Chapter 10: Starting Over

Evangeline's POV

Ever since breakfast and him begging me for forgiveness, I hadn't seen mask or hide of Erik. During the time of his disappearance, I had grown bored of just sitting in my room doing nothing, so I decided to explore Erik's lair.

As I began my exhibition, I couldn't help but think about my mentally unstable host. I knew that he had a rough past, but by the way he was crying when he was asking me to accept his apologies, I had a feeling that it was worse than I or any other phan have thought. We all had pictured Erik as this seductive, manipulative, tortured genius who was hated for his looks, but I'm starting to believe that it goes way deeper than that. And that in itself has grown more questions that I have. Like for example, why did he use drugs? I already know that people using drugs isn't against the law, at least not in this time, but I'm starting to wonder what caused him to start using them and why I found him in his coffin having an overdose. I'm gonna try to start over with him . After all, he and I had started off on the wrong foot, so when I see him, we're going to have bit of a talk.

By noon, I had the entire layout of the lair mapped out in my head as I had spent the entire morning just walking and exploring and during my excursion, there was still no sign of Erik. I took note that many of the rooms looked as if it went through an apocalyptic disaster, with most, if not all of the objects in the room either strewn on the floor, ripped to shreds, and/or broken into little pieces. I discovered that he had an impressive library, one of the few rooms that were not destroyed, and it was filled to the ceiling with books, making the bookworm in me squeal in delight. I also saw what appeared to be his music room (well, what seemed to be left of it), and also noted the many exits and doorways that led to nowhere, but yet again, Erik still didn't make an appearance.

Hmm, is it weird that I hope that he's okay? I thought to myself.

After making my fourth trip around the lair, I had decided to head to the kitchen to make myself some lunch. I reheated some of the bacon from breakfast to make myself a BLT sandwich with an apple and baby carrots to eat in the library while I find a book to read. As I was preparing my food, I decided to also reheat some of my soup that I made yesterday, just in case Erik came in and was hungry. With my sandwich and sides on a plate in one hand and a cup of tea in another, I made my way back into the library, put my food and drink on a table that sat between two easy chairs, and searched the bookshelves for a book.

After a minute or so, I had a stack of books in my arms and made my way back to the easy chair and the table with my food. My tea and my sandwich were still warm by the time I got back and I then proceeded to take a book from the stack that I had, sit down on the easy chair, and began to read, sipping my tea and taking an occasional bite of my sandwich.

Erik's POV

As soon as she had left for her room, I left for the storage rooms above my lair to search for an organ or, at the very least, a piano or violin so that I wouldn't have to disguise myself and headed back to the surface to order a new one. If I didn't, I would have to find a way to bring it to my lair without the authorities finding out that I am still alive as well as to bring it across the lake without it sinking the gondola. As I walked, my thoughts turned to Evangeline. She deserved more than just a meager meal as a way to express my apologies, but since much of my belongings had been destroyed, that was all I could manage at the moment.

In the past two days that I have known her, I had been horrible to her, had threatened her life twice, and even had vomited on her when she was nursing me back to health less than 24 hours ago, and despite all that, she has treated me far better than anyone that I knew has been to me in all of my 30 years of life.

Not even my poor, unhappy mother would do something like that, even if she wanted to.

As I arrived at the storage rooms, I halted my train of thought as I began my search for an organ.

*Four Hours Later*

After searching the entire storage area from front to back, I have miraculously found an abandoned, fully functional organ and a small violin, complete with case and bow,that looked like new. But as I silently congratulated myself on my findings, I was met with a new problem:

How will I move this organ into my music room?

I can carry the violin around without any problem, but the organ was heavy and I didn't bring anything with me to move it. I then proceeded to look at the bottom of the instrument to find that this organ had wheels on its legs.

"Well, that problem has been solved." I said to myself as I began to push it out of the room and through the secret passage to my lair.

As soon as I returned home, the smell of Evangeline's soup permeated the lair with a delicious, savory scent. But when I moved to the kitchen after placing my new instruments in the music room, there was no sign of my guest.

"Mademoiselle? Mademoiselle, where are you?" I called for her.

No answer.

I began to search the lair for her. I checked the Louis-Phillipe room, the music room, her room, the foyer, but all efforts were fruitless.

A thought suddenly came to me:

She probably left this place as soon as I left the lair.

The thought hurt more than the punch that Evangeline gave me, despite the fact that it was most likely true. And she would have every right to. I'm actually surprised that she even stayed for an hour, much less a few days. No one would ever want to stay with me, so why would she?

Now wait, Erik. I heard the Voice reason, Are you sure that you checked the entire lair? Are you certain that you have checked all of the rooms?

I thought for a moment. I really hadn't checked the entire lair. I only checked the rooms that I know that she has been in and I have a lot of rooms in my house beyond the lake and she could be in any of them!

After searching almost the entire lair from top to bottom, I had almost given up when I entered my library, which was the last room that I didn't check. When I opened the entrance, I almost gave out a shout of joy as I saw her sitting on one of the easy chairs.

There she was, on an easy chair asleep with a book on her chest and an empty plate and half-empty cup of tea on the table.

She looks so peaceful. Maybe I should leave her alone.

As I got up to leave, I heard my guest give a yawn as she opened her eyes to look at me.

"Oh, hi Erik! I didn't hear you come in." She yawned as she proceeded to stretch her arms and crack her knuckles.

Evangeline's POV

I bent my knuckles until I heard a satisfying 'pop' as I began to fully awaken. With one, final yawn, I was fully alert and ready to have a conversation with my host. But as I was about to speak, Erik had beaten me to it.

"Mademoiselle, I must thank you for saving my life. I have only been a terrible beast to you and have never thanked you for your kindness."

"You're welcome, but you shouldn't really be thanking me. You should be thanking God. He was the one that sent me here. In fact, I didn't even know that you were down here or were even a real person before two days ago. In my time, you're considered a popular fictional character that has so many adaptations and altercations that it's hard to name them all or count how many there has been."

I saw him give a pensive look before he began to speak again.

"Regardless, I am most humbly in your debt, mademoiselle."

"You know, you can call me by Evangeline instead of saying mademoiselle all the time. And if you like, I would like for us to start over."

He looked confused.

"Start over?"

"Yeah. The two of us got off on the wrong foot when we met and since I don't know if or when I will be able to go back to my home in the 21st century, then I would like us to at least be friends. Maybe not best friends, but just friends."

I then offered my hand to him so that we could shake on it.

"So, deal?"

Erik's POV

The girl offered me her hand as a way to show my acceptance for her proposal. If I accepted, then I would have acquired a friend. Although, like her, I had doubts that we would be close friends, I didn't care. I would have a friend! Oh, how I had longed to have one when I was young. As a child, I would catch a glimpse of other children playing hide and seek or tag and I would always long to join them. As an adult, that longing for a comrade to talk to, to share a smile, a laugh with, only grew stronger.

I damn sure won't let an opportunity like this pass me by.

So, with my large, white, bony hand shaking her small, brown one, I said,

"Deal."

A/N: So, first off, 1.22k views?! Oh. My. GOSH!

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