Phantom Disappearances

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything from Phantom, just my OC, Melinda.

Oh, and according to my story, the Opera Extraordinaire continued on about a year after Christine and Raoul left, but floundered dramatically after word got out of what happened. The managers shut it down and no one else bought it.

This story happens about four years afterwards.

She walked in front of the old Opera house and shivered, trying to avoid its looming shadows and ghostly whispers of operas long gone.

"They really should tear it down, nothing is there but bad memories…"she thought, forcing herself to believe that she hadn't seen a cape fly across the entry way. "Oh, good…it's just a cobweb…" she sighed. Her chilled face relaxed a little. She had always hated that Opera house, not because of its ghostliness, but because of the tragedy that took her best friend.

Flashback

"Cat! No! We can't actually go inside the Opera! It's haunted! Haven't you ever heard of Christine Daii and the Opera Ghost?! They didn't call him that for nothing, you know!" Melinda cried to her best friend, Catolina.

"Of course I've heard of it! What French person hasn't?" she tartly replied, her bouncing curls framing her face and her eyes sparkling as she swung around.

"Oh, let's see…YOU! You're not even French! You're Spanish! And besides, we don't have time, mother will kill me if I don't get home and help with supper!" Melinda cried out, twisting her arm out of Catolina's grip.

"Your mother can just wait. Doesn't she have your precious older sister to help?" Cat sarcastically replied. Both of them knew that Madeline, Melinda's older sister, wouldn't even lift a finger if she didn't have to. She just spent all of her time reading and talking with her many friends.

Melinda sighed. She knew that Cat wouldn't give up, no matter what, and whether she liked it or not (and she really didn't like it), she would have to venture inside the musty building and creep around, studying the various objects and statues.

They crept through the "DO NOT ENTER" signs and gasped at what they saw.

It was a beautiful staircase with statues all around it, the only disfiguration in it was the layers of dust and snow that had found it's way in from the cracks in the ceiling and the four years of neglect.

Catolina immediantly ran to one of the statues, touching its base with wide, excited eyes.

"Do you see all of this? Are you recognizing it? This is it! The Phantom was standing," she rushed up the stares and stood on the small platform. "right here! Remember how the papers said that she was abducted by him at the masquerade, in a 'cloud of devil red dust'?!" She quoted the papers, then rambled, something she tended to do a lot when she was genuinely excited.

"Yes, I see it…" Melinda stared in awe at the staircase, breathing her words out. She was afraid, but not of the Phantom. She was afraid to breath, to stand, to talk in this place, this opera house, filled with tales of triumph and tears, heartbreak and horror.

"Let's leave." Melinda said urgently, the silence and fear leaving immediantly. Something wasn't right, she could feel it. Then she saw it.

"Cat!" she called out, eyes widening in fear.

"We aren't leaving, I don't want to." Cat stated matter-of-factly.

"Cat!" She called again, shaking with horror.

"What?" Cat asked, curiously running her fingers over the staircase rail, leaving trails of bronze where the dust was.

"Cat…" Melinda spoke now in a whisper, scared stiff.

Suddenly becoming alarmed at her friend's voice, Cat looked up and recoiled in slight shock as she noticed how pale Melinda was. Her eyes were widened out and her skin wasn't the usual peach and pale mixture. Instead it was milky white, trails of blue and purple and red around her eyes, pure fright dancing through her.

"What?!" Cat repeated, urgently this time, rushing to her friend. Melinda slowly lifted a hand into the air, pointing somewhere beyond the staircase. Cat followed her gaze and gasped.

There, in the dark corridor above the stairs, was a man. A mask covered half of his face, and his cape covered his body. At a closer look, you could see-

"The Phantom! He must have died here! And by his very own Punjab lasso!" Cat exclaimed with a note of awe.

Melinda turned her livid white eyes towards her crazy best friend. "WHAT are you talking about?! The guy died! He's DEAD! How can you think that isn't scary?!"

Cat looked at Melinda with a scowl. "Of course it's scary! But after having to go through 'Day of the Dead' in Spain, you kinda lose whatever fear you've ever had."

Melinda stared in awe at Cat. Here they were, in the creepy run-down Opera house, with a DEAD PHANTOM not even twenty feet from him and she wasn't really caring! In fact, here she goes, to…examine him?! Melinda shook her head and went after Cat. Grabbing her by the arm, Melinda spun her around and started to drag her off.

"Melinda! No! We need to see it! He might still be alive! Or maybe it's not even him! It could just be a hoax…the Opera Ghost's very own warning to us!" Cat's eyes clearly showed excitement, but with a hint of fear. Melinda knew that if she really and truly wanted to poke and prod the Phantom's carcass, then she would have easily twisted away and gone back.

"You're extremely gruesome." Melinda stated. Of course, both already knew this. In a strange sort of way, Melinda would say that Catolina was a boy. Of course, she wasn't one, but she had all the cliché of one. She was the girl who would gladly examine a bug in class. When she was a child, before she moved to France, she was probably the only girl in Spain who would gladly play in the mud. At a second thought of this, though, Melinda decided that that probably wasn't true. From what Catolina has told her about Spain, most people build their actual houses out of mud. But Melinda dismissed this thought when Cat finally was brave enough to wrench away from Melinda and took off in the balcony's direction. It was a short run, but was finished off with a graceful bound up the stairs.

Melinda could sense that something was happening. Her brain slowly registered that Cat was screaming…Falling…

Melinda rushed up to her, but it was too late…Melinda saw her body, lying on the ground, a look of terror frozen on her face…

Everything went black…

Darkness took over…

And a scream echoed through the Opera.

CLIFFHANGER! MWAHAHAHAHA! Well, not really a cliffhanger…anyway, I know things got a little confusing, but if you don't understand it, just tell me what ya don't get and I will explain it in the next chapter.

::hums "Angel of Music"::