Sophie ran as fast as she could towards Madame Giry's room. Christine was talking to the Phantom. No, better yet the phantom was talking to Christine. Not threatening, not hurting, talking. What made her so special? Was it her voice? Yes, Sophie may have hated the girl, but even she had to admit that Christine had a beautiful voice. She had imagined, on many occasions, that there was some way to steal her voice, like the little mermaid. It was a story that her mother told her before she fell ill. The little mermaid gave her voice to the sea witch in order to be human and have a chance to marry a prince that she fell in love with. Honestly she doubted Christine would have any appeal towards men without her voice, or towards anyone for that matter.

Christine always got the attention in the Opera Populaire. Whether it is from Madame Giry, Meg, or any of the other girls, Sophia DeLucas always came after Christine Daaé, always living in the shadow of the poor unfortunate little Christine, or as Sophie liked to call her, the petite pute.

Meg constantly tells Sophie How cruel she is being to Christine without any reason. Sophie would give her the same excuse each time, 'It was none of her business'.

Once Sophie's older brother, Charles, came down from Cambridge University where he was attending college. It was a surprise visit, so she was very happy to see him. A couple nights later she heard that Christine and her dear brother were seen sneaking out of the opera house late at night. The following day Sophie got a letter from him. It was short and to the point, He had left. He said that Christine had cornered him and seduced him, so he left as soon as possible. He must have been too ashamed of himself to face her after what he had done. At the time Christine was her best friend. The day that Charles left Christine acted as if nothing had happened. She continued to be Sophie's friend and never even so much as hinted to what she had done. After waiting for a month for Christine to tell her Sophie confronted her about it. The conversation had started very politely but turned into Christine calling her a jealous child that would always live in the shadows, never being anything important. So a year later when Sophie began to take singing lessons, Christine suddenly began taking them too, from an unknown teacher, and progressed much faster.

Sophie eventually found something that she was better than her at, dancing. Dance had helped her throughout her life, it gave her things to look forward to. Plays, Operas, any production that had a dance routine in it, brought a smile to her face, and put a spring in her step, And now she had a chance to be recognized for it, along with the chance to expose the phantom to everyone, well that just about made her the most excited girl on earth.

She ran down the spiraling stairs and came to a fork in her path. Sophie just went with her instinct and went left. After a few minutes of pointless wandering she decided to just sit down and think, maybe if she just stayed in one spot long enough somebody will find her. She crouched against the wall and laid her head back against the cold Marble. With her eyes already closed it didn't take long for her to fall asleep.

Slowly Sophie registered an aching in her back. She opened her eyes and saw absolute blackness. She reached her hand up and felt the cold stone wall. A feeling of panic began to form in her chest. She looked around in the dark and saw a little sliver of light. With one hand pressed against the wall she began to walk towards it. Suddenly something scurried past her feet. Oh, Mice. Great. She thought sarcastically. She walked a little more quickly towards the light, praying that it wasn't as far off as it looked.

After a while of walking blindly in the dark she finally arrived at a little candle. A small smile came across her face, maybe now the dark wouldn't be so frightening. With the candle in her grasp she began to look around. Now that she could see a bit better she became a bit more concerned. There were no doors, or any way of figuring out where she was. In the nine years she had lived here, never had she been in this part of the opera house. Or maybe she had and just couldn't tell in the dark. Either way she really needed to find her way back to the dormitory. She walked quickly down the unfamiliar hall. She occasionally looked down at her feet, Checking for more little mice. About the fifth time she did she noticed an envelope. She scrunched her forehead in confusion at the object. Now what are you doing here. She wondered. She bent down to pick it up and saw it was addressed to her.

"Well that's a bit strange." She said to no one. She slipped her finger down between the flap of the envelope and the paper itself. It ripped open rather easily. As she began reading She started to feel sick.

Miss DeLucas,

It is rude to eavesdrop on other peoples conversations. Didn't your mother teach you your manners? If I were you I would keep what I learned to myself. If you do not you may find yourself unable to perform in the upcoming ballet, and that would be most inconvenient.

O.G

These little notes may have left Monsieur Lefèvre shaking in his shoes, but Sophie was not scared of a piece of parchment. She folded the paper up and held it above the flame. Once it caught fire she tossed it on the ground and waited for it to finish burning. If nobody found it, it never happened. The flame died down, she continued on her way.

After what seemed like hours of wandering she found herself in the center of the Stage. She smiled with relief. From here she could find her room with her eyes had only taken a few steps across the stage when something caught her eye, a sliver of a white mask up where box five should be, the only seat that was never sold. Meg said that the phantom watched all of the productions from that seat. Sophie shook her head and blamed it on her sleep deprived imagination. I'm just tired. She thought. Even though she didn't believe that he was up there watching her, her feet moved a little faster towards the dormitory. When she arrived at the door she felt safer than she had all night. She slipped in the room and went to her bed, but as she went to blow out the candle she noticed the little desk at the end of the room. The desk gave her an idea. A stupid, crazy idea, but an idea nonetheless. She walked over to the poorly constructed desk and sat down on the wooden chair. With a sheet of paper in front of her and a pencil in hand she wrote a quick reply to the phantom.

Monsieur Phantom,

Although I appreciate the time that you took out of your pathetic life to write me that letter, I must say that although you may intimidate Monsieur Lefèvre through these notes, your pieces of paper do not scare me.

-Sophia DeLucas

She folded the paper and took it along with the candle to her and Meg's bunk bed. She put the paper beneath her pillow with the intention of delivering it behind the mirror that lead to the phantom's lair tomorrow. She laid down, pulled up the covers, blew out the candle, and drifted asleep, dreaming of white masks and mazes.

Early the next morning, just as the sun was rising, Sophie became aware of something sharp jabbing at her cheek. she sleepily lifted a hand to swipe it away and found that it was the letter that she had written to the phantom the night before. A little smile came across her face at the thought of the phantoms reaction to her little note. Would he come take her again, would he let her go if he did, maybe he would. No. She scolded herself. It will do you no good to start worrying about the consequences now. She quietly slipped off her thick wool blanket and padded over to the door. Hopefully nobody would be awake yet and she wouldn't have to worry about being caught in her night clothes. That would make for an interesting conversation. Trying to convince a stagehand, janitor, or worse, Madame Giry. The very thought of that little womans rage was enough to send her back to her room if she wasn't so determined. The Prima Donna room should be empty, Carlotta slept with her fiance on monday nights. God only knows what they do on those frequent nights. Sophie about vomited to think about it.

Realizing that she had arrived at her destination, she cleared her thoughts and listened closely for any sound of breathing in the room. She found none. She opened the door and scurried over to the mirror, nudged the lever with her hand and slipped through.

Once through she debated on whether to leave the note here, or to put it down by the lake. The latter was sure to irritate him the most, it would invade his privacy much more, and then he might not underestimate her abilities. If someone got that close to her without her noticing she would be concerned, irritated, and would respect them much more. She decided on the one that was sure to upset him the most. She ran quietly down the stairs keeping to the side like last time, and eventually arrived at the end. She started to approach the foggy lake when suddenly her foot was swept out from underneath her, she felt a hard pain on the back of her head and saw that the lake was now on the roof. She had just enough time to realize that she was the one upside down before the pain in her head overcame her and her world went black.