Erik's POV

I woke later that evening after finding myself in a fitful sleep. The first thing I noticed when I sat up was how terribly bad my body hurt.

"Dear god…" I cringed as I rose to my feet and headed into the bathroom, my shoulders feeling as though they were tight and burning hot. I flipped on the lights, bending my arms to begin unbuttoning my shirt. Oh, the agony! I couldn't move my arms, for they burned as well.

"Angel, you have sunburn…"

I gripped the edge of the sink and groaned.

"Angel," when I felt Christine's hands upon my shoulders, I moved away, turning to scold her.

"Don't touch me…"

After a few moments, I maneuvered myself out to my desk and took a seat carefully so I wouldn't disturb my sunburn. Deciding to finish up my orders, I rose from my bed and wrapped my robe around my body. After lighting a small candle, I took a seat at my desk and looked down at my order forms to figure out where I had last left off. Sleep was never kind to me, which was why I hardly ever slept.

"Erik, it's nearly three." Came my angel's voice after a while. "Are you not tired?"

"No," I lied, writing with my pen. "You should know me by now."

As I wrote, I felt my angel touching my shirt again. Oh, why wouldn't she just leave me be?

"Christine, enough," I barked. "I'm in no mood for this. My sunburn is bad enough without you having to touch me."

"Angel, take off your shirt."

"And why is that?" I questioned. "Don't you have something better to do than stand beside me all night?"

"I have something for your sunburn."

When I turned, Christine was standing there with my basin in hand with some sort of brownish liquid filled inside of it. Deciding not to argue, I gently maneuvered my body out of my shirt before lying down on my bed. As I lied there on my stomach, my angel began to dab a rag into the substance before pressing it gently against my sunburned shoulders and back. Yes, it stung, but it was already making me feel better.

"Tea," my angel said. "It sucks the poison out of the sunburn."

"Christine, how can you be doing this?" I questioned. "How can this all feel so real, when you're not?"

"Erik, I told you. I am an angel and I am here to look over Gustave until he is a young man. That is my unfinished business."

"Yes, I understand." I said. "But how can you pick things up and make tea? How can you walk among me and do everything as if you're still living here on Earth? Gustave cannot see you, only I can see you, Christine."

"I wish I had an answer for you, Erik. This all just comes along with being able to watch over Gustave. It is you, who I must guide through everything."

I hissed, as Christine began to dab my shoulders, but I stayed strong, clutching the bed sheets in order to ward off the pain.

"You should lay like this for the rest of the night." Christine warned. "Let the tea soak into your flesh."

I felt Christine tuck me in, the covers coming up to my lower back.

"It's not healthy for you to get sunburn when your back is covered in thousands of scars." She warned. "Oh, your back looks so painful."

Oh, how strange it was being able to feel her fingers gliding against my scars, but it felt wonderful at the same time.

"Rest up, angel."

"Are you leaving?" I asked.

Christine giggled. "What else would you have me do?"

"Would you stay with me?" I asked. "Lie here beside me for a while?"

"Erik, you're forgetting the rules."

"Please, Christine? I've had a rough day."

The next thing I knew, Christine was laying beside me, smiling as if she had never left. I positioned my head so that I was facing her, taking in every inch of her beauty. If there was one thing I loved, it was her smile. I could stay awake all night, just to gaze upon her beauty.

"Christine, if you would have lived, would you have stayed here with me?"

My angel nodded. "I was going to do just that, angel."

And then, I asked my Christine the one question I needed answers for.

"Angel, if I can feel your hands against my body, and feel your presence, would I be able to feel a kiss as well?"

Christine's smile faded, leaving her with a look of sorrow displayed across her face.

"Erik, angels are not supposed to give their living loved ones affection and passion. We are sent here to finish unfinished business. I'm here to look over Gustave, I'm here to guide you through every step and look after you. I'm not living, I'm no longer on Earth…Any passion and affection I bestow upon you wouldn't be real."

"Of course it would." I argued. "How would kissing you feel any less real than your hands that you just used to take away the soreness of my sunburn? How would a kiss feel any less real than the words you are speaking to me now?"

"Erik, I am not here forever…"

"Oh, Christine, the last kiss we shared was with you dying in my arms. Even when you begged me to kiss you one last time, you fell limp in my arms right after I began kissing you. I don't want that to be in my memory as my last kiss to the only woman I have ever loved. Please, Christine…" I begged. "Please let us kiss one another again, it is all I ask."

"And what will you beg for after that?" Christine questioned. "Will it be my body next? Will it be more passion? Marriage, perhaps? Erik, I am not real."

