The next morning, I met the managers at the front door of the Opera House, notebook in hand and a lamp in the other. "Bonjour Monsieurs," I greeted them putting the lamp down and shaking their hands.

Monsieur Georges spoke first, "Monsieur Leourx, bonjour. I hope that we may be able to help you finish up your article for the anniversary edition."

I smiled and nodded, "Thank you, I'm sure that I won't eat up too much of your time today. If you could just show me to the Prima's dressing room, I'll be on my way."

Monsieur Bonn stood back shocked, "The Prima's dressing room! Good God man, whatever for?"

I expected this reaction and on some level I was pleased with it. "Dear Monsieurs, I promise not to force myself upon the Prima, I merely have had some news that there may be a passageway to the sublevels of the Opera House from that room and wished to investigate it for my story."

They stood there dumbfounded for a few moments, obviously trying to reconcile the thought of letting someone like myself into a private dressing room against their need for promotion of the Opera's 30th anniversary. As luck would have it, their want of promotion and advertisement of the Opera won out and they led me back to the Prima's dressing room.

Since it was so early in the morning, we were luck that no one had yet arrived for rehearsals and after I was shown in, the managers quickly left to send a note to their Prima asking her to wait until I had left to appear. All the better, I thought. The last thing I needed was to have those two pesky managers following me as I attempted to track down this mysterious Erik.

It took me several minutes to figure out the mirror and it's turning mechanism, which was cleverly hidden. I tried to imagine the young Christine Daae sitting here in this room and hearing Erik call to her from behind the mirror. I shivered imagining what it must have been like for her, she was probably scared, or perhaps she really did believe that the voice was an angel. But to find that this angel was really a man…I mused stepping through the mirror and making my way down the dark passageway.

It didn't look like anyone had used this passageway in years, probably the last time it was used was before the performance of Erik's opera. I could almost picture him behind the glass of the mirror listening to Christine and Raoul de Chagny plan his demise. I envisioned a man standing where I was standing in fury at seeing the two lovers united, but as I ventured further into his domain, I realized that all my imaginings of his life were so far from the truth.

I kept walking further and further down the passageway and began to wonder if I would ever reach what Christine had mentioned as the lake. I was starting to sweat and my old fear of enclosed spaces started to take hold of me. I tried to fight off the feeling of claustrophobia and instead focus solely on my mission, but it was becoming more and more difficult with every step I took. I started to feel dizzy and the light coming from up ahead (the lake? I wondered) started to look hazy and I could feel my knees become weak with the effort of each step. Suddenly, I began to hear a most unearthly and beautiful voice, like that of an angel in heaven. I pushed myself further towards the light almost believing that I was a dying man. I came upon the lake and the voice became louder and louder and I followed it willingly into the water, my eyes glazing over as I fell in, exhausted with the effort. The last thing I remember before I passed out was a hand grasping at my shoulder, pulling me out of the water and exclaiming, "Who are you!?!"