Chapter Eighteen

                                    

                                          


                          
{Play the video above for the theme song to our lovely dark character...}
                          
Drip, drip, drip, drip, drop. 
                          
Drip, drip, drip, drip, drop. 
                          
Drip, drip, drip, drip, drop...
                          
Christine's eyes fluttered opened, agitated from her unconsciousness by the insane rhythm of water dripping from the ceiling to the floor. 
                          
Her eyes focused on the single source of light in the room; a flickering candle that seemed as if the smallest amount of wind would immediately blow it out and cast the room into an explicable darkness that overtook one's soul. 
                          
Christine's vision was blurred slightly, as if she were looking through the eyes of another, but standing behind a wall of fog... she blinked a few times, in an attempt to clear her vision, but still, all she could see was the flickering light... and a shadowy figure...
                          
She blinked a couple more times, fighting through the blurriness to try and see her surroundings, but still... her vision was blurred by a fog that seemed to cover only her eyes. 
                          
Breathing in shakily as she tried to calm herself, Christine noticed that the flickering light was now completely blocked by the shadowy figure.. and that the shadowed figure was now getting bigger... and it's unidentified shape becoming more defined... taking on a more humanly form rather than a mass object... 
                          
It looked almost as if the figure... whatever, or rather, whoever, it was, was now standing only a few feet away from the bed on which she now rested, and as Christine blinked a couple more times, she realized that she could now make out the figure clearly. 
                          
Black clothes hung on the perfectly built frame of a man... a very, very tall man... The clothes stuck to him, perfectly outlining his built form, and yet she could not lock eyes with the man, for his head was down. 
                          
Christine coughed ever so slightly, her gaze locked onto the man's head, dread consuming her for fear of what she might see once he raised his head. 
                          
The figure was Erik, she just knew it.. she could feel his intimidating presence, could feel his nonexistent ability to see straight into her soul and know her darkest desires... 
                          
She was just about to turn her head away and ignore him, when he raised his head. 
                          
Hair as black as midnight, styled to utter perfection, framed the perfectly shaped face, his strong jawline sharp enough to cut through something, his nose inexplicably shaped to perfection, and those lips... those soft, slightly-pink lips that sent her body bursting into flames whenever they touched her skin. 
                          
Slowly, she raised her gaze to his, and she drew in a quick gasp of shock as their eyes connected. 
                          
The dark, golden eyes held an unfamiliar emotion that she had never before truly seen Erik possess..
                          
Flickering back at her, unblinking, they pierced into her as a sword through a man's heart. The glint in his eyes.. that dark, flickering gleam that challenged every fibre of light Christine's soul might ever possess... consisted of nothing but torturous evil that spoke of the ability to cause unseen horrors in a world where nightmares thrived on the souls of the consumed. 
                          
Christine's entire body immediately stiffened in fear, as she sensed that the evil aura surrounding this.. this.. man of darkness was something that should not be beckoned with. 
                          
"Oh, what a fluttering bird you are... I truly do wonder whatever he might see in such a shy, innocent, young girl such as yourself.. I surely did think he had better taste in women than that..."