AN: Here is chapter three. Thank you for those who are reading thus far and who have reviewed.

xxx

Erik's mind was everywhere and nowhere. How odd it was that this woman was able to influence him so. Before the catastrophe that was his former angel, no one had held this much influence over his mind. Sure, the Persian and Antoinette could cause reactions from him, but it was nothing like this. In a matter of a few hours, this new woman had brought him out of his quiet home and back into the real world once again. It was going to drive him insane, he suspected.

The woman, Eloise, was in her own room in his lair now. Once they had reached the shore, she had tried to scramble away. That had ended in her successfully tripping, hitting her head, and being knocked unconscious. This had brought Erik out from his previous angry musings and forced him to once again help her. And, after making sure that she was not somehow dead, he brought her into one of the rooms that had not been destroyed by those who had hunted him down.

Now, however, the Phantom had made his way back to the main level of the opera house. He had unfinished business to attend to in the name of a rapist. The Opera Ghost planned to make the man suffer for what he had done to Eloise. No, but Erik would not go as far as to call the attacker a man. Any foul creature could rape a woman. It took a man to court a woman and eventually commence in love making. Did that mean he was less of a man? He had never enjoyed that experience.

The thought was pushed from his mind as he approached the cleaning closet where the attacker had been dumped earlier. Someone was banging against the locked door and shouting. It would do him no good. There was no one here to hear him. Only the floorboards and abandoned halls remained. That, and one very vindictive Opera Ghost.

Banging on the door finally seemed to work, the attacker realized. The door was suddenly flung open and light streamed in. He was about to thank the person who helped him when he caught sight of the man's grotesque features. "What the hell are you supposed to be?" he questioned as he openly gaped at the deformed face.

"Some kind of monster, I suppose," Erik answered as he pulled the attacker out of the closet and shoved him roughly against the wall. "It would be all too easy to kill you," the Phantom continued as he pulled a small knife from his pocket and lightly drew patterns across the attacker's face, careful not to cause any harm just yet. "Hmm, still, I think that we should have a spot of fun first. You did, after all, get to have your fun as you raped a woman in broad daylight." That reminder brought anger and adrenaline to his blood. He forced the attacker to the ground while keeping his knee in his opponent's chest and knife to his throat.

"I can do whatever the hell I want. I'm not letting some deformed freak-" the attacker began. He was quickly cut off when the knife was forced into his mouth. The blade had cut his tongue ever so slightly, but the pain that it caused was great.

"I am not the type to enjoy in torture unless it is well deserved," the Phantom stated as he glared down at the one below him. "I suggest that you watch your tongue, lest you lose it." He pulled the knife free from the man's mouth, but he kept it close to his opponent's throat.

If the freak wanted a fight, it was a fight that he would get. The attacker still had full use of his arms. It was always a wonder to him how opponents would forget that their target had full control of their limbs, even in dire situations. Of course, the woman he had had his way with did not, but that was an entire different story. She was outnumbered and against better opponents.

Without another thought, he swung his fist into the deformed side of this freak that was attacking him. He felt the distinctive wet snap of something breaking or crushing under his fist. And, this seemed to do the trick to distract the freak. He was able to maneuver enough to force the freak off of him. He got to his feet and ran toward an open doorway. It was odd to him that the doorway was a seemingly painted picture, but he was not about to question his escape route. He didn't have time.

After a moment of blinding pain, Erik's vision came back into focus. The attack to his face had not been something he counted for. How stupid he was not to foresee that. Still, he could not focus on the pain in his head at the moment. He had to go after and dispose of this rapist before he had the chance to harm the woman Eloise again. Still, it was not as if he would be able to find the lair and cross the lake before Erik would get to him.

As luck would have it, the rapist stumbled into the mirrored room. With Erik close behind, the attacker had quickly shut the door behind him. To his dismay, however, he found the room to be blindingly hot and that the door he closed had no door handle. He was completely trapped in a room full of mirrors that used the light from above to burn its victims. The attacker began screaming, yelling to be let out and that his opponent should fight him like a man.

Erik paused at the doorway, considering releasing the man. He decided, after a moment, to simply let the rapist bake for a while in this lovely room. At the very least his time in Persia and craftsmanship had paid off for something. Eloise's attacker would not be able to escape and/or harm her, and he would die a most slow and painful death in the mirrored room. So, without another word to the desperate man on the other side of the door, the Phantom made his way to his lair.

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Eloise opened her eyes, or at least she thought she did. Everything was so dark. She had somehow gone blind in her sleep! No, that wasn't it. Her slowly waking mind brought back the memories of what had happened to her. She did not know where she was now, but it felt like she was lying in a bed. She also found that she had been dressed in a simple gown. It was clear, from what she could feel, that the person who had dressed her had no experience in dressing women and had dressed her quickly. But, why would someone dress her?

Then she remembered Erik. She had been brought across a lake and then she had tried to run away from the man pushing the boat through the lake. When she tried to run, she remembered falling and feeling a sharp pain in her head before blacking out. Erik must have brought her to this room and dressed her. Had he done more than just dress her? Fear began to eat at her mind, thinking that he too had likely taken advantage of her. Sobs sprang forth from her again. When she heard the door to her room open and footfalls follow shortly afterward, her sobbing grew harder.

"Don't hurt me," she begged the person who had entered the room. The person said nothing, which only made her mind reel further out of control. "Don't rape me! I'd rather die! Kill me!" The idea of death to escape her anguish was suddenly very appealing. She tried to force herself to get out of the bed and stand on her feet. She managed to fall to the ground. Eloise would not let that stop her from having the release from her mental and physical torment. She crawled forward and ignored the searing pain in her useless arm. "Kill me! You can rape me after. There will be no evidence and no one fighting you."

