Kaylen walked into her room early that day laying out the dress she would wear for her role as usherette that evening, She had to admit she would rather be an usherette than a cleaning woman. As an usherette she actually got to meet patrons becoming friends with some of them. Tonight was going to be the gala night for Hannibal and Kaylen could not wait to see who of Paris's high society would be attending. The opera was a place to see and be seen.
Kaylen took her lesson as usual with Erik though it was cut short because of that evenings performance of Hannibal. Kaylen would have to be there early to start seating people as soon as they got there.
Kaylen arrived late as usual for her usherette duties. She scanned the room. Everyone was here... except for Madame Giry. She was home sick. This put the managers in a somewhat bad position. Madame Giry was the Opera Ghost's personal usherette. Finding a replacement would be hard considering most of the other usherettes wouldn't touch the outer curtain to box five with a ten foot pole. Of course Kaylen was the one they decided would have the honor.
"Me?" She said in feigned horror "Why me?"
She felt like she had just won the lottery and was now going to be served up to a dragon as a peace offering. ' How kind of them' she thought. She supposed she should have expected it though. The usherettes were not happy that they had to be working in the company of a former maid.
With a faked sigh she climbed the stairs to box five to find it empty. She went out on the balcony to look over the rest of the seating area. The seats were almost full. 'Where is he?' she thought completely unaware of a pair of eyes watching her.
*
Erik stood in the pillar to one side of Kaylen. One more of the many ingenious additions by Erik to the opera house, the hollow pillar had proved invaluable on more than one occasion. Erik looked on as Kaylen placed his program on the red velvet chair before leaving. When he was sure she had gone he lightly touched the secret mechanism to open the hidden panel. He took his seat opening the program to the cast of characters.
There in cold black ink was the reward for all his hard work. He slowly traced over the words with his fingers reading them silently. ' Christine Daae.'