Disclaimer: Not mine, alas.
Who Will Be There For You
Comfort And Care For You
My life in the opera house was a solitary life. There was only one person who I came to depend upon. Antoinette was the person who brought me here, and she was the only person in my life who had ever showed me something other that hatred, and disgust. She was the only person to show me compassion.
I spent many evenings in this lair with her by my side. She helped me to create my temple to music. She knew this opera house well. She knew where to find the items I would need. She told me where to find food. She showed me how to survive here. And for those things I will always be grateful to her.
Then the time came when I made my mistake with Antoinette. I mistook her compassion and friendship for feelings that she did not feel. I allowed myself to dream that maybe I could be loved by a woman. Oh I was young and foolish. She was just becoming a young woman. I was still a child in her eyes. Someone she felt responsible for.
You cannot imagine the humiliation I felt when I professed my love for her, and she sat staring at me with a look of shock on her face. She said nothing for a few moments. I held my breath both anticipating and dreading her reaction. I knew what her true feelings were though, before she ever opened her mouth. The look on her face was full of pity. That look, cut to my heart like a knife. I barely heard her words about the young man she had fallen in love with.
I shut myself off from her after that. I slunk back to my lair, like a wild animal licking it's wounds. I avoided her and all of the occupants of the opera house for so very long.
What is ironic is that Antoinette believes that the reason I drew back from her was because of the fact that she could not love me. She is very wrong in her assumption. The true reason is that one look of pity she bestowed upon me. I cannot abide pity. I don't ever want to see that look again. Pity is for the weak. The Phantom is anything but weak.
The Phantom of the Opera