AN: First of all, I am so, so, so sorry about how long it took me to put this chapter up… Allow me to take a quick moment to explain what my life has been like for the past month… I went to Australia for two weeks (Which was amazing!), then was home for ten days (Just enough to catch up on school work), and then went to Canada wide science fair for a week. So, with the amount of homework I have had to catch up on, I haven't had time to write Thank you all for sticking with me, and I promise the next update won't take so long!
As for this update, I am currently at home with a wicked head cold so my editing of this chapter might not be stellar… Anyways, I hope you enjoy, and please review!
I had to get out.
If Erik thought I would enjoy being here, he must be completely out of his mind. I hadn't even been locked in that bedroom for an entire day and I felt like my sanity was at risk. Throughout the entire day I had been formulating my escape, desperate to flee this madman.
As soon as Erik left the room after bringing me my food I began to look around the room for a possible escape route. Obviously the door wasn't an option, but I was willing to bet the window was open; he had obviously deluded himself into thinking I'd like it here.
Glancing quickly at the door I walked quietly over to the window and tried the latch. I almost jumped for joy when it swung open letting fresh, cold air inside. Smiling with glee, I firmly closed the window and got back into the bed, wanting to get some sleep in before I made my escape. Smiling to myself at my clever escape plan, I closed my eyes and allowed myself to drift off.
I awoke later that evening, a quick glance at an alarm clock on the nightstand telling me it was about 3:00 am. Quietly, I slid out of bed, tip-toeing across my room as anxiety twisted my stomach. Erik was the most astute, observant person I knew, and if I took one wrong step he could find me. I had no idea how big the house actually was.
I pressed my ear to the door, listening desperately for any sign of Erik. I was greeted by complete silence.
Trying to breathe shallowly, I slowly pulled the closet door open. Obviously I wasn't going to make a run for it in the underclothes I was wearing.
I nearly growled in frustration as I stepped into the giant closet, mountains of brand-new clothes lining the walls. After searching for nearly ten minutes I found a dark green sweater and a pair of jeans, along with a winter jacket and a pair of snow boots. Despite all my looking, I couldn't find a hat or mittens anywhere, and I was running out of time.
I pulled on the clothes quickly, just leaving the underclothes on the ground. I walked as softly as I could in the boots over to the window and undid the latch. Freezing cold air assaulted my face and fingers, but a quick twist of the frame had the screen out.
Clenching my jaw as I turned around and lowered myself out the window, I hoped my feet would reach the outset of the roof below my window. I clutched the window sill tightly, dangling out of the window without my feet touching anything.
I steeled myself for the drop, letting go of the frame and stifling a scream. My feet hit the roof almost instantly, catching me off guard and sending me sliding down the roof. I bit back a shriek, scrambling to grab something to keep myself from falling. However, the snow covering Erik's sleek roof made it impossible to grip anything, and I readied myself for the inevitable fall.
Luckily, the snow made the fall not seem as far, and I landed in a relatively deep snow bank. A quick mental survey of myself told me that I luckily hadn't done any more damage than a slightly bruised hip. Quickly, I jumped to my feet, and without another thought made a break for the forest surrounding the clearing Erik's home was in.
As soon as I entered the woods, the forest surrounded me, darkness twisting the harmless shape of the trees into terrifying images. I ran forward, desperately hoping I was going in the right direction. How deep could the woods be?
After running for what felt like forever, all I had accomplished was getting myself deeper into the woods. I stopped to walk, clutching my side and trying to catch my breath despite the freezing cold air that flooded into my lungs. The cold had seeped through my clothing and into my bones, and I wrapped my arms around myself in a desperate attempt to get warm.
As soon as I could breathe again I continued running, keeping my arms around myself to try to stop the shivers that wracked my body. After what felt like forever, my pace slowed and I began to move slowly and lethargically, my numb limbs making it difficult to even walk.
As I continued to walk the darkness began to close in around me, shadowy creatures dancing in front of my eyes. Tears streamed down my iced cheeks as I frantically swatted the branches out of my face, struggling to get through the thickening woods.
Terror surged through my entire body and I began to panic; obviously I was hopelessly lost in the endless forest, and the temperature seemed to be dropping by the minute.
"Oh Erik…" I cried, stumbling forwards. "Why did you do this to me? Why did you take me here?"
Something darted out in front of me and I screamed, falling backwards into the snow.
