A/N: Minor fluff alert. You've been warned.

Disclaimer: Based on the novel by Gaston Leroux. All Phantom related works, as well as lyrics quoted in the story, belong to their respective owners.

Chapter 16 - Beneath the Opera House

When Erik led her towards the cellars Carlotta immediately understood where she was being taken to and a shiver ran down her spine. In all the time she knew Erik she'd never been to his house - more so, she never even considered the possibility - and now that he was taking her there, just like he'd once taken Christine, she felt both excited and terrified.

Erik glanced back at her, his feline eyes shining in the gloom like two pieces of gold.

He must have sensed her anxiety because he whispered, "Don't be afraid."

"I've never been down here," Carlotta explained.

"You needn't worry as long as you are with me. I know every corner of these undergrounds like the palm of my hand."

Passing through countless stone-walled corridors, they continued their descent into the depths until they reached the third cellar. There they stopped in a room stashed with some ancient props and stage decorations. Moving some of the junk out of the way, Erik felt the wall. Finding the right stone, he put some pressure on it and the stone moved inward to expose a hole in the ground.

"Follow me. Hang by your hands from the edge, then let go," he instructed. "Just hurry before the trapdoor closes."

He slid into the hole and a moment later he was gone.

Carlotta crawled to the trapdoor and stared into the darkness below. The whole thing felt like a really bad idea.

"I will catch you," Erik assured her. "Just trust me."

Brushing the fear away, Carlotta lept into the void. Seconds later she landed securely in Erik's arms.

The ghost put her on her feet and moved away.

"Erik? Where are you?" she called out. The darkness was so absolute she couldn't see his glowing eyes.

"Stay where you are," Erik replied. "I want to show you something."

His voice seemed to be coming from only a couple feet away but when she felt for him in the darkness her hands met rusty metal.

Suddenly the lights came on, seeping in narrow beams through the branches of a tree, an iron tree that grew in the middle of an octagonal chamber inlaid with mirrors. Wherever she looked, Carlotta found her own masked face staring back at her and felt panic surge within her. She had done her homework and knew exactly what this room was. Why had Erik locked here there? He wouldn't harm her, would he?

The lights went out then came back on but this time the soft glow seemed to be emanating from within the walls. The reflections were gone, replaced by the image of a tropical forest that stretched into infinity in all directions. A few moments later it transformed into a desert where far on the horizon there seemed to appear a faint silhouette of an oasis.

The lights changed again and Carlotta only saw herself and the iron tree again.

Erik came back in, the illusion of the room making it look as if he'd appeared out of nowhere. He had dropped his cap and changed into his regular white mask.

"How do you like my mirror chamber?" he asked.

"You mean your torture chamber," Carlotta rectified.

"These rooms were originally designed for the purpose of entertainment," Erik rebuked. "It's not my fault that some people didn't find them fun enough and asked to add some extra features."

"You had me scared there for a moment."

There was resentment in Carlotta's voice and it made Erik began to regret his idea.

"I had honestly thought you'd appreciate it," he mumbled.

"You were gone and I couldn't find my way out. I'd completely lost all sense of direction."

Erik smiled dangerously. "That's the point of this room," he said, "I built it in to stop and confuse whoever attempted to get into my house."

It certainly did the job when Buquet came sniffing around. The credulous idiot must have really freaked out when the mechanism went on. When he came back home he found some of the mirrors smashed and him dangling from the tree, hung on the piece of catgut he'd forgotten in the chamber.

Carlotta must have gotten over her stress, because she said with a saucy smirk, "I may have in mind another use for it."

"Really?" Erik gave her a befuddled look. "I can't imagine what else could I possibly do with a room like this, other than plain enjoy the illusions or use them to draw someone else crazy."

"Let's say that my idea kind of involves both." Saying this, Carlotta opened her dress and let it fall to the floor.

Erik felt an already familiar twitch in his lower region as he stared at the glorious creature in front of him, wrapped up in nothing but tiny scraps of translucent fabric, lace, and fastening. She walked right into his arms and as he embraced her, his eyes met their reflection and he understood what Carlotta had meant earlier. The idea of seeing himself, as he finally possessed her only added to the thrill of the act itself.

The moment he thought it, he was washed with a sense of guilt. How dare he defile something so beautiful? On the other hand, why should he not when he was clearly invited to?

Unclasping his cloak, he lay in on the floor and sat down, pulling Carlotta into his lap. She straddled his hips and taunted him with nimble kisses, while her sneaky little fingers worked the buttons of his coat and shirt. Soon both ended up discarded on the floor.

