I woke up with my muscles feeling like they'd been pummeled like one of those punching bag things that they have in gyms that train the muscle bound freaks we call 'professional wrestlers.' Ugh. I had to clamp my lips together to keep from bleating like a lamb. I painfully rolled over and glanced at the other beds. They were all full and it was dark outside. I looked at my watch and saw that it was five in the morning. Again. I didn't feel sleepy anymore and it would be useless to try and sleep now. I threw my sore legs over the side of the bed and dressed quietly, I didn't want to wake anyone up and I didn't feel like taking a bath. I decided to visit Erik, I didn't know when he got up but if he was still in bed I'd leave and clean the box until it was a more reasonable hour.

I crept down to the little passageway Erik had shown me with a candle. I didn't know what I was going to talk about with Erik but I didn't want to be alone and Erik knew I was from the future. Being with Meg and Christine was fun but they were so girly and I, well I wasn't exactly a tomboy, but I wasn't that girly. Erik was a guy and what he had to say interested me more than talking about which shoes were prettier. They look exactly the same GET OVER IT.

Erik's home was still lit by candle light that never wavered. I walked in quietly, trying not to make a noise if he was asleep. I heard something shuffling near the life size Christine mannequin and went to check it out. Erik had his back to me and he was elbow deep in the contents of my back pack. I could see that his mask was off but he had kept his wig on. Anger filled me and I thought about yelling at him; I just a quickly thought of the perfect punishment. I turned to face the opposite direction.

"Did I not instruct that you were not to touch my things?" I hears Erik get up and spin around. I wish I could see his face right now, must be like a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar. "Really Erik, I would have hoped for more from Le Fantôme de l'Opéra." I smiled to myself. "Now, if you don't want me to see your face, put your mask back on and give me an explanation as to why you were going through my personal belongings." I heard his footsteps walk past me as I looked out at the lake.

"Alright, you can turn around now." I let my face twist into a frown.

"Are you sure it's okay to turn around? I do so hate looking into the face of the person that had betrayed my trust." I said snidely. I felt his hand on my shoulder as he gently turned me around. I kept my face as impassive as I could, letting him see the hurt in my eyes.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have looked through your things-"

"Damn-fuckin'-right you shouldn't have."

"But how much you seem to know about my life unnerves me. I thought I could find out more about you if I looked through the things you brought to my time." Shame stung at his eyes as he looked at me with his unwavering gaze.

"I told you that I'd tell you more about me when we knew each other better. If this is how you resolve to learn about me I'm not sure I'll ever be able to trust you enough to tell you anything about me." I willed myself not to cry. I should've expected this, but I still couldn't have left my things in the dormitories where the ballerinas would he the things from the future. "You wanna know what's in here so bad? Fine." I pulled out my three pairs of jeans. "Pants!" I threw them at him. "Shirts!" I tossed the three shirts I unearthed at him, one of which smacked him in the face. "Camera, phone, bra!" I waved the bras as him before tucking them away so they kept my electronics from touching the bottom of the bag and getting broken if it was tossed around. "My wallet, underwear and books are in my room now, I'm sorry you didn't get a chance to rummage through them."

Erik pulled my clothes of himself and threw them back at me. "You're the one who refuses to speak at all about yourself. How am I supposed to trust you if I don't know anything about you?"

"You mean manipulate. You want me to do your bidding like a puppet attached to the strings you hold. I'm not some weak willed inamorata that can't save herself, Erik. You're the one who went through my things, you should apologize and maybe I'll forgive you." I knew I was the one who was going to have to stop this before he flew into one of his rages but I just wanted him to say he was sorry.

"I will if you would just tell me what you dreamt last night!" Erik yelled.

ERIK

This was infuriating,I needed to know more about her and here I am asking but she refuses to tell me what that dream was about. It's so insignificant to all the other questions I could ask her. As soon as the words leave my lips I wish I could take them back. Emotions begin to dance across her face one after the other. Anger, confusion, defeat then sorrow; complete, gut wrenching sorrow.

