Note: As usual, I dont own Erik. There said it. 2 chapters in one weekend! haha that may not happen again for a while, since this weekend i did nothing, except yard work, blah. I have a long week ahead, so i thought i would post now, cause if not it wont be untill a while, a long while. (Cause I'm seeing Lord of the Dance on tuesday!) Thanks to my reviewers!
Enough of my rambling, here's chapter seven:
"You were worried about me, weren't you?" Aslynn said, putting Erik's cloak on and walking up the stairs.
Erik didn't reply, he was occupying himself with the fire. Once it was roaring and giving off a good deal of heat he spoke.
"You should dry you hair and warm up. With this damp air, it's easy to get sick."
He slowly backed away from the fire, but still faced it. He was still drenched and enjoyed the heat radiating on him.
Aslynn walked next to Erik and stood about two feet away, also facing the fire.
She noticed how Erik tensed when she stopped next to him.
"May I wear your cloak longer?" she asked, "its warm."
Erik nodded.
'Thanks," Aslynn softly said, sitting down on the hearth. As she sat she glanced at Erik whose face was emotionless. His beautiful green eyes reflected the dancing flames and his black hair was almost dry.
Seeing Aslynn sit down, he turned and looked at her. Their eyes briefly locked, but Aslynn turned again before Erik could. Erik then silently left her sitting there, to change into dry clothes.
As he walked to his room he thought about what Aslynn said, 'you were worried about me.' As he thought about it, he realized that he was worried about her, but afraid to admit it. He was afraid to admit it to himself. That's why he had become angry, he was angry that he cared. He shouldn't care, she's nothing more than a stranger who's living with him for five days. Unlike Christine, Erik didn't want Aslynn to stay with him for five days. And those five days were devoted to music. She'll never mean anything more than that to him, or he wouldn't let her.
He also was scared, an emotion that the Phantom seldom felt. He was scared that he would find Aslynn dead. But instead of expressing the fright, he had expressed anger.
Erik took off his soaked shirt and pulled out a new one from a dresser drawer. He slowly buttoned it half way. He then grabbed a pair of dry pants and pulled them on. Leaving his shirt un-tucked, he ran his fingers threw his wet, black hair.
As his fingers felt the cold porcline, he recalled the three long scars that were on Aslynn's back.
How did she get them, he wondered, surely the stagehands didn't do that to her. She must have a deeper past than I thought. And she has a tattoo! I have only seen pirates that have tattoo's engraved in them. Maybe she's telling the truth about being from 2005. But how can such a young body have such terrible scars?
Why is she so sad, what great burden does she carry? What does she keep screaming abut every night? Erik questioned, wondering more and more about whom Aslynn was.
Realizing that he spent most of his thoughts today on Aslynn he became angry with himself.
Don't fall for her Erik, its not a good idea, he told himself, she's just going to break your heart like Christine did. She doesn't even know how awful of a person you are. Her womanly curiosity will lead her to take off your mask. Then there will be no chance, she will only pity and fear you. Don't fall for her Erik.
Erik then decided to push Aslynn out of his thoughts, like he tried to do for Christine. She's only a guest, a guest that I didn't wish to be here, he told himself, now leaving his room.
He walked back into the open room on the lake to find Aslynn still sitting by the fire. Her hair was no longer wet, and she looked up when she heard Erik enter.
After Erik left the room Aslynn tried to figure out what exactly happened. He was very angry with her. He said that he thought she would kill herself. Why would he think that?
He seems to like being alone, she thought, I guess he is always alone. Especially when he's mad, he's a scary person.
I think he was worried about me, and he's someone who doesn't like to share how they feel. So instead of showing regular emotions they show anger. Or maybe he was afraid, afraid of caring about me. I wish he would let me find out more about him.
Aslynn's thoughts were interrupted when Erik walked back into the room. She looked up at him, and saw he had changed. She met his green eyes and quickly turned away, not knowing why. He still looked unhappy, even angry. Deciding that it was best not to talk to him, Aslynn silently got up. She walked over to the side room.
Once there, she began to draw again, this time her surroundings.
She drew an organ with many candles around it. Sitting at the organ, she drew a man with only half of his face visible. The face was very handsome.
The drawling was dark, except for the face and the area around the candles.
