Phantom of the Opera

From Behind the Mask

The girl I had been watching comes storming into her room, a upset expression on her face. She screams and glass around the room shatters. When the young girl sits up, the right side of her face looks even worse than before.

The girl then goes to her bed and moves as she has done nearly every day. I go down the stairs quickly so she won't see me. While she was gone I left something for her on the piano.

Faintly, I hear My Christine yell for her daughter, whose name happens to be Fantine. The girl comes down the stairs and stops confused for a moment before resuming to run to her piano. She then picks up my present and looks through it, seeming pleased. I had given her a copy of 'Don Juan Triumphant' although it's not my best work. She sits down at the bench behind her piano and starts playing the accompaniment to the opera.

Fantine plays my opera until she almost passes out, she only closes the the piano before falling asleep on her arms.

I walk over. The way she is sleeping can't be comfortable. Taking off my cloak, I pick her up and lay her on the floor. She shivers at the touch of the cement floor.

I lay my cape over her and take a pillow off the piano bench and lay it under her head.

----

After roughly three hours, she wakes up. She puts my cloak on the piano. Then freezes in realization. "Is anyone there?" Fantine calls. I'm standing in the darkness, invisible. She walks toward me but doesn't realize that I'm standing in front of her, "Please, if you're in here....I just want to say thank you," she looks at the reflective surface of her grand piano.

Fantine realizes that she made a mistake by looking at herself and falls to the ground in sobs. She is so ashamed of herself that I feel compelled to comfort her. I walk toward Fantine as she puts her head between her knees.

Keeping silent, I put my hand on Fantine's shoulder. She looks up at me startled, then relaxes and says, "I knew someone was down here," the girl's disfigured lips curve into a smile. That's the first time someone was pleased to see me in my life. Her face had turned worse than when I had first laid her down to sleep.

The young girl pats the ground to the left of her and gestures for me to sit down. I do sit down next to her, "Did you write that opera, Monsieur?"

"Yes, I did. Do you like it?" I ask. She nods.

"It's magnificent," Fantine thinks for a second then continues, "What's your name?"

"I have many names, Fantine. You can call me anything you like," I answer. Fantine turns to face me with her hand covering the right side of her face. I grab the soft and bony hand gently and pull it away from her face.

"You and I have something in common, you know," I tell her this as she stands up.

"What do you mean?" Fantine helps me up from the cool ground. The eyebrow on the perfect side of her face furrows accenting he adorable confusion on her face. Standing up, I look down into her eyes.

I take my mask off, and get something I didn't expect in return.