Erik's hands reached out to Carlotta's mask but then she stopped him.

"This stays on," she said

Erik chucked. "Fair enough."

"You're free to take everything else off though."

He needn't be told twice. Grazing Carlotta's delicate skin with his fingers, he methodically removed each and every piece of her intricate lingerie until she was left with nothing but the mask on her face. Distracting her with a kiss, he traced the curves of her body, marveling at the smoothness and the feverish warmth of her skin. His hand found one soft mound and squeezed gently, drawing a little whimper out of her throat. Reverently, he kissed and caressed every inch of her skin, becoming more and more audacious with every fervent sound that she produced in response to his administrations.

Carlotta felt on fire. Erik's eagerness to please her made up for all his lack of experience, which, she now thought, was rather overrated. Those few boyfriends she had had before were all veteran of the Ars Amandi and yet none of them had ever made her so flustered and before they even got to business. Perhaps it was a matter of arrogance? They all thought they knew how things had to be done and so they did it their way. Period. Erik, on the other hand, relied on his gut, going by a method of trial and error, like a composer who hits on a few different keys before he finds the perfect sound. His musical genius skillfully shaped her into an aria.

Consumed by desire, Carlotta pushed Erik down and freed him out of the last pieces of garment that still stood between them. Revealed to her sharp scrutiny, he found himself feeling surprisingly shameless, unlike other times when he'd been stripped naked for others to see. He could still hear their cruel laughter in his head. Carlotta didn't laugh. Instead, she buried her head in the crook of his neck, sucking at his pulse point. Her exquisite mouth left a trail of kisses down his chest, descending lower still, her fingers following in, and he closed his eyes as he succumbed to her game.

It had already been great enough a gift from her to let him touch her so intimately but this was so much more he had ever hoped for. He only blessed his long-practiced self-control. When he felt he couldn't resist any longer he pulled her up and looked into her eyes, searching for any signs of hesitation but there was only lust. She wanted him just as much as he wanted her and there seemed to be no reason to postpone this moment any longer.

As their bodies finally united, the whole world ceased to exist. There was only them, no longer a singer and a ghost, just a woman and a man with their faces masked but their souls bare.

Eyes locked, fingers entwined, they raced towards the precipice and then fell, shattering against the edge of reality. Once everything was over they simply lay on their bed of crimson underneath the iron tree, surrounded by a crowd of infinite reflections in a room that, having been built to bring death, had eventually become a witness of the ultimate act of life.

Eventually, Carlotta sat up and unmasked. Then, before Erik could realize what was going on, she reached out and tore his own mask off.

Her scream was so shrill that the mirrors around them exploded, the shards cutting painfully into his skin.

He woke up with a gasp. The mirrors were intact, the mask still secured on his face. It had been only a dream. Carlotta, however, was gone. Had she realized she'd given herself to a monster and made a run for it? How did she even find her way out of the torture chamber?

Putting his underwear on, he stormed out of the room, gathering more clothing on the go as he checked every corner of his house in search of the girl.

When she was nowhere to be found, he called her name but there was no response. Then a terrible thought occurred to him: what if in her attempt to leave she fell into one of his traps? What if she fell into the lake? Could she even swim?

Panicked, he ran out of the house and there she was, sitting on the small platform by the wall and gazing at the distant glow of a lantern.

He exhaled in relief. "You had me scared to death," he breathed out.

"Sorry," Carlotta said. "I just needed to get some air but, since we're underground, the best I could do was get out here."

There was something off about her but Erik couldn't put his hand on it. Perhaps he was just imagining things.

"Do you want to go back upstairs?" he asked.

Unlike in the past, he didn't feel the need to keep Carlotta under lock and key in his house. He knew she wouldn't run away from him at the first opportunity.

She nodded. "If you don't mind. It has to be morning already and I'd really like to get refreshed and properly rested before I have to come back on Monday."

They went back inside and lending Carlotta her own duffel bag so she could gather her things, Erik got himself in order and went to prepare the boat. When Carlotta was ready to go, he helped her get in and rowed across the gallery of stone-walled tunnels towards the Communists' dungeon.

They were already far out when, peeking out of the boat, Carlotta saw a dark shape move under the surface of the water.

"Erik," she yelped in alarm, "there's something in the lake."

"It's just fish," he replied calmly.

"No," she insisted, "it was something much bigger than a fish."

The shadow passed by them again.

"Erik, I'm telling you, there's something in here."

