Raul de Changy had been sleeping peacefully in his bed until he was suddenly awoken by an earsplitting scream.
He snapped straight up, whipping his head around to find the source of the cry, only to discover his wife, Christine, standing at the foot of the bed, still wearing her nightdress.
She had stopped screaming now to press her hands to her trembling lips, her wide, horrified eyes fixed on an object on the floor.
Raoul clambered out of bed to rush to her side, wrapping an arm around her shaking form and pulling her close to him. "Christine, what's wrong?" He asked anxiously.
Instead of replying to him verbally, Christine pulled one of her hands from her mouth and pointed to the floor where there lay an envelope that had been sealed with a skull fashioned of red wax.
It was his seal.
Raoul pulled way from Christine to snatch the envelope up from the ground and he ripped it open, dreading what would be written on the letter inside of it.
Dear Vicomte and Vicomtesse, I know this letter must have come as a shock to you because you believed me to be out of your world forever, and I assure you that after this I will be.
You see, I made quite a great sacrifice when I choose to let Christine go and yet I received nothing in return for my moment of martyrdom.
I have now come to realize that you will never give me any form of payment and matters must be taken into my own hands.
I gave up the one thing I love more than anything else in the world that fateful night and so, I have decided to take the very same thing for you.
If you do not understand what I mean by this then why don't you go check on your son?
I bid you a sincere farewell,
O.G
The letter went fluttering back down onto the floor for Raoul found that he no longer had the strength to hold it.
There came a sharp intake of breath from his side and he turned to look at Christine, who had been reading the letter over his shoulder.
Her face had become drained off all color and the hands that she had pressed to her lips again were quivering.
"No…" She whispered. "He would never do such a thing… He couldn't!"
Raoul was quite sure, however, that the man really would dare to do such a thing, which was why he went running out of the room and down the hall, towards the room where his one year old son should be still be resting. And from the sound of the hurried footsteps behind him, Christine had chosen to follow him on his panicked sprint.
His eyes widened in terror when he discovered the unconscious body of his son's nurse propped up against a wall outside of the infant's room.
He bent down to press his fingers to her neck and let out a sigh of relief when he felt the dull pulse throbbing beneath his fingertips.
Christine, on the other hand, completely disregarded the unconscious body and rushed into the room, desperate to see if her son was alright.
Raoul was just raising to his feet to join her when a shriek of pain that made his heart stop came from inside the room.
He rushed inside to find Christine on her knees before the crib, her face pressed into her hands as she released one wail of misery after the other.
Raoul moved to the crib with shaky steps, dreading to see what he knew must lay inside.
When he was finally able to look inside the crib, he found himself sinking to his knees besides Christine.
The crib was empty.
The Phantom had taken what he wanted.