Maybe someone would have mentioned my name before, even in passing. The door opened slightly and Christine peeped around it before she opened it fully. She smiled at me but then frowned as if she didn't recognise me, which I did not expect her to after all.

"I'm sorry but you must have the wrong person, I do not know you." She just looked at me innocently with her big doe eyes. Something in my name must have clicked with her because she opened the door, she could have just called the answer if she didn't.

The woman behind me started to take my arm to drag me away like the previous man and judging by the look on her face, she was not best pleased.

I stared at Christine almost willing her to have pity on me, she wouldn't know me but maybe she would have taken sympathy with me.

I panicked, I have no job and although I have been on the streets before, I don't really want to go back.

"So where am I supposed to go? I don't have anywhere to sleep, perhaps Charlotte would share some of her blankets but the streets are too cold now for a few blankets." I was sure I had said the words in my head but from the way the woman stopped dragging me, I had said them out loud. I scrunched up my face, I hadn't wanted to let on my situation and so easily, what was wrong with my brain, it seemed to be in sleep mode, some sort of non- aware standby I hate you at the moment sleep mode.

Christine stepped out of her door and bore her eyes into me, I was getting the pity look. Of course she couldn't have done that earlier, could she.

"Mme Giry, we cannot let this young girl freeze on the streets of Paris, surely there must be a place for her to stay and jobs so she can earn her living here?" Christine pleaded with the woman, Mme Giry, to let me stay.

I was a little shocked when Mme Giry complied with Christine's begging for me to stay, it was a kindness I could never repay if they let me stay. I didn't like to be indebted to people, it wasn't in my nature.

The stern woman let go of my arm and beckoned me to follow her. I looked to Christine for reassurance and she smiled at me. What reassurance was that? It looked as though they were enticing me into hell.

I followed Mme Giry down the corridor, having to jog now and then because she was extremely fast for an older woman. A young man with the biggest flowers I had ever seen past us. His hair was long and blondy gingerishy in colour, not to my taste. He nodded his head to me as he past, he was headed for Christine's room.

I didn't get to see whether she let him in, though I doubted it after all the other men were turned away, he was no different to them despite the massive flowers he held.

Mme Giry walked around every corner possible, the opera house was enormous. We went up countless stairs only to go down others that snaked a different way. If they were putting me far away from the stage then I never have the chance to learn the way, I could imagine all the wrong turns I could take. Up one, down one, right then left and up and left and forward, it's turning into a song now.

The opera house really needed some more candles to light up the corridors, they were pitch black and woe betide my feet, there were ropes everywhere. It was an art to watch where one walked and avoid the loose ropes.

Mme Giry stopped abruptly, there was nearly a collision. The woman did not seem impressed with me so far. We had ended up at the end of a hallway, a wooden door stood ahead of me. I wondered where on earth she had placed me to sleep.

I walked forward to open the door, it had a terrible creak to it. No midnight sneaking then, I thought sarcastically. Footsteps sounded behind me and Mme Giry had gone.

The room was small. That was the first thought that popped into my head. However, if I was the only person sleeping in there, which I assumed I was, then there was plenty of room.

A large stain glass window sat in one of the walls with a step that lead up to it, the room was obviously a chapel of sorts. A holder for candles stood at the head of the room, some looked almost completely burnt up. Apart from that, the room was desolate. Just how I liked it.

I placed my instrument case down on the step and sat beside it. In honesty, I had hidden it from peoples' sight because I didn't want to play in their orchestra, no way.

The window cast many beautiful colours on the room, I considered it my favourite room. Although, I was biased since I had only seen that room, yet what could top a chapel? I had lived on the streets, the room was heaven in comparison.

"I have bought you some blankets and a pillow." Mme Giry handed the thick blankets to me and a limp pillow, "I'm sorry but there was no other room available, they are all used up for other workers or cast members."

I bit my lip, the mention of work reminded me that I needed to earn my keep. "What jobs shall I do?" I asked her timidly because frankly the woman terrified me.

She looked at me as if it was a stupid question to ask, "Clean the practice rooms, they have numbers on the door. They are all over the opera house and go up to ten." She said her piece and left the room. Mme Giry definitely left an impression on any room she entered.

I took my blankets and laid them out on the floor with my pillow at the top. The blankets were so thick that there was no chance that I was going to be cold in the night. I had no clothes to change into, but I was used to wearing out my clothes until they were thin or holey.

I settled down in my makeshift bed and relaxed, for once I didn't have to worry about getting fired, especially if I told Christine who I was and she believed me. "Clear as mud." I murmured to myself.

My instrument case lay beside me, it was like a teddy bear to me. I didn't cuddle it but it gave me the comfort that someone would find from one. Gently, I opened the case to assure myself that it was safe and sound. My flute glinted back at me from the moonlight that shone through the stain glass window.

