A/N: This is my first Phantom fic. I got the idea totally randomly, and the plot will probably develop itself. Set in modern times, a little untraditional, but quality, I hope. Review!

Oh yeah, and I just realized I forgot to write a little disclaimer thing, so yeah: I don't own anything or anyone familiar in this.

-Aria-

"No, no, no! It's a B flat, Sarah, how many times have I begged you to practice that?" asked the aggravated voice of a seventeen year old girl. Aria and her three friends were practicing on the stage after school. They were a quartet, the best singers in an already phenomenal choir. Ari was the soprano, Sarah was the alto, Jason was their tenor, and Marius was their bass.

"Oh, give her a break, Ari, she's had a lot of stuff to do," Jason said, defending Sarah, and Ari said nothing. The stage was big, but not too big, and it had an upright piano at the side, which they were gathered around. To their left was an exit door, and there were two doors about fifty five feet in front of them, at the back of the auditorium.

"We all have, Ari," Marius added quietly in his rumbling bass. For an eighteen year old boy in his last year at L'ecole des Beaux-Arts, he had a pretty solid sound, and Ari loved to listen to him sing, though she never had any feelings for him other than friendship. She was too involved in her music to even think about crushes. She spent all her time memorizing some new song or writing a new piece.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry," Ari said, sounding stressed as she sat down on the piano bench, slouching over. "But we have the competition in two weeks, and we're still missing notes!" She never used to stress out about performances until she started singing with other people. She had a solo audition coming up, too, trying to get into an opera company, but she hadn't told anyone. "Sorry, Sarah," she said quietly, and played the starting chord on the piano once more. "All right, let's try it again."

An hour later, after a few more attempts, Ari let everyone go and sat at the piano for awhile, trying to relax by playing pieces she knew by heart. She jumped, jolted out of her almost meditative state when there was a knock at the door. "Ari?" her choir director called through the door, and the girl stood up to open it. "I'm going home. Can you turn off all the lights and close all the doors for me?"

"Sure," Ari said a little distractedly.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine. I just have a lot on my mind," she said with a shrug. "That competition and all…the quartet sounds good, but there are a couple of notes we're still missing, and it's driving me crazy."

Madame Levine laughed. "I know, I heard you. Listen, you four are the best in the state. You have nothing to worry about," she said reassuringly. "Not many quartets could do this piece the way you can."

Ari smiled a little. "Well that's good to hear. I'm sorry, I'm standing here talking your ear off, and you probably want to go home. I'll stop talking," she said, honestly trying to get the choir director out of there so she could practice her own pieces, and was relieved when Mme. Levine nodded and said she'd let her get back to her piano playing. "Thanks," Ari said quietly, and waited until the teacher left and closed the door before playing the intro to her first aria and stood up so she could breathe properly.

A half hour later, she'd worked through her four pieces and gathered up all her stuff, turned off the lights, and made sure all the doors were closed. As she stepped into the cold air, walking towards her car, she felt a wind swirl around her and closed her eyes, inhaling deeply.

Aria…the wind seemed to whisper to her, and she opened her eyes, blinking in surprise.

"What?" she whispered to herself almost soundlessly, trying to hear the voice again. It wasn't the first time the wind had called her name, but this time, it felt to her like someone was touching her, running their fingers through her long, reddish brown hair, over her arms and across her lips. She stood still for a moment, but when the wind died, she sighed and walked the rest of the way to her car. As she turned the key in the door, the wind picked up again, and this time she felt someone brush her long hair behind her ear and whisper to her. "Aria," she heard, and stood still. The wind had spoken to her before, but this was the first time she'd been able to hear a pitch to the voice. It rested on a low E flat, she noted quickly, but felt a chill rush down her spine and quickly got into the car, closing the wind out. She sat in the driver's seat and locked the door, almost breathless. The voice she'd heard the second time hadn't sounded alien to her, much to her surprise. She half expected to see someone standing outside her car, but there was no one there. "Creepy," she muttered to herself, just to cut the silence.

Five minutes later, the girl pulled her car into the driveway and turned it off. The minute she stepped out of the car, she heard the voice again.

