Search for the Opera Ghost: Rewrite

XI.

Zuri awoke from her nap feeling very hungry and exhausted. Erik sat across the room watching her very carefully. He regarded her coolly. "Can I get something to eat?"

"I will get you something. Stay here."

"I can walk."

"I want you to stay in here. I'll bring you something to eat."

"Fine." She replied feeling defeated while watching him walk off. She waited impatiently as thoughts of him crossed her mind. What was he intending to do to her? Erik came back quickly and handed her a plate of sliced meat and bread.

"I will get more food later today, until then you will have to eat that." He told her.

"Thank you."

"You are welcome." He grumbled back as he walked back to the chair he had been previously sitting in and sat back down.

Zuri felt uncomfortable under his stare. She could not stand be stared at while she was eating. She sighed but nibbled on a piece of bread to sate her empty stomach. She could not stand the silence between them. "Why do you look at me in such a way?"

"You have a problem with where I look?"

"No. I suppose not." She continued eating silently while eyeing him every once in a while.

Erik stood up suddenly and with a great sigh he said, "I want to...apologize." Zuri almost choked on a piece of bread as he continued. "What I did to you was horrible. I am not that kind of man. I cannot tell you what was truly going through my mind but I should have never forced a punishment of that caliber upon you. I hope with time you will find it in your heart to forgive me."

She wiped away a stray tear from her eye. "You cannot be serious. After what you did...do you expect me to believe that you are sorry for all you did?"

"No. I do not expect you to believe me, but I ask you to." He replied as she looked at him with tears rolling down her cheeks. Erik sighed then pushed himself to his feet and walked over to the bed then looked down into her tearful eyes. "I do apologize."

"It is hard to believe you Erik." She paused as she looked in his eyes, "You didn't seem sorry about it when you did it."

"That is because I wasn't!" Erik snarled at her then turned around so that his back faced her. "I wasn't going to apologize, but I realized that what I did was terrible. I am many things but I never wanted to be a rapist."

"What about those things you said about me? Do you feel sorry for calling me a whore?"

"I was wrong for calling you a whore."

She eyed him curiously and partially doubted him. He was the Opera Ghost and she was certain that he could say or do whatever he wanted without being punished for it. "I do not know if I can ever go back now. I am shamed."

"You will heal."

Zuri cried out in shock of the coldness of his voice. She suddenly flew off the bed and beat her fists against his back. "Bastard! You are not sorry! You will never be sorry!"

Erik turned around and grasped her wrists in a harsh grip. "I told you that I was sorry. Get over it."

"What was it that you truly wanted from me?"

"What do you mean?"

"You wanted to see me leave. Why are you keeping me? Do you wish me to sate your need?" Zuri questioned him angrily.

His eyes narrowed at hers as one arm grabbed her lower back and pulled her hard against his body. His other hand grabbed some of her ebony hair in a fist and pulled her head back. "There is nothing about you that interests me besides your stupid mission. The only reason that I am keeping you here is to understand why you even began this. You flatter yourself too much to think that I would want you. Besides, you are the one who is a wanton."

"Excuse me!" She cried out indignantly.

He smirked at her, "You heard me Zuri. You are a wanton! Afterall, didn't you want me to take you? To make you mine?"

Zuri bit her lip harshly as she narrowed her eyes. "I was in a dream state. I see you for what you really are!"

"And what am I?! Tell me Zuri!"

She tearfully cried out, "You're a monster! A beast! I didn't want to believe it!"

Erik growled low in her ear as he watched her cry, "Yes. However, this monster won't have you in his bed."

"You won't change. You will never change. I thought I could help you but that is a laugh!"

"Indeed!" He agreed with her for once. "It is useless to try to change me."

She screamed angrily, "God, you are such a..."

"A monster."

"No. You are such an ignorant man!"

"Ha!" He laughed as he pushed her up against the edge of the bed. "You are so humorous mademoiselle. Me? Ignorant?" Erik suddenly growled very low in her ear, "You were the one who came here thinking you were going to change me. You also thought, as you stated so beautifully in your diary, that I was a romantic ghost with a dark appetite."

Zuri watched him laugh in her face while trying not to cry. "You're a terrible person. You are not sorry for what you did to me. I am sure you would do it again within a heartbeat."

"You are a wanton, may I remind you, you wanted me in any way that I would have you."

"You are wrong!"

"Am I?!"

"Yes!"

Erik grasped her chin firmly and pressed his lips against hers. She gasped, allowing him to thrust his tongue into her cavern and caressing her shy tongue. Zuri's hands grasped his forearms tightly while he bit her lower lip. Erik pulled back nearly breathless, his eyes caught her face. Her emerald eyes were half-lidded and her lips red and swollen from his kiss. "I think you are in denial." He smiled as he watched her eyes widen in embarassment. "You still want me dear Zuri...even though I did rape you."

