I sighed and shrugged out of my old clothes and put the nightgown on. I walked out of the room and into the dormitory, bumping into one of the ballet girls.

"Oh pardon me, I didn't see you there." she said, while examining me.

"You must be Charlotte!"

I was shocked that she knew who I was, but I was in a hurry so I didn't bother asking her.

"I am Emma, it's a pleasure to meet you, there's been rumors going around saying that you're the new ballet girl here to replace Audrey." she pulled my wrist and I winced in pain. She then let go and examined it.

"You're hurt, come I'll take you to Madame Giry." she waved her hand for me to follow her, so I did. Everywhere we walked there were people in costumes rehearsing. Everyone seemed to be in a hurry, that I found myself bumping into many people; I even bumped into the lead soprano Antoinette.

"Watch it you little cosset!" she screamed.

I nearly fell over because of that horrific sound. I kept walking, following Emma we finally managed to make it to Madame Giry's room.

"Hello there, my dear." Madame Giry said. I entered first and Emma entered behind me.

"Emma, shouldn't you be practicing. Why are you here?" she then shot Emma a glare before she returned a smile to me.

"I brought Charlotte here because she was hurt." she mumbled, afraid of getting another killer look, she decided to leave right away.

I sat, watching her grab a small cloth. I decided to hide the wrist that was bruised; I didn't want her to question how it happened or who caused it.

"What happened, Charlotte? The last time I saw you, you were in good health, and now you are cut and bruised." she wet a cloth and gently blotted my cuts.

"I found a strange piece of wood that wasn't fitted in the ground right, so I pushed it and found myself tumbling into a dark passage way." she paused and stared at me for a moment and then reached for the wrist I was hiding behind my arm.

She grabbed my arm, gripping it tight and gasped as she examined it.

"What happened!" she shouted angered. I stared at the floor and held my mouth closed.
"Tell me."

I stared at the floor and mumbled the whole story of me meeting the man with the green eyes, and how he grabbed my wrist and squeezed it before he led me out. She then seemed to gaze off and glare at the picture hanging on the wall.

"My dear child, have you heard of the story of the Phantom of the Opera." she sat down in the red velvet chair next to me.

"In fact, I have. He was the man who made the chandelier fall, and also set half the opera house on fire." she winced when I said fire, so I decided to stop there.

"Indeed he was. The world has forgotten about him, but I think that after your experience in the old passage way he may have returned. Let us move on from that subject now and talk about your dance schedule for the week." she turned and handed me the sheet of paper.

It was a calendar. It had the times of rehearsals; it looked like I had rehearsal everyday from 6:30am to 1:00pm. I also seemed to have Sunday's off, and in December Christmas day was circled and had a mask drawn on it. I stared at it blankly, trying to guess what it meant. Madame Giry seemed to notice my confusion, so she started to explain it to me.

"On Christmas day, we are having our annual winter masquerade. That is why I gave you that spare mask, which reminds me, we need to measure you for your masquerade dress and your ballet costume for the performance." She called a woman inside the room; she was holding measuring tapes of all sorts around her.

"Now hold still mademoiselle, I need to measure you perfectly." she said in a thick Spanish accent.

It took for what seemed forever to be measured; she finally finished the last measurement with Madame Giry's help. She waved goodbye and left me and Madame Giry alone in the room. Madame Giry seemed to be exhausted, so I excused myself from her room. As soon as I opened the door, I found six ballet girls listening with their ears at the wall. When they saw me, all except for two left. Emma and a small blond girl, who shared much resembles to Madame Giry, were the two that stayed.

"Do you really think you met the opera ghost?" she shouted in excitement.

"Of course she did Emma, who else would walk in the underground passage ways of the opera house." said the blond one.

"I do not think I met the famed opera ghost. I am not even sure he is real, but I did meet someone down there, it was probably one of the stagehands."
They came running after me as I tried to walk to the ballet dormitory.

"Hi I am Meg Giry, Madame Giry's daughter." she smiled and held out her hand. I gladly shook it and continued walking.

"Do you believe in the opera ghost." she asked curiously.

"I will tell you this, I won't believe in the opera ghost until there is proof he exist." she looked up at the ceiling and smiled.

"There is much proof of the ghost, we have many of his letters and have stumbled upon several hidden passage ways of his."

Erik POV
Proof of my existence, she does not know what she is getting herself into. I followed them slowly from above as they walked across the stage below. I had been listening to her whole conversation with Madame Giry and her other conversation with the insolent ballet girls. If she wouldn't believe in me until she had proof, then proof she would get. I sat up there thinking of what style of "proof" would I give to her.

I then heard a squeak from the catwalk behind me. I immediately ran to the secret passage way near the end of my catwalk. Walking down the passageway in silence, I decided to visit the passage way that led to the girl's shared room. What was her name again? I thought to myself, how could I forget her name, it was only moments ago when she took your hand and followed you in the darkness. No one had ever trusted me, not even Christine. Maybe she was different from the others, an outcast like me.

