For those who are new to this series, I advise that you read Drowning in the Music and Drowning in Illusions first. This is now the third story of my Drowning trilogy. Unless you're into reading spoilers and being hopeless lost, then by all means, go ahead and dive into this story first! However, if you can manage to get passed the first half of my first story, I'll be impressed. I'll simply be gracious if you can accept the many flaws of my first story. I promise it gets better.

I hope you all find yourself enjoying this story as well - thank you for all who are reading, and thank you very much for all of your reviews and support! I'm naming this chapter after a lyric from Envy by Chevelle because I listened to this song a lot while writing this chapter. The sound of this song it fits the chapter. I do not own the Phantom of the Opera, nor any music from Chevelle. I only own my OC's!

Enjoy!

. . .

Clare's POV

"Thank you for dinner."

I stepped out of the warm restaurant with Erik, our bodies met with cool weather that softly brushed our skin. I once again found myself regretting that I had worn my black skirt to this date.

Looks like today was the last day to wear this for a while.

It was getting too cold to get away with wearing a skirt; especially once the sun had set. The sky was orange, but was dwindling to a deep, navy color. Blackness was creeping upon the city, stars twinkling high above us. Erik turned and looked down at me, smiling warmly as we stepped off the curb. He stood at least a foot taller than me.

"You're more than welcome." I felt my lips tug back into a smile. He was so cute and sweet that it made heat radiate to my cheeks without my consent. I hadn't felt this way in a long time. I then realized that I never had. Hope swelled in my heart, and my mind whispered a gutsy thought that I had tried to prevail myself from thinking before in the past.

This must be what love feels like.

Another part of me scolded my wishful thinking. It was far too early to even consider such a thing yet.

He sure is pretty, though. . .What kind of man finds a quite, timid girl like me appealing? Most guys were attracted to bubbly, beautiful extroverted women, weren't they? I guess there really was someone out there for everyone. This man must have simply been attracted to people like me. To think that he had picked me out of the rest of them was exhilarating to me.

I glanced around the parking lot. There were a few cars parked nearby trees; most likely parked by employees who attempted to keep the sun away from their cars by parking underneath shade upon arrival from hours ago. I spotted my brightly colored Volkswagen near the back of the parking lot. I certainly couldn't miss it - the car was practically a neon sign.

"Where did you park?" I glanced around, wondering whether one of the cars nearby was his.

"Not far from here. . .Allow me to walk you to your car."

A true gentleman. I knew my mom would say if she had heard him. But of course, she would have waited until we were home before mentioning it. "Alright, I'm just parked right over here." I led the way, but he kept close by me as if he truly believed that someone was going to take me. That's because you have been before, and he knows it. I knew that he was just trying to look after me.

We reached my eccentric German car. I felt my face flush a little.

"Is this your car?"

"Yes." I felt bad that I actually felt a little sheepish to admit it. "I got it for my sweet sixteen." I explained, irrationally feeling embarrassed by how girly it most likely seemed to him. He merely nodded. When I was sixteen, I thought it was the greatest car in the world because of it's cute shape and color. It was as if it had it's own interesting, dainty personality. Naturally, I was utterly ecstatic when my parents had generously brought home the shiny new car for my birthday. I still loved my car - it was reliable, and cute. I just knew that to people like Erik, though, he probably thought it looked ridiculous.

Oh well. I thought. He could deal with it. Veronica certainly approved of my car. She often reminded me that it was the cutest car on the road.

"Thank you again for dinner."

He smiled warmly at me. "You're more than welcome." He said again. "I hope we can do this another time." My heart thudded in my chest. He wants to go on another date with me!

"Of course."

Something in his eyes changed. I couldn't place what it was - it was as if a thought had crossed his mind, but was obscured by an unidentifiable emotion that glazed his striking blue eyes. The only way I could put it as was. . .Intense. I would say it gave the chilling air an ominous twinge, but it seemed more intense rather than ominous. His form seemed to gravitate closer to myself, as if he had crossed a threshold that kept us apart. I suddenly sensed his touch that snaked upon my jaw, caressing my face. His finger tips were cold from the dropping temperature, but his touch was gentle. His eyes bore into mine, and my heart hammered in my chest when I realized that he was wanting to kiss me. He hadn't even leaned in yet - he merely gazed down at me, his eyes wandering all over my face, taking in my features. He was so beautiful, like an elegant, merciful angel that had entered my life to lead me to an unfolding haven that would welcome me there for eternity.

