Hello! This is something random that I thought of last night in bed...that's when I get most ideas. I was just think about how POTO might work if there was no music involved...hmmm.

This is a modern fic because...well just because. You'll probably either like it or hate it...I'm posting to see what the general opinion is. Most people will probably say what is the point of POTO without music? Well, I completly understand that. Anyway...
If you don't like it, don't flame it...it's really not benifical to me to help improve my writing. However that doesn't mean that you have to like...I do listen to critisim very carefully.

And by the way...I don't own Phantom of the Opera...like you thought that I did anyway... Be careful ALW, I'm behind you...
Seriously though, Leroux invented the characters, ALW put them to music. I've put Leroux's characters to ALW's plot (only reason being that I don't own my own copy of POTO and I think my friend will get a bit annoyed if I keep borrowing it all the time to refer to)

Anyway, fic...let me know what you think

Chapter 1
Christine glanced at the clock. It was two in the morning. She blinked at the dazzling light from her computer screen and drained her coffee cup. Finished, finally. Not that it would really matter if she had finished or not. Nobody would take much interest in her work, except for perhaps her friend Meg. Groaning she switched off the computer and fell into bed, fully dressed.

Her alarm clock chirping at 7:00 was not the most welcome sound to Christine. Rolling over, she turned it off and without thinking fell back asleep. It was 8:30 when she woke up. Cursing, she leapt out of bed and got dressed for work. There was no time for breakfast so she hurriedly bought a coffee from the train station before cramming into a carriage with the thousands of other commuters that took the London Underground to work every morning.

When she finally got the office she was 30 minutes late much to the annoyance of the boss, Mrs. Giry.

'Christine Daae!' she barked. 'So what is it this morning?'

Christine felt herself turning red and mumbling something about sleeping in above the snickers of the other people in the office.

'That's alright Christine,' Mrs. Giry said. 'You sleep in all you want. In fact sleep in tomorrow'

Christine looked at her slightly confused.

'Just don't bother coming to work,' she added sharply. 'Now get to your desk, the details for your story have been there since the moment you were supposed to be in work.'

Christine nodded and shuffled to her desk. She shuffled through the papers. She had been commissioned to write about a dog that did tricks. Brilliant! Christine had once been very exited to get her job as a journalist for the newspaper when she had graduated from University. It was a fantastic introduction into the world of writing. But over the last three years, she was sick of the monotonous routine of waking up and getting into the office to write about pointless things. She did no serious reporting, she was never trusted to do it well. Mrs. Giry demanded perfection from her journalists and Christine did simply not meet the standard.

Christine however had higher ambitions than spending her life writing for the paper. She wanted to be a novelist and had hoped that journalism would have helped her on this path. Every night after work she would sit at her computer and write her novel, a chapter for each week to read at the writers circle that she attended. Over he time, she had received enough rejections letters from publishers to wallpaper her grotty flat and was starting to lose hope that one of her novels would ever be published.

As she tore open the letters on her desk from the various publishing companies, she was not surprised to see the letter in which she was told politely that her manuscript was not to be published by their company and wished her all the best in her future writing career.

'Yeah I bet you do,' Christine mumbled under her breath, scrunching the letter up and throwing it into the bin.

Christine's friend Meg, who also worked at the paper leaned over to her.

'Another rejection letter?' she asked kindly.

Christine nodded bitterly. Meg sighed.

'Don't worry Christine. I know that your writing is brilliant. When those idiots at the publishing companies realise it too, they'll be kicking themselves for turning you down.'

Christine smiled at her friend although the words brought little comfort.

'Are you still coming to the writers circle meeting tonight?' Meg asked

'Of course. I was late this morning because I sat up last night finishing the latest chapter.'

When Christine and Meg finally escaped from the office, they went straight to the meeting, stopping briefly at the café for a drink and sandwich. They arrived at the meeting shortly before it started. The group leader Mr. Firmin looked around.

'So has anybody got anything new?' he asked.

'I've finished a new chapter,' Christine said timidly.

'Oh,' Mr. Firmin said looking at Christine. 'Sorry, I forget your name.'

'Christine Daae.'

'Well if no-one else wants to go?' Mr. Firmin said looking around the members.

'I want to hear Christine,' Meg said supportively.

'Go on then,' Mr Firmin said.

Christine got to her feet and took a deep breath. She was just about to open her mouth to start reading when the doors burst open and a woman waltzed in.

'Mr. Firmin! I'm so sorry that I'm late.'

'Nonsense Carlotta!' he said. 'We're very glad to have you here. A woman such as yourself must have many important things to do than attend our little writers circle.'

'Oh, Mr. Firmin, it's my pleasure.'

'Well would you like to go first Carlotta? Read us a chapter from your book?'

'Of course!' Carlotta said, whipping her novel out of her bag.

'You can go later,' Mr. Firmin said to Christine quickly

Christine bit her lip and sat down in her chair, being completely ignored by Mr. Firmin. Well why would anyone want to listen to her she thought bitterly? Why would they when they could listen to the PUBLISHED author? Sighing she listened politely to Carlotta overact her reading. Her novel wasn't even that good.

Carlotta continued for a long time.

'Well that's it for tonight,' Mr. Firmin said after layering praises on Carlotta for her work. 'See you next week.'

Christine shook her head and walked out of the meeting, Meg calling after.

'How is anyone ever going to hear anything I do Meg?' she asked her friend. 'No-one will even give me a chance!'

Christine screwed up her papers and threw them aside. Meg followed her to try and comfort her. Neither of the women notice the shadowy figure that picked up Christine's pages, unscrewed them and read what was written there.

So...thoughts? Shall I continue?