Sorry about the delay again—I've been quite very busy lately—but, anyway, here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoy! And please let Izzi and I know what you think!

Erik saw two shorter figures in the middle of the darkened street, one of them clinging to the other's arm. The slightly taller one looked down on the other one, talking about a job he had to do.

Erik approached in the shadows, until he could hear what words they said.

"Ponine, I really must go and take care of my job," the taller one said.

Erik recognized the girl embracing him. "Alright, Parnasse, but don't be gone long. There's someone following me."

"Aw, don't worry about it, Ponine. Let go, now." She did as she was told.

Erik frowned. Ponine... Eponine... who is she with?

Eponine waved halfheartedly as the man went off on his way. She sighed and looked around.

"Who was that?" Erik whispered softly, so only she could hear.

She turned around. "His name is Montparnasse." She crossed her arms.

"Why did you embrace him?" Erik slipped back into the shadows, but not before she could catch a glimpse of his silhouette.

Eponine raised an eyebrow. "Wait, who are you?" She backed up, preparing to run.

Oh, do you not recognize me?

Think a moment, and then recall

Remember this voice that you hear

Eponine dropped her arms. "Oh, it's you..." she said, biting her lip. She looked angry for a moment. "You said you were gone. You left!"

The music turned to a whisper again. "I only went to see Cosette. Marius came, but left."

"Why did you leave? Will you still help me? Please? I won't ask you any more questions..."

"Yes, yes, of course... I am trying to make them afraid of each other..."

Eponine nodded a bit. "If you think that's best," she said quietly, thinking. She couldn't resist, she moved toward him a little.

Erik slipped back again, slowly. "The man with Cosette seems alarmed."

"Her father, I think," Eponine replied. "Oh, please don't back up. I won't touch you."

Erik did not move, but he did tense. "Do you know what her father thinks of him?"

"He doesn't know about him, as much as I know," she replied, moving a bit closer.

Erik's heart fluttered and he took a single step back, collapsing into a bush. "Please, stay away!"

"I will not," she said persistently, coming nearer and reaching out quickly and finding his hand, pulling him up. They were now only a few feet away from each other, and she could tell he would not be happy.

Erik jerked away, violently, enough to knock her off her feet. With a sob, "Why, why must you push at the limits of what I can give to you? Why drive towards what you must not have, when you could have everything else? Why, when you could have him?"

She fell hard on the pavement hard, and went silent. "...What do you mean? Don' you want to help me?"

The golden eyes seemed to glower and simmer. "Yes. You must be helped. But do not try to see your benefactor, for it would wrong him."

Eponine was silent for a moment, not picking herself up. She finally said, "Can you at least tell me, clearly, why I can't see you?"

Erik sighed heavily and turned away. "I am a monster."

"In what way?" she asked and then said, "By the way, you are the reason I am on the ground. Help me up?" She was testing him.

"I am a freak of nature, and too dangerous for you to be near." But he held out a hand, gently, and gripped hers with his own, like a corpse's.

Eponine lifted herself up gingerly, afraid of hurting him. "You can't be any worse than other things I've encountered." She added, "Your hand...it's so..." Thinking she concluded with, "Frail." When he tried to pull his hand away, she did not let go.

Erik stopped struggling, and instead his hand closed around hers, but gently. "Yours is little more than bone as well..."

Eponine shrugged. "It's enough," she replied. "Yours is just unnatural." She honestly didn't mean it to be rude.

"Then it's worse. I was born with it... you need not be like this."

"I've learned to live with it," she said with a small, bitter smile. "Were you really born like this? Is it like this all over you?"

"Yes." He let go. "Always. Everywhere." A tear lit upon a golden eye. "I must make sure that you are better fed..."

She suddenly looked up at him. "Are you going to feed me?" she asked, astonished. "But...you don't even know me..."

"I don't have any food with me, but... I'll find a way... I am here for you, Eponine, to be your Angel.

"But why me?" Eponine asked, scratching her head. "How am I any better than the other starving people?"

Because something about you touches my soul. "It may never be known. But I am certain that you are why I am here."

"...Why you're here? Where did you come from?" she asked.

"Another Paris." He paused, thinking. Erik must find a plan... to turn Cosette and Marius apart, and then to drive Marius to Eponine? Ah...

"Another...?" She trailed off. "You are really strange."

"Yes." The golden eyes turned to gaze at her. "But I am here on your behalf. And now is time to learn more, to find a plan of action."

Eponine nodded. "I just want to get him away from her," she said.

Erik nodded. "That should not be hard." Not hard at all, to drive two people apart. Easy to make them fear each other, to spurn and hate. But harder, much harder, to bring them together, as must be the end goal for Eponine and Marius. How can one create when there is only destruction? When all is ash, how can one sculpt?

"I...well, I have a plan," Eponine said thoughtfully.

"You do?" Erik blinked. He hadn't even thought that she might do scheming as well as himself.

"Yes," Eponine said slowly, then said, "Well...no...I just thought that maybe somehow I could get her to move away..."

"Move away?" Erik's eyes glowed with interest. "What are you thinking?"

"Well, her father seems like the careful type to me. What if...what if we sent him a warning, telling him to get out?" Eponine suggested. "He'd take Cosette and I'd have the cat in the bag."

He nodded. "I should find out what it is that might scare him... there must be some reason they seemed so nervous before..."

Eponine shrugged. "I haven't a clue. I would say if I did." She looked around. "It's getting late, and you don't want to be caught in the alley, do you?" she asked. I thought he was going to feed me...no, no, wait for that, just wait for it.

"I can meet you here again, tomorrow morning. Perhaps I will have more to give you then."

"Where do you go?" she asked suddenly, raising an eyebrow.

Erik shrugged. "I don't know yet."

Eponine said, "Maybe we should go find someplace together? I don't know where I'm going either."

"I'll figure it out... I..."

"...You...? Yes?" Eponine urged him to continue.

Erik shrugged, barely visible as a movement of shadows. "Where do you usually sleep?"

"In ditches," she replied. "But it's hard, since it's winter. One of these days I'm gonna die in my sleep."

"No, no you won't." He took her hand again. "Do you know where to find... the opera house?"

"Opera house?" Eponine repeated under her breath. "I have not the slightest notion what you're talking about. There is no opera house, not really, not a big one." She shrugged. "Why?"

"I lived there. There really isn't one here?"

"Not an opera house," she said. "I think you have the wrong place. Why did you live in an opera house? Did you sing there?"

"In a manner of speaking." He sighed. "But things are different here. We must find shelter elsewhere."

"Alright," Eponine agreed. "As long as it's safe and whatnot."

Silently at first, he began walking through the streets and alleyways; then, worried that she might lose him, he began humming a sweet melody, reassuring, but meaningless, yet still full of calming beauty.

Eponine smiled without fully knowing it and followed him.

Before too long, Erik stopped, and whispered, "I am lost."