I forgot that it was cold out as my senses were clouded with a growing interest in him; with a growing desire to taste his lips. Our close proximity was foreign to me, yet I moved instinctually as if I had been held like this before. As if my hands had a mind of their own, they slid around his back. I could faintly hear the sound of a car entering the parking lot when Erik's eyes broke away from me, drifting above my head. He looked within the direction of some trees that had been planted behind me to make the parking lot appear nicer, but I felt that he wasn't truly looking at them. He instead looked as if he reluctantly accepted that he had been interrupted. I couldn't understand why he had stopped.

Before I could ponder over it, a heavy sensation of exhaustion suddenly weighed down on me. As the exhaustion advanced on my senses, I wondered why I felt like this. It was as if I hadn't slept at all last night, but I knew that was not the case. My stomach clenched uncomfortably. Dread filled me when I recognized the nauseating level of fatigue. My body demanded to lay down - even if I had to rest in the backseat of my car, and my mind whirled hysterically with thoughts. Was I sick? How was I going to get home in this condition?

Maybe I could call the girls.

"Erik. . .I-I think I need to go." My heart quickened in panic. A sports car rounded the parking lot behind Erik, rolling to a smooth stop directly behind him. Erik turned to face the car. The parking lot lights shimmered golden stripes across the sleek, ebony paint of the car. I faintly saw the silhouette of someone's face in the driver's seat behind the dark, unyielding tinted windows, but failed to make out the features.

The memory of being abducted in a parking lot very much like one ghosted through my clouded mind, causing fear to grip me. Don't think like that. I told myself. Erik is here to protect you. Instead, Erik looked at the car as if he had been expecting it. A touch around my wrist caught my attention, and I saw that it was his hand before my heavy eyes lifted up to his. His blue eyes loomed in my gaze that began to drink in more and more darkness as my eyelids drooped.

"Don't leave. Not yet." I heard him say right before control completely slipped my grasp, and everything fell dark.

. . .

My body shifted upon a surface that lowly rumbled with movement, and my ears identified the muffled sound of a moving car. A grip was still on my wrists, but it was tight and irritably scratchy. My eyes lifted open, met mainly with darkness with the exception of bright, blurred cobalt lights before it cleared. I stared at the light that pierced my sensitive eyes before I recognized that I was looking at a glowing dashboard that did not belong in my car, nor Veronica's. My eyes widened in horror.

Where am I? I would have gasped, but something kept my lips sealed. I tried to move my mouth, but my lips were not pliable. Underneath my nose, I could smell a scent that faintly reminded me of glue. I realized that I had a strip of duct tape over my mouth.

My cheek was pressed against a leather, cushioned carseat. My neck felt stiff, but I lifted my head nonetheless, my panic surging inside me. My eyes wildly flickering through the dark car, my heart rate climbing rapidly. My back ached terribly from laying on a different and uncomfortable surface, where there were various dips and ridges for the individual seats for each passenger. A seatbelt buckle dug into my lower back. I knew I had been laying against it for a very long time, due to it's presence that felt like a dull knife stabbing into one of the dimples of my back. My arms ached and tingled, half asleep. It was then I realized that they were pinned behind my back. I wanted to ease the pain in my arms, but I could not separate my wrists. I cold feel that they were bound together with firm, coarse rope that painfully stabbed into my skin.

My mind whirled with fear. It repetitively demanded to know where I was. Wherever I was, I had a horrible feeling that I was already very far from home. I couldn't believe that I was met with another situation like this again. How had it come to this? What had been slipped into my drink that I had earlier?

Focus on more important things! My mind snapped. Focus on getting out of here! While thoughts and fear swirled together into one inside me, a memory faintly ghosted through my mind. I faintly remembered my dad long ago warning me that if I should ever be kidnapped, to get away as quickly as possible; to escape during the process of being taken. It would be my best bet. It would be easier, or at least, more likely to get away alive early on in the process. The longer I was captive, the less likely I would escape.