Erik was completely taken aback by how she was reacting to him. No one could harm her in this place. He had to make her understand that somehow. It was clear that her mind was once again playing tricks on her. He remembered all too well how badly his own mind had played with him shortly following his escape from the gypsies. "I will not harm you," he stated as he reached his hand out to her.

It was him; it was the man who had attacked her. She screamed in fright and tried to quickly back away from the person. Eloise tried to cover herself using her good arm. Maybe her attacker would just go away. Or maybe Erik would come save her. No, he would only hurt her too. She was quickly becoming hysterical and it was sapping her breath from her lungs.

The slow approach was clearly going nowhere, Erik realized. He came to her side and knelt before her while taking her good hand in his own. He suspected that her other arm was merely dislocated rather than totally broken. Once he calmed her down, he would be able to examine her.

When her cries and begging only continued, the Phantom sighed and brought her hand up to his marred face. Perhaps that would trigger some sort of memory in her mind. It did seem to calm her, though the touch did bring him pain from the recent attack. Still, the distraction seemed to be working as her breathing slowed and her cries began to soften.

"No more talk of darkness," he whispered to her. "Forget your wide-eyed fears. You're safe. No one can harm you. My words will-" He stopped short, stopped dead, when he realized the road that he was quickly going down. Why had those words come to his mind? Lead me. Save me from my solitude. Love me, that's all I ask of , the memory mocked him. He remembered being unmasked in front of the entire opera house. He remembered the total embarrassment and her rejection.

Eloise had come to realize it was Erik when her hand met the odd feeling again. She had no way of knowing what it could be. The words he said to her had calmed her. It was his sudden stop, the way that he pulled her hand away from the odd feeling, and his now tight grip on her hand that anchored her back to the present. "I'm sorry," she muttered. The tight grip on her hand seemed to lessen ever so slightly, but it remained in place. It took her a moment to realize that she was clinging to his hand with a firm grip as well. It kept her anchored and kept her mind from racing.

"Bad memories have a way of sticking with us," Erik replied as scenes from his downfall as the Phantom of the Opera played through her mind. He had been such a fool to believe that anyone could ever love a beast like him. Who could ever love only half a man?

He could not focus on that for the moment. His own personal problems were not the most important at the moment. The woman was. Eloise was her name, he reminded himself. He helped her up to her feet and then began to examine her harmed arm.

His touch was light, careful. Even so, it still caused her pain. Eloise tried her best to keep her mouth shut as he took hold of her damaged arm and tried to work the joint. The last thing she needed to do was start screaming again. She had done enough of that in his home. But, when he suddenly pulled her arm outwards and then gave it a firm push forward, she could not help but cry out.

"It's fixed now," Erik stated as he took a step back from her. He watched as she very slowly tried to move the arm about again. A smile came to the woman's lips when she realized that her arm was working as it should be. "Your arm was dislocated," he continued. "Putting the joint back in place can be done easily enough. It causes some pain, though. You will need to rest it to ensure that it heals properly and that no further damage is done."

"Thank you," Eloise replied as she looked down at her feet. How was she supposed to thank him from rescuing her earlier today? A simple 'thank you' would not suffice. It was barely enough for fixing her arm just now. For the time being, she would need to wait to find a way to thank him. For now, she settled on shuffling forward in the direction of his voice. When her outstretched hands found Erik, Eloise pushed her arms under his and hugged him. Oddly enough, she felt comfortable doing this. It brought back no bad memories for her.

To have another woman's arms around him, embracing him, was something that Erik thought her would never again experience. He did not know why she was doing it either. He did not know how to react either. His own arms hung stiff at his sides. Why was she hugging him? Would she react badly if he put his own arms around her?

Eloise pulled away from Erik and looked upwards. It was clear that he was taller than her. "I'm sorry," she said, rather confused by his stiff reaction. "I just wanted-I don't know. How am I supposed to thank you for what you've done for me? A hug doesn't truly seem like much, does it?"

"There is no need to thank me," Erik replied. This woman continued to surprise him. If he was not careful, he would find himself caring for her. The last time he had come to care for a woman, he had ended up falling in love with her. Love had only destroyed him. It was not something he wanted to experience again. Perhaps they could be friends. "You should try and rest," he continued. The sleep might help ease her pain.

Sighing, she turned and blindly found her way to the bed. She managed to trip once again, but the woman managed to land face-first on her bed.

"Do try not to harm yourself," Erik observed, trying his best not to laugh. He truly was horrible to laugh at the blind woman, but it was a laughable situation. When she turned to face him and attempt to glare, he rolled his eyes. "If looks could kill, I would find myself dead." Hmm, that would mean that he would have died at childbirth when his mother first looked at him. That certainly was a sobering, depressing thought. So much for the moment of happiness he was having. "Call for me if you require anything." He did not wait for an answer as he left the room.

Eloise groaned and flopped her face back into the plush pillow on her bed. This Erik was a very confusing man. One moment he was acting caring and the next he was cold. Another moment he seemed to be joking and then turned serious. How was she ever supposed to figure him out? He was the only one that knew she was in this opera house. He was the only one who knew where they were. She had no way of escaping wherever it was that he had taken her. Did that mean that she was trapped here? Yes. No? He would likely lead her out if she asked, right? And, who was he?

For now, though, Eloise would leave her thoughts for later. Her day had been utterly exhausting. Even the time spent unconscious didn't seem to have helped her. The heaviness of sleep quickly began to pull at her mind. She curled into the bed and pulled the blanket over herself. A familiar scent came to her as she realized the blanket was her own. Erik must have rescued it somehow. A smile settled on her face while sleep slowly took her to the dream world. She had another thing to thank him for.

AN: This is a shorter chapter. Please, let me know what you think. The plot will begin to move faster in the next chapters to come.