I put aside my pain and grasped onto Christine's shoulders. "You are, Christine. Maybe only I can see you, but by God, you're real."

"But only for you, Erik. If Gustave walked in here right now, he would see you clutching onto nothing more than air. When you speak to me, there is no one there…You will begin to forget what is real and what is not."

Tears began to pour down my cheeks as I turned away from her. She wouldn't kiss me…My angel wouldn't kiss me, nor would she agree to be anything to me. Yes, she was only here for the time being, but I didn't care. I wanted her to be with me as long as possible, to kiss me like lovers do, and to act like my lover until she no longer could. It was even more painful to have to see her and speak to her on a daily basis in this form than it was to know that she was dead.

"It is the way things must be," my angel tried to sooth my pain, but it did nothing but make me sadder. "I can't live like this…I can't, Christine. I need your love, your kisses, your body, I need it all."

"Things cannot be this way, Erik."

Without even thinking about my son's well being, I pulled open my night table drawer and pulled out a pair of sharp scissors.

"Erik, what are you doing?"

"If you won't kiss me, then I will kill myself. At least then, you and I can be together."

My angel grabbed hold of the scissors, just as I positioned their sharp end at the center of my chest.

"Don't do this," Christine barked. "Don't be so selfish…"

"I'm not being selfish, Christine…" I cried. "You are."

We played tug a war with the scissors, my grip always over powering Christine's. And then, just as I pulled back, the sharp end of the weapon penetrated my chest and punctured my heart… I gasped for breath, everything around me turning black as my heart pounded against my ears. Through this black portal, I heard Gustave's cries, heard him screaming, and oh, the sound hurt me more than anything in the world. Everything was dark; everything was pitch black, except for the sound of Gustave crying. I fought against the darkness, waving my arms and legs about, until I jolted awake, gasping for air. I was so frightened, that I felt around my bare chest, expecting to feel blood and the scissors, but I was fine…I began to think that perhaps everything had been a dream; that was until I looked down at my side and saw the scissors laying against my thigh.

Had I hurt myself at all? My sunburn still hurt, but I was sure I had stabbed myself in the chest.

"Those cries you heard were Gustave's." I heard Christine's voice, only to be met with her standing at the side of my bed. "Those were the sound of his cries as he was being hauled away to an orphanage, those were his cries when he came into your bedroom and found you dead. You mustn't do it again, Erik, for next time, it might be real."

I simply nodded, knowing that I wouldn't attempt to hurt myself again.

"You disappointed me twice since I've been gone." Christine stated. "Tonight, and yesterday, when you tried to give Gustave back to Raoul."

"I thought he would be better off." I assured. "The man has raised him since birth, why wouldn't Raoul be the better choice?"

"Because I chose you, Erik. You can be a selfish child when you want to be. I know how you get when things don't go your way. But down stairs is a little boy who depends on you."

"It won't happen again, Christine."

"Promise me, Erik."

"It won't happen again."

"Good," Christine took away the scissors and placed them back into my night table. "Now get some rest."

And when my angel tucked me in again, I did just that.

Gustave's POV

I wasn't sure what time I woke that night, but I did. I hated nightmares, and ever since my mother died, all I kept seeing was her being shot over and over again. When I woke, I cried into my blankets, wiping my eyes after a few minutes and then, crawling over to my windowsill to look up at the night sky. The stars were twinkling in the night sky, mother's star shining down upon me from heaven. After her death, I had found her in the sky; her star being the brightest of them all.

"Mama, I'm frightened." I whimpered, laying my head into my arms, that were leaning against the windowsill. "Being here without you is hard. Yes, Mister Y is trying his best, but sometimes his best isn't the best at all. He gets angry sometimes, and I know I frustrate him. I just wish you were here with me. When I used to have nightmares, you used to comfort me…I can't run to Mister Y for comfort, because he's not you. He doesn't read me bedtime stories, he doesn't smile…He…he doesn't even kiss me goodnight. I asked him to kiss me goodnight and he did it so quickly, as if it were an obligation and not out of love."

I wiped my eyes again, trying to stop the tears, but they kept falling.

"Why did you have to go away, mama? Why did you have to leave me?"

When I grew tired again, I crawled back into bed and stared at my mother's picture that was sitting on the night table. I missed my mother more than anything in the world and I wished that she were here now.

"You told me to look with my heart." I cried. "But Mister Y isn't… He doesn't love anything…not even me."

I hugged my bear close to me and closed my eyes, pretending that my bear was my mother and that when I woke, everything would be all right.

