**Author's Note: Kay, so this is my First POTO fic. Let me know how I'm doing. 3**

She carefully stepped out of the boat. The dank catacomb somehow seemed warm and dry with the fabric and expensive things scattered about. Her heart leaped into her throat. She couldn't believe it was true. He was real and she had found him. She reached out and ran her finger over a gold plated sculpture and moved deeper into the unusual assortment of items. Her eyes swept greedily over the room. He was no where to be seen. She was sure she had some great luck that day. First a meal, now…all of this.

"Who are you?" She jumped off the floor at the sound of a deep, smooth disembodied voice. Instead of running away like and sane person would have done she slowly crept towards the side of the room her brain was telling her the voice was coming from when she got there she found…nothing. She turned her back to the wall and scanned the room for movement. "I said, who are you?!"

"Nobody of any consequence." She gave a cheeky reply. "Are you the phantom?" she asked after spotting a figure in the far corner of the room. "The Opera Ghost? You look like flesh and blood to me."

"Get out of my home." He demanded. She instead made her way to a grand organ perfectly positioned against on of the walls.

"That's easier said than done." She told him.

"You got in."

"Getting in is easy. Getting out is harder." She studied the instrument before her.

"Get in the boat and follow that tunnel. It will eventually lead you out. You may have to swim a little." His hand emerged from the shadow momentarily to point towards the exit.

"I heard you write music. Is that true?" She gently stroked a few of the keys, closing her eyes and absorbing the luscious sound the instrument emitted under her fingers. She turned back to the corner when she heard movement. The figure began to emerge from the dark corner.

"I said leave this place." His hands were held in front of him and in his hands he held a rope tied in a noose.

"What are you doing?" She asked backing away from him.

"Taking care of an intruder." He straitened the rope in his hands and held it towards her. She fell backwards into the boat and hit her head. He watched her fall into the darkness of unconsciousness and then nudged the boat off shore.

*Days Later*

"Hello?" She tripped as she walked up the shore. Her body was stiff with the cold. "I'm sorry, I know I wasn't suppose to come back…"

"Then why did you?" The slightly familiar large man stepped out from a similar hiding place as before.

"It's very cold. I just need to get warm and then I'll be on my way. Please, sir, I beg you." Her body shivered as it got use to the warmth. He motioned to the fire. She went to it like a moth to the flame and sat rather unladylike in the chair as she attempted to warm herself. He came up behind her and studied her for a moment. Her stokings were full of holes, her skin pale but for the pinkness in her cheeks and nose from the cold. She smiled at him weakly. "I don't think that one will make it." She said motioning to her frostbitten little finger. "It is very cold out there."

"Wait here." He stalked away from her and returned with a bowl of water. "This will hurt." He placed her hand in the water and she hardly muffled a scream. Her cold hand felt like it was in fire, but none worse than her little finger.

"Jesus! That fucking hurts." He raised an eyebrow at her profanity. "Sorry."

"It's fine. I'm sure it does. Rest. You may stay until morning." He put a blanket around her shoulders and threw another log on the fire. "What is your name?"

"Adeline," she said quietly. "Just Adeline."