Warn out from her swim today, Aslynn made her way to her room. She walked past Erik and stopped. She opened her mouth to say something but closed it. Erik hadn't said anything to her since he made the fire, so she figured that he was still angry. It wouldn't be easy to talk to him. It's never easy to talk to an angry man.
When she made it to her room she decided to take a bath. After a long, hot bath, which relaxed her muscles, she went to bed. As her body collapsed on the soft matrice she fell asleep.
Erik did his best not to talk to Aslynn the rest of the day. He spent most of the day at his organ, trying to compose. Even though he only planned to have one masterpiece in his life, his 'Don Juan Triumphant', he couldn't stop writing music. It was one of the only ways he could freely express his feelings. During the past five years, after Christine chose Raul over him, Erik' s music was filled with sorrow. He would work on a song but was never able to finish it.
While Erik was scratching some notes on a piece of parchment, screaming interrupted him. He sighed, "Three nights now, three nights she's been screaming."
He didn't even bother to see how Aslynn was, since he figured it was another nightmare. He shook his head and went back to writing. He was interrupted again when Aslynn screamed again, but this time it was a name. "CHRIS!" he heard coming down the hall. This was the first time she had screamed a name.
Curious, Erik got up, and softly walked down the dim hall. He heard her again.
"Who is Chris?" Erik asked, "Is this the same dream she's been having?"
When he approached the door, he could hear Aslynn tossing in bed. Since she didn't say or scream anything else, Erik walked away.
I told you it wasn't a good idea to have feelings for that woman. This Chris is probably a lover of hers, Erik told himself.
Aslynn awoke the nest morning drenched in sweat. It was the third morning she woke up drenched. Disgusted, she got out of bed and went to the bathroom.
After freshening up and washing her hair in the sink, Aslynn came back into the bedroom. She lit the hurricane globes on the mantle of the small fireplace. Walking over to the armchair she picked up Erik' s cloak and wrapped it around her. As she did so, she inhaled his cologne of cinnamon and mule spices. It was very warm and big one her, which she liked.
A bookshelf on the opposite wall next to the vanity caught Aslynn's eye. She walked over and tilted her head to read the spines of the books. Most of them were in French, but a few were in a weird language, maybe Arabic. Mixed in with the books was a program. Since it had no spine or side writings, Aslynn pulled it out.
She brought it over to the mantle, next to the light. It read, "Hannibal," and had a painting of a beautiful woman on the front, who had long, brown curly locks of hair. Under the picture it said, "starring the new prima dona Christine Daae." Taking interest in the program, Aslynn sank down in the near-by chair and flipped though it.
When Aslynn was done looking at the program she set it down on the side table. The rose, which caught her eye the other day, was still there. She carefully picked it up and smelled it. Even thought it was long dead, it still carried a sweet fragrance.
Who was this room for? Aslynn asked, Is this rose for that same woman? If so, where is she?
A growl from Aslynn's stomach interrupted her thoughts. "Swimming yesterday must have drained me more than I thought." She laughed softly to her self.
"I should go get breakfast. I wonder if Erik is still mad at me."
Aslynn got up, and dimmed the lamps. When she got to the kitchen she flipped though the cabinets looking for something to eat. She found all the ingredients to make pancakes, and a frying pan. Her next goal was to find a bowl, spatula, and spoon. Once she found all the needed items to cook, she mixed the ingredients together.
While the pancakes cooked over the Franklin stove, Aslynn pulled the jam out of the icebox, and got down a plate.
As she ate her thoughts drifted to Erik. She wanted to know more about him. He seems like an interesting person, who has faced many horrors.
When she was done eating and cleaning up she wandered into a music filled room. After being several steps in the room the music stopped, and Erik turned his head to look at Aslynn. His masked face was emotionless, but Aslynn thought it looked like he also had a rough night, or at least got no sleep.
He didn't say anything and turned back. He's probably still angry, Aslynn though as she called out to him, "Do you get any sleep Erik?"
"Not usually," Erik gruffly replied.
"Well, you should try it sometime. Sleep can do a person wonders." Aslynn said in return.
Erik chucked, his laugh was rich and warmed Aslynn's heart.
"So you have a sense of humor," he laughed.
"I didn't know that what I said was funny, but apparently it was," Aslynn said confused. "But really, you should sleep more."
