Gustave ran over to where his mother lay dying, "Mother, Mother! Don't die Mother!"

He shook her trying to get her to open her eyes again she whispered something, but he was too preoccupied with her red blood staining her dress and his hands and spreading across the pier. A painful cry escaped from his throat. He started sobbing into her dress. He felt a hand on his shoulder and he looked up at the man standing over him. There were tears in his eyes and everything was blurry he couldn't see the face of the man clearly, but he was sure that the man had a mask on just minutes before but didn't have one now, though with everything so out of focus it didn't matter.

"She's gone, Gustave, she's gone." The man said. Gustave thought that he could hear a catch in the man's voice as he spoke then led him away from his mother.

There were sirens as the police arrived, they ignored the man and the boy and ran to the woman lying on the pier. The little boy sobbed into the man's cloak, the comforting hand on his back made him think that everything was going to be okay. Everything passed in a blur of tears and streaks of color. Soon they were in a dark office Gustave was still sniffling when they arrived, but he had stopped crying for the most part.

"Why did Papa leave?" Gustave asked forgetting what his mother had said before she died.

"When he realized who you were, he knew there was no way to win." The man said.

Gustave looked at him curiously not understanding what the meaning was.

The man ruffled the boy's hair, "You'll understand later."

Business slowly declined after the murder. People claimed that Coney Island was cursed. Mr. Y held onto the side show but eventually was forced to abandon the Coney Island endeavor. He sold Coney Island to some wealthy man, and he kept the freak show and moved to a new location, he was going to England. Time passed quickly for Mr. Y and Gustave. He tutored him like he had tutored Christine, working on improving his already splendid voice. Gustave was becoming a rising star in opera. Mr. Y had returned to being the Phantom of the Opera once again when he took up residence in a local opera house. Every day that passed the boy reminded the Phantom of Christine. He had passed the old nickname that Christine had given to him onto the boy.

Gustave came back stage, ducked into a secret passage and arrived in the hidden chamber. "How did I do?"

"Just beautiful my little Angel of Music, you've made great progress, and they love you here." The phantom said, as he picked up a few papers and filed them away.

"It's been five years now, you know." Gustave said sitting down in one of the chairs in the dark office.

The Phantom's back stiffened. The time had slipped away from him. He stopped putting the papers away and turned to Gustave. "You should compose something for her."

Gustave felt a lump rise in his throat, he missed his mother so much, but he could tell the Phantom missed her even more. His mother had told him that love never dies and the Phantom was proof of that. Gustave slipped through the secret passageway and waited outside the door for a moment. He was sure that he could hear the Phantom crying softly before he slipped away to compose the piece. When he was sure that he was alone he began to cry himself, if only he hadn't gone with Ms. Giry his mother might be still alive. The song he composed was sad, he couldn't help it, he also couldn't bring himself to sing the words that he had written, the words needed to be sung by his mother. When he finished he returned to the secret office, and presented the Phantom with his composition.

"I've written something too." The Phantom said looking over the composition; he inserted the composition into the papers he had been holding, then passed the packet to Gustave.

"Am I to perform in this?" Gustave said looking over the papers.

The Phantom nodded.

"I don't know if I can…" The boy said looking at his tutor uncertainly.

The phantom put his hand on the boy's forehead, "You will perform it beautifully, and there is no one better for this role."

"Who will play the female lead?"

"I will look for the perfect voice, though I don't know if that voice is even in existence anymore." The Phantom said.

There was a moment of silence they both understood what he had meant. After an extremely long moment the Phantom said "I have some things to deal with at the Freak Show. Can you hold down the fort here while I am away?"

The boy nodded and sat down and began to look over his lines that the Phantom had written for him. Later that evening he had a performance and had to leave the darkness of the secret office for the shining spotlight. When he went back to the dark office after the performance the Phantom still had not returned, and Gustave began to worry.

It was nearly noon before the Phantom returned.

"What happened?" Gustave asked when the Phantom entered the dark office.

"I think I saw a ghost, from our past." The Phantom said.

"Mother, you saw Mother?" He said hopefully.

The Phantom shook his head and said, "No someone far less pleasant. I had been hoping we would be rid of him for good."