By Seraina.

Not mine. Alexei and Caroline are mine, but everyone else belongs to others.

Sins of the Father

"Every day a new deception
Pick your scene and take direction
And all in all I search to connect
But I don't wear a mask and I have no regrets"
"Fly from the Inside" Shinedown

3- Lessons and Permission

Moncharmin took one look at Alexei and shuddered. Alexei had such a temper. He feared the boy would go on a rampage one of these days, and he prayed that nothing too expensive would be lost in the fury. He then remembered why he asked the young man into his office in the first place.

"Alexei, I want you to see that Caroline du Chagney gets lessons," he asked in what he hoped was a steady voice. The old manager didn't expect Alexei to be in such a foul mood.

"And who has the time to teach her? The music director, M Mancini has his hands full with that half-rate diva. Susanna can hardly screech an aria these days. All of the others have been let go. We are not making the money, even withthe Ghost. Shall I just go call on the Angel of Music to tutor her?" the young man said as he paced the small office.

"Well, I thought that you could teach her," the manager said meekly.

"No! I will not tutor that silly girl. Ask my father when he returns," Alexei said, sitting on the couch, "Maybe he will teach her once he finds out whose daughter she is."

"Ahh, so you do know the story," Moncharmin asked, trying to calm him down. Alexei glared sharply at him. This was going to take some tact.

"Of course I know the story. If my father hadn't been obsessed with that chorus girl then he wouldn't have had to" Alexei fell quiet. They didn't speak of his mother. It was a sore subject for both Alexei and Erik. But the feeling wasn't good. Whoever she was, she wasn't fondly remembered.

"Now, I know that you don't want to impose on any of the singers. Don't look at me like that. They all think that you're about as fragile as a crystal glass with a crack in the side. I'm saying that maybe you could teach her in secret. Maybe, if she were trained then What I'm trying to say is, Susanna is retiring. We need a new diva, Alexei, and we need an angel."

Alexei tried to be upset with the manager. He thought for a moment, stood up, sat down and sighed. "I will think about it. But I'm making you tell my father."

"Of course. Thank you. She came in yesterday to sign her contract," Moncharmin said, as Alexei was halfway out the door. "Oh and stop antagonizing my dancers!"

"I have nothing that they didn't deserve!" And Alexei was gone.

*

Christine gasped. The familiar figure of her former angel was leaning against the doorframe. A black mask covered his scarred face and a felt hat covered his head. "I didn't think that you would come, Erik," she said smiling sadly.

"Before before my husband died, he told me that you you were still alive." Christine bit her lip and looked down to the floor, "My son Charles... he is still in England. I wish that you could meet him. He reminds me of you."

Erik looked up at Christine's worn face. She shook her head. "Raoul had problems with money." She took the tea off of the stove and poured it in two cups. "He had many debts."

"Is this why you wrote to me?" Erik asked. "My God, Christine. Do you know how hard it is for me to be here? I had to make you bury me, believe me dead, so that I could let you go," he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

"No, no that's not why. Erik" Christine took a pause to gather up her courage, "I was going to ask if it was alright for my daughter to sing in the Opera House."

"Why do you ask me such things," Erik said more than asked.

"Because I did not want you to be angry with her," Christine said quietly.

"Christine, you're still a child," he said with his angelic voice.

"Why did it take you so long to come?" she asked hesitantly.

"I had to visit someone..." Erik looked into his teacup, "it was his birthday."

*

Alexei sat in the odd corner of the opera house. He was still deciding what to do about Caroline du Chagney. He could openly teach her because that would lead to odd complications. Some things were better left alone and he couldn't jeopardize what he had going. It was too soon.

He could teach her by the way of the old mirror. But that may cause some problems when his father came home. It would also bring up memories of that chorus girl, Christine Daaé no, not Daaé. She married that other man Vicomte du Chagney.

Alexei put his hands over his face. Then he cursed in several languages and then decided that fate was against him. "Sins of the father indeed."

*

Erik avoided speaking with Moncharmin if he could avoid it. It had been almost seven years since he spoke to the man in person, long giving up the disembodied voice. They mostly communicated to written notes, and Erik had been less and less demanding in his later years. He sat in his chair in Box 5 and waited patiently for the manager to arrive.

"I see that you are still alive, Erik," Moncharmin said. It took years after Erik's return to the opera house, but Moncharmin eventually ended up being one of Erik's few friends.

"Unfortunately, Moncharmin, Unfortunately. There is a matter of a chorus girl"

"Yes, I know. Caroline du Chagney," Erik said, looking out at the chandelier. "I hear that she needs lessons"

"I have asked" Moncharmin stopped and watched his old friend. Erik was staring past the old chandelier and out into space.

"You want me to teach her?" he asked dejectedly.

"Well, the thought crossed my mind," Moncharmin said.

"I haven't taught anyone since since Alexei I don't know if I can do it any more," he said.

Moncharmin started at Erik thoughtfully. Erik never used that tone when speaking of his son. Maybe they had a falling out? Erik looked as if he were about to cry

"I miss his voice"

"Erik? Are you alright?" Moncharmin asked. Erik was acting very strange indeed.

"I am an old man, Armand. I cannot go teaching every chorus girl that auditions," he said, suddenly angry. His sudden melancholy turned into harsh anger at some unknown and unnamed person. Moncharmin decided to ask Alexei the next time that he saw him.

*

Caroline sat in her dressing room and looked at her mirror. The large mirror wasn't nearly as big as she imagined it to be. She pictured it to cover the entire wall, but it was just an ordinary mirror, only 5 feet tall by two feet wide.

She suddenly wished that he brother was with her. His presence always calmed her always made her feel that she was good enough to do anything she put her mind to. But he wasn't there he was in England, playing for food probably.

A soft knock on her door brought her back to reality. "Come in," she called.

"Excuse me Mademoiselle," it was Alexei. She wondered what his last name was. "M Moncharmin asked me to give your lessons if you're not busy right now"

"No, now is fine," she said and looked at Alexei once again. He was tall and thin, much like her brother. He had odd amber eyes and dark hair. In fact, he reminded her of Charles, they shared the same smile too.

"Do you know Faust? The part of Margarita?" he said, suddenly sitting on the floor.