Kick open the car door!

My eyes blindly tried to search throughout the cabin of the dark car for the door handle that was directly at the end where my feet were. My black high heels were gone, leaving my bare feet cold. My ankles were pinned together, joined by similar rope that was around my wrists. The rough fibers of the rope poked into the soft, sensitive flesh of my ankles. I could not separate them, and the more I struggled beneath the confining rope, the more it rubbed and chaffed my skin, feeling like a snake of sewing needles that mercilessly pricked my skin.

Horrifying potential fates whisked through my paranoid mind. What was going to happen to me? My stomach turned at the idea of rape or being an unwilling organ donor. Surely in the end, I would be dead. If I didn't get away tonight, my life would soon come to a painful closure. While I would die soon if I failed to escape, I wouldn't die without fighting. And with that, surely my final hours would be horrifying ones.

I needed to get free, and thoughts over how to break my captivity darted through my mind. I needed to get the duct tape off, but mainly the rope that secured my limbs first. In order to untie the rope, or tear the duct tape off of my face, I needed to get my arms over the front of my body rather than pinned behind my back.

I heard Erik murmur to the driver as the car rolled to a stop, but I could not make out the words. He swiftly opened his door and stepped out, the car door slamming shut behind him, briefly leaving me alone with the driver that I could not see through the darkness. My heart thudded rapidly in fear, but felt to have stopped when the door beside my head was pulled open. My mouth would have dropped open in a gasp if the duct tape had allowed it. Instinctually my body wriggled to cower as far away from him as possible. Before I could manage to sink to the far left seat beside me, Erik reached right in, grabbing a firm hold of my upper arm. He swiftly pulled me right out as if I had weighed nothing, and my body clumsily stumbled out of the vehicle as I tried to resist.

I almost would have rather been back inside the car rather than in Erik's arms. Erik, the man I thought I could begin to trust. Oh, how dreadfully wrong I had been.

I screamed as loud as I possibly could from underneath the duct tape, praying that someone, anyone would hear me. I began to thrash like a wild deranged animal, fighting to break my captivity. It was next to impossible when he reached down, fully gathering me into his arms. I was like a bound bride in his arms. I arched in his arms, trying to push myself out of his hold. Even if it meant that I would crash into the cold, unforgiving ground. I wouldn't care if the hard impact knocked the wind out of me - I simply wanted to be free from his threatening arms. However, his arms constricted, keeping me secure against him. One of his chilling hands cupped the underside of my bare legs, his fingers against my inner knee. His other hand was on my back, keeping me upright. The more I fought, the more he crushed me closer against himself.

Help! If only my thoughts could be screamed out coherently. Whenever I tried to say help it only sounded like a pathetic whimper.

He was carrying me further and further away from the mysterious black car. Huffs of air spewed from my nose as I struggled to free myself. As I screamed they were smothered, but I continued to thrash underneath his tight grip. However, my attempts to wiggle out of his hold were instead harming me. Pain shot through my ankles, and the rope chaffed horribly around my now burning wrists. I knew it was cutting into my ankles by now. I felt tears sting my eyes.

My body ached. I had no time to worry over the stress I was putting on my now burning muscles. I had no time to feel exhausted. I simply needed to get away. However, no matter how hard I fought, I was pulled further away from the car, my struggles as effective as a sickly person.

I was aware that we were nearing an unfamiliar building. My eyes frantically searched my surroundings, desperately trying to make sense of where I was, or how far away I was from home. I could see other homes across from us. It looked like a suburban neighborhood, but I could still hear the city traffic nearby. I wondered why no one had seen what was going on yet. Perhaps the neighborhood was sleeping.

The outside world sank away - my freedom was swallowed up when I was forced into the unfamiliar house. My view of the outside world was shut away when the tall door firmly closed, and I heard metal locks sliding into place.

. . .

As you all probably figured, this is Clare's remembrance of the kidnapping, since Erik never saw it. What do you think this Erik doppelgänger is going to do to her? Go ahead and share your thoughts through reviews! And anyone who reviews gets a "welcome back" hug from Erik. I will most likely update again very soon, since I have a handful of chapters already written! Expect a chapter within the next week or so! Thank you for reading!