"Erik What was done to me was horrible. The worst memory that can ever be forced to be remembered. Don't make me remember Erik, it scares me." She slid to the floor and pulled her knees up to her chest, as if to guard herself. Her hands were clamped over her ears as if to shut out a horrible noise and tears slipped down her cheeks. What had been done to her was as bad as what had been done to me; and I had forced those horrible memories from the vault of her mind into her waking thoughts. I was despicable. Her hair hung in a veil, hiding her face from me better than any mask as soft screams and mutters fell from her lips as shudders racked her body.

"Danielle, I'm sorry." He seemed to not have heard me. "Danielle." I gently shook her shoulder. She looked at me then, with eyes that looked past me to someone else standing in my place. Her lips had gone pale and fear and sorrow pushed to the front of her eyes.

"Please don't hurt me, I'll be good. I promise just please, please don't hurt me anymore." Her voice sounded infantile, childlike. As if the years to make her a woman had turned back. Her ruined make up turned her tears black as they ran down her dark cheeks; she kept saying 'I'll be good' over and over before finally slipping into a faint. I carried her to my bed and lay her down as feelings of self loathing threatened to choke me. I had pushed her too far. Now she could be catatonic for all I knew! And it was my fault, all my fault. Never before had I doubted my humanity until now. Now I was truly a demon, no better than the people who had pointed and laughed at me before Madame Giry rescued me.

An hour passed, slow and torturous. I checked on Danielle every ten minutes. I had just sat down at my organ again when a voice came from behind me.

"Who're you?" I turned to see Danielle. She had a pillow clutched to her chest and peeked out from the top of it like a bashful child. "Where's my mama?" Her eyes were wide and innocent, with no hate or anger in them, only a child's curiosity.

"Danielle... don't you know me?" Panic rose in me and I got up and walked up the steps towards her. She cocked her head to the side.

"You're the guy on the big screen that mama took me to see. You're the Phantom." She dropped the pillow and smiled at me. "Will you sing for me like you did Chrissy?" My heart softened.

"What happened at the end of the story that you saw on the big screen?" I had no idea what she was talking about but I wanted to know my future. She shook her head.

"I dunno, I fell asleep after the beginning where the red haired lady was being a meanie and Crissy stopped talking to her daddy's picture. Mama woke me at the end and we went home." She rubbed her eyes like a child would after taking a nap, something I had seen my little goddaughter Meg do after her naps. With a jolt I realized the last years of her life were lost, the years after the accident that had scarred her. Since she was talking and acting like a child I could only deduce she had been scarred as a young child. They thought made it feel as if my heart was being ripped from my chest.

"Yes Danielle, you are right. I am the Phantom." I smiled at her the best I could. She smiled back, a smile that lit her whole face up like the soft light of a candle.

"Will you sing for me?" She asked again. "I never got ta hear you sing the first time on the big screen 'cause I was asleep and mama didn't want ta wake me up 'cause it was past my bedtime." She pouted, it was almost comical seeing a young woman acting like a child. In any other situation I would have laughed but not now.

"Alright. Come sit down." She came and sat beside me on the organ bench and I began to play Psyche, hoping she would recognize it and remember me. "Hätte ich lebte bis jetzt
Hatte ich bis jetzt gesehen
Psyche.
Wie konnte ich so lange ohne dich gegangen
Psyche.
Ihre Augen leuchten meine Welt
Wie die Sterne von den Göttern geschmiedet
Ihre Augen wie der blaue dass nur Hermes sieht so tief in den Himmeln.
Meine Psyche.
Ich kann dich nicht lieben aus der Ferne
Ich brauche dich bei mir
Neben mir.
Sagen Sie bleiben
Psyche."She pulled me up from the bench and spun around the sandy shore with me and laughed.

"Don't stop singing, let's dance too!" She said.