I shook that thought from my head, had years of not terrorizing everyone made me go soft, I growled in confusion and made it to the mirror I was looking for. Peering in carefully, making sure I wouldn't look in at the wrong moment. I finally saw her, she was beautiful. Her black coal hair cascaded down her back in elegant waves, her eyes a deep chocolate brown and her skin was slightly tan. Her white nightgown reminded me of Christine, which hurt but also comforted me. I sat there and watched her as she retreated to her bed giggling about something one of the girls had told her. Her laughter was just adorable and her smile made my heart flutter.

Snap out of it Erik! I said to myself, she would only reject you like Christine had done. I sighed and looked up to find her fast asleep in her bed, I was about to return to my lair but I heard a scream and crying come from behind. I ran back to the mirror and watched her cry out in agony from her tortured dreams. Surprisingly her scream and tears did not wake the others and I watched, feeling helpless. I sang softly from behind the mirror, watching her slowly drift back to sleep. Maybe this would be her proof of the opera ghost's existence. I found my eyelids growing heavy from exhaustion, so I decided to fall asleep leaning against the wall as I watched her sleep soundly.
I smiled and thought; maybe fate has sent me a second chance.

Charlotte POV

That dream, that dream seemed so real. Why was I being cursed with such nightmares every night. I was thankful that my dream had ended. It was horrible, there was darkness all around me and I could see a man. The man was tall dark and was laughing with a sinister smile. I knew what was going to happen next. I braced myself and heard the hard crack of a whip against me. The dream ended and I woke up with a scream and tears streaming down my face. Soon a soft voice drifted in the air, causing my tears to end.

The man was singing, singing from somewhere. I smiled and laid myself back down, the voice never stopped singing, I stared up and whispered "thank you."
I woke up the next morning around 5:30 and got dressed into my ballet practice outfit Madame Giry picked out for me the day before. I yawned and decided to wake Meg and Emma up for breakfast. They both mumbled and stretched, and then we heard a knock at the door. I ran to the door and opened it, and standing there was a man. He smiled at me and I couldn't help but blush, for all I was wearing was the small and partially see thru ballet practice outfit. He slightly blushed to noticing my outfit, and then he spoke.

"Good evening mademoiselle Charlotte, I am the new patron, I thought it would be polite to introduce myself to you." he gave me a smile, while reaching fir my hand. He took my hand and kissed it, I blushed, then heard a large ping and found the patron covered in green paint, and I untouched.

Looking down the patron excused himself and I held my breath, and nodded, trying not to laugh at the green paint that was all over him. I closed the door gently, finally letting myself laugh. Emma and Meg stood there, watching me like I was crazy, but I explained to them what had happened and they soon joined me in laughter. Meg then paused, and had a look of terror.

"Meg, what is wrong?" I whispered, she stood there, unmoving, for more than a minute, she then started to speak.

"The Phantom of The Opera, he's here." Holding in more laughter I tried to speak.

"The Phantom is not here, it was most likely a stagehand looking for something to laugh at." I assured her. She stared back at me in disbelief, as if I was loosing my mind.

"Calm down Meg, it was probably a stagehand like Charlotte said" Emma was patting Meg on the back, trying to assure her that everything was alright.

"I'm sorry, it's just he kidnapped my best friend Christine." she mumbled. I gave her a hug and she felt better. We all decided that we should hurry down to ballet practice. Running, we ran head first into the leading soprano, Antoinette.

"Not that cosset again! Are you all blind, now get out of my way!" she squealed in that utterly horrid accent. Meg and Emma stood silent, but I was sick and tired of this girl.

I was about to give this diva a piece of my mind when a man's voice echoed through out the whole opera.

"A Cosset, Madame! Ha! Perhaps it is you who is the Cosset!" his laughter traveled through the whole opera, bringing fear to everyone including me. It couldn't be the opera ghost, why would he return after he nearly destroyed half of the opera.

It was probably just another stagehand looking for someone to scare, I tried to reassure myself. But it just seemed so unbelievable.

Erik POV

Well, now you did it Erik. You could have just held your mouth when that toad of a prima Donna spoke, but no, you had to say something. I watched all the alarmed ballet girls scramble to Madame Giry and everyone else run in different directions.

I had completely struck fear in every living person, but instead of laughing about it I just felt empty. I decided to stroll along the passageways to make sure all my traps were set. I passed by Christine's room, trying to forget about her was proving rather difficult for me, but thinking about the new girl helped.

I came by the book case passage and heard a strange humming, it sounded like someone was humming a tune, and I immediately sneaked around the bookcase passage, glancing thru to see who was meddling in there. I nearly died of shock when I saw who it was sitting there, it was Charlotte, she looked as if she was sobbing and trying to comfort herself by humming.

