Once Upon a Time…
The Opera Populaire had been renovated after the fire, of course. They would probably always keep coming back like that, even if it had happened a thousand times. Within a year or so, the Opera was back on its feet, back to the way things always were. They even started up the New Year's Masquerade again, even though the last one ended as such a disaster. That's when he appeared…
He was a mysterious figure, to say the least. He always stood on the edge of the room in some shadowy corner, watching the dancing but never joining in, never speaking, just watching the twirling dancers as his own thoughts whirled away into the night. He also was never around at the midnight unmasking, though he was always there, year after year. After a few times, the other guests began to joke that he was the old Phantom come back to haunt them. They didn't know how close they were to the truth…
Nearly five years after the fire that had so nearly destroyed the Opera Populaire, the mysterious woman referred to as Cinderella made her first appearance in Europe. She appeared as a radiant but uninvited guest at ball after ball, always disappearing at one minute until midnight. If anyone cared to find her the next day, they would find no trace that she was ever even there…
Two phantom guests haunting the masked balls of Europe…