"Calm down," he huffed. "The largest and most dangerous thing that ever swam in this lake is m-"

"AAAAAAAAAAH!" Carlotta shrieked uncontrollably when a huge black form suddenly emerged from the water right beside her.

Erik swung his paddle at it but the creature dodged, swimming away to a safe distance. Only then they realized it wasn't any monster of the abyss but a man, more specifically, a scuba diver.

Removing his mouthpiece, he raged, "What the hell are the two of you doing down here?"

"I live here," Erik replied just as angrily. "What the hell are you doing down here?!"

"I'm with the Paris Fire Department," the diver explained. "We're having exercise. Wait, what do you mean you live here?"

"You must have heard it wrong Mr. Fireman," Carlotta laughed him off. "He said he likes it here, not that he lives here."

Squinting his eyes suspiciously, the diver took in Carlotta's white blouse, then Erik's mask, and finally their boat.

"Oh, I know what's going on here," he scoffed. "To play dress-up at your age? Seriously?"

Erik and Carlotta exchanged glances.

Dressup? Oh goodness! The man must have taken them for a couple of nutty phans!

"Do you people know how vast these undergrounds are?" the diver ranted on. "The last couple that sneaked down here to play phantom got lost and was found only a couple days later, frozen and starved almost to death."

Erik was likely about to counter but Carlotta cut in before him.

"You're absolutely right Mr. Fireman," she said, looking sorry. "It was really irresponsible of us to wander down here. Can we just go back up now?"

"Yeah, go back upstairs."

The man put his mouthpiece back in and disappeared under the water.

Rowing on, they reached the shore and securing the boat with a rope, they slipped into a dark tunnel that opened in the wall. They moved ahead, passing by a chamber with a small well in the middle until they reached a long paneled corridor that ended in a glass wall. Erik worked the mechanism and the mirror turned, opening to Carlotta's dressing room. The same dressing room, Carlotta only now realized, that must have once belonged to Christine.

As they walked across the Opera House to retrieve Carlotta's coat, scarf and purse from the cloak-room up front, they ran into Valentina.

"Why bonjour there!" the Russian cheered, sending Erik a wink.

"What are you doing here on a Sunday?" the ghost asked her.

"Someone has to clean up after last night's party. Speaking of which," she looked over Carlotta wearing only Erik's white dress shirt, "looks like the two of you had some fun!"

"Valentina, please," Erik implored, "do not discuss this with anyone."

"Of course not, Monsieur Erik, of course not," she assured. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've work to do. Someone puked all over the bathroom on the first floor last night."

Erik bet that had been Thibault. He'd looked pretty boozed up.

"Do you think she really won't tell anyone she saw us today looking totally laid?" Carlotta wondered when Valentina walked away.

"I can already see the gossip spreading. Perhaps I should make sure she keeps her mouth shut."

"Erik!" Carlotta warned.

"I'm only concerned about your reputation."

"My reputation? Half of the Opera House already suspects that I sleep with you so it's really no big deal if Valentina adds to the rumors."

They reached the cloak-room and, retrieving her things, Carlotta dressed up. Then they headed towards the Rotonde des Abonnés and out into the street.

She called for an Uber and while they waited for it to arrive Erik decided to address his gut feeling.

"Is everything all right?" he asked, keeping on the vague.

"Yes, sure," Carlotta replied without much thought.

He tried to pull her in and then he realized what was it about her that bothered him: she seemed uncharacteristically cold.

He felt his insides twist as facts began to connect in his head. Last night she was a little tipsy, and with the joyful atmosphere, she could've easily been inclined to do things she wouldn't normally do.

"Do you…" his voice broke. "Do you regret?"

The silence seemed to last an eternity as he waited for her to reply.

"No," she finally said with a small smile. "No, I don't regret."

She snuggled into his chest and stayed there until the cab arrived. Before she got in, Erik cupped her face and kissed her softly goodbye. She kissed him back but it felt different from all the other kisses they had shared, sweet yet poisoned with a sense of uncertainty.

Edit: Guys sorry for the lateness but I had people over and couldn't find enough time to finish the chap but I promise the new chap will be up by Monday 4th if not sooner :-)

4 more chapters left! The climax of the story is still ahead of us!

Next chapter: While Erik tries to figure out what had Carlotta bothered an unexpected visitor at the Opera House brings some past back.

Now, tell me you never thought about using the torture chamber like that!

How did you like the cameo from Mr. Fireman? I had to include the PFD in the story even if just for the sake of realism :D

Now, what happened to Carlotta? Why the sudden mood swing? Could she have come by something that changed her view of Erik?

Bonus picture on Pinterest: /pin/386324474277586599

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