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Portrait of the Soul	By : sirenofsaturn Category: M through R > The Phantom of the Opera > Het Views: 2723 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own The Phantom of the Opera, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 11
- 12
- 13
We hit 80! I’m so happy! I am also sorry for the wait. I am also going to apologize in advance. I just registered for classes, so school is coming up. I will continue to write, but updates will be cut down. I will try to get at the very least one chapter up a week. Please keep in mind these are college classes, and I have to work to…eat. Erik has to eat too!
Erik/eats his ice cream/ Neko owns nothing but original characters and this story plot. If you feel the effort to sue this college student you are only going to get used textbooks…and my ice cream money. /Swings Punjab lasso/
Erik! Be nice. Thank you for all the reviews! Keep them coming, please! As for this chapter I have no idea what is going to happen. I’ll just see what I come up with at the end, so see you at the bottom of the page.
Erik: That is so reassuring that you know nothing about my future…
Now you know how a minimum wage college student feels…
Erik/sighs/ Chapter twelve.
“Erik! Go back to your room and put on the mask!”
“Behold, the living corpse!”
“Erik! I want you to take off the mask,” “Please take off the mask.”
“I think it would be best if you simply did as my daughter has asked.”
“If an order is what it takes, then I am ordering you. God almighty, boy, you must see this can’t go on any longer.”
“-The mask is likewise a device to frighten infants. Remove it!”
“Then perhaps I should remind you that only ladies hide their faces in this country. Remove the mask, or the children will be instructed to perform that service for you-and also to take the precaution of removing your head with it!”
For years he had hidden his face, and for years fools had been both afraid and curious to pry. A mask had been with him for as long as he could remember, his first piece of clothing. Sense his birth Erik had always been curious as to why he had to wear a mask when no one else did. When he first laid his eyes on his own hideous reflection his childish innocence had only protected him for a little less than a year. He believed all mirrors were evil. That they all would house that monstrous image, this led to his fascination with them. Erik wanted to make mirrors beautiful, so he could look and see his real reflection. His true reflection. No matter how much he tried he kept seeing monsters. Then his innocence shattered. Erik realized that monster in the mirror was his true reflection.
After that Erik had spent the rest of his existence trying to keep his mask on. He wanted to go about his life without anyone noticing him, but people did. They wanted to see the living corpse; they wanted to see behind the mask. He had spent his youth as the world’s greatest magician. He controlled elements, and questioned physical laws. No matter how indulged his audience was, they always wanted more. They always wanted to see more. He would lose his temper and pull of his mask; he would exhibit himself like a freakish animal. Then Erik grew tired of being an exhibit. He closed himself off from the world, and wanted to hide forever. Now, in perhaps the greatest trust he had developed with another human being in over twenty years, he had failed.
Erik had lost his temper with Mia. She had shown him kindness and trust. Two things that Erik did not encounter every day, and in this trust he had betrayed her. Erik had done the one thing he wanted never to do to any woman. He had frightened her. Hearing Mia gasp, Erik immediately closed his sunken eyes. Her scream was coming, the scream that would change what they had accomplished forever. She would hate him, call him a monster, and never want to see him again. Erik waited, but the scream never came.
Slowly Erik opened his yellow eyes. Mia was staring not at him, but through him it seemed. Erik noticed the slight loss of color in her cheeks, and her partially agape mouth. Mia’s hands now rested behind her back, lightly gripping the table for support. Erik’s heart sank, worse than he had imagined. He had put her in shock.
“…Erik…” Or so he had thought.
Making eye contact, he brought himself to stand completely erect. He wanted to feel strong in his own home for whatever she was about to say. Whatever goodbye she might think of.
“This is what you have been hiding.” It was not a question; she was stating this to herself. Pushing herself from the table, Mia stood. Taking small timid steps she met Erik half way. Lifting her hand slightly up, Erik was confused by the gesture. Mia began to stretch her arm out further when Erik understood; she wanted to touch his face.
“M-may I?”
Not sure of anything Erik began to stare at his carpet. Another human wanted to touch him? Erik was thinking of all the ways to reject, when Mia continued to come closer. Walking right up to Erik, her small bare hands hesitantly reached up to Erik’s face. The smooth fingertips lightly touching the abnormal skin on Erik’s cheek. Slowly the fingers curled under the palm and began to explore the area between his lips hair. The other hand exploring the edges of his left sunken eye, as the thumb explored the nose that only half grew.
