I know you're all hoping for a new chapter, which is nice and gratifying for me. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

Forgive me, please. I lied to you. Because I said that I would never abandon a story, and now I find myself abandoning three.

The reasons are many. It isn't that my passion for Phantom has faded, because I will always love the story of Erik, the Opera Ghost, and the chorus-girl he fell so shatteringly in love with. Rather, I would say that my obsession for all things POTO has fallen prey to the real world, to life and college and original writings. There is a lot going on in my life right now, a lot of things that I'm trying to grow into and grow up with, and fanfiction is not a part of that.

I am not only abandoning these stories; I will no longer be reading fanfiction of any sort. It's just so . . . consuming. I don't have the time to spend going through stories and reviewing them as I like to; I haven't had the time for a while, and my grades are in serious danger because I have taken that time anyway. As this is a very, very important semester for me—one that will determine whether or not I keep my scholarship—I can't allow fanfiction to distract me any longer.

I can't even say that after this semester I will be able to devote said time to reading and writing fics, because there is so much else that I want to do. I'm only twenty years old; I want to date, to get married someday. I want to build a circle of friends, good friends who are interested in what I'm interested in. I want to increase my own spirituality and take care of some things that are standing between myself and God. And right now, fanfiction is getting in the way of all that. It takes over me too thoroughly, too completely, for me to have an academic or social life outside of it. I don't have the self-will to keep it under control, so I am cutting ties to it completely.

I've spent time emailing and IM'ing a few of you, and I thank you for the time you've spent talking with me. I'll miss you, but I ask that you try not to contact me. As much as I like and respect you, I can too easily see conversations with you dragging me back into this world that I have so much trouble escaping from, and I can't let that happen again. This is the second time I'm leaving the world of fanfiction, after all; this is the one where I bang my head against the wall and ask myself why on EARTH I let myself go back. I knew what would happen, I knew I would eventually leave it, and I knew why.

My best wishes are with you all. Thank you, thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to read and review my little tales. I do regret leaving you hanging like this, particularly the folks at Beyond the Grave; if you email me within the next week or two, I will tell you "what happens", as it were; after that, please don't. Please; I need to let go.

Merci, my friends, and au revoir. May the Force be with you.