which he picked up and looked at. "your favorite" he mumbled softly, did I hear that correctly... "Sorry?" I said with a tinge of nerves in my voice. He looked up "I said I had no apatite" he gave me a crooked smile. So I had heard the wrong thing...

"You avoided my question" he said while I slid down in the chair opposite of him "Liliana?" he peered into my eyes. "I was hungry" I lied giving him a hopefully genuine smile. He seemed to evaluate whether I was telling the truth or not "right, so this has never happened before?" not before last week I popped in another spoon of ice cream while shaking my head, taking a sip of tea, such a good combo, I smiled.

"Liliana" I looked at him again "Please don't lie to me" my eyes widened, nobody saw through my lies! I was always able to dodge every question with interviews! I lied my way out of everything as Christine! "I'm not" I said shortly, suddenly loosing my own apatite and I put the lid back on the tub. "I am going back to bed" I stated before getting up and moving over to the fridge, putting back the tub where I had found it. Intentionally moving some stuff in front of it, hoping that Raoul would not find it that way.

And for the second time that night I yelped as Erik had, without making a sound again, I had to figure out how he does that, moved behind me and was now luring over me. I wasn't scared of him in any way, yet when he towered over me like that my heart just skipped a couple of beats, and my breath got caught in my throat "I can't help you if you hide away the truth Liliana" and as soon as he had appeared he disappeared in the direction of the stairway. "I have nightmares" I blurted why had I just said that! what in seven hells Liliana?

He stopped, turned around and briskly took a couple of steps towards me "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked with genuine interest in his voice. No, I never want to talk about it! Not with anyone and not with you! But the coward that I was I hung my head and avoided his gaze "I... I eeehm" Suddenly his hand gently brought my face back up so that his eyes were now boring into mine "You don't have to tell me, but maybe you should talk to someone else about it?" he peered into my eyes "NO!" I stepped back in a reflex, leaving him to drop his hand to his side again. "I can't, I'm sorry, I'm tired, Excuse me" and I brushed passed him, running up the stairs and slamming the door of my bedroom shut behind me.

I quickly slid under the covers and curled up beneath them, I tried to shut off what he had just said. But I could not shut off the tears as they started to flow, and so I cried myself to sleep, as I done almost every night this week.

I had heard her cry herself to sleep after she had dodged me in the kitchen, my heart ached to go over to her. Hold her in my arms and rock her to sleep in my arms, but I couldn't, she wasn't mine to hold. That stupid dog of a Raoul! Damn him! I thought as I tried to sleep a little as the sounds of her sobs grew more silent by the minute.

Around five I woke again as I heard her pacing her room, talking aloud about an upcoming event. I rose and secretly peaked through the bathroom door that led to her room, she was walking around the room with a headset talking as Christine and I figured it was some interview with a reporter. I stepped back and started brushing my teeth and washing my face, if she rose early I had to rise early, simple as that.

After about an hour I heard her put down the headset that she had used and started playing the piano again. I knocked on her door as I wanted to know what the rest of the schedule for today was, as she had forgotten to tell me yesterday. "Erik?" her voice rang through the room "Yes, it's me" I heard her patter over to the door and a second later it flung open. She looked up and I was greeted by her beautiful yet really dull looking eyes. I saw that she was afraid of another round of questions about why she couldn't sleep. Yet she needed it so badly, the bags under her eyes where evidence enough that she needed to sleep, she was exhausted...

I decided to spare her and to come up with the subject later that day. "Good morning" I started "Could you update me on today's planning?" She gave me a weak smile "Sure, I forgot yesterday, sorry about that" she left the door open as she patted over to the fireplace again, plumping onto one of the couches and grabbing her phone from the small coffee table.

"So I have another interview in half an hour, than there is school at 8 till 5" She looked up at me and I nodded signaling for her to continue "After school we have to go to the recording studio for the new single, a possible photo shoot, a conference call and later that evening another interview" I nodded again, her schedule was nuts to say the least but listening to the way she recounted everything she seemed to be fine with all the press related items.

"You can go and have breakfast" she said "I don't need any help with these interviews, I had quite the extensive media training" another small smile. "Understood, yet could you tell me up front when you have to wake up early, I might be of some assistance to you" She shrugged her shoulders and nodded. "I'm going to get dressed and read through my notes for this interview, we have to leave for school right after" she looked at me waiting for my reply. "I'll be ready" she nodded "Are you done in the bathroom?" she asked with a small voice. "Yes, again sorry for that inconvenience" she shook her head "'It's fine Erik" and she walked towards the door "I'll see you downstairs at seven thirty"

And she did, dressed in dark jeans and an elegant light brown coloured sweater and leather boots. Her backpack slung around one shoulders gripped tightly by her right hand, while in the other she had a large travel coffee mug. The sight of it made me mad, she shouldn't be needing so much caffeine. "I know what you're thinking" she looked up at me "I couldn't survive this life without it, trust me"

"Liliana!" we both turned and saw Anne running from the kitchen with an apple and some health bars. She quickly put them in Liliana's bag, kissed Liliana's forehead and gave her a hug. "I'll see you tonight darling" and Liliana mumbled a goodbye as Anne now looked at me "Keep her safe please" I hear Liliana huff out a breath "mom..." but I understood Anne's feelings. "I will keep her safe, promise" and I opened up the front door for Liliana, as she grabbed her trench coat from the chesterfield in the corner of the hallway.

As she walked passed she gave me a smile "Ready for school Erik?"