Disclaimer: Chapter one. Sigh.
Learn To Find Your Way In Darkness
Then I began my life anew, in these catacombs that I call home. My life here started in darkness, and I embraced that darkness. I was free and for the first time in complete control of my own life.
It was not hard to make my home as it is. Being accustomed to the shadows and darkness, I was able to procure many much needed items from the opera houses store rooms. And then is when my true inventions began to come to life. Without the restraints of the gypsies I was able to create this beautiful temple to my greatest love. The love of music has taken me heart, mind and soul. As I watched my first opera performed from my hiding place in the flies, it was as if I had never lived before. I had never heard music like that before. The gypsy's music was wild and bawdy compared to the beautiful arias performed at the opera. I vowed that day to learn everything possible about the opera, and I have. I now compose my own operas here at this organ. Here in the darkness of the night, with only candlelight to see by.
But the night was my only true companion. I embraced it, and it wrapped me in its dark arms, keeping me safe from the prying eyes from above. The darkness was my ally. I hid in it, when they were too close to discovering me. I used it to collect the objects I needed to fill my home. I used it to nurture my love for music.
And to my utter amusement I started hearing whisperings of a mysterious Phantom stalking the opera's halls. Some of the stories I overheard were completely outrageous. Some of the things they gave me credit for where quite preposterous, but they were good for a chuckle or two. Other things, I was said to have done were hideous and quite angered me. Those were the rumors that first earned my rage towards the ballet rats. I didn't mind being accused of scaring them witless, or of taking things, but when it was said that I was accosting the young ladies, I became quite upset. Why would I, who was doing everything possible to avoid them, go out of my way to accost anyone?
That is when the true accidents began to occur. I never bothered with those that left me be, but would not abide the ones who blatantly mocked me, or those that tried to catch me, as if they ever could. That is when the true Phantom Of The Opera was born. The Phantom learned to find his way in the darkness, and the darkness is where he stalked his prey.
The Phantom Of The Opera