"Charlotte, why are you crying?" I asked in a rather pathetic and weak tone. I silently cursed myself for using such a pathetic tone, why did I even ask her, wasn't I suppose to threatening and terrifying.

"Erik, is that you?" she asked, her voice softer than usual. I approached her slowly, she laid there, her back against the wall, she was holding her knees to her chest, and it looked as if she was crying for sometime already.

"Yes it is, Mademoiselle," she simply just turned her back to me and buried her face back in her hands.

"Mademoiselle, you have not told me why you are crying." I tried to sound commanding, but it came out as an empty threat. She turned and searched for my face in the shadows.

"If you show yourself, I'll tell you." I sat myself beside her, tapping her so she was aware of my presence. She stared into my eyes for sometime, she turned away and whispered.

"Everyone is terrified of me. They all think I'm with the phantom and that at any second I'm going to call him out on people. They all think that I'll make him kill if I don't get my way." she sobbed, I felt so horrid, I had basically ruined her career and a possible friendship with anyone.

Why was it that this made me feel horrid, when I did it before I merely laughed and left and now I felt like I was injured. I had to comfort her somehow, so I did the only thing I could think of, I grabbed her and held her there, it felt like the right thing to do.

She sat there in my lap, sobbing into my shirt, I could not help but feel a little bit of happiness, I was holding a woman in my arms, and she hadn't fled or screamed, she stayed and held me too. It was a good feeling, but it was sad to think that I was the one who caused the tears.

"I am truly sorry about this misfortune; I wish I hadn't lost my temper there." I froze and realized what I said. She stopped her sobbing and looked back up into my eyes.

Her eyes showed many emotions, there was anger, hurt, hate, sadness, and the last emotion startled me, it was compassion. Why would she feel compassion towards me, even after I had ruined her whole career? She sat up right and raised her hand to my face, trying to touch my mask; I instantly grabbed her wrist, keeping her from taking my last piece of sanity.

"I understand," she said, lowering her hand from my face. She began to wipe her left arm, and I saw it. Her arm was full of red burn marks; each one was shaped like an F.

"How did you get these scars?" I asked rather impolitely, feeling ashamed that I used that tone and even asked, she would feel offended any moment now.

"I was living in London when a Gypsy carnival came to town, I was only four and my parents told me stay close, but I was small. I wanted to see everything, so I ran from my mother to explore the carnival. I was doing many spectacular bends and dances when I spotted a dancing gypsy. They were amazed at how flexible I was; I then asked the gypsy man if he had seen my mother. He told me to follow him, so I did, thinking my mother was on the other side of the door, I walked in and looked around. The room I was in wasn't a room at all, it was a cage. The man held a burning piece of metal and touched it to my skin, he told me that I was going to be his Flexible Freak in the gypsy carnival. I cried and screamed for my mother and father, but they couldn't catch up with the traveling cage. I held my hand reaching for them, but it was hopeless. The carnival traveled everywhere, and when it came here I managed to escape. The last thing I heard from the gypsy man was' I will find you my flexible freak, and when I do you will regret ever leaving!' I ran and made it to Paris." she seemed to feel pain as she told the story, and I couldn't help but feel relieved that she had something in common with me.

Lightly tracing the f on her arm, I noticed what I was doing and pulled my hand away. She looked at me with her chocolate eyes, tears streaming down her face.

"Aren't you going to leave me or call me a freak like the others?" she stared up at me waiting for my reaction to her story.

"Now why would I do that?" I asked. Her tears stopped and a glint of hope shined in her eyes.

"Everyone does that."

"Well, if you haven't noticed, I am not like everyone." I smiled, and she turned and gave me a hug. I did not know how to react to the hug, I was frozen at first, and then I slowly returned the hug.

"Now, Mademoiselle, do you wish for me to clear up this whole incident." I stood up and offered my hand for assistance.

"And how do you intend to clear this, good monsieur?" she smiled.

Charlotte POV

"You will soon find out." he whispered, his warm breath tickling my ear.

I opened the bookcase, and waved goodbye to my new friend. He waved back, showing a devious smile on his lips. I had to admit, I was rather curious how he would clear this up. The only people who believed I was innocent were Madame Giry, her daughter Meg, and my friend Emma. I was dancing with a passion I could not describe, it flowed through every inch of me, but I was tired of the frightened faces and dirty looks I was getting from my fellow ballet peers.

It seemed Madame Giry noticed this as well. I anxiously waited for the return of my friends, while I sat on my bed and read, for Madame Giry had given me the rest of the week off, feeling that I needed to take a break from the drama. There was then a tapping at the bookcase and it suddenly opened to reveal the Opera Ghost holding a letter in one hand, and a dark red rose tied with a black ribbon in the other.