Erik's POV

If there was a night that put me through hell, it was the one I lived through last night. I rose around six, still feeling exhausted and in agony from my sunburn. Oh, how painful it was to put clothes on, but I managed, coming down the stairs to start breakfast. Yes, I would have snuck out to go grocery shopping, but I knew Christine would have been on my back about leaving Gustave alone. No, I knew I would simply have to take him with me again today. I did have to drop off my supply orders at the post office, but perhaps afterwards Gustave and I could go into town to purchase some much needed items. The weather outside was muggy once again, bound to leave he and I wanting to stay indoors where it would be cooler. After yesterday's episode, I didn't want to be out in the sun again for too long due to the possibility of my sunburn worsening.

"Gustave?" walked down the hall and approached my son's room. If there was one thing I wanted to do, it was to get an early start before the sun and heat became too over bearing for me.

"Gustave, it's time to get up." I said, approaching his bedside. Though, when I gently touched his shoulder, he nudged me away. Oh, what had I done to him now, and this early in the morning?

"Gustave, we need to get a move on." I said. "There is much to do today."

"I don't want to go." He whined. "I don't want to go out."

"And why not?" I questioned. "You were fine going out yesterday. I need to send in my orders and I cannot leave you here. I was thinking you and I could go out afterwards…perhaps spend some time in my workshop."

"No," he cried. "I don't want to."

"Surely you must be hungry?" I questioned. "You haven't eaten since last night."

"No," he sobbed. "I'm not hungry. I want to be left alone…"

Oh, where was Christine when you needed her? I was losing my patience with this impossible child, losing them as each second passed. I was already running late and I was in no mood for delays.

"Gustave, get up this instant!" I growled. "I will not stand for this childish tantrum."

"Erik, frightening him will get you nowhere." Christine was standing beside me now. Oh, how I wanted to talk to her, but I didn't want to frighten Gustave…no doubt that I already had.

"Be compassionate with him." Christine instructed. "Pat him on the back and ask him why he feels like he does?"

I took a few breaths to calm myself down and did as she told me to do.

"Gustave," I said, in a calm yet concerned voice. "What is making you feel so upset this morning?"

"I don't want to talk about it." He sniffled. "I just want to be left alone."

I began to turn in order to walk away, when my angel shook her head to motion me to stay.

"I heard him talking to me last night, Erik." My Christine said. "He feels as though he can't come to you when he's had a nightmare. He has been having them every night. They're all about me being shot on the pier…"

I turned back to my child and caressed his shoulder.

"Is it about your mother again?" I questioned. "I understand that you miss her, Gustave."

Finally, my son rolled over, his eyes stained with tears.

"I keep having nightmares, Mister Y." he sobbed.

"And what are they of?"

"Mother…I see her in my dreams. She gets shot over and over again. It was hard enough having to watch her die once…But I have to see it again every night."

"Why don't you come to me when you have these dreams?" I asked. "Why don't you come upstairs and tell me?"

"Mother used to comfort me through my nightmares," he cried. "You'd laugh at me if I told you I had a nightmare. Boys my age are supposed to be strong and not afraid."

"Gustave, you are a very brave boy. You lost your mother and Raoul all in the same day." I lifted the boy onto my lap and held him close. "You put aside your fears and came to live with me, a complete stranger. I know this is a little scary, but believe me when I say that I would never laugh at you for having a nightmare."

Gustave wiped his eyes. "You don't think that I'm a baby?"

"Gustave, why would I ever think that?"

"Because you're not afraid of anything. You're always so strong…You didn't even cry for mother."

"I did, Gustave, just not around you. I have to be strong, son…I have to be strong for you. I get nightmares all the time. Not of your mother dying, but of other things, horrible things that have happened in the past. I get frightened from them too. Just know that you can come to me with anything, Gustave… If you're scared and need someone to talk to, I'll be here."

My son nodded and finished wiping his eyes.

"Now, why don't you get dressed and I'll take you out to breakfast?"

"I'm still scared about my nightmare, Mister Y." he whimpered. "It seemed so real."

"No, Gustave, dreams can't hurt you. They may seem real, but they're not."

"Mister Y, could you take me around your park today?"

I nodded and stood my boy to his feet. "Of course. But first, I have to drop off my order forms. Afterwards we can do anything you'd like. Perhaps we could even go into town and purchase some marshmallows to go with your hot chocolate."

"I'd like that."

And with that, I left my son to dress in private.

"You did well, angel." Christine said as I left Gustave's bedroom.

I shook my head. "No, Christine, you did well."

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