Chapter III
Down for the First Time

(A/N: 'Allo! Well, I don't have much to say here, except that Addie's gonna have an epic rant at Erik. That's always fun, isn't it?
I don't own POTO. But I wish I owned Erik...)

"Where are you taking me?" Adeline struggled against the Phantom's abnormally strong grasp.

He ignored her. "I should have known something like this would happen! It always does! Women's liberation and all that did absolutely nothing for your bloody damsel in distress complex!"

"I am not a damsel! And I was not in distress!"

"Oh, sure, of course, forgive me. Nearly being raped doesn't count as distress these days."

He continued pulling her down a side alley. They came to a sudden stop. "Hey! Why'd we stop?"

"Will you please be quiet!" the Phantom yelled, fiddling with the lock on the door they'd stopped at. Adeline took a look at the building. Oh! This is that abandoned theatre I usually pass on my way to work. Why are we- Oh. Wow, I'm an idiot.

The door swung open, and he continued pulling her along. The door closed with a click behind them. They continued on down the dark passages, the Phantom apparently not needing any sort of illumination. Suddenly there was a loud click from somewhere under them, and the floor fell through.

Adeline screamed, clinging onto the Phantom for dear life as they plummetted downward. They suddenly stopped. He landed on two feet, clearly unfazed. Adeline found herself still clinging to him and hastily pulled away. "Why the HELL didn't you warn me?"

He didn't answer, he simply continued walking down another hallway, no longer pulling her along. Adeline followed, afraid of being left alone.

They eventually came to his home. Sadly, there was no lake, but there was a series of rooms scattered about, seperated by curtains, that almost resembled a house.

The Phantom walked over to what was evidently a living room, or perhaps a den, and lit the enormous fireplace he'd somehow managed to get down there. He sat down in a leather wingchair beside it, and gestured to it's twin on the other side.

Adeline sat down and glared at him. "Okay, Mr. /whatever the Hell you're going by these days, I have a question."

"Yes?" he said with polite interest, a small smile twitching at the corner of his lips.

"WHY THE BLOODY FUCKING HELL DID YOU BRING ME DOWN HERE!"

Erik stood up, casting a menacing shadow over her. "You will not use such language in my presence!"

"The Hell yes I will! It wasn't my decision to come down here! You practically kidnapped me! I deserve to know why!" Adeline veritably screeched at him, hands curling into fists in rage.

"You want to know why? Fine!" He began pacing about the room (like-area). "You don't really think that Timmy or whatever his name was and that other drunk were alone, did you? You were obviously going into shock and would have just stood there until the other members of their little gang showed up and finished what the first two started! And I obviously wasn't just going to leave you. That would pretty much negate what I did to save you in the first place. And that dress you're wearing really wasn't helping matters, either."

Adeline stood up. "What! Is it because my ankles are showing?" She gasped in mock horror. "This ain't the freakin' nineteenth century anymore, Erik! Get with the picture!"

"I will not stand for this intolerable screeching of yours!" he yelled back, going slightly red in the face (or, what was visible of it, rather). "It gets on my nerves, and it will ruin your voice."

Adeline blinked. "My voice? You mean-? I-? WHAT! You think that this is some sort of replication of your whole deal with Christine? Well, I've sure as HELL got some news for you! I'm not Christine! I never will be Christine! My father is dead, but he didn't play violin, not did he tell any stories about Little Lotte or an Ange de Musique. He died in a car crash when I was seven. My mother is still alive, but I'm fairly certain that she's clinically insane. I'm an elementary school music teacher, live in a crap-tastic apartment, and basically my whole life sucks!"

"So do you want singing lessons or not?"

"YES! Now leave me alone!" She stomped off in what was (hopefully) the direction of the swan bed. She pulled aside a curtain and stepped behind it.

"Er, Adeline?"

"WHAT?"

"That would be the broom closet."

"I KNOW!" She angrily pushed aside the curtain and stepped back into the main room. Sighing in defeat, she asked, "Where is it?"

"Third curtain on the left."

"Right. Thanks."

"Actually, I said left-"

"DON'T START!"

(TIME change)

Adeline woke up the next morning, thankfully unplagued by nightmares. Damn. I haven't slept that good since- Hmph. I don't think I have slept that good. Er, well.

She got out of the bed, taking in her surroundings. Holy damn. It's like, a combination of movie, musical, and the Kopit version. But if he asks me if I'd like to go on a picnic, I'm gonna slap him.