"Aria," the now distinctly male voice called, almost singing to her. This was the first time she'd heard it three times in one night, she realized as she tried her hardest to ignore the alluring sound of whomever's voice was calling her. "Aria," it repeated a little more forcefully.

"Who's there?" she asked, looking around to find nothing but a snow-covered ground and naked trees.

"Aria," was the only thing the voice said, whispering in her ear as it drew invisible fingers down her arms. The sound of the voice and the feel of someone touching her had actually relaxed her so much she'd forgotten she stood in the middle of her driveway until the wind picked up. Suddenly, she sensed a presence behind her, and whirled quickly, trying to catch whoever it was that was playing with her. "Ha!" she exclaimed, then realized she'd caught nothing but the wind.

The wind died with a final "Aria…" and she walked quickly inside before it could start up again.

"Why are you so late coming home?" snapped her father's voice from the living room, sitting in his armchair in front of the television. He had never understood her love for music, so she'd never told him about her competition, or about her quartet, or if she got parts in school musicals or plays. She kept it all to herself and her friends. If she'd told him about music, he would've laughed at her. He'd never understand, and she'd stopped trying to make him understand when she turned ten.

"I was studying with friends," she said simply. "I have a test in a little over a week and I want to be prepared."

"All right," her father said distractedly. "You need dinner?"

Ari shook her head. "No, I'm going out with a couple of friends later," she said just as distractedly, and without waiting for permission or a response, she walked upstairs to her room with her messenger bag. Before even thinking about homework, she pulled out her songs and started humming them quietly. More then once, she had the disconcerting sense that someone was watching her, but when she looked around, or even out her window, there was no one there.

She then took out her binder with all her quartet music in it, and started singing through the songs. She saved the song she liked the most for last: Sing Me to Heaven.

"In my heart's sequestered chambers lie truths stripped of poets gloss. Words alone are vain and vacant, and my heart is mute…" she sang quietly and slowly, relishing each word, each note, and the way both felt flowing through her body.

"In response to aching silence, memory summons half-heard voices…"

Ari nearly flew off her bed when she heard someone singing in an echoing and light tenor, but couldn't tell where it was coming from. "And my soul finds primal eloquence, and wraps me in song," she sang, looking around for the source of the voice that was singing along with her and seriously giving Jason a run for his money.

"Wraps me in song…" she and the mysterious voice sang, and continued on. Ari relaxed back onto her bed and as she sang, her eyes closed involuntarily. "If you would comfort me, sing me a lullaby…" As the two voices merged beautifully in color and timbre, the girl felt someone caressing her face and her arms as before, and it hit her: this was the voice she'd heard in the wind… "If you would win my heart, sing me a love song. If you would mourn me and bring me to god, sing me a requiem. Sing me to heaven…"

That was the last phrase Ari remembered singing before opening her eyes to find herself in a completely different room. Sitting bolt upright, she looked around, but the first thing she noticed was the musty smell that almost choked her.

"Hello?" she called, looking around, just now noticing all the statues at the walls, the paintings, and most of all, sheet music on every table, every chair, and a few pieces on the floor. Standing, she realized she'd been lying on a makeshift bed – a mattress, a pillow, and one black cover.

She continued to look around and stopped when she almost stepped on a piece of music on the floor of the…well, wherever she was. Looking it over, she realized it had to be a piece for piano, based on the two staves in each system. But where's the piano? she asked herself silently, wondering how a piece could be composed without a piano. "Hello?" she called a little louder, but promptly started coughing, due to the heavy, musty air. If she breathed shallowly, she was fine, but breathing deep made her feel like she was trying to inhale through a pillow.

She walked around a bit, running her hands over sheets of music and – apparently, props of some sort. Suddenly, she heard a pipe organ sound from somewhere else, and realized she'd passed a hall, almost invisible, blocked by so many props and a candelabrum. Following the sound of the music, and obviously another entity, Ari slipped between the wall and the candelabrum after trying to move it without avail. She had to climb over a box, and wondered how anyone could've gotten through there alive any bigger than her, and she was little. The girl looked to be a little over five feet – five foot four, maybe – and weighed about a hundred and five pounds. For her small size, though, her voice was huge, and she had a three octave range full voiced, along with another register that she could tap into if she needed to do coloratura work.

