Erik's POV

Traveling that day to a new city was not the most comfortable of traveling I had ever done before. Usually, traveling agreed with me, with only a few bouts of sickness bothering me. Today, however, the rocking of the caravan was getting to me so much, that I needed to stop my it in order to vomit. Usually, I traveled closer to the last few caravans to make sure that none of them became lost or left behind. Everyone was going ahead of me and didn't seem to notice that I had stopped…everyone except for Nadir.

"If the motion is getting your stomach upset, Erik, we could stop for the night."

When I heard Nadir's voice, I looked up to see the man standing a short distance away from me. I wasn't sure that the poison had anything to do with why I was sick… Years ago, when I was being pulled in a filthy cage, I always got sick when we were traveling. The familiar rocking of the cage always came into mind whenever I could feel my caravan moving.

"Here," Nadir handed me a handkerchief and I used it to wipe my mouth.

"I'll be all right, Persian. I…I just needed to stop for a second."

Nadir kept his eye on me while we walked back to our caravans. The man had parked his right beside my own, and as I was climbing the stairs to get seated on the small bench that was hooked to the front of it, I spotted his wife Reha looking at me from hers. She didn't say anything to me, for she knew better than to do so. Nadir jumped up in the seat beside her own and took the reins of his horse.

"You're not well," he called out to me. "I'm going to pull ahead and tell the others that we're going to stop for the night."

"Don't you dare!" I growled. "I'll live…"

But the man wasn't listening to me. He ran ahead and told everyone that we would spend the night in the small patch of woods we were currently traveling through. I was angry at the man for it, but he didn't seem to care. When our caravans were set up, he came walking back over to my own with a steaming cup in hand. I had been inside my caravan working on paperwork, when the fool came walking in.

"It's snowing again,"

"It's winter, Persian. It won't be the last time it snows."

He placed the steaming cup on my desk and took a step back.

"I would appreciate it if you got your drink off my desk."

"It's not for me, it's for you."

"Since when do you make me drinks?"

"I didn't make it, Reha did. She told me that it will settle your stomach and prepare it for the remainder of tomorrow's journey."

"I don't need your wife's witch craft. I can take care of myself, thank you very much. Tell her that it was a waste of time."

"What do you have against my wife, Erik? She has done nothing to cause your hatred towards her. Are you jealous?"

I snorted. "Jealous? What in the world would I have to be jealous over?"

"You are… You're jealous that I found a woman to love and that I married for the second time. You've never had a woman to love you…"

"Enough…" I raised my hand in protest, but Nadir continued.

"No, Erik, you need to hear this. You're jealous that I've had two women come into my life and you've had none. You're the owner of an entire fair, and yet, your bed stays cold and lonely each night. You don't have to be this way… You don't have to continue to wallow in loneness."

"I am not lonely! I choose to be single! I don't want a woman nagging and telling me what to do!"

"Women are not just for that, Erik. For Allah's sake, you're nearly forty five, and yet, you've never experienced the joys of the flesh for yourself. Aren't you at least a little curious as to what it would be like?"

I slammed my fist down on the desk and stood, my height overpowering his own. "I like you, Persian… I don't know why I like you, but I do. But I swear to you, if you ever question me again, I will hang you from your shoelaces, are we clear?"

Nadir rolled his eyes and headed towards the door. "Fine, it's your body! You're the one who has to live like this, not me."

"Which is exactly why I don't understand you! You have a wife, go take her to bed and feel all the pleasure in the world if that's what you want. But don't come back to this caravan again screaming about women and their hideous pleasure!"

"Try to rest up, Erik," Nadir said as he let himself out. "And drink the tea Reha made, it will make you feel better."

Hearing this made me ten times angrier, and when the Persian man was gone, I hit the cup with the side of my hand, causing it to fly off the desk and smash on the floor. I hated that woman more than she would ever know. I despised all women, for they did nothing but cause heartache and pain. I groaned and ran my fingers through my thin wisps of hair.

There was only one thing that was going to settle my nerves for the ride tomorrow… I opened the cabinet that was on the bottom of my desk and pulled out the bottle of brandy. I didn't drink much, but when my nerves were out of whack, a few sips always calmed me. After pulling out the cork, I took a swig of the sour tasting liquid and lay down on my bed. My eyes were becoming heavy, so heavy that I couldn't hold them open any longer and let sleep take me away.

