No one had really seen the pandemic coming. Christine's semester had ended early and all her classmates went their separate ways to quarantine. Meg, her roommate, had gone home to be with her mother, leaving Christine with their apartment all to herself. Christine had stocked up on some of the basic necessities and spent most of her days practicing her music and binging Netflix. It was a pandemic, she was allowed to relax a little, right?

When it was time for a new semester, Christine had tentatively signed up for classes. Nearly all would be held online, but she'd need to make occasional appearances at the school. She was also assigned a private voice teacher who she'd work with through Zoom. Christine had not met this Dr. DuBois, but she was excited to work with him. She preferred to meet people in person to get a good sense of them; talking through Zoom with a stranger was often stiff and filled with many pauses and she hated the silence. She hoped that a mutual love of music would help them to bond and keep the call from being awkward.

Meg had reluctantly returned to the apartment. She hated to leave her mother, but she knew that Annette Giry was a force to be reckoned with and would be alright on her own. Truthfully, there wasn't much danger. Her mother wore a mask on outings, practiced social distancing, and kept everything sanitized. The biggest threat was from the virus itself. But Meg still didn't like to be away from her mother during so much uncertainty. Christine was happy to have Meg back. With no family of her own to care for, she'd been quite lonely in their empty apartment. Her mother had died when she was three from a sudden illness they hadn't been able to treat in time. Her father followed when she was fifteen, and the Giry's had taken her in. She was used to Meg's presence and was really the only friend Christine ever saw regularly, especially now that there was a pandemic.

Her school had emailed her an appointment time and the code for the meeting. Meg had wanted to stick around and listen in, but Christine had convinced her to do their shopping during the appointed time. Meg had very dramatically donned a mask and bid her farewell. "You'd better tell me all about your new teacher, Christine! I want every single detail or I won't speak to you for a week!" Christine could only giggle at her friend's slightly muffled voice.

She knew why Meg wanted to sit in. Meg and her mother had both been shocked when Christine had declared her major would be vocal performance. Since her father's death, Christine had refused to sing. She had dropped out of the high school choir and stopped taking lessons. She rarely used her voice to speak, meek as she'd always been, but she certainly didn't sing. Christine knew Meg wanted to stand by, in case she needed support, but Christine would rather face this lesson alone. She'd prepared herself to sing when she'd started at the college, but the first two years were focused more on the academic aspect of her degree. Now that the time had come for her to actually sing for someone, she was nervous, and she was glad it would just be her and a stranger. It would make it easier if she cried, or if her voice failed.

Glancing at the clock, she realized it was almost time, close enough that she could sign in now. She read the code before clicking over to Zoom, trying to type it in from memory. She didn't realize that she was off by one letter. The screen loaded.

The man who appeared on her screen was wearing a full black mask. Christine could only see as far as his shoulders but he wore a white dress shirt, and the pale skin of his neck nearly matched. He had dark hair that was unkempt, a few strands hanging over the mask. She could see various musical instruments hanging on the wall, so she supposed this must be her Dr. DuBois. The man on the other end was still and she wondered for a moment if her video was frozen before he spoke.

"Who are you?" His voice was soft, with a lyrical lilt to it. Despite the beautiful sound, it sent a chill down her spine.

"I'm Christine Daae, your eleven o'clock singing lesson." She figured he must have many students and perhaps couldn't keep them all straight. He didn't seem like the warm, friendly sort of teacher who got to know each of his students personally.

Again, he hesitated. "Very well… Sing."

Christine gaped at him for a moment. While she hadn't been quite sure what to expect, she'd thought there'd have been a little more small talk. He didn't tell her what to sing, so she assumed he just wanted to gauge her abilities. With a small nod, she collected some sheet music. "Would you like me to play the cd or sing a cappella?" She cast a nervous glance his way.

"What is the name of the song?" The man moved the camera and appeared to sit. He played a quick scale on a piano with long, slender fingers. "I will play for you."

"You don't have to wear a mask, you know." She flipped through her song book and selected one, typing out the name and composer for him in the chat box. "You can't catch the virus through a screen." It was such an odd mask too, why would someone need to cover their entire face? Maybe he was a germaphobe.

He seemed to bristle for a moment, quiet. He was a man of few words, it seemed. "The mask stays on." She decided not to question him. It wouldn't do to be impertinent during their first lesson.

With such an imposing presence, she was surprised her voice did not tremble while singing. She was grateful when he played the final bars and nervously awaited his feedback. He was silent for a long moment. "You have a beautiful voice…" He nodded thoughtfully. "An obvious lack of proper training but I could correct that in a few short months. You will be quite the protégé."

Christine decided that that was the most positive response she could have hoped for. Her phone lit up with an email notification, which she would have ignored if not for the name of the sender. Dr. Dubois…

She opened the email and quickly read it.

"Miss Daae,

It is twenty minutes past time for your lesson. Would you like to reschedule? I would appreciate a head's up next time.

Dr. DuBois."

She tried not to let her face betray any emotion. Who was the strange man on the other side of the screen and why had he answered her call? Why had he let her sing if she wasn't his student? She glanced at him. He was collecting some sheet music. "Type your email in the chat, Miss Daae. I will scan some sheet music and send it to you. You can begin learning it until your next lesson and we will really dig in." Christine hesitated. He clearly wasn't Dr. DuBois, but perhaps he was also once of the school's teachers, and she'd been given his code by mistake. She was still entirely unaware that the mistake had been made on her end.

As he moved, she caught clearer glimpses of the room he was in. There were toppling stacks of sheet music and music books littering the floor. She noted several of the pieces looked handwritten. Some instruments were neatly hung on the wall, while others lay in cases or atop music. He seemed knowledgeable about music, at the very least and she'd be lying if she said she wasn't intrigued. She typed her email into the chat, taking a deep breath before she hit send.

The man took a quick note of it. "Until next time, Miss Daae." His screen went black before she could respond.