The Phantom's opera

Exposed*

I slightly regret teaching Erik how to write because it just pushed him down a massive rabbit hole. He did rewrite his operas in neater handwriting, but that turned into him almost recomposing all of them. He has sat at the organ all week and, to my knowledge, hasn't slept or eaten since he started. He did warn me though that he would go into a 'hibernation like state with' which made me wonder if he really knew what hibernation was. He also only estimated that it would last 3 days, and gave me some emergency money which I ended up having to use to buy myself food after all the food ran out, using only a little bit of it to buy a book that was English and fabric to entertain myself with. It was pleasantly surprising that everyone spoke English to me, but I suppose I was talking French to them assuming that the what Erik and I have extends also to them. I even found my way to Notre Dame on Sunday and attended a mass, which  beautiful and in Latin, which caught me off guard before I remembered that the mass being spoken in other languages was a modern thing. Back at the lair however, there was little to occupy me. I spent all my money at the market already and the food I had bought, was running out with only enough to last me another day. I had read the book I had bought twice and had already turned the fabric into a knee length dress. I was proud of myself for thinking of making my own dress because it gave me the freedom that modern clothing brought without having to wear the daggy ones I had been teleported in.

With literally nothing else to do, I decided to just sit at the table in the kitchen and brainstorm possible ways I got here as it was more productive then staring at a wall. I already had the 'helping the phantom' theory,  but I tried to think of other theories just in case that one was wrong. For the amount of time I put into thinking about the theories, I was very upset with what I got out of it. The only 2  other theories I came up with were either; that this was a dream or that I really had time travelled in a machine and I just don't remember it and someone else had time traveled back to save me and just got the date wrong. Both were pathetic theories and even if they were true, it means that I would just have to wait this whole thing out. My thoughts were interrupted by Erik walking into the kitchen. I was shocked when I looked but was able to mask my own face of any reaction and suppress my  gasp. It seemed that Erik had gotten so lost in compositions that he took off his mask and forgotten to put it back on. The disfigurement was bad. His face mainly displayed raw,  wrangled flesh and the little skin that he  hadwas main concentrated on his forehead  and was translucent greeny- yellow, allowing me to see the skull and veins beneath his skin. It almost seemed as though his face was decomposing while the rest of his body lived. 

"Welcome back to life where we have to eat and sleep. I hope you enjoyed your break from it." I tried to joke without missing a beat.
"I can't say I'm glad to be back." He responded as he he went to smooth back his incredibly gelled back hair, which he didn't know that I knew it was a wig. It was when he went to do this motion, he realised that his mask was missing and let out a curse under his breath. He turned to me, utterly shocked.
"How?" He softly whispered, unable to say the small word without his voice faltering, exposing the emotion behind it.