(Disc: As much as I want to, I don't own the Phantom :( yet some characters as you will see are my own. The story is set before our beloved tale, when the first encounters of Christine and Erik begin. It's my own version and little bits of everyone's tales, ALW, Leroux, S.Kay, they all have influence, yet the films actors and glory is how I visualise it. But again, it's my own version! So if u wants to flame, Ill just have a bar-b-Q! p.s. I've not given up on A Thousand and One dreams,

I just might forget this idea if I don't start it! XXX)

Let the Phantasy begin!

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A blood curling scream echoed throughout the quiet Opera House. Dusk was setting upon Paris, and the nightly atmosphere was touching everyone as they had retired from a hard days work. Stage hands, musicians, dancers, singers, all had retired for another day ahead of them. A long night in panic was not what they had in mind.

Few peered from their dorms to look down the dark corridors, to maybe catch a glimpse of what was going on. Others had ran from their rooms and floors, searching for the source of the constant screaming. Some followed the crowd excitedly, jumping and whispering nervously. Others clung to each other, terrified of the dark shadows that were ever much a member of the Opera as they were. People ran about, causing chaos, waking the whole Opera, whether they chose to ignore the noise or not. It wasn't long till someone found the voice.

A girl, or a young woman, around 17, was huddled against a wall in a corridor, dark enough for anyone to get lost in, despite its narrow features. The crowd gathering round her held up lanterns and torches to see her better, and to cast frightened glances around themselves. The girl was clutching her head into her knees, her fingers grasping into her disarrayed hair forcefully, and she was shaking in horror. Nobody said anything for a while, not even to comfort her, as they saw the ghastly shade of white the girl had turned. It contrasted eerily with her dark black hair and eyes, which were now wide with sheer terror.

"Jeanette!"

An older girl, who was dressed in her nightgown, and strawberry hair plaited gracefully down her back. She fell to her knees, clutching the terrified girl by her shoulders. The dark haired girl, Jeanette, didn't look at her. She looked straight through her, her eyes still haunted by another vision. She murmured something under her breath, not audible to the crowd of excited and nervous Opera dwellers. They all leaned in closer to her, desperate to find out what had made the girl fall into this state. The older girl lifted Jeanette's head by her chin, trying to catch her eyes.

"Jean, what's the matter? What happened?" The girl asked frantically. Jeanette seemed to stare terrified at an unseen nightmare. Her lip quivered as she managed to gasp out a few words.

"I…..I …saw….I saw….death… I thought…I would die!"

She finally broke into sobs, clutching her knees to her eyes. The older ballet dancer rubbed her shoulders sympathetically, with a scared look on her face for a brief moment. Then she stood up with a commanding air. She cast a glance around at the excited crowd of spectators, and put on a stern voice.

"Now that's enough, there's nothing to see. Go back to your dorms; she has just had a nightmare." She was hardly convinced with her own words. No nightmare could do this to a girl of such age. She seemed terrified out of senses. But the older girl was convincing enough for a few disappointed stage hands and dancers to drift away from the scene, talking in low voices, and walking a little faster than usual. A few girls still remained though, clutching each other, with expressions of genuine fear.

"You as well." The older girl demanded. "Madame Giry is due back tomorrow, and you don't want her to see you black eyes with tiredness, do you? She will not be pleased at all!"

But the young dancers hung back. One of the youngest, a tiny little girl, around 6 or 7, piped up.

"We want to wait for you, Marie! We are too scared to go back on our own!" She twiddled her golden locks nervously. "And Mamon will not be angry if we explain what happened!"

Marie smiled slightly. "Ok, I will take you back. And we will not be plaguing you mother will these tales tomorrow, Megan. I think she will be quite tired, and will not be in a mood for stories of this night. I think it best we just retire to our dorms, and get some sleep."

Marie had mostly carried Jeanette back up the stairs to the ballet corps's dorms. Jeanette had babbled some more things, without making sense, and the straggling dancers, who huddled around Marie for comfort, had yelped once or twice at the shadows that tormented them so as they past the mirrors and corners of the Opera house.

Marie had delivered the younger girls back to their rooms, with words of comfort to sooth the nightmares, and words of sternness about the day ahead of them. She then carried the shaking Jeanette and led the older girls back to their room. She out Jeanette on her bed, where she sat rigid, and Marie lit some candles and lanterns to cast a light in the room. The girls huddled into their beds, sitting upright and glancing at each other nervously as Marie helped Jeanette back into bed. The girl was slowly beginning to calm down, yet the tears continued to pour from her swollen eyes. Marie pushed the hair from her face gently and spoke softly.

"Jean, what happened? Why are you so afraid? Are you hurt?"

Jeanette finally raised her dark, fearful eyes to Marie's blue ones. She looked directly at her, as if scanning her for answers to what she had witnessed. Marie was quite a taken back by the deep terror rooted in the girl's eyes. Jeanette choked out her last words before falling into a troubled sleep.

"It was…I don't know…not human…it took human form, yet it…its…" She touched her face gingerly. "…its face…was that of the devil! And then it…disappeared! It was like a ghost…a ghost from hell!"

The girls in the room gasped and squealed slightly, some ducking under the covers, and some hiding their faces. Others, like Marie, just gaped at the terrified girl.

Marie stroked the girl's cheek while she drifted off. Marie tried to convince herself the girl had been in a nightmare sleepwalk, and had seen the ghastly vision disappear as she woke. Yes, this had to be the explanation for it. It couldn't have been a ghost!

These thoughts of comfort and logic all disappeared as Marie made her way to her own room. Her lantern was of little use in the threatening, windowless corridors, were the darkness engulfed her like a claw. It chased faster than she could pace down the hall, and she felt her heart quiver in the last steps, when she broke out into a run as she glimpsed her door. She fell against it, heart pounding. The eerie sense of an unseen follower still lingered behind her, and she felt the small hairs on the back of her neck prick up in response. She quietly opened the door, and sneaked in, trying to not make a sound as to wake the other girls. As she cast a final glance back down the corridor as she closed the door, whether it be her imagination, or a trick of the light, the image she saw haunted her sleep that night. She caught a shadow retreating quickly around the corner, the snatch of the end of a cloak, and the figure of a man suddenly disappearing from sight, into the darkness…