"Lassen Sie mich halten dich in meine Arme
Lassen Sie mich Ihnen zeigen, den Himmel, wie Sie noch nie gesehen haben
Nicht scheuen mir jetzt meine Psyche.
Die Mutter ist so grausam
So, meine Liebe meine
Sie sollten stattdessen bestraft werden!
Meine reizende Psyche
Sagen Sie mir, zu lieben
Psyche Ich werde Sie!"She spun one last time and bowed to me and I copied the gesture. She sprung up and began to clap enthusiastically.

"Yay! Hooray! Brava, brava, bravissima! Bow, bow." I smiled at her and have a deep bow, I never thought that she would be using my own words to compliment me.

"You're really good, are you a famous person?" She asked as she plopped down right where she had been standing. I sent her a rueful smile.

"Yes, I am some sort of famous." It wasn't technically a lie, all of Paris knew of the Phantom of the Opera Populaire.

"How are you sort of famous?" She cocked her head to the side again.

"Most people believe I don't exist." A bewildered expression graced her faced.

"That's dumb. You're right here, how could you not exist?" I began to laugh. This little Danielle was bringing laughter to my heart, something I had not felt before. Being with her felt like it was right. I couldn't explain it, I just felt whole.

"Not a lot of people have seen me." She nodded her head.

"You mean because you haven't performed a lot. I don't see why, you sing really good."

"Thank you little one." I found myself saying before I realized the words had come to my lips. She stood up and pulled me back to my organ.

"Put my hair in piggy tails." I sat completely shocked.

"What?"

"Put my hair in piggy tails. Mama does so my hair doesn't get in my eyes and I don't know how." The absurdity of this moment silenced me for a minute as she sat there looking expectantly at me. "Please?" She asked.

"Alright." I complied, I didn't know what else to do. I pulled two black ribbons I used to tie on red roses and give to Christine after her shows and gathered up half of her hair and tied it up on top of her head, then I did the other side. I thought I did well considering I'd never done it before. She skipped off to admire them in one of my mirrors before turning around.

"Thank you!" She twirled around, making her long pigtails swing around her.

"You're welcome." I was nice having someone down with me that was so wholly innocent and enjoyed the simplest things.

"Play your big piano again, I liked how it sounded." She sat and smiled up at me.

"It's not a piano, it is an organ. See the pipes? They make a richer sound than a piano." She looked around at the pipes, studying them hard.

"This is the kind of instrument they play in churches, right?" The way she pronounced 'instrument' was slightly off but it still impressed me that she knew it.

"Yes it is." I had never set foot in a church but it was common knowledge that organs were played in church. I began to play a song of my own creation, one I had written after I heard Gustave Daae's wonderful violin. It was truly a wonder how well that man had played the violin; his playing could have rivaled mine, I would have loved to have the honor of playing a duet with him. I was not a man for flattery or exaggerating, I would not say that if it was not true. The song was soft and slow, notes dancing together like a ballet. Before the song ended I noticed that Danielle had fallen asleep, her head resting against my shoulder. I didn't want to move her in fear of waking her so we sat like that for a while before she began to stir.

"What am I doing here and dare I ask why my hair is in pigtails?" She groaned and rubbed her temples.

"You don't remember? You asked me to." I guessed she had regained her memory of before but forgot the time when she passed out and began acting like a child.

"Huh. I guess I had my nuclear meltdown for the day." She rubbed her face before looking at me. "I guess you had to deal with little me." She didn't say it as a question, she knew.

"Yes. Are you alright? What happened?" I couldn't help asking, only realizing after I said it that it could hurt her worse if I brought it up again.

"I'm fine, it's just when I'm under serious mental stain I kind of... go offline. I never remember what happens during it and it's only happened a few times. I regress back to when things were okay. When everything was perfect." She looked so distant all of a sudden, so different from the girl I had seen before. She looked at me with clear eyes devoid of emotion, so different from those of the child that I had spoken to earlier.

"Horrible things have happened to me Erik. Things I never want to speak about. I'm sure you understand that." I nodded my head; she sighed before continuing. " I don't have any choice but to forgive you for snooping through my things, you weren't brought up with much manners were you Mio Angelo Della Musica?" I was just about to yell at her when she kissed my cheek. "I gotta go up top." She walked away while I was still speechless and looked in the mirror. "I guess I'll keep my hair up since you went to such trouble to do it."

