Alternate Ending

She knows.

She knew too much.

Sweet, sweet Christine. Why could you not look the other way?

Frantically, Raoul de Chagny slammed the trunk lid shut, nervously glancing over his shoulder every so often. No, he must do his deed right now. Little Philippe must never know.

Ack, no! A spot. He rubbed a smudge mark upon the leather surface. Look at me. Rubbing away a spot. He grimaced despite his current condition. What will Philippe and the household members think of me?

"Papa?"

The door to his study creaked open, causing Raoul to jump in surprise. He turned around, pulling out a lasso from amid his breast pocket, preparing to throw it and strangle the intruder.

And then he mentally stabbed himself for thinking of doing just that.

Philippe's golden eyes were as round as saucers, as he gazed upon the scarlet-red lasso in his father's hands. Raoul could see his son slowly shake in fear. His legs, his spindly and totally inherited from him, seemed almost ready to buckle.

"Pa… pa..? Wha… where is Mam…" His eyes would not leave the lasso.

"Ah- well- Philip-" Raoul stumbled upon his words like a toddler, dropping the lasso in the process. "Well- you see- your mother- I-"

The little boy slowly stumbled forward, the heavy door to Raoul's study silently clicking shut behind him. "Mama… where is Mama?"

"I- I… I had her sent to an asylum," Raoul finally choked out, his gloved hands shaking as he bent down to get his lasso. "She- she is much too- ill- now to talk- something- something happened- doctors- yes, the doctors- said she- won't- recover." He instinctively rubbed his forehead with his gloved hand, even though no perspiration was present.

"But… but papa...why?" His little hands pointed to the little lasso. "Why do you have… that? And why is it covered in…"

Before he could finish his sentence, his neck snapped, and Philippe de Chagny collapsed onto the floor in a heap.

Raoul de Chagny let out a sigh of relief as he undid his lasso around the boy's neck.

Little Philippe. You were too smart for your own good.

Now no one will know about the Phantom and his connection with… Philippe?!

Raoul looked at the body again, coming to the dreadful realization with what he had done.

"Philippe?" His voice croaked, his very body trembling in realization. "Philippe! Philippe!" He abandoned the lasso and dove to his son's body, embracing and cradling it as if it were a newborn baby. "Philippe… Philippe…" he sobbed, tears falling onto the dull, dead, golden eyes of the boy. "Why, Philippe? Why must you be so curious about everything!"

Several hours later, the Surete arrived at the de Chagny mansion based on an emergency call from the maid. They found all the staff members, sans the maid, murdered in their beds, and the master and his family were nowhere to be found. A bloody lasso, soaked with the blood of all of the deceased, was found in the room of the maid. A shattered window hidden by a curtain in the master's room was all that remained as evidence to the assassin.

Far away, in the cellars of the Opera Garnier, Raoul de Chagny opened his trunk for the final time, removing its contents and placing them in a cozy coffin belonging to the Phantom of the Opera.

At last, he thought, as he climbed into the coffin, I will be at rest with my family and leave this world behind.

He closed the coffin lid shut.