Out on an unknown road, she was still walking. Her feet were pretty tired after walking for a pretty long time, whether hours or days she wasn't sure, she was too blinded to notice the difference. She wasn't sure how she managed to keep walking, but she guessed it was the power of her anger. Yes she was angry, angry that her dad wouldn't let her go out to explore the world. Well maybe not the whole world, but at least see how it was outside Paris. Why was he so keen to have her inside all the time anyway? Sometimes it felt too cramped! The place was not that small but it was dark and sometimes creepy. Well, suppose the place had to be dark since her father was the phantom of the opera. She thought back at the fight she and her dad had before she ran away.

"Why can I not go outside?!" She yelled at her father.

"It is not a place for you; you have to stay here where I can keep an eye on you!" The phantom said.

She clenched her fists, gritted her teeth and growled like a dog.

"Stop acting like a child Sophie!"

"I will stop that when you can let me out and not having me locked up like an animal!"

"Enough with talking nonsense!"

"What is the world going to do to me anyway papa?"

Sophie rushed towards her dad, ripped his mask of and threw it on the floor.

"Unlike you, I am not a monster!"

After that sentence everything turned into complete silence. Sophie was panting after her yelling and the phantom walked away quickly and then suddenly disappeared like a ghost. In rage she got out and started running, not knowing where she was headed to.

Sophie stopped walking and almost started to cry out of guilt.

"How could I say such a thing?" She thought.

As she remembered the fight between them, she also remembered the hurt look in his eyes when she said it. He also picked up the mask before he disappeared. Her anger was gone and all that was left now was guilt. He never told her a reason why he never wanted her to explore, but it was probably something important to him. And how could she call her dad a monster, he was far from a monster! He treated her so kindly and was such a loving father towards her. His deformed face was not something he chose to have and he didn't want to have it either, he really hated it! Sophie was very aware of her father's past and all those things he has done. They were awful things, at first she didn't believe those things but she knew that her father was mentally disturbed. She did not blame him though; having a face like that must pretty much have had the world turned against him. People treated him like a monster just because of his deformed face. Sophie didn't care if those things were true or not, her father did a lot of things but hurting her was not one of them and she loved him. She had to go back and apologize! But that would be hard; she didn't know the way back home…

"

Sophie kept on walking although she was pretty exhausted. Her feet ached and she has used a lot of her energy on anger and feeling guilt. The guilt was still triggering inside her and she started to worry if she would never come home and see her parents again.

"Calm down and think" Sophie though.

She remembered she went past some people not a long time ago. She did not eavesdrop at what those people said, not on purpose, but she did hear them say some words "welcome" "beautiful" and "Rouen".

"Am I in Rouen?" Sophie wondered.

Whether she was in Rouen or not, it still wouldn't help her get home. The surroundings were getting darker, which concluded rain was on its way. Great, rain! Sophie was walking in the middle of wilderness, so where was she supposed to find shelter? As she felt raindrops falling on her head, she started running. She had her face down as she ran faster the more raindrops she could feel hit her, drenching her. She looked up for a second and saw a house.

"I hope someone is home"

Suddenly Sophie collapsed. She was on her knees panting out of fatigue. Sophie saw that she was nearly there so she walked towards the house on all four, looking like a dog on a summer day. Her dress, face and hands were covered in mud and her usual curly raven hair was all wet with no curl left.

"Nearly there"

Sophie was right in front of the door. She gripped the wall next to the door and tried her best to support herself up again in a standing position before knocking on the door. Sophie folded her hands, hoping someone was home as she was trembling like mad. The door opened.

"Yes, what is i-"

The woman who opened the door immediately stopped talking as she saw Sophie.

"Oh my goodness look at you, you are completely drenched!"

The woman gripped her hands.

"Come in and dry yourself"

The house was nice and warm, Sophie felt a bit bad for dripping mud and rainwater on the floor. The woman gave her a blanket and dress.

"You can have this old dress of mine; it might be a little big for a 10 year old girl"

"I am 12" Sophie pouted.

She hated the fact that she looked so young. In a few months she was going to be 13 and she had a feeling that everybody would either think she was lying or they would laugh at her. Her mother said that looking youthful was a blessing that would come in handy in the future and her father said that the last bloomed flower would be the most beautiful.