She glanced down at her dress. It was rumpled beyond belief. She glanced at the wardrobe against the wall. I wonder...

She opened it, expecting a bunch of spiders to come tumbling out. Instead, she found about eight dresses in prime condition hanging in a neat row. She pulled out a light purple one and held it up to her body. She checked her reflection in the full-body mirror. For a disfigured guy, he sure keeps a lot of mirrors about the place.

Adeline decided the dress would work, but looked a little, well, small around the middle. She sighed. I guess that means I have to wear it. She set the dress down on the bed and, not without some trepidation, opened one of the drawers of the nearby dresser. God, that thing looks evil.

She checked to see that the curtain seperating the room from the rest of the house (type-area) was secure. She slipped out of her current dress and quickly grabbed the corset, attempting to put it on as fast as she could. It was one that fastened up the front, since only rich ladies with maids to help her had the stereotypical ones that laced up the back.

Finally getting it fastened, she attempted to take a deep breath, and ended up coughing and wheezing on the floor. God! So freaking tight! And Christine sang in one of these?

Pulling herself up, she concentrated on taking shallow breaths. She grabbed the purple dress and slipped it on over her head. She checked her reflection again. Well. I didn't think it was possible, but I'm even skinnier than I was before.

Adeline slipped her flats back on and attempted to arrange her tangled mess of raven curls. She pulled aside the curtain and stepped out into the main room. She heard faint organ music and turned around to face the other side of the room. Erik was sitting hunched over the instrument, occasionally tapping out a melody on it, muttering to himself, and then writing down what he'd played on a piece of paper.

Adeline slowly crept up behind him. "Hey, um, Erik?"

He jumped, sending his pen (red ink, of course) and several pieces of sheet music, architectural designs, and other such things flying. "What the- Oh. Adeline."

She smiled. "Yeah. Who else?" She bent down to pick up a couple of papers, but was stopped halfway by her corset. "Frick," she muttered, straightening back up.

Erik smirked. "Corset?" he asked, picking up the papers himself. He set them on the organ, straightening them meticulously.

"Is it really that obvious?" She sat down on the bench beside him. "What are you working on?"

He made a half-hearted attempt to hide the sheet music. "Nothing of consequence."

Adeline frowned. "Seriously?"

Erik sighed. "Fine. If you must know, I'm still working on Don Juan Triumphant. Even when I gave those two bumbling idiots the score, it wasn't completely finished."

"But, I thought you spent those six months between acts working to finish it!" Addie cried. "I mean, what else could you have been doing? Frolicking gaily through the flowers with Nadir?"

Erik paused a moment and looked at her questioningly. "Me? Frolick? I highly doubt such a thing is possible." He returned his focus to the sheet music on the organ. He began playing a melody Adeline was sure she'd never heard, yet it sounded vaguely familiar. Then it branched into an extremely familiar bridge, which she was so used to hearing on a violin. She let out a small gasp.

His long fingers paused, still hovering over the keys. He looked at Adeline with concern evident in his usually icy blue eyes. "My dear? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine! It's just- That was always my favorite- Can you play it again?" Adeline said, slightly breathless. It sounded so different on the organ; sensual and absolutely beautiful-

(Beautiful, beautiful notes, don't you agree?...)

Erik, slightly bemused, began playing again. Adeline gradually let herself get lost in the song. Eventually she began humming along, then singing softly with the familiar lyrics.

"Past the point of no return, no going back now, our passion play has now at last begun-"

Erik's hand halted in the middle of the song. He sat there for a few minutes staring into empty space. Adeline paused in her singing. "Erik? What's wrong?"

" 'What's wrong?' " he echoed, his mouth twisting in a macabre mockery of a smile. " 'What's wrong?' I'll tell you what's wrong! Everything!" He knocked a stack of sheet music off the organ in his rage. "This is all wrong! I shouldn't have brought you down here!"

Erik stood up quickly, sending the bench, and Adeline, toppling. She stayed on the floor, paralyzed by fear. "I'm not good enough," she managed to whisper, trembling.

Erik turned his gaze to her. If it were possible for ice to burn, it almost surely would have looked like his eyes at that moment. He'd apparently not noticed that he'd knocked her on the ground when he stood up. His gaze softened infinitely as he knelt down beside her.

Taking her small hand, he whispered. "No. You're amazing. It's me that's not good enough."

"Erik, don't say th-"

"Adeline." He said her name with such reverence that it sent a small chill down her spine. "You know what I'm capable of. You know what happens when I lose my temper. I don't want anything to happen to you because I lose my temper."

