A/N: Erik's background is directly from the original book, so the credit is given to Leroux for what you're about to read. And for all of you who dispute the fact that Erik is addicted to Morphine, it is mentioned in the Kay novel and is also shown in this chapter.

Chapter 9- Erik

Erik remained sitting on the steps while Christine was hysterical about his condition, but he was too angry to feel the pain in his left arm. Christine kept touching him and crying until he finally rose to his feet and shook Christine off of him.

"This is your fault, just get away from me until I can figure out some way to punish you." Erik said quietly walking into the main room and sitting heavily in a chair waiting for the doctor to come. Christine stood perfectly still, she hated when her husband treated her like a child but fearing for his punishment she tried her best to be good. She ran to the main room and sat on the floor by his side but this angered him even more and he yelled,

"Did you not hear what I said? Go to your room until I come up!" Christine shuddered and then said quietly,

"But Erik, I am your wife and I want to wait and see if you're going to be all right."

"You sure as hell didn't act like a wife going behind my back to see that stupid boy! Get out of my sight!" He yelled even louder, enough to frighten Christine. She got up and ran upstairs to their bedroom throwing herself on the bed and crying. It seemed like her whole life now was nothing but tears.

The doctor poked at Erik's arm and said cheerfully,

"Well, I know it's bleeding a lot, but the bullet didn't penetrate all the way through the skin and I was able to pull it out, see?" He said holding the bullet up with some tweezers. Erik looked at it with no expression and allowed the doctor to sew up the rest of his wound. He wrapped a bandage around it and said,

"At least it's not your writing arm."

"Actually doctor, it is, have you not figured out at the sight of me that I am different from everyone in this world including what arm I use most?" Erik said with even more anger in his voice. The doctor said nothing else and lost all cheerfulness he brought with him. He pulled a bottle out of his bag and opened it while asking Madeleine to fetch a spoon.

"What's that?" Erik asked.

"This is a new type of drug, Oxycodone, it will take away most of the pain if not all of it." The doctor explained.

"What about Morphine?" Erik asked. The doctor raised his eyebrows at the question, how would any normal human being besides someone in the medical field or a drug addict would know of any such drug.

"I do not think that this wound requires such a strong drug, but take this and if the pain doesn't go away, I will come back with some Morphine." Erik nodded and the doctor took the spoon from Madeleine, filled it with the medicine and handed it to Erik who drank it down.

"You should start to feel warm all over your body and then you will become tired and I recommend that you allow the drug to work and go to sleep. Once again I thank you for the lovely dinner and apologize for the long delay, I do realize that it is merely 8:00 at night." Erik nodded and said,

"The pain eventually subsided for me to nap before you came."

"Well I am glad and once again apologize. Goodnight Monsieur Moreau." The doctor said putting on his hat and walking out the door.

Erik rose slowly out of his chair and looked over at Madeleine,

"If you would please go to the opera house in the morning and tell the manager that I am to be out of work only tomorrow."

"But Master, the doctor said at least a week." Madeleine protested.

"Don't question me, just tell them what I told you!" Erik ordered with anger rising in his voice.

"Yes, sir." Madeleine said making her way out of the room. Erik walked up the stairs to his bedroom and opened the door to see Christine lying face down on the bed and crying. He pulled her around with his good arm and yanked her towards him yelling,

"Sometimes you are a stupid, stupid girl, but other times you are quite clever. You see the Vicomte behind my back and I don't even know it. You sleep with him in my bed and I don't even smell it. I should have known you were still an inquisitive little thing and snooped around to find information about where we lived so you could tell him. I should have known for you to do something like that." Erik stared at her breathing in and out deeply sat down on the bed and began talking again,

"You will go to him! Tomorrow! I will not allow my wife to be with anyone else as long as I am alive! I will make sure that you tell him tomorrow for I will be with you, do you understand? You will tell him that you have become happy with me and you don't want him anymore. If you don't, you will suffer the consequences." Erik stood up and hovered over a frightened Christine and put his hand on her chin pulling her head up for her eyes to meet his angry ones,

"And do I have to explain the consequences for betraying Erik again since I have already explained them to you and him the last night in my house?" Christine immediately shook her head.

"Good." He said giving her a hard shove and letting go of her. She sat back on the bed and covered her face with her hands crying into them. It pained Erik to see her so sad, but he quickly pushed that thought aside and thought of how she had betrayed him. He walked over to the closet and pulled out pajamas for himself along with Christine's nightgown.

"Put this on! We're going to bed early tonight!" He turned back to the closet and winced in pain as he reached up on the top shelf to pull down some rope. He turned around to see Christine's back toward him as she was timidly taking off her clothes to put on her nightgown. Erik waited until she was finished and grabbed her arm.

"Lay down on the bed." Christine just stared at him until he yelled,

"Now!" She quickly laid down on the bed and looked up at him. He leaned over her and grabbed her arms and began tying them to the headboard.

"What are you doing?" She asked scared.

"Making sure that you can't escape while I am sleeping." Christine didn't even fight him, she just let him tie up her hands and feet while the tears silently rolled down her cheeks. Erik pulled the blankets up over her bare legs and said,

"Oh I know that you are sad that I have to do this to you, but in the end you will thank me for this."

