Therapeutic Phantom

Backstory

(^ Drawn by me, please don't steal)
(TRIGGER WARNING: Some sensitive topics may be covered here. If you aren't comfortable with that, then i'd advise not reading this one)

His mother died in childbirth, which left him in the hands of his father. However, her father was disgusted that his wife had died in birthing what he deemed an 'abomination' and decided to profit off this by selling him to a travelling circus. They named him the Devil's Child (Like in the 2004 movie) and people would come and go from his cage, laughing and taunting him as he was beaten with his disfigurement fully on show. He went through years of this, not even being graced with a real name or anything of the sort. He had a lady who would try to look after him and taught him how to perform on a trapeze in the hopes that he might get less beatings and join her instead, but the ringmaster refused this. However, the lady didn't give up because she cared for Erik like a son - much to the ringmaster's distaste - and one day she simply vanished. Nobody knew where she went. Erik was devastated by this but he never allowed his anger to boil over, as he was too afraid of the consequences he'd face if he hurt anyone. The circus passed through all of England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and even began reaching through to France by the age of 8. And during one circus performance, he noticed one girl a few years older than him who wasn't laughing. She waited until the beating and tormenting was finished and everyone moved to the next attraction before speaking to the boy in secret. This girl was the lady who would later be Madame Giry. She found a way out for him and quickly lead him away, despite his panic about being followed or harmed further. He heard yells about 'killing the little runaway bastard' but luckily they never found him once he was hidden away below the opera house by Miss.Giry, and she continued to care for him and bring him food and whatnot when he needed it, as well as bestowing the name 'Erik' upon him, as well as the surname 'Floraison' which translates to bloom, signifying his new life. As he grew older, she also made up a story about there being a spirit which requires monetary offerings in order to appease it to the managers of the place, who thought it absurd until Erik pulled a few stunts to make it seem real. This is how he began to get his monthly pay from the owners of the opera house. He felt bad at first, as he had never been given money before and felt like earning it this way was mean but eventually he got too reliant on it to put much thought into it. Madame Giry would use whatever money he gave to her to buy things he asked for, and acted as a big sister figure to him as he grew into a man. Though that bond didn't change one bit despite his age. When he reached the age of 26, he began to notice a rat which would pass through every so often to drink from the river. He wasn't afraid nor disgusted by it, but he soon came to notice that it had an infection in one of it's eyes. He managed to gain it's trust enough for him to look at it and - after quickly reading through any book which may help with this situation - he did his best to treat it. The infection went away soon enough, luckily, but left the rat sightless in that eye still as he wasn't quick enough to save that. He let the rat go after that but it chose to stick around with him instead, so he happily accepted the new friend and named her Samiko. From then on he was a little less alone in his lair, but still lacked most human contact and craved the romantic love that he read about in stories, though in about a year's time, he would probably meet [Christine Role].