A/N: One of those things that crept from my fingers out of nowhere; it started out as being entirely original, but then took a decidedly Phantomish bent. Ergo, I flexed my nearly atrophied fanpoetry muscles and decided to carry it to term.

I'm not enthralled with the ending, but I love the continuous AABABB pattern; not only have I never used it before, but the fact that the entire poem is made up of it is really quite amazing for me--my usual poetry either has no pattern at all, utilizes the boring old ABAB, AABB, or AABA patterns, or in most cases goes higgledy-piggledy with all those patterns combined, along with some odd pseudo-pattern like ABACBDCD thrown in for no particular reason.

But enough of the poetic rambling.

As far as any explanations or interpretations of which final lair scene from which phanverse this is based upon, I personally wrote it as a hybrid of Leroux, ALW stage, 2004 film, and a nice healthy dose of AU.

Make of it what you will.

Elegant in softened white

Looking like a fairy sprite

Shuddering with promised sin

And in the mirror's ghastly light

To see the work of fingers thin—

A cake to wrap your body in.

Dripping lace and eyelet-holes

Flowing fabric down it goes

Dirtying on greenish floor

Where the hem has met the toes

And never you have gone before

Except for when the music soared.

You find a knife upon the stand

It glimmers sweetly as it can

You'd like to meet it with your breast—

But courage is like sliding sand;

Your heart, it shivers in your chest—

Your wretched heart, thrice cursed, twice blessed.

Your soul will die tonight, you know

No matter how the night may go

The blackness mangles up your dress—

You long so for less damning clothes.

The finger points, and feels a tress—

A silken lock which he loves best.

The eyes have met your trembling gaze

The sickly flesh is like a maze

You feel just like a slab of meat—

You wish for more forgotten days

But now he'll burn you up like wheat

And plunder you in virgin sheets.

The knife you grab, but let it fall

For he's no monster after all

The eyes have taken over you

And slowly put your mind in thrall.

Your feet are cold—you have no shoes

And slipping in a mucky ooze

You fall like water down the steps

Down the steps that you once leapt

With wonder and with childlike awe

Not dreaming here that you'd be kept

A prisoner in this black maw

With this dark demon that you saw

So debonair, so swift and sleek

A sensual breath upon your cheek

A hand that glided 'cross your waist

And made you breathless for a week

The smooth skin that your fingers traced

Like heaven to what the mask encased—

A raw and ravaged cheek, eye, brow

The face that leans above you now

As darkness takes your mind and sight

You whisper "music of the night"

And while you're borne across the floor

Your soul begins to take its flight

Carried through the darkened door

Captive, broken, nevermore.