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Disclaimer: I do not own The Phantom of the Opera.

Hello! It's time for the second annual Phantom Christmas One-Shot contest! (The rules have changed slightly so I would read this a/n if I were you!)

Entry Timeline: December 6th through December 26th.

Winners announced: December 31st (Or at least I'm aiming for this date. It might be the 30th or the 1st, so forgive me if I'm not on the exact date!)

There will be a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place as well as category winners and all of the stories will get a review and be put in my community for these one-shot challenges. 1st: Review, Favorite, bragging rights AND I'll write a one-shot to a song of your choice for When Words Fail! 2nd- Review, Favorite, and bragging rights! 3rd- Review and bragging rights (and a favorite if I REALLY love it!)!

How to enter: Leave a REVIEW on this story, Upload your story in the book category of Phantom of the Opera, send me a PM with the name of your story and/or a link to it, AND put "Entry for 2nd Annual Phantom Christmas One-Shot Contest" somewhere in either the description or in the author note!

Rules: Story must be a One-Shot! It can be in a collection of One-Shots, but not more than one chapter. Also, one-shots can be continued on into full fledged stories, but judging will only be based on the first chapter. Story can be any character combination, any rating, and any genre but MUST have a Christmas, other winter holiday (New Years, Hanukkah, etc.), or winter theme! There is no minimum or maximum word count requirements. Remember that this is just a cute, one-shot challenge, not something to get super worked up over- the goal is to have fun and promote more one-shots!

So get to writing and have fun!

The sample one-shot below was written as a one-shot, but since a/n only chapters aren't technically allowed on this site, I split it in half so that I have a story to post along with the winners! So here is Part 1! This a Modern AU and I really love this Erik and Christine, can't wait for you guys to read the rest! :D


Silent night...holy night...all is calm...all is bright...

Christine huffed and puffed as she hauled yet another box of Christmas lights from her attic as her music app— which was on the phone currently stuffed in the back pocket of her jeans— played on in the background. She set the tattered cardboard box on top of three other tubs she had pulled down before pausing to change the song to something more fast paced-

She needed motivation if she was ever going to beat him.

Her eyes narrowed just at the thought.

For as long as she had lived on Meadow Street, her house always had the best Christmas light display of the entire street. Even when she was a little girl, constantly moving from state to state, her father had always made sure that they had Christmas lights on their house or door to their apartment.

The best Christmas lights.

It just wasn't Christmas without them.

However, she had run into a problem these past few days: her new across the street neighbor also had a fascination for Christmas lights. And not just any Christmas lights—

The best Christmas lights.

Christine could feel the anger boiling inside of her.

He moved in a week before Halloween and the outside of his house had been decked out in decorations. Spiders, skeletons, pumpkins, strobe lights….you name it he had it. She should've realized what a pain he would turn out to be then. Everyone had fawned over his decor, but he wasn't home on Halloween so his house was closed to trick or treaters— and Christine for that matter— meaning that his identity remained a mystery to everyone on the street. All except for the fact that he was a man of course.

The previous owner only ever said that a 'man' was moving in and they were moving out.

Which really didn't help Christine.

She hadn't given him and his decorations much thought until Thanksgiving night when she went out to put some final touches on her lights only to see his house covered in strings of lights, all blinking different colors.

She hadn't even seen him put them up.

He was good. A little too good.

Wizards in Winter began playing from her phone speakers as Christine ground her teeth and stood up, trying to imagine her neighbor's face— which was hard because she had never seen it— when he saw the lights that she was going to add. With a triumphant smile, Christine stood up with a box of lights in her hand, and carried them out of the garage and on to the front porch of her house. She couldn't be bested my a newbie on the block. She had a reputation to uphold! Christmas light displays were her thing. Her passion, her fifteen seconds of fame, her life.

And she wasn't about to let her stupid, show-off neighbor stand in her way.


"And….there," Christine whispered to herself as she took a few steps back to admire her handiwork. She had added more lights to her porch and had managed to wrap the single tree in her front yard completely with blue lights. Yes, this was going to be hard to top.

She couldn't wait until nighttime so she light it up and blow away her neighbor's display!

The last time she had added more decorations— which was two nights ago— the man across the street had responded with four inflatables (Santa Claus, a reindeer in a hot cocoa mug, the grinch, and a snowman) and a set of those stupid green and red laser lights.

Ugh, stick to the traditional way, doofus…she had thought, much preferring the old fashioned way of just straight up Christmas lights.

But in the meantime, she had another plan of action to accomplish. Christine pulled her coat tighter around herself and glanced back at the house across the street. She was determined to find out who this infernal man was and why he couldn't just leave her alone and let her do her lights in peace. She took a deep breath and gathered all of her courage up before walking across the street to stand on his porch.

Knock, knock, knock!

No answer.

Knock, knock, knock!

Nothing.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK!

Nope.

Christine pursed her lips. Someone had to be home, the light was clearly on in the window!

"Hello? Is anyone home?" Christine started. "Hellooooo!" Christine yelled, knocking on the door. This was a move she would never dare do under any other circumstances, but this was dire. Big Christmas lights were her thing and she was not sharing.

