Luc Richard was astounded. His uncle had told him that the Opera house was beautiful but his descriptions hadn't done it justice. The grand staircase before him rivaled anything one might find in a palace. The magnificent columns and arches gave the place a very royal sort of elegance. Luc wondered how a man could be the manager of such a place and not feel like a king. For the new twenty-three year-old manager of the Opera Populaire this was one of the most wondrous sights he'd ever seen. His moment of awe-struck revelation was interrupted by a loud cough.

"Ahem. Luc, my boy, are you going to stand around gawking or move your things into your uncle's old office?"

Luc turned to find an old and weary-looking Armand Moncharmin standing just a few feet behind him. Luc's uncle, Firmin Richard had retired nearly ten years ago, after the falling of the chandelier and the fire that nearly burned down half of the opera house he simply couldn't handle the job any longer. Moncharmin had been doing the job alone. Now he felt that it was his turn to retire and let someone younger and healthier deal with all the mess that came with running this particular opera house. Moncharmin felt a little guilty, the boy had no idea what he was getting into. Everyone seemed to think that with the announcement of the death of Erik in the papers ten years prior that all of the trouble the Phantom had cause was over with. This was far from the case although Moncharmin and the rest of the staff had done their best to keep it hidden from the public. This lad would have his hands full, no doubt but by now Moncharmin was ready to retire and if that meant suckering a naive boy into the job, so be it. Luc was totally enamored with the opera house, thanks largely to Firmin's influence. Surely he couldn't be frightened away by the ghost of a ghost.

Luc allowed Moncharmin to lead him to his new office. He tried to appear cool and composed but inside he was absolutely giddy. When he'd heard there was an opening for manager he'd been afraid that he'd lose the job to older and more qualified people, oddly enough there had been little competition for the post. It seemed that people were still afraid of the Opera Ghost even so he was most certainly gone. Luc had heard about the death of Erik, as far as he was concerned that was evidence enough that there was no haunting to be afraid of.

...

Settling in to his new position was surprisingly easy for Luc, The staff was incredibly helpful and Moncharmin was the most informative of the lot. It was almost suspicious. After about an hour of set up Moncharmin left and Luc sat down to do the book-keeping. Most of the months expenses had already been logged so there wasn't much to do but he didn't want to waste time on his first night. As he turned a few pages in the ledger he found a letter wedged inside of it. The letter was dressed to him and it bore a red, skull shaped wax seal. Curious as to the nature of this strange find, Luc opened it.

To my new manager, Mr. Luc Richard

It has come to my attention that your predecessor has not informed you of my existence. It is hardly a surprise as he has done everything in his power for the past five years now to keep me his little secret, his literal "skeleton in the closet", if you will. So I'm making myself known. I am the ghost who haunts this opera house, You may have heard of me, from your uncle, the long retired Firmin Richard. He and his partner were under the impression for some time that because I was dead I no longer posed any threat to them. However I belong to this opera house, my soul is here and here it shall remain for all time. But I digress, what I want from you is simple. I have only two requests and they are as follows.

You will keep box five empty for my personal use.

You will leave 20,000 francs a month for me to collect in box five. This is my salary, and you will pay it or you'll live to regret not paying it. It's your decision.

With that in mind I welcome you to the Palais Garnier,

Yours Truly

O.G

Luc blinked at the letter, he wasn't sure what to make of this. Yes he'd heard about the Phantom of The Opera, but he was dead. There was no way this letter could be his doing. It must be a joke, he decided. One of the staff was trying to spook him on his first day. That had to be it. Moncharmin would have told him if there was a ghost haunting this opera house. Well who ever had done it had done their research, they certainly seemed to know a lot about him. With a snort he crumpled the paper and threw it into the rubbish bin. Opera Ghost...as if that would work on him.

From his secluded place in the secret passage a masked figure studied the lad. He was young, barely into his twenties by the look of him. Tall, with dark brown hair and a thin frame. He sported a thin goatee and mustache on his angular face. This boy probably had no trouble picking up women from the look of him. When Luc crumpled up the paper and threw it away the man frowned under his mask. Clearly the young man didn't believe in ghosts...well, that could be fixed.

Without a sound the Opera Ghost turned and fled down the dark passage into the underground lair. It was time the Phantom went public again, no more hiding and quietly extorting Francs from a sickly old manager. It was time for an exposition, and the reappearance of the Phantom after ten years had to be more than just a little jump scare to rattle the nerves of a wet behind the ears, little boy. If the Phantom was going to come back he was going to make a grand entrance! Something that would be talked about for years to come. The curtain would rise on this young man but when it came time for the final bow all eyes would be on the Phantom and the Phantom alone!

...

Hello, hello, I'm Enos, this is fic number three for me and like all my other fics it's a sequel featuring an OC as the main character. That's going to be the norm for me, I don't really like using someone elses characters as the main, nor do I like making them(the original author's characters) act out of character, so don't be looking for weird or unlikely pairings in future works. As it is easier to write the characters of other people as they are perceived by my character I probably won't switch views from my mains as often as I did in my first fic on this site.

To all the people who just came because they are looking for a pairing between the male OC and the Phantom...Get out. It won't happen, let me save you the disappointment and let you know that it's not going to happen. Although romance of some kind may not be out of the question later when I introduce more characters...maybe.

Everyone not looking for that pairing, enjoy the story.