No matter how hard Erik tried to distance himself from Christine, he could not bring himself to stay completely away from her. Erik had a habit of sneaking into Christine's room after she fell asleep to watch her sleep until the sun began to rise through her window. It was on the second evening of her confinement that he had done just that when he heard someone banging on his front door. He slid out of the room to go see who would dare disturb them at this hour.

When he opened the front door, there was no one there. Erik was upset that someone had the nerve to knock and run off like that. His anger grew as he heard the tell-tell patter of Christine's feet coming down the stairs.

"Christine, go back to bed." Erik said as softly as he possibly could. He wanted her obedience, but more than anything right now he wanted to be able to touch. To hold her in some fashion, even if it meant hurting her.

Christine didn't say a word until she was close enough to smell him. "What is that you want from me?"

"Go back to bed."

"Not until you tell me what is that I have done wrong."

"My innocent Christine, if only I had a beautiful face so you could love me." Erik spat at her. How dare she not mind him.

The sound echoed through the room as Christine's hand retreated from the side of Erik's face. "Damn your face to hell, Erik. Not everything is about your face. You are the only one in this house that thinks about it. No one else cares."

Erik grabbed Christine's wrist, tightening his grip. "Do not lie to me, Christine. I know you better than anyone else ever could. I know your heart's desires."

"Apparently, you don't know me at all if you think that I am so concerned with your face."

"Is it not true that you would rather have your pretty boy than this hideous corpse to love you?"

"You're mad because I talked to Ryan. This is pathetic. Get over yourself."

"Did the boy tell you how Erik nearly killed him for you? The boy was struggling for life with my lasso around his throat. The threads cutting into his neck. If it hadn't have been for the police, Erik would have taken his life to keep you with him always."

"He told me, and I didn't care. I knew months ago about what you had done. I knew that you paid off Elizabeth twice. Once to steal the stupid car, and then to disappear forever. I know Erik, and quite frankly, I don't care."

"Christine." Erik loosened his hold enough for Christine to slip her wrists out of his grip as he whispered her name.

"You can believe me or you can keep lying to yourself. Either way I am going back to bed. Goodnight, Erik."

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Christine crawled into bed, expecting to spend the night either tossing and turning or crying herself to sleep. Surprisingly, Christine found neither one of those things. Instead, she felt relief. She felt that she had finally found something was worth fighting for, and she wasn't going to feel sorry for finally speaking her mind to Erik.

No, instead, she felt better. As if though a hurricane had raged through her life and taken away all of the bad things, leaving her only a land fertile for good things. If it wasn't for Erik's foul moods, she would go back and ask him to play her one of his pieces or tell her a bedtime story.

She took a deep breath and let it out. She found herself asleep before she could decide whether or not she should go ask for a story.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Erik tried to put his fingers back on the keys. He tried to continue with the heartwretching melody that he had been playing before someone had decided to bother him. However, he couldn't. His fingers wouldn't allow him to do so.

Christine. She had haunted him day and night. He simply wanted what was best for her. Why didn't she understand? What did he have to do to make her see this? Nadir had said that he should let her go. Let her have her own life. Could he do that? Was it possible?

He didn't want to think about it. He just wanted to let the music have his soul, but apparently, the music no longer controlled his soul. No, it belonged to Christine now. She was its master, even if she didn't know.

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Christine shifted and threw the covers over her head as she tried to block out the sun that came streaming through the windows. The covers were effectively drug back away from her. "None of that, miss Christine. Master Erik is taking you to Italy this morning. Apparently, the two of you have an opera to perform."

"Can't we leave tomorrow?" She attempted to drag the covers back, but Sarah wasn't going to have it.

"No, master Erik said that you would be leaving this morning. Now get up and get in the shower."

Christine did as she was told. Erik must be in a better mood now. No reason to make things bad again.

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A/N: Few more chapters. Please review or may forget where this story was going.