"Oh maman, papa…" Sophie missed them already.

Sophie thanked the woman and started to dry herself with the blanket she received. She undressed and put on the dress in front of the woman. Sophie didn't really care about modesty, we were all God's children right? The dress was actually a little bit big, but it was better than nothing and Sophie felt warmer already as she kept on drying her hair. She looked around the house. It wasn't very big, yet it was somewhat nice and cozy, a lovely home. She noticed something in a corner, something small and white sticking up from a basket. Sophie stopped drying her hair and went towards the basket. It was a little basket which contained papers, a harmonica and on the very top was that white thing. Sophie picked it up, examined the item. It was a mask! A white mask that covered half of the face, a mask that had the size meant for a small child.

"Why do you have a small mask?" Sophie asked.

"Oh that, many years ago I had a monstrous creature living in my house, the mask was needed on him"

Him? No, that couldn't be…

"Was his name….Erik?" Sophie asked while fiddling with the mask in her hands.

The old woman's eyes widened up in shock and surprise.

"Do you know my detested son?"

Sophie though her anger was gone, but oh, it flared up all over again! And she hated the fact that her anger was against yet another relative, a relative she just met.

"I know and love this so called "monster", grandma"

The old woman looked at Sophie carefully, examining her face and turned her head to view her face in different profiles. The old woman then looked at her.

"I see you got his creepy eyes, but your mom must be a very beautiful woman with strong genes"

Sophie did not disagree that her mom was a beautiful woman; Christine both looked and sounded angelic, Sophie did inherit a lot from Christine's looks. But was having her father's eyes ruining Sophie's own beauty?

"Something wrong with my eye color?" Sophie asked.

"It makes me think so much about this little demon, with those creepy eyes he looked at me and begged me to touch him" The old woman shivered.

Sophie was shocked. She couldn't bear to touch him? What kind of a mother was she? Sophie knew she couldn't survive without her mother's kisses and hugs, so how on earth did her father survive?

"Why were you like this? He is your son!" Sophie exclaimed.

"That thing was no son of mine! I regret every day that I gave birth to him, I should have killed him right after he was born"

Blinded by rage, Sophie heard something crack and she noticed she had her hand in a fist; the fist had blood on it. The old woman was all of a sudden on the floor with her nose bleeding like mad, Sophie was not sure, but she thought she heard a whimper. Sophie looked down on her with cold eyes:

"Is he no son of your, then you are no relative of mine"

Sophie stormed out in the torrential rain.

"

Once again Sophie was wandering with anger blinding and inhibiting her senses. Sophie knew that people were cruel to her father, but she could not believe that his own mother hated him too! There were so many children that begged their parents for unimportant things, her father begged his mother to give him affection, something she never gave him. Sophie wondered how her grandpa was like. Did he detest her father too? Where was he? Sophie breathed hard in and out; a mix of snot and water from the rain came out from her nose. Yet again her anger calmed down and she remembered and felt that she was exhausted. Her walking turned into lurching, she could not see where she was or what was going on around her, the rain was so strong. In great fatigue, she fainted in the middle of the road, in cold muddy ponds.

Sophie woke up by a sunshine glowing on her face. The little shine was warm, but also very light and annoying. Sophie tossed and turned, trying to face away from the shine.

"Wait a minute, sunshine?" Sophie thought.

How can it be sunshine when they lived under the opera house? Sophie got out of her slumber as she remembered she ran away yesterday and fell asleep on an open road. She looked around. Everything was slightly dark, it was impossible to figure out where or what she was in, but she saw she was locked up in a cage! Who has captured her? What were they going to do to her? The answer was soon to be found out as a smelly, dirty looking man entered this tent thing or whatever this thing she was inside.

"Looks like you have woken up" His smile was nasty and missed some teeth.

He unlocked the cage and went inside. He cupped her chin, making her look into his eyes.

"So the living corpse made a child, who would have thought that?" He laughed.

The living corpse, who..? No it can't be, a living corpse…wait… Her father! He used to be...Oh God!

"What did you do to my papa?!" Sophie exclaimed.

"That freak used to be a good attraction for the audience, but that bastard managed to run away"

"I don't blame him" Sophie thought. She was tempted to hit that bastard who was before her eyes if that would make him go away or at least be quiet.