Afraid, freezing and exhausted, I curled into the snow and continued to cry. "Raoul! Meg!" I sobbed, knowing they couldn't hear me. I was going to die, here, in the snow, and I would never get to tell Meg how much I loved her, or tell Raoul how sorry I was that I kept pushing him away… I would never get to tell Mama Valerius goodbye, or become the prima donna at a theatre. My life was going to end before it had even begun.
"Erik!" I screamed with the last of my energy; despite how angry I was with him, he was definitely my best hope for salvation.
"Erik!" I screamed again, but I didn't have the energy in me to project my voice.
Silence greeted me.
Sobbing, I tucked my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. I lay there crying until the darkness finally had the mercy to consume me.
"Christine!" A voice called faintly, as if someone was yelling at me through water. I felt my body being jostled, and then I was moving.
"Christine," Erik's voice called desperately, "Stay with me my dear!"
Glorious, wonderful warmth radiated off his body, and I wrapped my arms around his chest, trying to pull myself closer.
"C-cold," I stuttered, still unable to open my eyes through the exhausted haze that surrounded my brain.
"I know my dear," He soothed, "You'll be warm soon."
Although Erik's running was certainly much smoother than mine, the trees must have made it incredibly difficult for him to carry me through. Once he stumbled, but managed to catch himself without missing a beat.
"Damn it," He growled under his breath, but I was too tired to care about what might by wrong.
"Stay awake Christine," He said softly, but firmly. "I know you're tired, but you have to stay awake."
He must have opened the door without even putting me down, since the beautiful heat of the house flooded around me. I felt myself being carried up stairs.
"I'm going to put you down and grab some blankets; I'll be right back Christine." He spoke urgently, moving to put me down.
"N-No!" My teeth chattered. As the glorious warmth from his body left my side, I began to shiver violently. I heard a voice talking that I didn't even recognize as mine. "D-don't g-go… H-hold m-me."
I clutched his shirt desperately, trying to absorb his body heat.
"Christine," He said, sounding surprised. "I really think I should…"
"P-please!" I cried, trying to squirm underneath his jacket.
"Very well," He said hesitantly, sitting down on the bed and pulling me onto his lap. As I cuddled closer to him he hesitantly put his arms around me.
"S-still c-cold," I whispered, as more shivers wracked my body.
"I know my dear," He said with a desperate hint to his voice. "I'm just going to take your wet coat off and slide us underneath the blankets, alright?"
I just nodded weakly, and suddenly my coat was off and I was even colder. I shivered roughly again, and then felt him sliding us under the blankets, lying me down on the pillow while still keeping his arms around me.
"J-just g-going t-to s-sleep…" My teeth chattered as exhaustion clawed at every inch of my body.
"You can't go to sleep yet Christine." Erik spoke into my ear. "Once you're warmer you can sleep."
"T-too t-tired…" I whispered, another shiver wracking my body.
"Why don't you tell me about how you ended up in opera?"
"W-well," I started, trying to form coherent thoughts through my brain's grogginess. "M-my dad g-got me into m-music."
"Go on…" He prompted.
"H-he used to p-play the violin all the t-time," I started. I was gradually starting to warm up, and my teeth weren't chattering so violently. "A-and I told myself that s-someday I would make m-music as b-beautiful as his."
"So why opera?" He questioned, causing me to continue.
"I-it was either that or m-musicals," I smiled to myself without opening my eyes. "And opera has so much more depth to it… Plus it's more challenging vocally."
"It certainly sounds like you made the right choice." He stated, and I could hear the smile in his voice.
"Erik?" I asked, my teeth had finally stopped chattering, and the warmth from Erik's body had managed to drive away most of the cold.
"Yes my dear?"
"Can I sleep now?" I yawned, burying my face in the pillow.
"Yes Christine, You can sleep now."
"Thank you," I whispered, and almost instantly I escaped into the world of dreams.
I awoke to light streaming into my windows; a quick glance at the clock told me it was 10:30 am. My stomach growled loudly, and I heaved myself out of bed, my limbs being very slow to respond. My entire body was stiff and tired.
As I trudged over to the closet to find some now clothes, I mulled over the events of the previous night in my mind.
Firstly, my escape had obviously been unsuccessful, and I was probably going to have to wait until it was warmer to try again. Secondly, I needed to get an idea of how far the woods around Erik's house went before I tried going through them again. Lastly, and most horrifying, was the fact that I had asked Erik to hold me last night.
"You weren't in your right mind Christine," I justified to myself. "You had hypothermia, and he was warm… Nobody will judge you for that."
