The day of the party arrived at last, and Christiana was awakened early, by her mother.

   "Come, Christiana. You must make breakfast and finish your chores, than I shall wash your hair and curl it for tonight."

    Why her mother was allowing her to go to a social event accompanied by another person - a man no less, Christiana had no idea. Mrs. Dame always forbid her from speaking to people unless she personally had introduced them to Christiana. And that was a lesson Christiana had learned long ago, when she tried to make friends at school.

   Even if she were going to meet a female friend at the party, her mother's agreement would have been shocking, but the fact that Christiana was going with a man... it was unexplainable. Her mothrr constantly told her that men were dangerous for many reasons. Whenever she had brought up the subject of male persons, she made sure to tell her daughter that she was not permitted to accept invitations anywhere. Really, she was to avoid them at all cost. Mrs. Dame was to introduce Christiana to suitable people, she said. Though she never fulfilled that promise.

    Christiana went through her morning anxiously, and puzzled over her mother's strange actions. It was just so terribly unlike her.

    But other things quickly overshadowed Christiana's confusion. Fear for instance. She was terrified of going to an event with Erik. What if she disappointed him somehow? What if he hated her singing? What if she embarrassed herself, or worse, both of them? The town gossips would go mad, seeing the young girl who lived like a nun with her mother, out at a party with a handsome, strange, and mostly mysterious man no one knew.

   Christiana could care less what the gossips said; she was worried about what Erik would think.

   Would he think this was a date? As the thought flashed across her mind, Christiana blanched. She was scared. Was it a date? Surely her mother would not permit such a thing!

   And Erik wouls never want to date her. A man like him did not date girls like her. What if he just wanted to try to take liberties? No, she thought back to his kind eyes, he was respectful. Ray would try to kiss her, not Erik.

   Good gracious though. She was nervous. He was coming by at six. She had a lot of work to do before then. As much as she hated vanity, and as much as her mother would not allow her to participate in any vain activities, Christiana wanted to try to make herself pretty. Erik was not interested in her romantically, but she still wanted to look almost as if she could belong at his side, as a suitable... date, at least, in some sense of the word.

                       ✖

     Erik paced his study. He had spent two hours staring at himself in a mirror, frowning. Damn it all, why couldn't he be born with a normal face and a normal mind like everone else? Well, now he regretted the mind part, since if he were not a genius his music would not be so easy to create, nor as enjoyable. But what he would give at that moment to be normal, to walk among the idiots who inhabited the world, with their stupidity, vanity, and pride. Well, he had pride, but he certainly was not stupid, and while fashion and hygiene wise, he was flawless, his features cursed him.

     If Christiana knew what was under his mask... she'd faint, die, scream and slap him, run away, and probably attempt to sue him, possibly for indecent exposure. Not necessarily in that order. He was a monster. He felt guilty having the poor, beautiful angel accompany him tonight. But after tonight, after this stolen time with her, he would be perfectly content to never see her again, to retreat back into his solitude and never surface except for his nighttime necessity runs once or twice a month. He merely wanted to behold his lovely angel once more, and then he could forever stay out of her life, away from her, with a beautiful memory of her imprinted in his mind, as a token of the time together that they should never have had.

   He checked the mirror once more before grabbing his car keys and heading to the garage. It was only five, but he could meander aimlessly around town for a while. If he stayed another moment in his home he would combust due to nervousness.

   At least his black hair was his though. That wasn't thinning or turning gray yet. As for his hideous face...

    C'est dommage.

        Christiana looked in the mirror, silently grateful that it was full length and that her mother was in the kitchen. She would otherwise not be able to look at her reflection in the only mirror in the house.

   She looked as nice as she possibly could. Yes, she'd have to pinch her cheeks and bite her lips to give those features color once she left the house, but her dress fit her nicely. Christiana did blush though as she found herself staring with a grimace at her... bodice. That part of her body was not curvy. Yet she was happy about her small waist. Being petite wasn't horrible.

  "Christiana, what are you doing? You should start walking, it is 5:15, dear," Mrs. Dame called in her hollow voice.

   "Yes, Mother."

    Carefully lifting the skirt of her gown so she could walk, she left her mother's room.

  "You look interesting, Christiana," her mother said when she saw her. She had not seen the dress on her daughter yet. Christiana had spent four months making her costume. It took a lot of work to make an opera gown.

   "Thank you, Mother."

     "It is a but snug around the waist. How much have you been eating, dear?"

  Christiana was in fact, a bit underweight, but immediately her thoughts of having a small waist abandoned her, and she worriedly glanced down. Oh, I hope I'm not terribly fat, she thought.

   "It's okay, dear. You have time to work on it and you are not trying to impress your male friend anyway." Mrs. Dame gave her daughter a cool smile and stiffly patted her hand, causing Christiana to jump, as she expected her mother to strike her.

   "Yes, Mother," she said, looking at the ground.

   "Now go, dear. You must be punctual, and it is now 5:21."

   Christiana's mother did not know Erik was coming by at six for her. She would have been horrified if she knew her daughter was getting into a car with a person she had not spent more than ten minutes talking to. Let alone a man's car.

   Christiana had solved the problem though. Since her street was a cul de sac, she could just walk to the end of the block and wait there for him.

   However, she found she did not have to wait until six o'clock for him to arrive. She hadn't been standing on the corner for more than five minutes when she saw a sleek black car driving down the perpendicular street. The black car turned immediately onto Blueberry and pulled up next her. Erik got out, and, unknown to them both, they both lost their breathe as they gazed upon each other.

   Christiana thought Erik looked quite charming in his all black attire. The air of mystery surrounding him was intensified by his swishing black cloak, trimmed with red velvet. He wore a white half mask that looked just like it came out of the book or Lon Chaney's phantom. It was white and covered his entire face.  Christiana admired how he had dressed for the book and not the musical. With her blonde hair they'd match the characters in the novel perfectly. He was quite handsome... dashing, and he was so kind her heart skipped a beat when he opened the door for her.

   "Thank you," she said, the only words she could think of.

  "You're welcome." He headed back to to driver's side.

   He softly chuckled as they drove away. "It seems we both forgot formalities, which is inexcusable on my part, so please allow me to make up for it. Hello, Christiana, you look absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. How are you?"

   Christiana laughed and blushed. "Quite well, thank you, and I'm sorry I didn't say anything other than 'thank you,' that was rude on my part."

   "Oh not at all. You probably had something on your mind... maybe the same thing that made you stand on the street corner half an hour before I was due to pick you up."

   "I'll tell you if you tell me why you were here half an hour early."

    "Tsk, tsk, my dear," Erik said, the endearment sounding so much sweeter rolling off his tongue than her mother's. "I am a very secretive man. I don't just go telling my secrets to everyone."

   Christiana raised her eyebrows at him. "And I sincerely, sincerely, love street corners. They are so sexy." Oh shoot, would he take that the wrong way? Glancing out of the corner of her eyes, she saw amusement in his, which were green today.

   "Oh I know, I feel the same way about trees. Many people see dull pieces of wood, but I see gorgeous bits of prepaper."  When Christiana was finished laughing at their shared dry and strangely nonsensical sense of humor, he continued, a little embarrassed. "If you must know, I was nervous and could not spend one more minute at my home."

   "My secret is not as pleasant as yours: my mother didn't know you were supposed to pick me up. Of she knew I was riding in a car with anyone she hadn't yet become closely acquainted with, she'd have a fit."

  "And yet, my dear, this is your second illegal offense of that rule. My, my, you've already ridden in my car once before."