When Claire de la Sogne flees from her former life, she hides in the renewed Opera Populaire and behind a mask, giving herself out as the former Phantom. But what will she do when she comes to the realization that the real Phantom is, in fact, still very much alive? And perhaps more important: what will he do?
The screaming voices that chased her through the empty streets of Paris enforced her to run her harder. Claire ignored the ache in her legs, the burning of her lungs, knowing that if she allowed herself a moment of rest, that their little game of cat and mouse would come to an end.
Turning another corner, she hoped to shake her pursuers off with her extensive knowledge of the city. Memories of the time when she could still walk the streets as a free woman sent a stake through her heart, making her realize that she could never again. She was her own person now, but it had come at a high price.
Another scream from the men behind her told her that she was losing ground. Soon they would catch up. She took a sharp turn, heading into one of the smaller streets, where the lights were less bright and the cobblestones more uneven.
Stumbling over her own feet, Claire almost missed the outline of a dark door that had caught light in the moonshine. The footsteps behind her warned her once again that her pursuers were not far away and she knew that this was her only chance. It was now or never. Yanking at the door handle, she thanked God in heaven when it opened immediately and soundlessly and slipped inside, letting darkness swallow her whole.
AN: As you can see, this is a very very short draft that I never even got to properly write down. The idea was simple really and I had it in my documents under the name "The Phantomess". Claire - the main character - is the only child in an aristocratic family. She's intelligent, eager to learn, atlethic and adventurous. In short: every thing an aristocratic family could wish for in an heir. The only problem? She's a female. When she was but a child, her father allowed her to do anything she wanted, loving his daughter too much to deny her those pleasures. But as she became older, the problem that this upbringing posed became very apparant and her mother took tighter control on their only child. She was forced into a perfect young lady mold, forced to dumb herself down in order to fit in. She doesn't want to marry, since she doesn't want to be just a stupid, trophy-wife on some man's arm who doesn't even care about her opinion. When at last her mother forces her into an arranged marriage - to exactly the kind of man she despises - she knows what kind of life would be ahead of her and she decides to run.
At last she finds refuge in the newly closed Palais Garnier, which closed after a big fire. She finds the house at the lake and makes it her home.
When the Opera above her starts renovating and at last reopens, she knows that her only chance at survival is to take on the persona of the Opera Ghost and forces money of the managers in this way. In a way, she then thinks, it's kind of sad that she got more respect as a deranged madman than she would ever have as a sophisticated, artistocratic young woman.
Everything goes well until the real Opera Ghost decides to return to his Opera and finds it to already be very much haunted. He hates her for using his persona and most of all his masks, saying that she doesn't have anything to hide, on which she responds that she does indeed: the greatest defect a child could ever born with, for it would cause the person to be treated with disrespect their entire life: feminity.
After this the two reluctantly agree to share the house at the lake, holding up the idea that there is only one Phantom of the Opera to the outside world. He is shocked to find out that she doesn't know a thing about music ("An Opera Ghost that couldn't tell Mozart from Bach, how ironic") and she is equally surprised to find out how little he understands of the world, even though he has seen so much of it. Likewise, he appreciates how she treats him like a man and she appreciates that he treats her like a human being - instead of just a woman.