It had taken a lot of work and saving to buy the flute, yet when I asked my employers if I could buy it off them, they gave me a reduced price for being a loyal maid. I smiled as I thought of the memory, that family was kind to me.

The problem had risen when the father of the household died and they could no longer afford to keep all their servants and I was one of the ones to go. From then on, I was tossed between many families and served many, loyalty was no longer an option.

In every home I served in I kept my flute safely locked in a cupboard or storage room that was never used so no one would steal it.

I closed the lid of my flute case and locked it, the locks were fiddly to someone who didn't know how they worked and sometimes that had saved it from thieves because it was then useless to them, just a heavy box.

I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling, I didn't know when I was going to fit in time to talk to Christine if I had ten rooms to clean. I imagined her sitting at her table brushing her hair and humming lovely melodies to herself.

Quietly, I started to hum the melodies to myself. I wasn't terrible at singing but I had no extreme talent like my sister, you know, mediocre. I wondered how she came to be so talented, I was told by the original family that bought me up that that was the reason Gustave didn't keep me. Christine had a beautiful voice, he could work with that, I wasn't supposed to be born and couldn't make easy money for a living, for once I was too expensive to keep.

It had never bothered me before when one of the families I lived with and served told me that I wasn't loved because I didn't remember Gustave Daaé, so I didn't really feel any resentment towards him. In fact, I understood where he was coming from and just lived on.

"How very noble of you Clara." I said to myself in a mocking tone. I didn't like self- righteous people so whenever I was on the verge of saying something like it I would stop myself.

I faintly began to hear something resounding in the room. It sounded akin to that of a piano, but it was too echo-ey to be. "Someone must be practising, odd time of night though. Suppose it's a quiet time to practise if you want peace."

I swayed to the rhythm of the music that was playing. At some points it was too quiet and I couldn't make it out and then it would pick up again. I had never heard the piece before. I lulled me into a sleepy state. I began to close my eyes, they were getting heavier.

I fell asleep with the sound of the instrument playing the most beautiful melody, it was as though the opera house had come alive again to do a private piece for me. I slept that night with a warm smile on my face.

X X X X

The morning light invaded my eyelids. The window amplified the morning light to an unnatural level. I clamped my hands over my eyes and moaned 'mornin Clara' to myself.

It took a while for me to fully wake up from my deep sleep. Judging from the fact that I hadn't woken up from my internal clock I guessed that the time was before six thirty. That was the timing I had to get up for my last job.

I kicked back the blankets and stood up. When I stretched there were several cracks that were clearly heard. My body wanted to slump and go back to sleep, but I knew if I did then who knows what time I would have woken up at.

"I need food before work, yes, food is a good idea. They do something here for the workers, right?" I asked myself and tried to map out the opera house in my head. It was typical me to talk to myself, I was the only person I could trust and, well, life is too quiet if I don't.

The door to the chapel creaked again as I opened it, causing me to wince at the noise. It was too early for high pitched noises.

As I guessed, I got hopelessly lost in the maze which was the opera house. I had taken a right, followed by three lefts and many a staircase. By the time I considered myself lost, I wanted to bang my head on the wall in frustration. Little by little I started to panic as I ended up at another dead end. Fortunately, I had passed many rooms which had numbers on them and made a note of where they were, the closest was number five and it was just down from the chapel, I'd leave it until last.

I tiptoed down a corridor that had branched off a fork in my path and bumped head first into someone's chest. The force at which I hit them made my nose bend and when I jumped back it throbbed painfully. My hand flew up to rub away the pain from my nose, covering half my face.

I felt the person I had run into brush past me to walk off. It was a man, dressed all in black but I only saw the back of him. I could tell he was strong though, he didn't flinch one bit when I bashed into him and I wasn't the daintiest of women. He was tall and his dark clothing gave him a sinister look. A huge cape billowed behind him as he stalked off down the passage. To complete the deathly ensemble, he had black hair which was slicked back on his head.

In a rage, I stared at his back, hoping to burn a hole through him. No such luck. Then I wondered if he could help me and slightly softened my voice without much success for I still shouted, "Sir, do you know the way to the main stage?"

The black shadow of a man hesitated in his step, his form went a little rigid. The man obviously wasn't used to being spoken to in such a way. However, he just pointed his right hand down a passage a little further down the corridor. He didn't turn to me, he merely pointed me in the direction as he walked past it. "What is it with people and just pointing directions, have they ever heard of manners or is the opera house averse to radical ideas like that?" I fumed my anger at thin air because the man had turned a corner.

If I hadn't bumped into him, I don't think I would have seen him. He was very quiet with his steps and never said anything. I decided to just excused his attitude and put it down to something like method acting or plain weirdness on his part.

Anyhow, I set off down the passage he had pointed and came to a corridor I recognized as Christine's corridor. That's what I labelled it anyhow. Silently, I thanked the strange man for his directions, however rude they were.