"Goblin King, Goblin King, wherever you may be - take this bad dating streak of mine far away from me!" After romantic failure and isolation, Sarah Williams is perfectly fed up with her bad luck. In a moment of bitterness, she says her Words... and in a subsequent moment of insanity, decides to act as a woman who knows what she wants. Sarah Williams...propositions the Goblin King.

Two unlikely people forge an alliance and a tentative friendship in the dark days of the Paris Commune. A young ballerina is saved from a horrible fate by a deformed recluse deep in the bowels of the Paris Opera House. Together they overcome the deprivations of war, and Louise must learn to understand the paradox that is Erik. Begins ten years before the events in Leroux's book.

What if Christine and Erik's paths had entwined before? What if he had saved her? What if she had witnessed him as the Angel of death? Would she be able to forgive him? What if the Shah of Persia had certain plans for Christine? In the dark setting of Persia, they both have a troubled past and both must face a very haunted future. Influences from ALW/Kopin/Leroux/Kay. E/C.