Phantom Child

1. The Phantom Of The Opera

Before I get properly into the story, I need to ask you to do something: picture yourself being around 13. Feels good, eh? Not a child anymore, though the best years of your life are still before you. Now to set the mood I, unfortunately, need to destroy this feeling: imagine you're an orphan. Well, life isn't kind to everyone equally, but what can I do? Now, if you are, by any chance, in the same life circumstances as me and it happens to be around 1890s... then brother/sister, I have one last thing to say to you:

Run!

And run I did. I was running probably for my life through the streets of Paris. Luckily for me, I was small enough to maneuver my way through the crowd, though the man chasing me wasn't giving up.

"Can't he just leave me be?" I thought to myself, annoyed. After all, I only stole a loaf of bread!

On the other hand everyone here was struggling to make a living. In times and places like this life wasn't easy. Every little piece of food and clothing was priceless. Especially for someone like me, abandoned, doomed to a life of a bread thief, only to see another day of poverty and endless struggle.

As these thoughts were running through my head I was getting more and more tired from the chase. My only chance to escape was to hide somewhere, hoping to fool the angry man. Still not stopping, I looked around the place. Some more merchant stands, people, horses and a carriage, even more people- Wait! A carriage! That's it!

I sped up, and ran around a little more in hope that the man would lose my track or at least get a little confused. After several rounds around the market place I jumped behind the carriage and tried to be as invisible as it could get. The man passed me by a few meters, shouting:

"I will find you, you little thief! You little bastard!"

Not having discovered my hiding spot, he continued to search. For now I had some time on my hands, however I knew that the moment he spots me, the bread-hunt will continue. I had to get out of here or at least find a better place to hide.

I was sitting on a stonebrick street, between the carriage and a white wall of some enormous building. Examining all that I could see from there, I noticed a little window with iron bars, leading to the inside of the build. It must've been an entrance to its basement... or at least I was going to use it as my entrance.

Once again, I looked around, this time to see if it was safe. Having made sure, I came up to the bars and quickly undid all the nuts attaching it to the wall. I took the bars off and snuck into the underground. Inside it was quite dark and definitely colder than outside. The light was given only by the window and a couple of candles deeper in.

I looked around to see things that typical basements would store: wardrobes, planks, blankets. Also couple of "dwellers" like spiders and mice. But the longer I was there, the more unusual things were getting to me. Greek head sculpture, masks, costumes, cardboard trees...

Wait a minute? This isn't just a regular basement, is it? Looks like a theater or a...

I looked outside of the window through the bars that I had already put back in their place. One glance at a sign not that far from me gave me all the information I needed.

"Opera Populaire"

That explained a lot about the masks and costumes. Suddenly a different thought crossed my mind.

"Opera Populaire? Isn't this the one that is... haunted? Haunted by... what were they calling him? A Demon? No, the Phantom!" I recited in my mind, remembering the stories I was once told by different people who I'd met. I knew they only wanted to scare everyone, but sadly they succeeded.