Erik's POV

When I was pushed into that rushing water again by Raoul's brother, the first thing I was worried about wasn't my bleeding head, but Christine. For a short while I was too confused to attempt to save myself from rushing down river, but when everything came rushing back to me, I latched onto a nearby branch and pulled myself out of the freezing water. I gasped for breath and lay there on the dry land for a few moments in an attempt to calm myself down. After coughing up a mouthful of water, I stood to my feet and tried to see if I knew where I was. My head hurt, there was no denying that. It was likely that I had a concussion, but I didn't care about that now, all I cared about was finding Christine. I thought I was going to have to walk and retrace my steps, but the moment I looked across the way and saw a huge puddle of blood, I knew I didn't have to look any further. I jumped from rock to rock to get across to the other side, following the blood trail that stretched from the shoreline all the way into the woods. There was so much blood that I knew in my heart that it probably wasn't possible for Christine to still be alive.

"Christine?" I softly called her name as I continued to follow the trail, and when I got to the end of it, what I saw stopped my heart. There, lying up against a nearby tree was Christine. She was soaked to the bone, her white undergarments painted in red from the amount of blood she was losing. I had hoped that I was wrong about her being shot, but by the looks of it, Christine had indeed been wounded. I knelt down beside the girl and pried her tiny hand away from her side to see the bullet wound.

"Christine, can you hear me?"

The girl looked up at me with the same pair of innocent eyes she had always had and nodded. I knew this was all new for her, for I knew she had never been shot before. I had been shot at least twice in my life, once by my master and another time by Nadir. The man hadn't done so intentionally, but the Shah had ordered me dead, and like a fool, he was going to allow himself to be executed if only to save my life. But I had warned the Persian that the Shah would have only hired another guard to kill me… After that, the man pulled out his pistol at lightning speed and shot me in the back. To make a long story short, the little stunt got me out of Persia and I spent weeks recovering from it afterwards.

"Can you walk, Christine?" I asked.

The girl shook her head and squealed in agony. Knowing that if Christine continued losing blood she wouldn't live to see tomorrow, I tore off my soaked jacket and began ripping it apart. I wrapped a few of the strips around Christine's waist and tied it tightly to stop the bleeding. The girl began to cry, but I hushed her and lifted her body into my arms.

"We need to get you out of here," I said. "Raoul's brother is going to be looking for your body soon enough."

I walked the opposite way into the woods, hoping to stay out of Phillip's sight. I knew these woods well, for I had trekked through them on numerous occasions during past trips to these parts of Europe. When I came to the opening where our camp was located, Nadir was there waiting for me. He was so worried about my bleeding head, but when he saw Christine's body lying in my arms, his priorities changed.

"My God, Erik…" he gasped. "What happened to her?"

"She's been shot, Khan… Go fetch Dr. Gangle and tell him to come prepared. I'm going to take Christine back to my caravan and wait."

Nadir was off in a flash and I did the same, hurrying into my caravan and placing Christine down on my bed.

"Nadir went to fetch Dr. Gangle," I said, gathering together some things Dr. Gangle was going to need in order to help Christine.

"A…Am I…I going to die?"

I stopped right where I stood the moment I heard her soft voice ask me such a question. Die? Christine Daae, die? Yes, I still hated the woman for what she had done to me in the past, but what would a life without Christine be like? Years ago this woman had asked me about death one evening whilst praying to her father. She asked me if it hurt to die and I told her that it was faster than falling asleep… Then, she asked me if she thought her father was an angel and I told her he most certainly was. Back then I was only a teacher attempting to school a student, but now that she was lying here on death's door, I couldn't imagine a world without her.

"Of course not, Christine," I began. "Remember when I told you that death was faster than falling asleep?"

The girl winced. "Y…Yes."

"Don't fall asleep, Christine. Stay awake and you will stay alive."

At that moment, Nadir came flying into the caravan with Dr. Gangle at his side. The man rushed to Christine and began prying away at the wrappings that I had tied around her wound.

"I need to remove the bullet from her and I have no chloroform."

When I heard Dr. Gangle tell me that he didn't have any chloroform, I stormed out of the caravan and began pacing around in a circle like an expecting father.

"Erik?"

Nadir popped his head out the door and I looked up at him.

"I can't stay in there while Dr. Gangle removes that bullet from her. No chloroform? That is a death sentence, Persian!"

"There is another way," he began. "But it's up to you to ask her."

