"Diminished"

Work: the Phantom of the Opera
Genre: Angst
Character(s): the Phantom
Rating: PG
A/N: Since I began writing Dead Boy's Poem, I have really come to love writing vignettes, just little captured moments hanging in the fabric of something bigger. I feel this is a good way to practice putting a lot of power into very few words. Plus, I've been thinking about writing this for a while since I have an unnatural love of diminished chords.


He sits before the organ in deep pain, savoring the harsh sorrow of its sound. He is playing nothing in particular, only idly picking out chords to match his mood.

G, B flat, D, he plays. D, F, A.

The organ sounds like a man's dying breath, the hopeless groan of a doomed soul; it is laden heavy with sadness. Yet it is not only sadness which he feels – there is also anger. And so he lets the fifth of each chord slip down into something darker, the dying groan shifting into a tormented growl.

A, C, E flat, he plays. E flat, G flat, B double flat.

They are diminished, just like his soul.