Raoul was attending yet another one of his older brother's dinner parties. His brother, Phillipe, was a married man and wanted his younger brother to soon get married as well. Thus, he hosted these dinner parties, where he mostly invited families of higher status, who had young daughters.

Raoul would flirt with the girls, but any bonds between him and any of the ladies were broken by the time the sun came out.

After spending quite a few hours surrounded by pretty women's faces, each one the same as the other, he decided to go out into the mansion gardens for a breath of fresh air.

As he wandered, he couldn't get Christine out of his mind. He tried every trick to woo her, which would work perfectly on any other girl, but Christine didn't even budge. She just looked like she was annoyed.

'She couldn't have forgotten about our childhood, now, could she?' Raoul wondered 'Can a few years of separation make such a difference?'

As he came about the mansion gate, he saw Gustave, Christine's father running towards the locked gate. After calming the violinist down, all he got to piece together was, that some hideous monster has Christine imprisoned in a castle in the woods.

At that point, a plan already started to form in his mind. A plan, how he could be his Little Lotte's hero and win back her heart.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

In the castle, the figure of a tall man paced along the edge of one of the many balconies of the West Wing, silently arguing with himself.

"Oh, this couldn't get any worse. Not only does Erik have a girl in his castle, but she is also so beautiful." He sighed.

"But, on the other side, what if she is the one? The one, who will break the spell. Then, all of us could be normal again!" Erik's heart skip a beat, but he immediately hung his head down.

"As if that would ever happen..." he bitterly murmured "With how pretty she is, she would have to be both blind and lunatic to fall in love with this."

Erik made a few steps closer to the pedastal, on which the enchanted rose sat. As he laid one of his bony and scarred hands over the glass dome protecting it, he caught sight of his reflection on the smooth glass, immediately covering up the reflection with his hand.

He needed to go away from his room for a while, or he would surely go mad. Erik strode towards the dining room, sitting down to an already prepared dinner of three courses.

As he lifted his gaze up from the plate of warm soup, he noticed plates also set up on the other end of the table.

It didn't take him long to realize that his servants have prepared the girl dinner. They dared to disobey him. He tried to hide his anger, but he soon chose to take it out on the plates, knocking the porcelain onto the ground, shattering each dish beyond recognition.

"Firmin!" He yelled as he stomped into the kitchen, where all the servants were gathered. "You are preparing the girl dinner?!"

"Well, since she is here, we thought that she could possibly be the one, master!" The candelabra explained. "So, you know, we tried to give her some comfort. We gave her one of the chambers in the East Wing, Madame Carlotta kind of made her a new dress..."

"You gave her a bedroom?!" Erik interrupted the candelabra, angry flames dancing in his eyes.

"But, the dinner might come out really fine. After all, it is said that a woman cannot resist a candlelit dinner. Great idea from Gilles here, if I may say so!" Firmin said, stuffing one of his candles in front of André's mouth.

"Charming the prisoner! What do you think might come out of that?" Erik once again angrily paced. "She is the daughter of a thief. What kind of person do you think that would make her?"

"You cannot judge people by their fathers, now, can you?" Madame Giry interrupted their conversation. Before the curse, she was a kind widow of 40 years with two daughters to care for. Now, she resembled a white china teapot with golden swirls running along the sides. The younger of her daughters, little Jammes, was always accompanying her as a little chipped teacup, the older daughter, Meg, being turned into a delicate china figurine.

Erik glared at the teapot, but tried holding back his anger. He looked to the ground afterwards and sighed. "Well, what do you think I should do now?"

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°
A while later, Erik was standing with all the servants in front of Christine's door. Sorelli was huddled close to Firmin on top of a table opposite the door, Andre standing on the ground and Madame Giry along with Jammes were near on a small trolley.

Nervously, Erik strongly knocked on the door, the knocking audiably echoing in the room. "You will have dinner with me. And that is not a request." Erik said to the door. However, no response came from the inside.

"Be a little more gentle, my lord. The poor girl might be scared to death from what happened." Sorelli hinted.

However, behind the doors, Christine was anything but scared. Having separated all of the pink fabric into giant strips, she was tying knots at places where the fabric pieces linked, throwing the already made rope out the window.

"Yes, gentle is the right word! And when she opens, give her a warm smile." Firmin said to Erik. "Well, show us a warm smile!"

Erik threw the most overworked grin at the servants. "Well, it will also work without the smile." Quietly commented Andre.

Turning back to the door, Erik knocked a bit more gently. Christine heard the knock and yelled: "Just a minute!" to the door.

"You see? She's there!" Firmin encouraged his master.

"Will you please have dinner with me?" Erik asked with a clearly false sweet voice.

"You first imprison me and then, you want me to dine with you? Have you truly gone mad?" Christine's response came. Erik grit his teeth, holding back his anger once more.

"I said: Will you please have dinner with me?" Erik said angrily, his fists balled up at his sides.

"No, thank you!" Christine spat back.

"Fine, you can't last there too long without eating!" Erik enraptured into an angry yell after pounding on the door. "If she doesn't eat with me, she doesn't eat at all." Erik yelled at his servants, extinguishing one of Firmin's candles.

"Master, wait! Show the girl who you really are!" Firmin begged.

"This is the real me!" Erik yelled, running away from the disappointed gazes of his servants. Perhaps to prove his point or perhaps to escape.

As he got into his room in the West Wing, he took his anger out on one of the few candelabras in his domain. Ever since he was cursed, he avoided sunlight, mirrors and all his servants as best as he could.

He carefully came closer to the pedastal with the enchanted rose, where the magic mirror laid. Quickly turning it over, he squinted his blue eyes, trying to make the reflection of his gruesome face as blurry as he could.

"Show me the girl." He commanded, the smooth surface of the mirror swirling all different colors until a picture of the girl manifested. She was sitting with her back against the door, the blue skirts of her dress gathered in her lap. Her eyes were red from crying.

'Erik made the beauty cry...'

Just as Erik was about to stroke her images cheek with one of his skeletal fingers, the projection vanished, letting him stare at himself.

"What's the point in trying?" He asked himself as he laid the mirror face down. "She'll never see me as nothing but a monster..." As he finished the sentence, another rose petal has fallen off.