"You cannot be a living corpse unless we drain acid on you face, but also"

He caressed her thigh.

"Maybe I can test you to see if you can be the new contortionist"

He blocked all the sunlight out, making everything dark. Luckily for Sophie she could see very well in the pitch dark, thanks to the eyes she got from her father. So as soon this strange man finished making everything dark, Sophie crawled to the corner of the cage. The man had trouble finding Sophie, much to Sophie's amusement. Sophie still had to go home and apologize to her father and she had no intention being a circus freak, so she decided to beat the crap out of the one who were one of her father's abusers and almost hers. Sophie kicked him right on the nose multiple times; she could see the blood running out like a waterfall but still he had to be knocked out so she could escape. Sophie didn't want to murder him, so making him faint would be enough. She grabbed the collars of his shirt and smashed his head to the bars. With a final punch, he was out.

"You can be new freak" Sophie said to the now unconscious man, referring to his bloody and beaten up face.

She got out of this tent thing and ran as fast as she could. She looked around and recognized where she was.

"They brought me back to Paris!" Sophie exclaimed happily.

Now she ran towards to the place where she lived.

"

With her new energy, Sophie was home almost right away. Never has she been so happy to see this dark underground home! When she was home and was very near to run up to her father, she stopped as she heard her parents talk. She stood by a corner and listened to them.

"I have looked everywhere Erik, she is nowhere to be found in Paris" Christine said.

"Not in the opera house either" Erik said.

Her parents sat down with facial expressions of despair.

"This is all my fault" Erik said.

"No! How can you say something like that, dear?" Christine asked.

"She hated me for holding her down her and now she is gone"

He looked at Christine tenderly.

"I tried my very best to be a good parent, something I never had, I was scared that others would take her away and leave me, like how you went with Raoul and left me alone"

"I came back Erik, I regretted my choice and I came back!" Christine said.

Erik kissed her hand.

"I know and I was very happy when you came back"

With a sigh he said.

"Although I am happy having you with me, I cannot bear losing her"

Sophie went out of the corner.

"You will never loose me papa"

Erik and Christine looked up straight away; they were surprised and happy to see her. Erik got up and went toward her. Sophie braced herself. She closed her eyes and expected her father to do his worst. But that did not happen; Erik hugged her tight and gave her multiple kisses everywhere on her face. Sophie hugged him back.

"Papa I am so sorry! You are not a monster, I love you!"

After the reunion hug, Erik looked at her with wide eyes.

"What in the world happened to you?!"

Sophie looked down at her body. The dress was covered with dried mud and fresh blood.

"Don't worry it's not my blood" Sophie said hoping that would calm her father down, but he did not calm down.

"What have you done Sophie?" Erik asked worried.

"Where did your own dress go, where did the dress you are wearing come from?" Christine asked.

Sophie didn't realize until now that she was wearing her grandmas dress. Sophie ran towards Christine and hugged her tight.

"Please promise you're never going to neglect me maman!" Sophie almost yelled in Christine's ear.

"No, of course not! Why are saying something so foolish?"

Sophie looked at her father with sad eyes.

"Papa, your mother is horrible"

"My mother…Sophie….How do you…?" Erik didn't know what to say.

Sophie explained to them where she went and what happened during her "exploring". Christine seemed to be shocked to hear this while Erik freaked at the part were Sophie was in a cage.

"I will kill those gypsies for putting my girl in a cage!"

"No papa! I escaped, I beat him up" Sophie said.

"You did?" Erik asked.

"Now we know where she got her temper" Christine whispered.

After all the explaining, yelling and calming down, Sophie had something more to say.

"The world might be scary, but I want to see more of the safe and good sides"

She looked at Erik.

"No one is going to separate me from you papa, I can't imagine a life without you papa, but I want to be more outside, can I please?"

Erik gave her a weak smile and nodded.

"Yes you can my child, in fact it's Sunday, why not go out for an evening walk"

"I will, but" Sophie took his hand "You and maman are coming with me"

Erik was skeptical but Sophie was so stubborn and did not give up until he was convinced. Christine was more than willing to go for a walk with her husband and daughter.

The trio walked around the streets of Paris. Some people was about to ask why Erik wore a mask, but they never got the chance as Sophie sent them a death glare if they just looked at him. Eventually Erik relaxed and all three were happy that the whole family was together.