Erik's POV

It felt as though I had been trapped in darkness for a long eternity, it slipping away slowly inch by inch, the room and its color becoming clearer as each moment passed. When the darkness was finally gone, the first thing I saw was a window with snow falling outside of it. I tried to sit up, but noticed that it was nearly impossible, for the pain I was in was more than I could bear. Where was I? The room I was in was not familiar, nor was the strange smell of lavender that surrounded me.

"Erik?"

When I heard my name being called, my eyes shifted to the door, finding the Persian walking through it with a steaming cup in hand.

"Khan, what am I doing here?"

The man held the cup up to my lips and allowed me to drink the hot spiced drink. It warmed up my frozen insides and gave me a burst of energy.

"I wasn't sure you were going to make it," he assured, taking a seat at my bedside. "You're still not quite out of the woods yet."

I couldn't remember anything that had landed me here in this very bed, but Nadir knew everything.

"After your triumphant fight with Raoul DeChangy, the mob found their way to you. They beat you and left you for dead…"

I lifted my hand up and touched my throat, remembering the lasso that had been wrapped tightly around it. My throat was still extremely sore from it.

"If I was left for dead, then why am I here?"

"Because Christine came back for you. She dragged you here and left you with me."

Christine? Christine had left me here? Oh, I needed to find her! I needed to find and thank that angel for what she had done for me. If not for her, I would have died out there, and my body probably would have been placed on display for all the world to see.

"Christine saved me?"

Nadir nodded. "She seemed so upset when she dropped you off. She barely said a word the entire time…All she said was that she was so sorry it happened."

When I tried to move once again, my body rejected my wishes, causing me to plop back against the pillows.

"Stay put, Erik…" Nadir warned. "You're extremely ill and need to stay put."

"I have to thank Christine for what she did."

"Erik, if you truly care about thanking Christine for what she's done for you, you will do so by letting her go. I know thinking about this hurts deep inside, but she loves that boy. You should honor her wishes to continue seeing him by leaving her be."

Christine was like a drug, one that I needed more than anything in the world. Without her there was no me, but to keep tormenting her and trying to force her to love someone she would never love was wrong. I didn't want to give up on her, but what was I to do? I was a hideous monster and sadly monsters were never loved.

"I will bother her no more," I promised Nadir. "If…If she doesn't wish to see me, then I will honor that wish."

"Good. You are more than welcome to stay here with me as long as you wish."

That evening I woke sweating and noticing that I couldn't breathe normally. For some odd reason, my side was burning so terribly, that I knew it couldn't have been normal.

"Nadir!" I called for the Persian, knowing that he would help me find out what was wrong. A few seconds later, Nadir came hurrying in and flipped on the gas lantern that was on my night table.

"What's wrong?" he asked, noticing how ill I looked.

"My side… It's killing me."

Nadir pulled away the blankets and began peeling back the bandage that was wrapped around my side.

"You had a deep puncture from a knife, but I wrapped you up pretty good."

When Nadir peeled back the bandages what I saw not only churned my stomach but made my heart skip a beat as well. There, beneath the bloodstained bandages lay a red and yellow gook covered wound.

"I don't understand," Nadir began. "I cleaned this out and stitched it up. I don't understand how it became inflamed."

I pressed my head into the pillow as Nadir poured a swig of alcohol over my side, causing the pain to intensify.

"I don't understand how an infected wound is causing you to have a hard time breathing either…"

Nadir had always been interested in science and everything that came along with it. The moment he noticed how disgusting my wound look, he already began picking at it and trying to find out a solution to this mind boggling question.

"Something certainly isn't right," he said.

"I think I know that," I groaned. "But why? What's wrong with me?"

"I can stitch up wounds and keep infection away but this…this is something I've never seen before. I'm going to go fetch the doctor."

If there was one thing I hated, it was strangers, but I knew Nadir would never bring someone to me that he couldn't trust. For twenty minutes while he went for the doctor, I was forced to lay there in agony, wondering if I was going to live or die. When Nadir returned, he came walking in the room with an older man following him. Nadir was explaining what happened to me while I lay there on the brink of passing out. Having the man pry at my wound made the pain ten times worse, but I tried to keep myself still while he examined me.

"This man's wound isn't infected, he's been poisoned."

The moment I heard those words, my full attention was placed on this doctor. Poisoned? Poisoned? How had I been poisoned?