"You bastard!" Zuri shouted, a blush crept over her cheeks as she realized what he was doing.

"Shall we test it to see if you still do want me?" He paused as one hand drifted up her side and eventually rested beneath the swell of her breast and watched her in humor. She was giving him a glare of pure anger and beneath that look, he realized, there was some lust. He smiled as his hand beneath her breast cupped it fully. He ran his thumb over her clothed nipple and watched her bite her lower lip.

"Stop."

"Why? Don't you want this my little wanton?"

"No."

"Your body says differently."

"Stop it now!"

He pulled her tightly against him as he squeezed her breast harshly. "I think I am enjoying myself too much to stop Zuri."

Zuri looked at him angrily then with all her might stepped on his foot. Erik released her as he howled in pure rage. Zuri knew this was her chance to get away. She ran past him and into the main part of his lair. Panicked, she looked around to try to find an escape way for her. She heard his angry roar as she rushed into the water and found it to be cold and the water came up to her waist. She shivered as she waded through the water while looking back to see him angrily coming towards the water.

She squealed loudly then hurridly disappeared in the tunnels. Erik was going to hurt her if he caught her. "Don't run Zuri! I will find you!"

Zuri ignored him and continued to make her way to a set of steps that led into another tunnel. She shivered as the chill of the water began to take hold. Zuri tearfully cried out, her muscles were tensing while she climbed up the small set of steps. She could hardly bear to walk from the coldness of the water and damp air. She shivered again while moving her frozen body forward.

She had made her way into the darkened tunnel then felt a hand grasp her wrist and pull her back. "If you really want to take your chances in the tunnels then go ahead mademoiselle, however, you will die before you find your way out."

Zuri felt warm tears slide down her icy cheeks. "Damn you." She whispered softly.

"Curse at me all you want. You are coming back with me before you catch cold. I still have questions." He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder unceremoniously. Zuri sighed as she was carried back to his lair. Why bother fighting with him? Erik took her back to the bedroom and dumped her on the bed. "You will stay here and I will hear no more about it."

Zuri shivered as she watched him disappear into the bathroom and reappear with a towel and a crimson robe. "Why don't you let me leave?"

"I told you why. Besides, you wanted to come here."

"I thought it would be under amiable circumstances."

"Are you an idiot?? Did you not read the papers? I am not someone who is amiable in the least. You tread on my property and you paid the consequences." He paused as he handed her the towel and robe. "Here, dry off and change."

"Turn around please."

"It is nothing that I haven't seen before."

She blushed, her cheeks turned a soft pink as she held the towel to her breasts. "Please."

Erik grumbled, "Fine."

Zuri stood up and took off her night gown slowly. She looked back to see his back facing her. She sighed in relief then threw her gown in the floor and began to dry off. "Why do you care?" She suddenly questioned him while putting on the satin robe and tying the sash firmly around her waist.

"I don't care."

"You should have let me die. I would have been out of your way then."

"I told you that I still have questions that are unanswered. After that you can jump off a building for all I care."

Zuri bit her lower lip in frustration. "I didn't think you would be like this. You are so bitter."

Erik turned around to glare at her only to find her staring back at him. "I am only bitter because women are traitors."

"Is that what you honestly think?"

"Every woman I have known has betrayed me. Why should you be different?"

"Maybe you have not met the right woman to make your life better. Not all women are bad. Do you think I would accuse all men of being rapists after what you did to me."

Erik growled loudly, "I apologized! Get over it Zuri."

"I can't get over it Erik. I wish I had never come here."

"That makes two of us."

"Ooooh! You are so egotistical. You think you are the only one in this world with problems! I have news for you Erik, you aren't!"

Erik rounded the bed in three strides and angrily approached her. He slammed her against the wall harshly and held her as tears slipped down her cheeks. Zuri reached up and rubbed the back of her head where it had contacted the stone wall. "I have had enough of you. You can't possibly understand what I have gone through." He growled loudly then threw her on the bed.

She stood upon the bed and cried out, "You are not the only one in the world with problems Erik! Why don't you get over that!"

"Shut your mouth before I shut it for you."

"Can't stand the truth Erik?"

Zuri realized she should have kept her mouth shut at the last moment. He had pushed her down and was on top of her in what seemed like a second, his lips pressed harsly against hers in a bruising kiss. She could not even categorize it as a kiss, more as an assault on her mouth.

Erik had her hands pinned above her head with one hand while the other pressed into the mattress, he growled angrily against her lips then pulled away leaving them both panting for breath. "Damn it. What is it about you?"

He pushed away from her then stomped off into the main part of his home leaving her very confused.