Here we are at Chapter 4! I haven't gotten a chance yet to do more Reviewer Thank-yous, but I will soon. It was either Thank-yous or this chapter, and I thought you guys might want to know what happens next. But you guys are awesome! Thank you all reviewers for your support! You're so cool! I'll try to get to Thank-yous today if I can.
Also, thank you to my betas! myshorty, xxXGoddessXofXdeadXloveXxx, Belacani On The Rez
Disclaimer: Must we do this again? Fine. At the risk of being sued, I don't own PotO. I do, however, own my undying love for Erik that will conquer all! LOL... couldn't resist.
WARNING: This chapter will contain some harsh language. Not horrible, but not for people who aren't used to cursing. Be warned.
Erik stared at Alyssa's body on the bed, and found himself wondering yet again how it had gotten there. Had she somehow gotten lost? Was she just another chorus girl in the opera house?
No, the opera house is still deserted, Erik thought, and that made him even more confused. What am I going to do with her? Should I simply... let her go? He sighed, then suddenly realized that he couldn't do that. No, I can't. This girl knows how to get into my lair. If I let her go, then she could tell someone else how to get here.
Alyssa's eyes slowly opened, and she half-expected to be back in her room. To her, everything that had happened underneath the opera house had all been but a dream. ...She was surprised to find that, if it was a dream, then she still had not woken up.
"Mademoiselle," Erik breathed. Alyssa turned sharply to face him and gasped again. She pulled the velvet blankets over her body in an attempt to cover herself.
"Who are you and what do you want?" she asked fearfully. Erik was taken aback by the question. Who in all of Paris hadn't heard of him?
"I am... the Opera Ghost," he replied, deciding to keep his true identity a secret right then.
Alyssa blinked a few times. "What the hell?" She knew that it was most likely a bad idea to anger her "kidnapper," but his name was the stupidest thing she had ever heard.
Her response took Erik by surprise again. He was sure that there were still Wanted posters put up all over the city requesting information about him. How could this girl not know who he was?
"Mademoiselle, are you all right?" he questioned, thinking that it might be useful to be nice to her.
"Oh shit no!" Alyssa yelled, and Erik let out a breath. So much for that plan.
Alyssa decided right then and there that, if she was going to go down, it wouldn't be without a fight. "You god-damn freakin' kidnapped me! Hell no am I okay!" She wasn't sure where all of her courage was coming from, but suspected that it was from the way Erik looked. "So tell me, did you kidnap me for some kind of ransom? Or are you just a sick pervert?" Alyssa was pretending to be mockingly interested."Oh, and before I forget, how the hell did you get my bed down here, too?"
"I have no idea what you are talking about!"
"Mmhmm, sure. Some magic fairy just poofed me down here, huh?"
Erik stood up and left the room. Alyssa obviously wasn't listening, and he was in no mood to take her yelling at him. He walked over to another chair and sat down again.
Alyssa hurried and got out of bed. She grabbed the topmost blanket from the bed and wrapped it around herself. Once she was sure that all of the parts of her body that could be considered suggestive were covered, she strode confidently into the main room.
"Seriously, though," she continued, "how did you get my bed down here? I must admit, Mr. "Opera Ghost," that that was pretty impressive. And I'm sure I was drugged so that I wouldn't wake up?"
Now Erik was beginning to get irritated. "I told you once already, mademoiselle, that I have no idea what you are talking about. You were the one suddenly appearing in my home, wearing nothing but a rather revealing nightgown."
"Oh, bullshit!"
Sighing in frustration, Erik slumped back into his seat. "Well, if I did, as you say, kidnap you, then I would imagine that annoying me would not be the most sensible thing to do."
"Well, this is the way I think of it," Alyssa explained coldly. "I have about a fifty percent chance of living for a while at this point. Maybe more, maybe less. I don't know you that well. I doubt, though, if you'll be letting me go. But you just might if I bug the hell out of you. Of course, you might also just kill me, but there's a possibility that you might have guilt trip just in time. That's what I'm banking on. Risky, but hey. I feel daring at the moment."
"Interesting plan," Erik remarked, his voice layered with sarcasm.
Alyssa shrugged, holding the blanket tightly still. "Hey, I am a teenager." It actually surprised her, how easy it was to be calm in front of Erik. True, she hated him, but it wasn't difficult at all to act like the superior one out of the two of them. It was as though he simply let her take the lead.
Erik stared at her, and she in turn glared right back. Neither blinked for a long time, until at last Erik's eyes became too dry for him to stand.
"Ha ha. I win," Alyssa murmured.
"What the hell are you talking about now?" Erik asked, kneading his eyes to try and make them feel better.
Only after Alyssa scoffed did he get an answer. "Oh, don't act like you don't know, dammit. It takes all the fun out of me winning." Alyssa looked around and spotted his organ. She gave him an amusingly sinister glance and walked over to it. A booklet bound in leather caught her eye, and she grabbed it. Flipping the book open and skimming over a few pages, she came to the middle and began to read.
"'You will have to pay the bill tangled in the winding sheets'?" she read. "Damn, I knew you were a pervert!" She gave a fake laugh, but inside Alyssa was terrified. She had hoped that she was being held for ransom or something, no because her captor was a pervert.
Suddenly an evil idea emerged in her mind. She gave a conniving smile, and slowly but casually walked over to a small group of candles that had not gone out.
