He had always fascinated me. Right from the very beginning when my mother used to tell me stories about him, I was hooked. I don't think I was ever truly in love with him until that day though. Fancy me, plain little Meg, in love with him, the famed Phantom of the Opera.

How I was able to find him after that day, the day of the fire, I still don't know. But, I kept looking. I searched throughout the catacombs. Well, I guess I didn't actually find him. He found me. I was lost in a smoldering building. Lost beneath a smoldering building to put it more exact. Never a good thing. And out of noweher, there he was, pulling me through the tunnels, much like when my mother helped him escape a life of cruelty. I suppose that was why he appeared evil. When the only act of human kindness he'd ever had was a woman letting him live all alone in a place where he was able to watch the world shine in places that he could not…well, I'd probably go insane after that too.

Only, he was not insane. He was a genius indeed. A master of the arts. I think that was why I loved him. And, over time, when he eventually saw I would not leave his side, I think he may have started to love me too, just a little bit. Truly, an Angel of Music. However, despite the nights I had with him, I knew his heart belonged else where. And that knowledge tore me apart little by little. Why was I not enough?

Because I'm not Christine Daae I thought bitterly.

And I knew I never would be. Christine was my opposite in every way. She was talented, where I was not. She had the love of the only man I would ever love, where I did not. She was a brunette and I was a blonde for goodness sake!

Where was the fairness? Christine had Raoul. She could have had my Erik, but she chose otherwise. Why did he still love her? She had chosen incorrectly, to be sure, but still. She had chosen a world that did not include Erik in it. I chose him. I left behind everything I knew. Everyone I knew. The entire life I had chosen I put behind me all for him. Why couldn't he just return the feeling? I loved him despite why the world did not. I did not view his one and only fault as a disfigurement. It simply made Erik, Erik. How anyone could be so cruel just because of looks will always be beyond me.

I once asked Erik why he saved me that day in the fire. All he said was

"Because your mother saved me."

It wasn't the answer I wanted. I had not wanted to know my life was only a debt being paid. I had wanted to hear:

"Because I'm every way in love with you Meg."

Quite the difference. For the longest time my anger and jealousy ate away at me, until I finally decided to pay a visit on my old friend, the countess De Chagne.

When I first arrived on her door, I almost did not express my true reasons for coming because she grabbed my in a hug so big I couldn't breathe.
It made me think of our childhood when were the best of friends, able to confide anything in the other. We had fallen a very long way.

Christine ushered me inside and into a secluded room.

"Meg, what are you doing here? Its been two years! I thought…I thought you were dead! You just disappeared." She had tears in her eyes.

"No. I didn't die. He saved me."

I didn't even have to say who. I could tell by the look in her eyes, fear mixed with a small bit of longing, that she knew exactly who I was talking about.

"So, he lived."

I nodded.

"I live with him."

Shock betrayed the unbroken mask of pain on Christine's face.

"You-you live with him?"

"Yes. I do. I love him."

If she looked shocked before, she looked downright scary now.

"Meg to love him is…its wrong."

Pity. I thought I could do this calmly.

"Pardon me? To love him is wrong? How dare you."

I said the last bit as statement rather than a question. How dare she decide who it is right or wrong to fall in love with.

"Its not something I have control over. We all love who we love, isn't that right," I sneered. "Just like he loves you, and you despise him."

"Meg…I don't hate him. I hate what he did. To me, and to everyone else that night. You don't know what I went through. But no, I could never hate him."

I snorted.

"Its either you love him or you hate him; you cannot have both. And yet here you stand, wanting him anyways. I have something to tell you. Its what I came here for. I love him, with everything that I am and ever will be. Yet, I know he does not love me. He's still in love with you, though you could never return it. Not fully. I see how he dies a little bit each day because of this unrequited love he has for you. I sense it every time he kisses me. He wishes it was you. Every single moment we share together, he wishes it was you. Let him go."

I turned around, my red cape swishing around me as I pulled my hood over my head. It had been two years, but I wanted know one to recognize me. I didn't want my mother knowing I was alive. I would rather her think me dead than so desperately in love that I couldn't return to her. I would rather the entire world think of me as gone than know where I truly was. Not out of shame because of Erik. No, it was out of shame at who I had let myself disintegrate into. A shallow person, hating all that found favor in his eyes because I could not. And yet, I knew that's all I ever would be. A slave to the love of the Phantom of the Opera. It was all that would save me now. His love. A love unreturned. My very own unrequited love.

Upon my return to our home, I found him sitting in a chair, staring at the very door I walked into. He had his mask on; no matter how many times I told him I did not care, he hardly ever removed it. He looked concerned. I wonder why. Then again, I hardly ever left our home, and when I did I always let him know where I was going. He never ever repsonded, so I figured he just didnt care. SO I stopped letting him know, starting with todays outting. Besides, I didnt really want him to know where I was going anyway.

"Where have you been?"

I looked away, shamefaced.

"Out."

He stood up, and took me in his arms. I sighed.

"I was worried."

I felt the tears prick my eyes.

"I was taking care of old matters still in need of being settled. Its all over now."

He released me and walked away.

"How is she?"

I closed my eyes and that was when my tears fell forth.

"Content."

He nodded.

"I had hoped she would be."

Now, here I am. An old woman. Trying to win back a prized possession belonging to my master. I, Meg Girry, mistress to the famed Phantom, am at an auction, old in my years. And yet, it seems I have lost. In so many more ways than one. The music box went to an elderly man in a wheelchair. His eyes. Its him, Raoul. I nod, and he returns the gesture. I had read about his wife's death in the papers. It was what, oh two years ago now? Erik still goes to her grave every single day. I went once. In fact, he is probably there now, wishing she were somehow here again.

We have a child. Her name is Genivive. My darling Genivive. She is all grown now, with a family of her own. Erik dotes on her, though no one in the entire world knows who he is. They think Genivive's father is dead. Only she and I know of his existence in the world. I have had to learn how to be lonely these past forty odd years. I love him, a man who knows only the love that I have for him and the love he has for a woman who did not care enough about him.

I, Meg Girry, mistress to the famed Phantom of the Opera. Who would have thought.

Author's Note: Ok, soooo random, I know. But for some reason I couldnt get this out of my head!! I know Phantom is wayyyyyyyy OOC for this story, but I dont know, I kind of sensed Meg felt something for the Phantom. I viewed it as curiosty but I could see it becoming love. Anyway, please let me know what you thought of it.