Sighing, I found a big sweatshirt and a pair of leggings in the back of the closet. Grateful for comfy clothes, I pulled them on, along with a pair of wool socks. I didn't know if it was simply the room, or last night's ordeal that caused it, but a chill lingered on my skin.
My stomach growled again as I left the closet, demanding food. I guess almost freezing to death took a lot of energy out of you.
Hesitantly, I walked toward the door and tried the nob, surprised that the door easily swung open. With another loud growl from my stomach, I crept downstairs to attempt to find the kitchen.
Assuming the kitchen would be down stairs, I walked down the long, narrow hallway to the stairway at the end of it. A large, spiral staircase led down to a completely open first floor, strange paintings decorating the walls. The first floor had a kind of strange elegance to it.
True to Erik's nature, black tile covered the entire floor, with only one silver throw rug in the middle of a little sitting area. A large piano sat in the corner of the room, a television and couches sitting directly opposite it. As soon as I reached the floor my eyes found the kitchen, and I made my way to it.
The kitchen was incredibly normal looking compared to the rest of the house, although the black tile covered the floor in that large room as well. There was a small table with only a single chair pushed into the corner of the room, but it looked as if it hadn't been used in a while.
A quick glance toward the door told me Erik was nowhere in sight, so I started looking through the pantry and fridge for something to eat.
After sifting through enough food to feed a small army, I finally found a carton of eggs tucked into the back of the fridge, along with a package of bacon. I pulled a couple frying pans out of a drawer full of brand-new pots and pans and put the pan of bacon on the stove to begin cooking.
After the bacon was nearly finished, I put the eggs into a different pan to fry and began trying to hunt down a plate and some utensils, humming as I searched. The plates were only in the second cupboard I opened, but I couldn't find the utensils no matter how hard I looked.
"Cutlery is in the far left drawer on the other side of the oven." Erik's voice came abruptly from behind me. I gasped in surprise, dropping the plate to the floor.
"I'm terribly sorry Christine," He apologized, "I didn't mean to startle you."
"Because sneaking up behind people when they're obviously not paying attention isn't likely to do that at all." I muttered sarcastically.
"I didn't sneak up on you," He retorted, "I simply walked into the kitchen… You were the one not paying attention."
"Whatever." I said shortly, not really wanting to have an extended conversation with him. "Where's a broom so I can clean this up?"
"I'll fetch it for you." He smiled, "But you may want to get your breakfast off the stove first, or it's going to burn."
"Shit!" I exclaimed, frantically flipping the stove off and moving the pans to unused burners. Luckily, nothing was burnt too badly.
Erik returned moments later, wordlessly passing the broom to me so I could sweep up the shards of broken plate. He stood there, silently observing me, in the corner of the kitchen as I dumped the glass shards in the trash can and sat down at the small table to eat my only slightly burnt breakfast.
After a moment of awkwardly eating in silence as he stared at me, I practically threw my fork onto my plate. "Are you going to sit down, or eat, or do something?" I exclaimed angrily, glaring up at him. "Or do you plan on just staring at me creepily until I finish?"
He looked at me, surprise showing on his face for only a moment until his usual, emotionless mask shot back up. "What would you have me do Christine?"
"I don't know!" I said with exasperation, "Make some toast, watch tv, sit down and twiddle your thumbs for all I care, just don't stand there and stare at me."
"Okay," He said carefully, "I'm sorry if you find my staring peculiar… I am just trying to ensure that you are alright after the events of last night."
"Oh," I blushed, slightly embarrassed by my outburst. "I'm fine, thank you."
"You're not still chilled at all?" He asked with genuine concern.
"No,"
"Very good," He nodded to himself and turned toward the sitting room. "I'm just going to be in the next room if you need anything."
As I watched him walk away I saw he was walking with a very slight limp.
"Erik," I said without thinking, causing him to stop and turn toward me. "Why are you limping?"
"Oh, that," He said nonchalantly, "I just twisted my ankle slightly when I was carrying you in last night."
I didn't know what to say, so I simply nodded in response, proceeding to shovel more eggs into my mouth. After I had finished and put my dishes into the dishwasher, I wandered into the sitting room where Erik was sitting there reading. Even though I could feel his eyes follow me across the room, I wordlessly picked up Dracula from where it was sitting on the coffee table.
After we had both read in silence for a few minutes, I saw Erik stand up and walk toward me.
"Christine," He said politely, coming to a stop right in front of me. "If you would allow me, there is something I would like to show you."