"Damn," she heard a familiar voice echo from somewhere further along the hall.

The girl continued to follow the sound of the pipe organ as whomever it was continued to play it, and had to feel her way along the wall after awhile, losing the light from the candelabrum. Grimacing when she heard a sour chord, she heard the familiar voice curse again, and Ari almost fell into the room as her hand slipped off the wall she'd been using as a guide to keep her from smacking into the wall or a door. She stood stone still, leaning against the threshold as the music stopped at dissonance. The figure sitting in front of the pipe organ turned his head a little, but not enough, she thought, to see her.

When he turned fully back to the organ, she breathed a sigh of relief, then quickly covered her mouth. Had he heard her? She watched him for a few seconds. Apparently not. Good. She stepped further into the room, watching the man at the organ. He looked tall and thin, wearing a black tuxedo. His light brown hair was slicked back completely, she suspected so it wouldn't get in his way when he was trying to read music.

As the girl listened to him play, she found herself leaning against the wall, closing her eyes in relaxation. She felt like she was drowning in the peacefully hollow sound of the overwhelming instrument. She could never play it. Suddenly, she realized she still had sheet music in her hand, and jumped when he hit the sour chord again, changed it, and cursed, still unhappy with it. She closed her eyes, listening to the chord she'd just heard and she picked out the notes he'd played.

"You ought to try a d minor seven chord," she suggested timidly. She barely had time to be surprised at how timid she sounded before he turned around slowly to the right, looking at her.

"A d minor seven chord?" he asked simply, looking at her with only the peripheral vision in his right eye, then turned back to the instrument, playing the last phrase, adding the d minor seven chord, and resolving it to a one chord. "Perfect. Good to see you awake, Aria," he said, standing, but keeping his left side away from her.

"Ari," she corrected automatically, then quickly covered her mouth. The side of his face she could see was actually quite handsome with a chiseled jaw line and full lips. His nose wasn't too big, nor too small. His proportions were beautiful, but all in all, he was really very intimidating. There was a sort of…power emanating from him that shouldn't have been there, she thought. As he straightened his coat, she realized he had extremely long fingers…good for playing piano.

"Aria," he corrected her. "Your name is beautiful. Why bother shortening it to something so…plain and ordinary?" She opened her mouth to protest, but he turned completely towards her, and Ari stuttered, then stopped, her mouth left open in surprise. On the side of his face he'd kept away from her was half of a white mask, not made of plaster, or of cloth, but some strange material that flowed and changed with every motion his head made, and every twitch his muscles gave. She couldn't help staring at the Opera Ghost's mask. "You're...you're real" she whispered in complete awe, unable to find her voice. She'd heard of the famed Opera Ghost, but always thought of him as a myth, having had no proof of his existence. All she knew about him was he wore a mask, was a musical prodigy, and killed without a thought. She backed up quickly, smacking straight into a wall.

"Come now, Aria. You're not afraid of me, are you" he asked, sounding falsely hurt. "Aria..." he sang teasingly when she tried to sink into the wall. "Tsk, tsk, tsk" he scolded gently, stepping closer to her. "You weren't afraid when the wind whispered your name, but you draw back now when I speak" he noted, continuing to walk slowly towards the girl in smooth, flowing steps.

"How do you know about that" She tried to ask, but instead found herself saying "the wind doesn't intimidate me" in a shockingly timid voice, and wondered why on earth she'd admitted to him that he intimidated her, but managed not to ask him as he chuckled, both blue eyes twinkling.

"It certainly seemed to bother you..." he almost taunted, and Ari began to glare through her fear.

She tried to ask him how he knew about the wind again, but ended up saying "did not..." in a wounded voice.
He stepped close enough now to touch her with those long, almost skeletal fingers of his, and did so, brushing her hair behind her ear. She responded by sinking down against the wall, forcing him to lean down even more than he should've had to as he whispered in her ear. "Aria..."

A/N: What do you think? SPEAK TO ME! ("Sing, my angel of music...")