I gave him a curious look then returned to reading my book. His face had flushed a bright red, that I couldn't help but giggle a little, which made it an even brighter shade. The Opera Ghost had slowly approached me and handed me the letter then twirled the rose in his hand before offering it to me.

"This is for me! Thank you. It is simply gorgeous, you must tell me where you get these from," I smiled and opened the letter he handed me. It was sealed with a red wax stamp, which was in the shape of a skull. The letter was written with very rough hand writing, but it was still beautiful.

Dear Mademoiselle Charlotte,
I am very sorry for the trouble I have caused you and I pray that you take this rose as my most sincere apology. You have my word that I will not interfere with your personal business any longer.
I remain, mademoiselle, your obedient servant.
O. G.

He turned, walking silently towards the exit, until I spoke.

"Wait! Why don't you stay and keep me company until my other friends finish ballet practice. Please, it gets awfully lonely." he simply stared at me in disbelief when I said friends, I did have some friends and he looked at me as if I only had imaginary ones.

"What! I have friends!" I said in an infuriated tone. Erik stuttered and tried to make his words come out clearly before explaining to me why he looked at me in that way.

"I am truly sorry if I offended you Charlotte, but I did not mean it that way, it just sounded like you considered me a friend, and well, I've never had a friend before." he said, finally able to make sense of his words.

I smiled at him, and motioned my hand for Erik to take a seat next to my bed. He sat silently, unmoving and completely neutral. This was going to take longer than I thought.

"So Erik , what do you want to talk about?" I asked shyly, he looked at me as I closed the book I had been reading earlier.

"Whatever you would like to." he smiled, not as shyly as I did, but still shy.

"Well, let's talk about are interest in things first." I said, hoping this would be the easiest topic for him.

Erik POV
I sat, pondering the topic of interest, I was interested in her. WAIT, NO, GET A GRIP ON YOURSELF ERIK, BEFORE YOU SAY SOMETHING YOU WILL REGRET! My mind went blank, trying to diminish the thought I was in before, MUSIC! There it was, I had always loved music, and even as a child I saw music as a means for escaping the cruel and unforgiving world.

"Well, I love music." I said a smile shined brightly across her face, causing me to smile as well.

"I love music as well, but dancing is my true passion." she twirled gracefully as she spoke.

"Really, why don't you show me one of your favorite pieces to dance to." She nodded, walking to a clear part in the room and gracefully twirled, stopping the twirl with an elegant wave of her hand, she then started the dance.

She would twirl then stop, waving her body in different was that I thought were humanely impossible to achieve, but she made it look simply stunning. Eventually she started to sing the tune she was dancing to. It was that Masquerade song.

Even though I hated being reminded of that day, it was quite relaxing listening to that familiar tune and watching her dance to it. Suddenly she stopped, but I knew that the song should have been longer. She smiled as I applauded her for the amazing performance.

"That was simply stunning my dear, you truly have a gift." She bowed and took a hold of my hand.

"What are you doing?" I questioned. She simply held my hand and brought me next to her.

"I am still not finished with the dance, Monsieur." She placed my hand around her waist and rested her other hand on my shoulder.

"I need a partner for the other half." Charlotte waited for me to take her other hand in mine, so I did.

"There is one problem, mademoiselle, I cannot dance."

"Just follow my lead, Monsieur, and you will be fine."

We twirled around fast, periodically stopping and twirling the opposite way. I began to feel nauseous, and I gripped her waist tighter, afraid I might tumble over. She looked up at me and smiled, trying to reassure me that I would be fine.

It amazed me how this woman seemed to calm me with just her smile. Our dance then came to an end, and I couldn't help but be a little sad about it. That dance made me feel like I wasn't alone in the world, that I had someone I could be with, someone that knew my pain, and that was Charlotte, ma petite danseuse. She startled me when she laid a kiss on my cheek. It warmed my cheek and sent a weird feeling my stomach.

It was a feeling I had never really experienced, but it was a pleasant one. I stood there shocked that she would even try to kiss me, even if it were on the cheek. No one had dared to kiss me, and Christine had only done so to save her precious Vicomte. My thoughts were then interrupted by a hand waving in front of my face. Charlotte stood there, her hands on her hips, glaring at me.

"I'm sorry, did I do anything to offend you, my dear." I stared at the floor.

"You did nothing, Erik, it is just you weren't speaking to me when I asked you a question."

"Well, what was the question again?" I asked shyly, she stared back up to me and rubbed her temples.

"I asked you if you enjoyed dancing with me." she mumbled, sitting on her bed and motioned for me to sit next to her. I gladly took a seat beside her on the plush bed.

"Yes, I did enjoy that dance, it was splendid!" I answered. Charlotte placed her hands in mine, surprising me.

"Do you mind visiting me again tomorrow?" she asked,