I knew what Nadir meant. I knew that his wife could whip up a tonic that would knock Christine out, but I refused to ask the witch for it.

"She's your wife, Nadir…"

"And this is for Christine, not me…"

"No, I refuse to walk to your caravan and ask that witch for anything."

"And if you care any bit for Christine, you will put aside your anger for Reha and ask her for the tonic. If not, Christine might as well die, for the pain of removing a bullet without anything to numb the pain will be hell."

I began to quicken my pace and eventually kicked over a barrel that was placed around the small fire pit I had. Oh, only for Christine… That's all I had to keep telling myself. Only for Christine… Knowing that I couldn't let the girl suffer, I stormed over to Reha's caravan and knocked on the door. Waiting for her to answer was the most painful thing in the world. When the woman answered the door, she was totally oblivious as to what was going on in my caravan. When she appeared at the door, she actually seemed shocked to see me standing there. She crossed her arms over her chest and waited for me to say something. When I didn't, she took it upon herself to speak.

"If you're looking for my husband, he's not here…"

Her eyes seemed concerned when she finally noticed that I was soaking wet and my head was bleeding.

"Master, are you all right?"

"Me? I'm all right, but Christine is not… We… We were chased into the woods and Christine was shot."

The woman's jaw dropped. "What? She was shot? By who? Where?"

I held up my hand in protest. "I don't need questions now… What I do need is a tonic to numb Christine's pain. Dr. Gangle needs to perform surgery on the girl and without something to knock her out, the pain would be hell."

"Yes, anything for her…"

The woman disappeared from the door, allowing myself to step inside. The woman was rummaging around the kitchen in a panic while I stood there watching her. While she was whipping up a tonic, I couldn't help but spot a framed picture of Reza placed there. I didn't like children, but Reza was an exception. During his short time on Earth he and I had become close, so close that I couldn't bear to see the child suffer when he became deathly ill. No child deserved to suffer, for I knew what the feeling was like… Therefore, I asked Nadir's permission to put the dying child out of his misery. I knew it was the hardest decision for the man to make, but he made the right choice. I placed a painless poison in a cup of pudding and fed it to the boy… When he was finished, he thanked me for reading him a bedtime story and slipped into a fatal slumber with nothing but positive thoughts on his mind.

"I didn't know Nadir kept this picture out," I said, picking up the framed picture of Reza. "I always thought it would have been too hard for him to look at it."

"What do you know about him?" Reha questioned. "Not much, I take it…"

"I know everything about Reza," I said. "He was a loving boy…"

"I don't take it that you know much about love…" Reha said, handing me a steaming cup. "Love is a great feeling, especially a mother's love for their child."

I took the cup from Reha and looked down at the green liquid.

"Obviously, you didn't know my mother..."

With that being said, I turned and carried the tonic out the door.

"Master, your mother…"

I knew I shouldn't have mentioned my mother for now the woman had questions, questions I would never answer.

"No questions," I snapped. "Not now, not ever…"

The woman sighed. "Have Christine drink that… it will put her to sleep."

"Thank you…"

That was all I could say to this woman, for I still didn't like her. I carried the drink back to my caravan and held Christine up so she could drink it. It must have tasted terrible, for the girl gagged a few times but I coaxed her to drink every last drop. A few minutes after lying her back down, she was out like a light and Dr. Gangle began working on her.

"She's lost a lot of blood, Master," the man mentioned. "She is going to need someone to watch over her for a while."

The man pulled the single bullet out of her side and showed it to me.

"No organ damage done," Dr. Gangle mentioned. "She was lucky…"

Watching Dr. Gangle stitch Christine's side was hard to watch, but the girl barely made a movement. After rubbing honey across the stitches, he wrapped her side in bandages and began cleaning up.

"Do you wish to move the girl to the room in the back of your caravan, Master?"

I looked towards the back of my caravan and saw the small bed that was hiding behind a makeshift curtain. It had been Christine's area in the past, but now that she was injured, I knew that she needed my bed more than me.

"No," I said. "Just leave her where she is."

I ordered Nadir to pack everyone up and move us out of the area before Raoul's brother suspected anything. And when I was left alone, I looked over her body and spotted the shackle still around Christine's ankle. I didn't want to do it, but I knew she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, therefore, I took the tiny key and unlocked the contraption. After removing it from her limb, I took a seat at her bedside and prepared myself for the long night I had ahead of me.