Adeline squeezed his hand. "How melodramatic." She smiled hesitantly. "Does that mean the Kay book is true?"

"Up until the last few chapters, yes." Erik laughed a little sadly. "Christine and I never-" He coughed, changing the subject. "It really is a shame she didn't put my time in Persia in my point of view. Of course, then the book might have been banned for excessive violence and gore. Scar several people for life, I imagine."

Adeline laughed. "True." She frowned. "Do I really have to go back?"

"You mean, you don't want to?" There was a small glimmer of hope in Erik's eyes.

"No! Of course I don't! Didn't you hear my epic rant last night?"

"Oh, yes. But you'll have to go back tomorrow morning. You have to drive your mother to the doctor's, don't you?"

"Unfortunately."

Just then a small hiss sounded from the nearest curtain. A sleek form darted under it, then crept up to Erik and nudged his leg. The cat hissed at Adeline again.

"Ayesha?" Erik asked, stroking the cat. "How did you get back here without-?"

"Erik! You must teach that cat of yours better manners!" A dark-skinned man pushed aside the curtain and stepped into the room. He pointed to a fresh scratch on the side of his face. "She scratched me. Again!" He suddenly paused upon seeing Adeline sitting on the ground beside Erik.

"What the-? ERIK!" he cried, completely forgetting his previous indignance. "This is why you made me take Ayesha with me yesterday? So you could kidnap her?"

Erik stood up, ignoring Ayesha's pleading mews. "I did not kidnap her, Nadir!"

Adeline blinked. "Actually, you kinda did."

Erik glared at her, eyes burning again. "Not now, Adeline!"

Nadir's frown deepened. "You see! Even she admits that-"

"-he kidnapped me after he save my life to save himself the trouble of doing it again," Adeline finished for him. She stood up as well. "Besides, what does it matter to you?"

Just then, Ayesha let out another hiss and sank her claws into Adeline's foot.

"OW! Ow ow ow ow OW! What the Hell did I do to you?" she shrieked at the cat. Ayesha responded by hissing at her again, then padding over to Erik to beg for attention.

Erik picked her up, stroking her soothingly. She let out a loud purr and seemed to glare at Adeline. Erik frowned. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, sure. Yeah. 'Course I'm fine. Your cat just hates me, that's all," she muttered, righting the bench and sitting down on it, massaging her foot.

Nadir laughed. "Well, it's good to know that I'm not the only one Ayesha hates." He then resumed his stern expression and turned to Erik. "Erik? Have you gone completely mental?"

Erik put Ayesha down. "Maybe it would be better to continue this conversation in private," he hissed, dragging Nadir towards the way he'd came by the arm.

Adeline eyed the cat warily as she surreptitiously scooted farther away on the bench. Bloody cat. I always did like dogs better. Or hamsters. Yes. Hamsters are harmless. Unless they're rabid...

(POV change)

Now that Adeline was out of earshot, Erik turned to Nadir. "This does not concern you, Nadir!"

"Doesn't concern me! You kidnapped her!"

"Yes, but-"

"I don't know what you've been reading lately, but kidnapping is not romantic! At all! And in your case it's making you seem like a pedophile! You're nearly fifty! And what is she? Eighteen?"

"Actually, she's twenty-six, and-"

"That still makes you old enough to be her father, even by today's standards! And-"

"She's still older than Christine!" Erik blurted out, regretting it as soon as he said it.

Nadir quickly shut his mouth and began to grow red in the face. "Christine! Erik you know how that ended! How could you possibly think that this will be any different!"

Erik crossed his arms. "She said so herself. She's not Christine. She doesn't have some pre-concieved notion about an angel, which rather uncomplicates things." He smiled ironically. "She already knows near everything. I don't have to hide anything."

Nadir looked slightly speechless. He shook his head vigorously. "No, no, no! Erik! You're missing the point!"

"What point!" Erik cried, beginning to lose his temper. "Do you think it's impossible for me to be loved? Well? DO YOU!"

Nadir shrank back, paling under his dark olive complexion. "Erik, I-"

"It is possible! And it did happen! Don't look so damned incredulous, Daroga! Christine did love me." Erik slumped against the wall. "On some level she did. Whether it be as a father, older brother, or maybe a friend..." He put his head in his hands. "Love that strong cannot go unrequited."

(A/N: OMG! It's Nadir and Ayesha! And Erik has an emo moment there at the end.
I told you there'd be a lot of Kay references in this, didn't I?
Don't forget to review!)