Twisted Every Way(Phantom Of The Opera Fic)

Chapter 62: Visitors

Ilios looked out eagerly at the lake, her breath fogging the glass as the cold window pane pressed against her cheek.

"Any moment now," she thought as her heart beat like a drum in her chest. "Any moment now and she'll be here."

She tried hard to remember when she had seen her cousin last. Though she couldn't quite call her that, they weren't quite related. But that didn't seem to matter, the anticipation of seeing someone she knew so much and yet so little was enough to draw her to her as if they had known each other all their lives.

"Mother when is she coming?" She called from underneath the cloth curtains, leaving her as only a dark shadow to the outside world.

Christine entered the room with a sigh and pulled the curtain aside, leaving the thick hair of the child frizzed this way and that as if someone had violently rubbed a balloon against it.

"Not for another hour at least, now sit still and let me braid your hair back," Christine said kindly as her fingers twisted and turned every which way pulling strands like ribbons.

She did it with such precision and concentration that one would think she was working a very precise art, painting with braids and pins and bows.

"No bows. Has Elizabeth seen a Panda bear? I rather like those. I wish Naomi could be as soft and warm."

The old orange tabby meowed from across the room and waltzed over to the window seat. Her fur was matted and clumped on her back and one ear tilted forward like a radio antenna, searching for some sound or signal it would never quite get.

Erik knew Ilios got impatient, and often lonely being home so often. Andre had bought the cat for himself a few weeks ago, but Erik found a way to get the cat back to his daughter.

"Naomi may not be soft and warm as a panda, but she is loyal, and won't desert you for a good bamboo stick." Christine smiled, "And you're still a young girl when you're older you can wear ribbons as Anabel does. Try to behave, don't irk your father, and be kind to Elizabeth. She's a timid child, you'll scare her off with such questioning."

"But the Panda Mother? Has she seen a Panda." Wide beckoning eyes shined with a million hopes and questions.

"Perhaps. At one zoo or another" Christine smiled, a hint of excitement in her own eyes "We'll see. Go clean your room, and then help me set up the table."

Ilios sprang to her feet, bows hanging on for dear life to a few strands of tangled hair.

She had barely run to the stairs when her mother called out scoldingly after her, "Ilios! Walk please."

She slowed with exasperation and took hold of the red oak railing that led up to the second story, begrudgingly she place one foot on the first step.

As the aproned mother rounded the corner into the kitchen, she bolted, running up the stairs. She had made it halfway down the long hallway to her room when a looming figure stepped out from the right and nearly knocked her to her knees.

"Well, Good morning!." The laughing voice thundered from above, "And how is my little angel today?"

"Papa, you musn't call me that I'm nearly ten." Ilios sighed fixing her dress, she smiled at her father's friendly eyes looking down on her and his black hair, frayed every which way like mad dogs after a long romp outside.

She had never really looked him over before, Eli had sketched him millions of times, but Ilios was always too busy to stop and look.

He was a tall man she knew, with eyes that danced with some secret only he and the music he played kept in confidence with each other. Like little sprites they twirled in his eyes, and one felt, that if you could only hold one for a second, happiness would be yours eternal.

He had a pair of spectacles clipped to his vest near his shoulder and enjoyed wiping them thoroughly with the small handkerchief he kept in his pocket. He had hawks eyes, but the timid, kind nature of a mouse. Ilios was thankful to her father, he got her out of trouble, and when needed into it.

He had suggested that Anabel and Fred bring Elizabeth over for the weekend to meet Ilios. Of course, Eli would have to be introduced slowly and Erik for the most part out of sight.

But the proud father thought that a small price to pay for such happiness for his little girl.

"Come now,"Erik laughed, "Give your Father a kiss."

"I don't have time!" Was the rushed reply from the small girl. "I must tell Eli, Elizabeth has come at last! And Gustave says he might bring Luke too! Oh, I'd love to chase Luke down again, show him I'm twice the man at cricket. but he won't play against me, cause he knows he'll lose. Enough for now I got to go! I'm going to try and hunt Luke and Eli down."

With her eyes firmly fixed on the door, she slipped underneath his arm and bolted, her feet slapping the wood and hair flying behind her, like a kite without a string.

The father smiled and made his way downstairs.

As he turned the corner to the kitchen he looked around contently at the small house and his wife. She was putting the kettle on and humming some small song they had heard on the radio the night before.

She often did things like this, noticing something small and putting her own little magic touch into it. Things that were always there, suddenly seemed so much more if she noticed them and put her heart into making their special peculiarities known.

"She's running after the boys already Christine." He laughed sneaking up behind her and grabbing a coffee cup, "They won't be able to catch her though, I barely can anymore."

She gave a start at being snapped from her deep concentration, "Erik you scared the wits out of me! Can't you for once act respectable when company comes over?"

"Fred? Company?" He let out one of those hearty laughs that scared the birds from their perches and caused the foundation to rumble like a giant had gone clomping through all of London, "No, he's a son to us, and Anabel a daughter, family members don't get special treatment."

Christine set down the dishcloth and tightened her lip with a knowing smirk, "Last time Nadir paid a visit it was "clean the rooms, scrub the kitchen," I barely had time to get a word in before you were off scrubbing the floorboards."

Erik smiled and shook his head, "Yes, and if we didn't he'd spend the whole time cleaning and no time visiting us."

Christine shrugged her shoulders with a small smile, "You're chipper today. Have you finally Have you finally figured out a way to beat Gustave at chess?'

She quickly went back to scrubbing Dishes, knowing full well the storm to follow. Erik disliked being beaten or cheated, by anything or anyone. And that included the Universe itself. He had always told her that death had been his best nemesis and he had bested him more than once. That if he ever caught danger by the toes again he's end him, once and for all. And his conviction as he said it, made her believe it too.

Erik frowned and the lines on his face grew deeper, but his eyes shined just as playfully as ever "You can't tease about that. He cheats, he always-"

He was cut off by the sturdy hollow knock on the door.