Erik overwhelmed with unnamable feelings closed his eyes. He couldn’t feel any part of his body. His legs and arms were numb. All he could feel was the soft, silk like digits that touched and explored his face. Then Erik felt it, a feeling that seemed to explode in his heart. This feeling was nothing like his attacks, it was warm. Erik could feel the blood pumping from his heart and through out his body. The red life liquid was warm and flowing everywhere inside him, from his heart to his brain, arms, and legs. Erik felt warm and alive and for the first time not cold and dead. His heart was alive, and for the first time in ages Erik realized he had one. The blood that flowed in his face was salty and dripped tears from his eyes. The heart that was seconds ago light was now heavy, and Erik’s breathing was getting heavier.
“Shhh.”
Realizing he was being soothed, he opened his teary eyes to see Mia crying herself. Her tears, not as heavy as Erik’s, fell in two small rivers down her face straight from her eyes.
“Erik, why are you crying?” She whispered.
Swallowing the lump in his throat Erik answered, but the lump remained. “You have seen me.”
“I see you Erik.” Mia smiled. “But I am still looking for it.”
“For what?”
“That hideous soul that you claimed to have. I cannot see it. I still continue to see you as I always have, inside.”
Erik chocked. “But you see the outside. It is as hideous as my black soul.”
“The only thing hideous,” Mia whispered. “Is the way you hide yourself and your fears.”
Smiling, Mia removed her hands slowly from Erik’s face to his neck. Without any hesitation or warning she wrapped her arms around his neck and embraced him. Feeling the weight on his heart increase Erik’s head fell to Mia’s shoulder as he sobbed.
Breathing in time with him, Mia’s lips moved against Erik’s shoulder. “…Erik…please say something.”
“…I don’t deserve this.” He wept. “…I do not deserve to be touched…all my life no one has…they haven’t…and I don’t deserve…not this…”
“Erik.”
“You have…why,” He sobbed. “…I have hurt others…I have killed…I don’t deserve this…I feel this…I feel warm…I never want this feeling to go away…but…but I don’t deserve it.”
Mia’s once small rivers were now flowing down her face. “Erik,” She wept. “Everyone deserves to be touched. That is our right as living beings with souls…we all deserve to be touched…we all deserve to be warm. Nothing can change that…nothing.” She whispered squeezing his shoulders.
The two went on embracing and crying. This pattern continued along with mumbled confessions, and gentle soothing. On the book shelf Ayesha watched her master and this new woman. The sobbing of their rocking bodies casting shadows on the wall. The shadows continued to sway, looking at first glance like a gentle dance. The dance continued swaying in time with the flickering candles on the house by the lake.
Morning found the two in Mia’s room. After escorting her back to the surface, as Erik thought of it, the two faced each other silence being their goodbye.
“…I will see you here tomorrow?” Erik’s lips moved under the replaced mask.
“Yes.” Mia smiled. “You will.”
“Mia…thank you.” Erik was cut short as Mia raised her hand in front of his face.
“No Erik. Thank you.”
Erik put his head down giving his signal of goodbye. His foot was ready for its pivot when he paused. Slowly his gloved hand glided gently past Mia’s cheek. Closing her eyes to feel the touch Mia leaned into the gentle caress. Feeling her chin being tilted, Mia felt Erik’s warm lips brush gently against hers before breaking away. Mia opened her eyes to question him only to see Erik was gone.
/Yawn/ Sorry if it’s a little short, but I’m a tired little kitty. That and I honestly feel that was a good place to end that chapter. Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for the reviews! They help, inspire, and encourage me to continue! Maybe this time we could pass 90! Sometimes I wonder how far away Erik and I are from 100! But then I’m getting ahead of myself…
Erik: Don’t be so hard on yourself; we'll get there eventually
Really?
Erik: I’m sure /Swing Punjab lasso/
Sigh, my muse is controlling my reviewers influence…is this good or bad? Well I’ll figure that out later…I’ll try to update later this week, if you’re all good little reviewers! Erik, up for ice cream?
Erik: What flavor?

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Portrait of the Soul