"So you forgive me?" I asked as I walked over to her to see her out. She looked back at me with a small smile.

"Yeah, I forgive you ya great lug, but I have to go, Christine and Meg and everyone else will be worrying for me." She walked up the tunnel that led her to the Opera above. "But as an apology present you'll have to clean your own box for a week!" She turned a corner and was gone. I could hardly believe what had just happened. I grabbed my cape and followed her, wanting to make sure she got back alright.

DANIELLE

I walked into the dorms to see the room was empty. I looked at my watch that I had left on my bedside table that morning and saw it was eight. They'd be rehearsing one last time before their performance that night. I ran to the stage and sat in the audience. I waved at Meg who nudged Christine and pointed to me. They looked visibly relieved and went back to dancing, I knew they were going to corner me as soon as they were given a break.

I was right. An hour later they finished the last act and Carlotta began bitching so everyone was given a break.

"Where were you? When you weren't in bed we got so worried!" Meg said. I felt bad for making them worry about me.

"Sorry, I woke up early again and went to clean the box." They still looked a little worried but were quickly called away again to dance. It was really cool being able to watch the play with no one else around, people weren't whispering or talking loudly to each other and bothering me. Carlotta was too bitchy to enjoy but the ballet scenes were amazing. I couldn't believe that someday I'd be able to do that, well, if I didn't find a way home and was good enough.

"NO! You stupid girl, you dance wrong and knock into me on purpose!" Carlotta screamed at some unfortunate ballet girl. Alphonse looked over at me and rolled his eyes. I suppressed a bout of laughter. Carlotta rubbed her arm where the girl, I think her name was Anette, had knocked into her. I didn't know if it actually hurt or if she was just doing it for the effect. I took off my shoes and tucked my feet under me. The only thing I knew about Faust was that it was the play in the book that Erik stole Christine away from and that is was about cheating the devil, which I found out from V for Vendetta, another of my favorite movies.

Piangi mispronounced one of his lines and the orchestra master stopped the entire show to tell him that if he didn't pronounce it 'Gazing at those deep solitudes beneath my feet' instead of 'Gaazin at does deep soliltoods beneeth mah feet' he was going to pull him out of the show and the understudy would take his place, the one who could pronounce all the words correctly. And I have to admit, Piangi's double was pretty easy on the eyes. Piangi's constant screw ups were pretty funny but the performance was going to suffer because of it, I don't understand how he keeps getting the lead rolls.

The Piangi double was looking into the audience when his eyes rested on me. He was the guy that winked at me before! I sent him a smile and winked at him. His face went a little pink but he grinned back at me. Oh God, I'm flirting, Erik's going to Punjab someone for this. The rehearsals were going smoothly and ended a few hours later so the cast could go get ready. The muscly Piangi double came over to me. I smiled up at him as he walked down the row to me.

"Hello, my name is Henri Bernarde." He had his hands behind his back.

"Hello Henri, I'm Danielle." He stepped from one foot to the other.

"I was wondering if you wanted to go to dinner after the performance tonight." He smiled shyly at me. I could practically hear Erik grinding his teeth. If he had been so on Blaise for just being my friend I couldn't wait to see how he'd react if I had an honest to God date. Henri seemed nice, the kind of person I'd like to go out with. He had a cute white toothed smile, straight brown hair that went just past his shoulders and a stunning body. Talk about a stud.

"I'd love to," I said giving him a girly smile. He looked relieved, like he actually expected me to say no? Come on.

"Then tonight after the show I'll take you to a wonderful restaurant." He smiled and walked away. Cool, free dinner. Oh shit, I had a date. My first date. Ever. And I had nothing to wear. I scrambled out of my seat and rant to the dormitories.

"Christine! Meg! I need your help!" They looked up at me.

"What is it? Is something wrong?" Christine asked, instantly worried. I laughed and grabbed their shoulders.

