The Universe's Mixer

The night was still. Unmoving. Like a statue almost and it both elated and frightened Edward. He wasnt scared of many things to be quite honest but a quiet night made him paranoid. He wasnt a man for stillness. For quiet. Eddie didn't even sleep in the same position, if he slept at all, always needing motion. His body needed action, and his mind ran constantly so to have a moment of silence was awkward. And yet it was so peaceful.

His daughters absence spurred something in him he wasn't sure how to place. It was something he both craved and loathed. He craved it because she burdened him deeply. He felt that his life was cast to play every part for her, to work her towards a goal she continued to slip away from. He wanted her to be perfect, and he loathed her because she never truly could be. Not to him, anyway. His mind wouldn't allow it. Eddie would rather see his daughter void of life than living a falsity. Even her supposed happiness wasnt good enough. It was a show, an act that her mind projected to hide the true desires beneath. Those desires were what Edward craved to bring to light. To mold, to shape. He had instilled those desires within her and she was suppressing them.

Oh he hated her.

Jingle, jingle....

Then there came that jingle.

As he moved, the pockets of his jacket swayed with the motion of his legs as they carried him down the sidewalk. Within the pockets were bullets, a good many and the way they sang into the night one would think simply Edward had many coins hiding within the fabric. But they only wished to be coins. Instead, they were metallic cylinders that could take a life.

Edward had loaded up in hopes of finding someone to murder, as taking life eased his internal rage (the one thing he secretly shared with the Doctor) but he hadnt found a good enough target to satisfy his urge. His need.

With a breath Edward exhaled into the night. He floated down the street almost, in a daze as his thoughts over-rode his natural motor skills leaving his body in auto-pilot. He wasnt going to join the hunt to look for his daughter. If they found her dead it would be the light of his night. If they found her alive that would be alright too. He could just kill her.

Slowly, Edward continued to jingle along the sidewalk, passing shops and stores closed for the night as he walked like a shadow. His green suit jacket did well to conceal his weapons, and despite forgetting his cane at the Asylum, Edward felt quite safe. Quite safe indeed now that the silence had been thoroughly broken.

Hours after taking that small capsule, which rendered to Erik all the seemings of death, Erik awoke in the small, hidden room where his timed trap door had deposited him. It was dark, dark as a tomb, and not even his excellent eyesight penetrated the blackness. He didn't need light, fortunately, to do what he needed to do. Once he'd found and turned the switch to open the door leading into one of the tunnels up to the house by the lake, it was easy to navigate by touch, by sound, and by memory.

He changed out of the clothes he was wearing. They were beyond salvation, covered in goat's blood as they were. After taking a stroll through the hidden observation panels around where he'd left Enigma and finding what he saw very much to his liking, he returned to his wife and to his Opera House, and left the child alone for days.

The news swirled around Enigma's disappearance from jail. There were the expected inquiries at the Opera House. Erik was dismissive, sharing his suspicions about the woman's past criminal record and encouraging the officers to quickly return Enigma to the cell she rightfully earned. With his wife, he was careful and gentle, especially attentive, and wholly disingenuous. Although he'd promised Christine he'd tell her what was on his mind, the morning after Enigma's re-education began saw Erik's perspective changed. He didn't believe his delicate wife should be involved in this. And he would not want her to feel like she had to lie for him.

It was four long days after he first brought Enigma to the midnight garden in cellar 5 before he returned again. He didn't reveal himself just yet. Rather, he watched her in the hidden places she would never find.