Christine's POV

I have been on the run for two whole years. I married the love of my life the day after I had that terrible argument with the Phantom. I didn't love him, and therefore, I couldn't stay with him. The man was crazed and I knew he would do anything to make me stay with him. But I couldn't… I ran away and married Raoul. Our wedding night was the best night of my life, for we made love for hours and only stopped when we both fell asleep in one another's arms. When the sun came up the next morning, we woke embarrassed by each other's nude bodies. Then we giggled and made love again. I thought my life couldn't have been any better than this, and for two years after our wedding night, our marriage continued to be pure bliss. I was in a fairytale, one that I never wanted to end… But things couldn't always stay this way, and I found out the hard way.

One evening, after two years of marriage, Raoul came home from a business meeting and didn't look well at all. I offered to make him something to eat, but he declined and told me he just wanted to rest. I thought he was going to shake off the illness like anyone else, but one week later, he was on his death bed and three days after that, he was buried in the ground. I never cried so hard for my husband, my one love, one lifetime. My husband had been coughing and the doctor's believed that he had contracted consumption. Though, once he died, the doctor's did some further research and found out that my husband had been poisoned! Someone had murdered the love of my life! Oh, who could have ever done such a thing? Fingers quickly began being pointed my way and his family members who I thought loved and adored me turned the blame on me for his death! No, I did not murder Raoul, but they didn't want to believe me. They said that I had killed him for his money and wealth, as if I could ever do such a thing!

I tried to stand up for myself, but then, one evening a few weeks after Raoul's funeral, the police that had been investigating his murder found an empty vial in our bedchambers, that vial once containing some sort of poison. I did not murder my husband, but when his family found out about the vial, it was over…In their eyes, I had murdered Raoul. They threatened to have me arrested and told me that I would spend the rest of my days in a prison cell. Knowing that I had no other choice, I packed a small bag and escaped out of our bedroom window. I took one last look at the estate, my eyes filled with tears and never went back.

With just my papa's violin and a bag of my belongings, I left France, traveling from city to city. I tucked my hair beneath a hat to make me look like a boy and with Raoul's trousers and coat, it finished the job nicely. For two years I have kept myself on the run, always dodging the police officers who were looking for a thin girl with chocolate curls. No one ever gave me a second glance, and that's the way it would always be… Winters were harsh, so harsh that sometimes I didn't believe I was going to make it through the night. With just the food I found in the cans behind restaurants keeping me going, I was always starving.

It was the dead of winter when I came across a small patch of woods with a frozen river beside it. I never ran so fast to the stream of water, for I had been thirsty for three days. After having my fill of the refreshing water, I looked up when I heard a rustling in the bushes that were across the way. I never gasped so loudly when I noticed a small boy standing there… But this wasn't just any boy, he was a gypsy! I slowly backed away and hoped that he wouldn't run for his parents. I didn't know much about gypsies, but from the way my angel used to speak about them, I learned that they were nothing but cold blooded killers. The child could have only been a few years old with black hair and he was wearing a white shirt and a colorful vest. He just stared at me for the longest time before speaking.

"Where's your family?" he asked.

"I…I don't have one." I began. "Y…You won't tell yours about me, will you?"

The boy shook his head and came walking around the side of the stream to get to me.

"It's winter," he said when he noticed that my clothing clearly wasn't heavy enough for the cold weather. "Where's your boots and scarf?"

"I…I don't have a scarf or a pair of boots."

For some odd reason this child seemed different. He reached out to touch my jacket and then, he reached out his tiny hand.

"You look hungry, do you want to eat?"

I took his tiny hand and stood to my feet.

"Come," he said taking my hand and leading me towards the other side of the stream. "I'll get you something to eat."

"Your family won't hurt me, will they?"

He shook his head. "No, everyone is kind."

I wasn't sure where the child was leading me, but I was sort of frightened to see where I would end up. I was sure he was going to lead me to my death, but after a short walk, we ended up at a camp filled with twenty caravans. There was no one around, the only thing that I could see were the smoldering ashes from last night's fire. The boy led me to an abandoned caravan and sat me down on a log…

"Stay here…"

That's all he said before disappearing into the camp. I was hungry, therefore, I sat there and waited for the boy to return, hoping that I could trust him.

Well lets see how this one turns out... Please review