"You don't appear to be sleeping well either," Erik replied, as if reading the woman's mind.
"Well, it's been a rough couple of days," Aslynn started, "It seems that you're no longer angry with me."
Erik laughed again, amused at how Aslynn tried to change the subject.
Aslynn was confused at why he was laughing.
"Your hard to figure out. Do you know that Erik?" Aslynn asked.
Erik' s eyes met Aslynn's and locked as he answered, "Yes, but you women are even harder to figure out."
Aslynn was lost in Erik's green eyes. Snapping back to her senses Aslynn replied, "Yeah… well I guess that can be true."
Erik chucked again, and turned back to the organ.
Aslynn stood there for several minutes trying to figure out why she was lost in his eyes. When their eye's locked she felt weak, which she didn't like.
She shook her head, and walked off to the side room with the desk.
You know, she thought to herself, I don't feel like drawling today. Hmmmm maybe I can find out more about Erik from all his papers.
Aslynn sat down at the desk and opened the drawers. She pulled out a stack of papers and flipped though them. They consisted mostly of stage designs, and sketching for buildings.
Finally she came to something that caught her attention. She pulled out several sheets of music. The top sheet had Don Juan Triumphant in big letters on the top, and underneath in smaller letters, Past The Point Of No Return.
There was ink smeared on the edges, and it was well warn. Several lines of lyrics where scratched out and rewritten. There were three parts; a piano accompaniment, a female part in the treble clef, and a male part in the bass clef. The notes were scratched in red ink, like notes written in blood.
Aslynn could tell this was a draft, but wondered what it was doing with these sketches. She decided to try and play it later, when Erik was gone. She turned around and glanced over to the organ. Erik was still sitting there, scratching notes on a manuscript.
She put the music down and went though another drawer. In this drawer she found a candlestick with a metal bar going up to support something. Next to the candlestick was a small metal bowl on a metal bar that seemed to rest on the candlestick. She pulled them out and set the items informant of her on the desk. She placed the bowl-like object on the candlestick and found it matched perfectly.
Aslynn returned her attention to the drawer and saw some wax ad a press. She picked the new items up and looked at them closely. The press was actually a seal, and when Aslynn saw what the seal was, she almost dropped it. Instead of the usual first letter of the owner's last name, Aslynn saw a large skull.
Looking at the red beeswax again she realized how creepy it would be to get a letter sealed with a red skull.
"Who are you Erik," she asked herself, fingering the inside of the seal.
Aslynn spent several more hours flipping though different stacks of papers scattered in drawers and on the desk. Finally she looked over to the organ and saw Erik was gone. She silently put everything away and picked up the music for Don Juan. Carefully the young woman made her way up to the organ and sat down. She placed the music in front of her and cleared away some of the other papers.
Taking a deep breath she looked over the music, checking the key signature, time signature, and if there were any key changes. Thinking she was ready to play, she set her hand on the keys, the light from the dancing candle sparkled on her silver rings She took another deep breath and began to play. Aslynn took it slow, one chord at a time. She would stop and make sure she got the first chord right. Some of the chords were oddly written, but Aslynn went on. There was a lot of harmony with in the countermelody of the piano accompaniment.
After she ran through the piece once, she went back and out it together, so it would sound somewhat good.
It was a very sorrowful piece. The beautiful music showed martyrdom in every detail. In each massive chord sorrow had been defined. The music created such a mood that it rose up towards the heavens like mighty owls. It was triumphant, and set Aslynn's heat ablaze.
When she came to the part where the female melody came in she decided to sing it. Or more like the music engulfed her, making her want to give all of her heart to it.
You have brought me to that moment where words run dry, to that moment where speech disappears into silence, silence . . .
Erik took Aslynn's words to mind and tried to sleep. He was only asleep for half an hour until he was awoken by chords being played on the organ.
"Damn her," he groaned, " She tells me that I should sleep and when I do, awakens me!"
He climbed out of his bed and walked out the door .He fully intended to give Aslynn a hard time about playing. That was until she started the piece again, and Erik recognized it. It was his Don Juan.
She played it fairly accurate, but it wasn't correct. He entered the room as she began to sing.
Instead of seeing Aslynn sitting at the bench, his mind saw Christine. Even though Aslynn's singing wasn't anything worth praising, he saw her as his Angle.
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