"Never in my life have I ever been treated as badly as you treat me." Christine said out of anger,

"Oh shut up, you never had it bad at all. Something this small shouldn't be a big deal in a world where there are so many worse things going on. I could rape you, beat you, leave you for dead, torture you a lot more than you deserve. Trust me Christine, you have no idea how bad it could be." She watched as he slowly changed into his pajamas and blew out all but one candle. He climbed into bed next to her and closed his eyes. After 20 minutes, he was almost asleep when Christine whispered,

"Erik?" His eyes opened annoyed at how exhausted he was and how he couldn't get to sleep.

"What?" He asked harshly.

"What happened to you? What made your world such a terrible place?" Erik let out a large sigh and said,

"No one but me knows the truth about my life."

"Please tell me."

"Why? You'll just betray me again."

"I won't, I know the consequence, I know that I must tell Raoul what I don't want to tell him tomorrow and I know that I am going to be with you forever and I would like to know a little bit about you."

"Oh hell, it won't make a difference what you know anyways for after I am dead no one will care regardless."

"I was born in a small town not far from Rouen where I was the son of a master-mason. I ran away at an early age from my father's house where ugliness was a subject of horror and terror to my parents. For a time, I frequented the fairs, where a showman exhibited me as the 'living corpse'. I seemed to have crossed the whole of Europe, from fair to fair, and to have completed my strange education as an artist and magician at every fountain-head of art and magic among the gypsies. I sang as nobody on this earth had ever sung before; I practiced ventriloquism and gave displays of legerdemain so extraordinary that the caravans returning to Asia talked about it during the length of their journey. In this way, my reputation penetrated the walls of the palace at Mazenderan, where the little sultana, the favorite of the Shah-in-Shah, was boring herself to death. I was brought to Persia, where for some months my will was law. I was guilty of not a few horrors, but at the time, I didn't know the difference between good and evil and took part in a number of political assassinations. I had very original ideas on the subject of architecture and thought out a palace where the Shah could move about it unseen and disappear without the possibility of the trick's being discovered. When I gave the Shah this, he ordered that I was to be killed for I would be able to build another palace just like it for someone else. Nadir, the Daroga of Mazenderan saved me by making a corpse look like me. It was discovered in the Caspian Sea. After that, I went to Asia Minor and then to Constantinople, where I entered the Sultan's employment. I constructed famous trap doors and secret chambers and I also dressed up the like the Sultan and resembling the Sultan in all respects which made people believe that the Sultan was awake in one place when indeed he was asleep in another. But I had to leave there too for the same reason, I knew too much. I decided that I wanted to be 'like everyone else' and I became an ordinary contractor building ordinary houses with ordinary bricks. I built the cellars to the opera house in dreams of creating it for my own use of dwelling unknown to the rest of the earth, where I could hide from men's eyes for all time. The rest, my dear, is where you come in and surely you know the rest."

Christine laid in the darkened room in amazement. She had no idea that the man she was married to was such a genius, but at the same time she knew that he was dangerous. Erik remained quiet as her thoughts wandered from Erik to her uncomfortable binds. She twisted around the best that she could to make herself more comfortable but it didn't work and she kept twisting and turning for a few more minutes until Erik opened his eyes and yelled,

"Be still, lay and don't move!"

"But Erik, I am not comfortable and I cannot fall asleep like this." Christine protested.

"Just shut up and go to sleep!" He yelled once more. Christine kept twisting and turning when Erik finally jumped out of bed and went over to her getting an inch away from her face.

"I will untie you and wait until you fall asleep, then you will be tied up again that way you can't escape on me!" He quickly untied her arms and feet and watched as she shifted from her back to her side. He sat on the edge of the bed and waited for her to fall asleep.

45 minutes later, Erik yawned and looked at Christine making sure that she was fully asleep. He leaned close to her face and listened to her labored breathing. He worked quietly and efficiently tying her up again. After he was finished, he grabbed his shoulder and winced in pain. Was it time for another dose of his medicine? He wasn't sure, but he wanted something that would make him feel a lot better and take away all the pain, physically and emotionally. Morphine. Erik smiled at the thought of having that injection that he needed so badly and made his way quietly out of the room and downstairs to his study. He opened the door and looked around to make sure no one was behind him and closed it quietly. He walked over to his desk and opened the bottom drawer. He looked around again and pulled out a piece of wood leading to a secret compartment. He stared at all the syringes and tourniquets and took out a small bottle. He only had two more of these and had to find some more, for he didn't know if he could survive without it.

Erik pulled some liquid from the bottle into the syringe and set it on his desk as he tied up his right arm with the tourniquet. He watched his veins become enlarged and then shoved the syringe into one pushing all of the liquid out of it. He felt wonderful, it was almost as if he could feel the drug entering his veins and rapidly moving about his entire body. He smiled and pulled the needle out of his arm and laying it on the desk. He sat for a few minutes allowing the drug to make him feel great until he cleaned up his mess and crept back up to bed. He slowly got into bed next to Christine and caressed her cheek and then kissing it,

"I love you so very much." He whispered while she slept.