"Wrong? Nothing's wrong! I have a date! My first date and I have nothing to wear besides this dumb brown dress! Fashion emergency!" Their mouths hung open.

"What?" Came a chorus of voices from behind me. I guess I'd said it too loud. A bunch of ballerinas crowded around me, begging for details.

"It was Piangi's double, Henri. The really handsome dancer guy who has winked at me before. He looked at me during rehearsals today and I smiled at him, when it was over he asked me to dinner!" We all squealed. "And now I don't have anything to wear!" Shouts went up as the girls, all twenty of them (including Christine and Meg) ran to their dresser drawers and pulled out things for me to try on.

"Here, you are about my size and I think this dress will fit you." Said the girl who Carlotta was picking on today, Anette. I was helped out of my dress and pulled into a simple yellow one.

"No, it's not your color." Came a voice from the back. There was more rushing and they stuffed me into a pink dress. I didn't like hot pink, but I thought this soft pink looked really nice. "Perfect!" Cried the girl Isabelle.

"We have to get you a ribbon for around the waist for that!" Christine called before she ran to where they kept the ribbons.

"Get a green one!" I called to her. I always thought pink and green went well together. The other girls pulled out a bunch of shoes for me to try on, so I could find the right size. Soon I was all decked out and perfect.

"I think we need to do your hair," Meg said. I realized that my hair was still in the pigtails I apparently asked Erik to do. Couldn't go out like that.

"What hairstyle should we do?" The girls got into an argument over styles that I stopped.

"I think we should just do a french braid. Simple and elegant." They all agreed and Christine did my hair, tying it off with one of the black ribbons Erik had put in my hair.

"Where did you find this ribbon?" She asked, clearly recognizing the ones sent to her by her angel.

"I found it on the ground by the front stairs," I lied. This seemed to pacify Christine. Everyone else got ready and ran to the dressing room to put on their costumes. I thanked them all for the help. "Break a leg!" I called after them. Only Christine and Meg stayed in the room.

"Are you still thinking of watching the show in box 5?" Christine asked. I nodded my head and they let out a very unladylike groan.

"Please, please be careful." Meg asked as she held my hand, trying to comfort herself.

"I will, but you two need to get ready." I shooed them out of the dormitories and did my makeup before leaving myself. I walked down to the kitchen for lack of anything better to do besides getting cornered by Erik.

"Oh, Danielle, you look so pretty!" One of the kitchen workers said. He looked me over from head to toe. "What's the occasion?" She asked.

"I have a date after the show!" I said enthusiastically.

"You tell him to treat you right or he'll have a whole mess of trouble on him, you hear?" She said and the other kitchen staff made noises of agreement.

"I will!" I chirped before skipping off. Yes, I was skipping.

"Hey Dee!" Blaise yelled from behind me. I turned to him and gave him a hug. "I heard you have a date with that handsome, handsome man Henri?" He made it sound like a question even though he already knew.

"Yes I do." He grabbed me and swung me around in a circle.

"I'm jealous!" He yell whispered. I grinned at him.

"He doesn't play for your team, remember." He gave a long suffering sigh.

"A guy can dream can't he?" He laughed. I nudged him with my arm. "At least let me fix your hair."

"What do you mean? My hair is already fixed."

"Then let me perfect it," he said and pulled a few strands from the braid and left them hanging around my face. "There, you have a little mystique now." He winked at me before he was pulled away to work. I waved as he left before I climbed the steps to the boxes. I hesitated for a moment before opening the door to box 5. Erik sat in one of the seats with his back to me.

"Hello Danielle, I think we have something we need to discuss" he said without turning around.

"Hello Erik, I believe we do."

Reeaally long chapter. Hope you like cliffhangers ;) Phantom characters belong to Webber, Leroux and the dancers, Danielle and Blaise belong to me. Lines from Faust Belong to Johanne Wolfgane von Goethe and V for Vendetta belongs to James McTeigue and David Lloyed. Review and enjoy!