Phantom's Understudy

Part Eight - Friends

After a long night of battling my thoughts, I decided to find Erik. I wanted to talk and if I didn't find him who knows when I'd see him next.

I so desperately wanted him to trust me and I didn't know why. The amount of compassion I felt in my heart for him was beyond anything I had felt before. It had to mean something, right? I mean given the circumstances I should hate him and be angry with him, but he had been nothing but kind to me otherwise. He was mysterious and even the mystery intrigued me. I was curious about the mask and why he had it, about why he was so untrusting, about his own compassion, and about his interest in Christine.

None of this was my business and I didn't expect him to tell me any of it. But, something just made my heart feel warm when I was near him.

So, off to find him. I had gotten dressed in my casual attire. It was a soft blue dress and it was extremely light compared to all of my others. It was comfortable and I didn't have to lace up a corset. It was borderline sleepwear, but it looked beautiful.

I stepped out of my room and walked out of the opera house. Every time I had heard something about him, it always directed me to the basement of the opera house. Which terrified me beyond what words could tell you, but I was trying to be strong.

There was only one entrance that I knew of and it was mostly off limits. But I knew that they didn't do much to keep people out since some people frequently had to make it in some storage rooms.

The entrance was past all of the dorms and behind a wooden door. It was a weekend, so no one was really here, so I wasn't very concerned about meeting anyone. I opened the door and walked past some rooms that were used for storage. Until I came to a grand stairwell going down to the basement. It was a spiral staircase that made it's way around the huge cylinder of a room. I began descending the steps cautiously.

I had heard stories of this not being safe but what else was I to do? I walked down the steps until I didn't anymore. I don't know what happened, but I lost the floor from under me. I fell through into a pool of water, the temperature sending instant spikes of pain through my skin.

From above me I saw a grate begin to fall and I could literally feel my pupils shrink. "ERIK!!!" I screamed, just hoping he might be close enough to hear. "HELP!"

Panic was setting in and I was never one to handle panic well. I was lucky I could swim and keep my head above water, then alone find a way out. I kept screaming for help and the cage reached my head. I took a final breath of air and just waited for my death to reach me.

** ERIK **

"That isn't the note I was imagining for this line" I murmured to myself, looking at the pages. I played more keys on my organ to make it correct and I took note of the next set of notes I played. Composing was the only thing that kept my mind from racing and thinking of things that would just make me feel awful.

Somehow my mind always spoke to me and was able to convince me of bad thoughts or doings and music was the only thing that subsided it. That, and somehow speaking to Elizabeth helped too.

She had a way of making everything ok in my head. Being treated with such respect and, dare I say, care was something I just was not used to and I was not worthy of her friendship.

But she was willing to give it to me and was willing to do so without my secrets. She was willing to touch me without being put under a spell like Christine did. I don't know if Christine would touch me like she had before without my hypnosis. Of course, she fell out of the trance and fainted, and then touched me only to pull off my mask, but I did not consider that counting.

Elizabeth had embraced me on several occasions. Something I hadn't even received from my mother. She showed me something I had never received.

After about three minutes of staring out into the air, I had realized that I had completely stopped composing, only thinking of Elizabeth. I shook the thoughts out of my head and took a deep breath. However that woman managed to cloud my mind so easily, I do not know.