The door flew open and hand shot out and caught her wrist mid-knock.

"Shut up, are you trying to draw the attention of the entire neighborhood?"

Christine gasped at the hand that was stuck out the door, however she quickly regained her gusto.

"Let go of my hand!" she nearly shrieked.

"Shhh!" The door opened wider and the man let go of Christine's wrist.

Christine froze as her eyes met the pair on the other side of the door frame. Golden eyes that seemed to shine back at her from underneath a black, leather mask. The man was tall. Much taller than her and so skinny.

"What do you want?" the man finally said, one hand still firmly on the door knob.

Christine swallowed and then went to speak but found that all her words had escaped her. She had been imagining a lot of things, a balding, elderly man, a middle aged man with a couple kids running around, heck- even a fraternity boy like her good friend Raoul.

But this?

She hadn't mentally prepared herself to be quite this intimidated.

"Well?"

Christine blinked. "Um…I just wanted to come introduce myself and say that I'm Christine Daaé and I live across the street and um…nice Christmas lights?" she stammered nervously out.

The man cocked his head. "Thanks." And with that he went to shut the door.

No, no, no! Christine thought. I'm going to loose my chance!

"Wait!" Christine stopped him, putting a hand on his door to prevent him from closing it.

There was a pause and then the door opened, slower this time.

The man stood, arms crossed and bored look in his eyes as if he'd rather be doing anything else.

"Actually, that's not why I knocked on your door. I…um…Christmas lights are my thing!" she said all at once.

The man blinked and then shifted his weight. "I'm sorry, what?"

Christine took a deep breath. She wasn't about to let him take the lead in this conversation. "I don't know who you are or why you're set on out-doing me, but this is my territory. I just think it is very rude for you to just come out of nowhere and try to up me at my own game."

At this, he laughed.

Laughed!

Christine was gaining back her anger. "I'm sorry, is this funny to you?"

"How about you go back across the street and leave me alone, huh? I'll do my lights and you can do yours. Last time I checked, it wasn't illegal to put up Christmas lights," he suggested, uncrossing his arms.

"That's not how this works. I've lived here for six years and every year I have the best lights on the street. It's my thing. You can't just waltz in and try to take that from me—which you won't—"

"Listen kid—"

"I'm not a kid."

"I didn't put out my lights to hurt your ego. However….maybe it is about time you had a little healthy competition. Because it certainly doesn't seem like you've ever had any from anyone on this street from the looks of it." He smirked as he took a step forward.

Christine narrowed her eyes. "You know what, maybe it is."

Erik nodded his head and then stuck out his hand.

"Oh no, I'm not making a deal with someone I don't even know. You can shove your deal up-"

"Erik. The name's Erik Destler."

Christine raised and eyebrow and finally delivered the insult she had been waiting to say the whole conversation. "Well, Erik Destler, apparently no one told you that Halloween ended a month ago because you're still wearing a mask—"

Erik had reached out of the door frame and grabbed her by both of her wrists.

"Don't ever say anything about this mask. Because next time you do I'll be sure that you won't have the eyes to see it again. Do you understand me?"

Christine nodded and wiggled her hands out from his grasp.

"So," Erik sniffed as he held out his hand again, "do we have a competition?"

Don't do it, Christine, don't do it, you're making a deal with the devil—

"Deal."


After her little encounter with her new neighbor, Christine had been working double time to add even more lights and decorations to her house. Now the poles on her front porch were wrapped with alternating red and white lights to look like candy canes, not to mention that she had climbed up on her ladder and strung dozens of strands of bright, flashy, multi-colored LED lights to her roof in addition to all the white lights that were already up there. Night had come and she saw Erik's house light up with all his stupid blow-ups and laser lights.

It was her time to shine.

Literally.

She ran inside through her front door and double checked that the timer was set— it was, only a few more minutes until it would turn the lights on— and then settled in her living room, watching out the window at Erik's house.

Never in her life had she met anyone so rude and ignorant to her feelings, even her ex-boyfriend had been nicer than he had been. And so secretive! Why else would he hide in his house and wear a mask around to meet guests unless he had something to hide? Whatever the reason, Christine was willing to add it to her list of things that stirred up her drive to make her light display better than his.

Suddenly, her window lit up and she could see all of her lights that were in her yard light up as well as the glow of the lights that were on top of her house that she couldn't see from the inside.

He's gotta be impressed by this, Christine thought with a smirk.

Then Erik did the unthinkable.

One minute his house is the same lights as it was the night before and the next his garage is lit up with lights in the shape of the word "Merry Christmas!"

Christine's jaw dropped.

She would've been fine if it had ended there, but it got worse.

Much worse.

The red and green lights that spelled out the words "Merry Christmas!" switched out to spell the words "Joyeux Noël!" and then alternated between the two phrases every few seconds.

When did he have the time to do that?! She had been outside nearly all day and not once had she seen him go outside and add more lights. He was sneaky.

Very sneaky indeed.

And as the words continued to blink across the street at her, Christine had only one thought on her mind:

She had to beat Erik Destler.


To be continued...