"Say, Ghost-man, what do you think you'd do if I just happened to..." She let her voice trail off and held the manuscript dangerously close to the flames. Erik's eyes opened slightly in horror, but he struggled to regain his composure.
"It's almost too horrible to say aloud," he replied to buy himself time.
"Try me." Alyssa was testing him, trying to call his bluff.
After a few more seconds of staring, Erik sighed. "Mademoiselle, I don't want to hurt you. Just put down my composition. I honestly do not want to hurt you. I don't. I have better things to do."
Alyssa rolled her eyes. "Sure, Ghost-man. Sure you don't want to hurt me." But she glared at his eyes, and realized that he truly didn't seem to want to hurt her. Against her better judgment, she put down the book.
"What day is it, anyway?" she asked. "Just curious. I could have been out for days on whatever drug you gave me."
"September the seventeenth, 1871," Erik answered. "You weren't out for years, at least."
Alyssa narrowed her eyes to slits. "Yeah freakin' right. You bastard. I can't believe you would even try something like that. I mean, seriously!" She looked at him with a hard gaze. "And what the hell is with that mask? It's starting to piss me off. Just take it off already." She reached forward as though to snatch it.
Now she had crossed the line. Erik stood up and strode toward her, then grabbed her chin and held it firmly, forcing her to look him in the eyes.
"Mademoiselle," he growled, "if you ever, ever mention or come near my mask again, then I will hurt you. I don't want to, but I swear to you that I will. I'll hurt you so badly you'll wish you'd never set eyes upon my mask. Am I making myself clear?" Alyssa nodded fearfully, and Erik let her go.
He sighed and cracked his neck. "Perhaps we should go to bed," he murmured, and Alyssa's eyes widened in fear. He indicated a chaise lounge off to the side of the room. "Don't worry," he snarled, his voice rough, "I'll sleep out here. Is that all right with you, mademoiselle?" His tone was almost sarcastic as he regarded her.
"Yes," Alyssa muttered. She didn't feel so superior anymore, but now rather frightened. Erik gestured for her to go to bed, and she complied without a word of complaint.
It felt great for both Alyssa and Erik to lay down, and they were soon both asleep despite the events of the day.
Early in the morning Alyssa awoke. She sat up quickly and got out of bed, again trying to make as little noise as possible. She was going to take another shot at escaping.
I need to get out of this crazy mask-wearing pervert's house now! she thought, and she slipped cat-like into the main room. It was pitch black in there, but she didn't dare to light a candle. She didn't know where Erik kept his matches, anyway, so she couldn't have.
Blindly feeling her way around in the dark, Alyssa had to try hard to keep from doing anything too loudly or too carelessly. She accidentallykicked somethingon the rough ground, and a stabbing pain shot through her leg. Alyssa bit her lip to suppress the cry of pain that threatened to slip through her lips. She held her foot in one hand and could feel it throbbing.
Since her concentration was only on the pain she felt, it came as a complete surprise for Alyssa when she lost her balance and fell over, all in one confusing second. She landed on something rather soft and warm, but unfortunately it gave a stifled cry.
"What the hell?" Erik tried to sit up, but was shocked to find that he couldn't because Alyssa was sprawled across his torso. She swiftly stood up, and Erik felt an unexpected sensation play throughout his body as she placed a hand on his bare chest so she could get up.
"Mademoiselle, what on earth are you doing?" he asked. He groped in the darkness for a candle, and lit the first one he found. Once his eyes adjusted to the light, he focused them on a very stunned-looking Alyssa.
Alyssa couldn't seem to get the words out. "Uh... well, I..."
"As I see it, you were either trying to escape, mademoiselle, or... quite frankly, let's just say you were feeling rather... active. Am I right?"
As hard as she tried, Alyssa could not stop herself from scoffing at him. "Quite active? Don't you dare put me on your level, damn pervert. How could you even-"
"Mademoiselle, you call me the..." Erik paused and swallowed, trying to make it seem more casual then it was. "sexually active one, yet you are the person I find lying on my chest in the early hours of the morning. Tell me, what does that say about you?"
Quickly Alyssa defended herself. "I was trying to get out, dammit! Why the hell would I even consider sleeping with you?"
Erik sighed once and ran a hand through his hair. "I would not know why, mademoiselle. I'm not the one who sneaks around people's beds in the night." Before Alyssa could interrupt, he continued. "And I'm sad to say that I can't allow you to escape. Like you told me you thought before, I won't let you go."
"Because it would be a waste of all the effort you put in to kidnap me, right? You won't let me go because you want to have your way with me first, is that it?"
"Would you kindly stop implying that I want to... rape you, mademoiselle? I'm getting tired of hearing it," Erik murmured, doing his best to sound bored. "If I truly wanted to rape you, then believe me when I say that I would have surely done it already. And if you try to escape again, I'm afraid I'll have to bind you to a chair."
Alyssa glared at him. "Is that supposed to be a threat?"
"Or a warning, whichever you prefer. Personally, I would like to call it a promise. Now, if you would go back to bed, I would be much obliged."
Surprisingly, Alyssa did what he said without a single word. In her mind, though he didn't suspect it, she was already formulating a plan. I will escape, she thought. I'll just have to try again another night.
Hope ya'll enjoyed! Review, please! I gotta go eat breakfast, but I'll try to put up Thank-yous after word in my wesite, which you'll find in my profile page!