Chapter Two

"Angèl, Angèl? Where are you hiding?"

Two green eyes peered through the darkness of this mist that surrounded the underground lake. "Lisette!"

Her friend smiled as she pulled the boat to the shore and hopped out. "You've hidden yourself away too long, my dearest friend. I thought you might peek out for a while? Leron asks after you often since he returned."

"But his friend is with him."

"Are you embarrassed that that man heard you sing?" Lisette giggled.

"Hush!" Angèl hissed, her eyes turning wild. "Don't speak of such things!" She turned her eyes at once back to Lisette. "Papa was wanting to see Leron. Why has he not broken away for a moment's time to come down?"

The younger girl felt a smile pull her lips. "You're wanting to see him as well. Won't you be at the ball to-night?"

"Is there one?"

"A masquerade."

"Oh!" Angèl clasped her hands together over her heart. "Then I shall be there, certainly!"

"Good, then we shall keep our eyes open and watching for the Phantom and the Angels to make their way."


The music poured around her, enveloping her and filling her very soul as she stepped into the room via a secret entrance. No eyes turned to the small beauty with an ivory mask and elegant black dress. She reached one bare hand up to her ebony curls that were mounted on her head and checked to make sure they had not fallen to one side or the other, her eyes searching the room with a keenness to them that was beyond most others in the room.

"There was an angel in the room tonight and her voice was that of heaven's light," a voice came softly behind her.

She turned with a smile planted on her lips. "Leron!"

"You've been avoiding me."

Angèl secretly blushed beneath her mask. "I've been busy, Leron. Not all of us may lounge around day in and day out."

"Who lounges?" her old friend asked with a smile. "Certainly not I! Is your father here?"

"Somewhere. Sometime."

"Ah, the way it always comes about."

"Look at it all, Leron! Aren't they beautiful?"

"Masquerade, paper faces on parade, masquerade."

Angèl smiled brightly and kept her voice low. "Masquerade, hide your face so the world will never find you."

"You have the most familiar voice. It becomes more familiar to me each time I hear it. As if I will place it the next time."

Angèl turned and glared at Raoul. "Monsieur! Did I not warn you of the curse?"

The elder man gave a sad smile. "My dear, you know nothing of curses."

"Do I not?" she asked bitterly.

"If you do, certainly you are not afraid of a little thing like an opera house curse," Raoul mocked. "Sing, child."

"I cannot."

"You will not. I've heard you sing. You can."

"Then I may not! Whatever it is, I shan't be doing it!"

Raoul seized a hold of the young girl's small wrist, though not unkindly. "Come now, you must share a talent like yours. A voice that sounds as an angel's." A voice that sounds so like Christine's, he added silently.


"Erik?"

Erik blinked twice, pulled from his brooding by his wife's gentle voice. She peered at him worriedly. "Love, what is it?"

"Something is wrong. Where is Angèl?"

"With Leron. You know he is back now. She is no longer a child, Erik, we cannot keep her with us forever."

"Bah," the Phantom answered with a wave of his gloved hand, bringing a soft laugh from his wife. She took hold of his hand before it dropped again and pulled it to her face.

"I would think that you would be at least somewhat pleased that it is Leron and not some young man that caught her fancy. Leron, at least, should have your blessing."

"Don't speak of such things," Erik moaned.

"She's no younger than I was," Christine answered, reaching her own hand to her husband's face, caressing his mask and looking up at him with flirtatious eyes. "He is a good boy, even now."

"Yes, but-" Erik stopped, his keen eyes focused fully on the stage and Angèl being led up by a man who looked strangely familiar under the mask. "Angèl?"

"Oh dear," Christine breathed.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you one who sings with heaven's grace through her voice. Mademoiselle Angèl." He finally let her wrist go and whispered something in her ear, causing her face to go paler under her mask.

Her voice was indeed heavenly when it came forth, tentative at first, her eyes searching for her father in the crowd. "Angel of Music, guide and guardian, grant to me your glory. Angel of Music, hide no longer, secret and strange angel. He's with me in the night, all around me. Don't be frightened…"

Christine's face, which had gone white with horror at the sound of Raoul's voice, now lit up at the sound of her daughter's voice "Isn't she lovely, Erik?" When no response came, she turned to the emptiness that had just been inhabited by the full form of the Phantom of the Opera. "Erik?"

"Angel of Music, guide and guardian, grant to me your glory! Angel of Music, hide no longer. Come to me strange angel… Come to me Angel of Music…"

The lights flickered around her and Angèl looked back to where she saw her mother standing. Alone. She moaned to herself and hurried off the stage in one of the lapses of darkness. As she felt her way behind the curtain, she bumped into something. Someone. "Papa…"

"One rule, child, that is all I asked of you," he muttered lowly as he set a heavy hand on her shoulder. "You are done here tonight, and be grateful that I don't bring my curse upon those that heard heaven's voice tonight."

Angèl looked upward as they walked. "I'm sorry, Papa."

"That man that pulled you to the stage. Who was he?"

"I don't know his name, Papa. He is the one that took Leron abroad."

"Stay away from him."

"Gladly."

There was a pause as Erik opened a secret door. "And stay away from Leron as well."

Angèl stopped in and stared in horror for the briefest of moments before picking up her skirts and following down into the depths of the opera house.


A/N: Erik's protective streaks are always dangerous to those he doesn't like, ne? Hehe… Hope you enjoyed.

Lynx Ryder: No problem about the other stories. I'm just glad to see that you like this genre as well. (personally I think everyone SHOULD like it, but I'm biased.) I can't get enough of it, either! Isn't it wonderful? I've seen the movie twice and am absolutely longing to see it again! Raoul backing off? Does he ever? Ha! I was telling someone about this story and she goes "Kill Raoul!" haha! I found the idea highly entertaining, but we shall see…..