Welcome to my new story m'dears.

I was watching the Phantom 25th anniversary show on YouTube a few weeks ago and got to thinking: what if Christine knew what it was like to be ostracised for something as beyond her control as Erik's deformity is to him? What if there was something beyond music which could bring them together?

This is the result.


Prologue

It was early yet, but the air was warm and the day promised to be the warmest that summer had brought to Paris thus far. No one noticed the young woman who seemed to step out of thin air and join the flow of foot traffic heading towards the Rue Scribe. The woman wore a blue dress and a matching hat, pinned onto her brown hair; in her hand she carried a carpet bag. She was alone but walked with the confidence of one with intimate knowledge of her surroundings. The woman walked until she was right outside the Palais Garnier. She looked up at the grand theatre and smiled.


Time is relative. Erik; a man better known as the Phantom of the Opera; was approximately twenty eight years old- not that he was counting- but he felt terribly old. Erik recalled a time when his life had meant something, days when there was someone in the theatre who would care if he just disappeared.

He was completing his rounds of the Opera House, ensuring that Lefevre was following his instructions when a figure crossed the threshold. Erik's breath hitched- he would know this woman anywhere. He had not seen her since her sudden disappearance not long before her twelfth birthday, but Erik knew her on sight.

"Christine." He whispered, quite unable to help himself.

Finally, after seven long years, Christine Daae had come home.

~v~