Christopher awoke on the floor, covered in a cloak as dark as night. He carefully inspected the object and pulled it off of himself, flinging it to the ground. He stood up and took in the scent of the dampness and the freshly lit candles. He looked over across the way to see the same girl who led him down here hard at work on a new music composition. She gracefully marked the notes on the music bars, feeling for her violin on the ground next to her. She tested out her music by playing it on her instrument. The sound was so beautiful, yet ominous. It seemed to travel from the violin all the way to Christopher. He was somehow led by the sound and inched his way closer to the woman. 

"Erica..that's absolutely beautiful!" He exclaimed, excited. However, his exclamation frightened the girl who thought he was asleep. She jolted up and stopped her playing, looking in the direction of the manager of the opera house. "Christopher, you're awake." She said, not even cracking a smile. However, being of friendly nature, Christopher smiled warmly at her and made his way over to her. He leaned over, looking at her music, his chest close to Erica's face. "Beautiful score..you're amazingly skilled." He complimented, running his finger over the freshly written score. Erica let out a small smile this time. "Thank you, Durand." She thanked, calling him by his last name. 

Christopher smiled and continued to study the music. That is, until his mind wandered somewhere else. He looked down to see the white edges of the half-mask that adorned the side of her face. What did she hide under that mask? Why did she even wear it? If only he could see what was underneath the mask. Maybe he could, if he was careful enough. He carefully reached his left hand over to gently touch the mask. Erica didn't feel a thing, so she continued to work on her music. He carefully put the tip of his fingers on the mask. And with one pull, he ripped it off the side of her face. 

Erica quickly got up and screamed, covering her face, but before that, Christopher saw it. He saw the burns, the abnormalities, everything about the side of her deformed face. His eyes widened and he paled, looking like he just saw a ghost. He collapsed to the ground upon hearing Erica's blood-curdling scream. He knocked over the music stand and a couple of unlit candles. Erica narrowed her eyes at him, looking more intimidating and more evil than she ever did. Christopher's eyes bugged out of his head. What had he done? Erica cursed him and ran to the other side of the room. "IS THIS WHAT YOU SO TERRIBLY WANTED TO SEE!?" She screamed, uncovering the side of her face, but quickly covering it back. "CURSE YOU, DURAND!" Erica shrieked, running to the other side of the room and collapsing to her knees. Christopher's eyes welled up with tears. He scooted back, the music stand collapsed in front of him, his back to the wall. He was paralyzed with shock and fear. Erica's eyes bugged out of her head and she let out the scariest smile. 

"Did you think I would look like this? Is it stranger than you dreamt it, can you even bear to look? Or bear to think of me.." She walked to a mirror and slowly lowered her hand from the side of her face, but then quickly covered it up again with a groan. "This lonesome GARGOYLE who burns in hell, but secretly yearns for heaven, secretly, secretly.." She looked down at the ground and fell to her knees again. "Oh, Christopher.." She whispered. Erica looked back to see she had frighten the poor man to tears. Her face softened when she realized this. But she still felt the anger bubbling up inside her. What right did he have to touch her mask? Then again, maybe he was just curious. Maybe he didn't really know what he was doing. 

She made eye contact with Christopher, her hand covering the left side of her face, only her eye peeking through. "B-But fear can turn to love, you'll learn to see, to find the girl behind the monster of this.." She inched closer to him, crawling on the floor. He looked petrified. She saw his face and hers quickly dropped. "This..repulsive CARCASS who seems a beast, but secretly.." She tilted her head up to the sky. "Dreams of beauty, secretly, secretly.." Tears streamed down Christopher's cheeks upon seeing her in this state. Erica looked down at the ground, a tear hitting the floor. "Oh..Christopher." She whispered with a sniffle. Christopher felt horrible about what he did. He didn't even mean it, he was a very curious fellow. But he didn't want Erica to feel like this. In his opinion, she was the most beautiful girl he'd seen. He saw the mask across the floor where it fell. 

He stretched his hand across to retrieve the mask. He picked it up gently and turned back to the devastated Erica sat across from him. He reached over and held the mask out for her to have. Erica slowly turned her head around to face Christopher, her silver-blue eyes filled with tears, one sliding down her face. She looked at him, then down at the mask he held in his hands. Through her cold face, you could see a twinkle in her eye that reflected her gratefulness to him and his gesture. She gently took her mask back from him and turned away. She fastened it safely around her head and it was back covering the left side of her face. She stood up and looked at Christopher, turning around, the same cold expression on her face, as if nothing had happened. "Come, we must return. All the opera workers will be missing you." She told. Christopher got up and looked back at her. 

Now he knew more about her then he ever did before.

Hello everyone! This is a write about my two characters from Phantom of the Opera, Erica and Christopher. If you can tell, some of the words are lyrics from the song "Stranger Than You Dreamt It.." from Phantom by Andrew Llyod Webber. It's sort of the same thing that happens in the musical, but with my characters and their personalities. Hope you enjoyed, stay kawaii and bye for now!