"This man was stabbed right?"

Nadir nodded.

"Well, the knife was probably covered in some type of poison. People have been doing it for thousands of years. They wanted to make sure their enemies died a horrible death."

"I'm going to die?" I gasped.

"I'm going to do my best to make sure you don't. You just need to relax and let me work."

I did as the doctor told me to do and lied still while he worked on me. I was losing consciousness and I knew sooner or later I was going to lose this battle. The man had cut me open and began draining the poison from my system, the pain being worse than it had been a few moments before. When I couldn't take another moment of agony, I closed my eyes and let sleep take me.

"Erik?"

In my dreams I saw my angel of music… She was standing there in the snow watching me sway back and forth from that noose. The freshly fallen snow was sitting on her shoulders and her curls were down and not pinned up like they usually were. She was calling my name and reaching out to me. I could have sworn that she had angel wings coming out of her back.

"Christine, help me…"

I called out to her, called out and begged for her to help me. The moment her angelic hands touched my frozen cheek, I jolted awake, still finding myself lying in the bed that was in Nadir's home. The doctor was now gone and my side was bandaged again. Nadir must have heard me stir, for a few moments later the door opened and the man walked in. It must have been extremely late, for the man was dressed in his night attire. It had been years since he and I had slept under the same roof, but here he was, walking in with his robe flowing gracefully behind him.

"How are you feeling, Erik?"

"Like I've been run over by a train."

When I tried to sit up, Nadir hurried to my side to assist me. He placed a cup at my lips and held it while I sipped on the glass of water. My throat had been parched, but the water made it feel ten times better.

"Thank You, Nadir…"

"The doctor left a little while ago. He said you need to sleep and rest for a few days. He drained the poison from your body, but he said there may be some long term effects."

"Such as?"

"He said he's not sure, but he checked over your vitals and told me that your heart is weak."

"It's been weak since Persia, Persian…"

Nadir stood there in silence, for he knew all too well what had happened to me in Persia. The Shah had been cruel to me. The man had done things to me that one would never think of. All my life I had been tortured by my mother and by the gypsies…But never had I ever endured any torture like the torture the shah had shoveled out upon me. He had control like no other and whenever I dared to defy him, he always came up with a new way of making me do his dirty work. I was not broken so easily, but years of being tortured had finally weaken me, so bad that Nadir had to sneak me out of Persia. By the time we made it to Paris I was already on death's door. There were nights when I still saw his face laughing at me while he ordered his men to do their worst on me.

"Is there anything else that you need, Erik?" Nadir questioned. "If not I'm going to go back to bed. You know that I'm an early riser…"

"That I do. Thank you again, Persian. I shall try my hardest not to bother you anymore tonight."

I was feeling a headache coming on from just thinking about Christine. I knew Nadir sensed that something was wrong, for he paused at the door and turned to face me once more.

"You know, Erik, I can always tell when there is something on your mind. You have this strange way of giving off signals. You're not feeling well, this I know, but there is something else wrong as well. Tell me… What are you thinking about?"

Knowing that I couldn't lie to Nadir, I told the truth.

"I passed out when the doctor was working on me, Persian. While I was asleep, I saw… I saw… I saw her...Christine."

Nadir sighed and took a seat at my bedside. I never had a father to tell my problems to. I never had a father to sit beside me and make me feel better when there was something on my mind. No, Nadir had been the only one who was ever willing to listen to what I had to say.

"Erik, I feel so terrible for you."

"I don't want your pity, Persian. I told you long ago that I didn't want your pity. I've lived through much worse than your pity and I don't want it now."

"I understand, Erik. I'm a little younger than you are and I've experienced much more than you have. I've had loving parents, friends, careers, women…"

"Don't bring that up… You know how I feel about that. Back in Persia it was you that kept me up at night. You'd go spend your nights with the Shah and he would reward you with women. You'd bring them home and spend the remainder of the night making a racket while I was trying to sleep. The only thing he ever rewarded me with was pain and a corpse…Never once have I ever experienced the joys of the flesh…It's something so simple and yet, I've never had the chance."

"I know what you're thinking, Erik, but you can't do this… You promised yourself that you would let Christine go live her life. You can't change your mind now."

"No, I just want my dreams of her to be real, Khan… A taste of life is all I want."