Beauty and the Mask

Inside My Mind

Erik POV
"I must tell you, your home is very beautiful. Its fit for a king! How did you acquire it if you don't mind my asking..." She said wiping her mouth with her napkin.
"It is my parents..." I said not wishing to continue on the matter any more.
"Oh? Well, they have good taste Mousier." She said smiling at her comment, not knowing the story behind my life.
"They had an obsession with beauty, a sick obsession. This castle most likely fueling their need for more and more." I said running my fingers through my hair anxiously.
"Beauty is not a bad thing to be obsessed with-"
"They only could see beauty on the outside, they were cruel people." I muttered and clenched my fist under the table with the mention of my parents ways.
"Where are they now?" She asked innocently curious,
"I don't know, they left when I was sixteen. On my birthday," I said not wanting to remember that foul day, the day I let my madness consume me. The day they left I stayed in the tower where my music room was for three weeks before Nadir had found me passed out of the stairs from lack of food and water. He found my bloodied and battered for I had smashed anything that showed my reflection, the reflection of a monster. Madame spent three hours picking out the shards of glass from my arms and nursed me back to health. This was the first time I ever saw her cry, a strong woman I viewed as a mother crying for me. After I was back in semi good health I concealed myself inside of the castle and have not left the grounds since. The town seemed to forget about my family and I all together. Nobody ever came back, nobody ever wrote, nobody would want to come face to face with this angel in hell.
"How could they do that? Your their son... they loved you didn't they?" She asked her voice quivering with pity for my tragic life story of resentment and hate.
"They loved me when I was beautiful like them...." I said remembering every insult my wicked parents had ever screamed at me after I was... changed.
"But you are-" She stopped herself and I snapped my head forward to look at her, Im what?
"What?" I snapped waiting for her to call me a monster... it never came. She only looked away from my stare and I saw her cheeks turn a bright red.
"You are extraordinary..." She mumbled, barely audible. My jaw dropped and my hands trembled. Extraordinary? You think Im...
"T- Thank you." I muttered, Dear god man your stuttering! I mentally chastised myself in a shrill voice inside my head. This girl, this angel... she thought of me as extraordinary. She thought of my home as beautiful, she saw me pure and whole.
"Mousier?" She said softly looking at me once more with her doe eyes making my mind melt in a puddle.
"Yes Christine?" I said fiddling with the buttons of my house coat not wanting to make further eye contact with her for I surely would loose all sense of sanity I had left.
"If you don't mind me asking, why do you keep bringing me back here? I did not please you last time and you are showing no intention of making me do so again..." She said in a tone as innocent as a flower. She had no idea of the pleasure of just having her sit a few feet away from me and speak to me as if I was just another human being, not a monster. I did not know how to respond to her question, Ignore it, she cannot command you to tell her....
"Christine would you like a tour of the castle?" I asked not giving her previous question the slightest attention. Her curiosity changed into excitement,
"Really?" She almost squealed with excitement, how endearing... I thought about her excitement about a simple gesture,
"I do not say anything I do not mean, finish your meal and I will show you my home" I said internally smirking, hoping she would be even more impressed by the rest of the castle.

Christine POV
I had almost called him beautiful, only to hold my tongue and remind my self that he was not my friend, my lover, nor companion. He was purely a man I was supposed to please. He did not respond in any way, shape, or form when I asked him of his intentions of bringing me here once again. He seemed reluctant to speak of his parents, how I began to loathe them as well. This was a charismatic genius sitting with me, someone of great intellectual abilities and the personality of a charmer indeed. When I finished my meal he stood from the table, towering over me by a good foot. He cracked his knuckles which made me twitch a bit at the noise, and blew out the candles on the table.
"Ready?" He asked in his unearthly voice that I loved listening to as he was walking towards my chair.
"Yes Mousier," I said standing and looking deep into his green eyes, piercing my soul. He left the dining room and I followed him closely. We retreated into the foyer once more,
"What will it be first, the library or the ballroom?" He said taking a candelabra from a table near by, illuminating the masked half of his face.
"You have a ballroom?" I asked,
"Indeed, its rather grand in my opinion." He said turning to face a corridor down the hallway. "Come, we have much to see." He said walking off towards the ballroom. I scampered behind him not wanting to be left in the darkness, for I feared it.
"Mousier?" I asked breaking the silence between us,
"Yes?" He responded still looking straight forward,
"Why do you keep it so dark in here? A place of such beauty deserves to be illuminated so it may be seen!" I said looking around at the faintly visible murals coating the walls.
"I find comfort in the darkness, it soothes me if you will." He chuckled a bit at his statement,
"Oh" was all I could respond with. He stopped and looked at me,
"Your afraid of the dark aren't you?" He said pulling the light from the candle closer to us, his face now fully shown in the light. He had to look down to make eye contact with me,
"Yes, I know it is very silly but-"
"No, you should have told me. Here, hold this." He said handing me the waited candelabra and I almost dropped it from being in a weak state. He pulled a candle from its stand and left, emerging into the darkness making me feel as if I was completely alone. The clicking of his shoes on the marble floor being the only sign that he was still in the hallway with me.
"I'm still here." He said almost knowing exactly what I was thinking,
"I know, I can hear your shoes on the floor" I giggled at him trying to comfort me in a strange way. I heard him scoff at my giggle. A bit of light filled the room as he began lighting the candelabras that hung on the walls. The hallways had many lining the walls, and he began lighting them in attempt to not make me fearful of the darkness anymore.
"Better?" He asked walking close to me again.
"Yes, thank you." I said smiling slightly. He continued to walk down the hallway again, the way he walked with his head held high and each step with such grace. As we continued he stopped every few moments to light more candles to soothe my fears, then we could continue down the dark corridor. I studied the back of him, how his hair was elegantly slicked back, and the way his sideburns framed his face.