He fled the Opera Populaire, the building that had been his only home for so many years. The angry mob followed close behind him, their torches aflame, all roared for him death. The warmth of Christine's soft kiss heated his cheek, but inside his heart was splitting in two. Christine, the woman he loved, did not love him back, and the truth of that stung like the prick of a thorn.
Pulling back the tears that burned his eyes, he ran out into the cold night air. The street was shadowy and deserted. No horse drawn coaches cluttered the paved road, no streetwalkers waited at the corners in hopes of finding rich gentlemen that could spare the extra money to lay with her. This would be an easy escape.
Adjusting the hood of his cloak over his scarred face, he went unnoticed into the night, in search of a new home: a new Opera house where he could be the Phantom who all feared once again.
