Lily saw the letter, and let her stare linger. She could do nothing else. What she thought she had been freed from was now back to trap her in that man's letter. But it could not really be the Opera Ghost, she said to herself. She did not want it to be, but how interesting his life must have been.

She had to read it. She must, it was not a matter of want, but necessity. It felt as if her life depended on reading this letter. So she picked it up and sat at the table, reading:

I found out in the days after the event that the fire was started at the backers' house, as he was baking bread for the next day. My mother was extremely lucky, for she was out of the house, and needed not to fear for her life, but I on the other hand, was trapped inside my house.

I first noticed the warmth in the kitchen, where my search for food was having no luck. It seemed unusually hot for the season (fall) but still; I paid no attention to it. Unsuccessful at finding something to eat, I decided to go back to bed, which would be my last mistake.

When I awoke there was nothing but black smoke encompassing the entire room. I remember hearing the cry of my mother, but that might have been a figment of my imagination. I tried to find my way to a window or door, anything that would get me out of this room, but all I found were walls. Then, finally, I was able to find a door. I knew this door would lead me to the hallway, which would lead straight to the door to the outside world (we had a door at both ends of the hallway, so it was a sure thing that I would be able to find a door, no matter which way I would walk).

I opened my door. On the other side were red flames, and before I could shut the door, they attacked me. I use this word, attacked, because they did not simply come near me. They jumped onto me, trying to catch anything unburned. In seconds I was completely on fire. I think I had decided that I had nothing to lose (my memory was a little blurry in these sections) and ran towards the fire. I was in the hallway running as fast as I could, until I crashed into the door. I opened it and ran out.

Screams of surprise and horror arose when I ran out, and the last thing I remember is seeing

my mother, throwing water on me trying to dose the flames.

Here Lily's eyesight became blurry. She realized she was crying for this child, this poor child who had done nothing wrong. Who had only been a musician, an amazing musician, and had been burned to a crisp. She was overcome with sadness and made her way to the kitchen sink.

She washed off and heard the phone ring. (Yes, she did check the caller ID, just like every other time.) It turned out to be Sarah, and Lily was debating whether to answer the phone or not. She answered it on it's last ring.

"Hello?" She said quietly, knowing that each time she spoke would bring a sob from her throat.

"Lily?" Sarah voice came through, sounding anxious.

"Yeah?"

"Ohmigod. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I just, I realized there was something I had to do, and I had to do it right then. Sorry for the

interruption."

"Well, I was just a little worried about you, you seemed so excited when you hung up, I didn't know

what to think." Sarah said.

"Oh, well, it was nothing. Sorry to scare you."

"It's fine, as long as you're still planning to go to the movies." Sarah asked, with a little doubt in her voice.

"Yea, just come on over when you're ready."

"OH!" Sarah seemed genuinely surprised that after the little outburst Lily would still want to go with her. "Well, then I'll be over in about half an hour."

"That's fine." Lily said. Then they said their goodbyes and hung up. Lily rushed back to the dining room table to make sure the letter was still there. She was getting more and more anxious about the letter without thinking about it. She looked for where she left off and found it:

I awoke, to my surprise, not in heaven, but in our little village's hospital. I recognized at once, but not by the sight, but by the smell. Within a mile of the hospital you could smell, the smell of death, of rotting corpses not yet buried. It nauseated me, and I think I threw up. The doctor noticed I was awake and called my mom, who had apparently been sitting in the same spot for three days.

The doctor told me that I had been badly burned, and that I was completely rapped in special leaves to help my skin grow back. He was not sure if it would all grow back, but we needed to try. Over the next four and a half weeks I sat there, doing nothing. After that the doctor said it was time to see what lay under my bandages.

It hurt to take them off, but the doctor said that was a good thing. They worked their way up my body, starting at my legs. They told me that so far, all my skin had completely grown back, which was an amazing thing. Then they got to my face. As soon as they took my face bandage off, they gasped. My mom ran up to see what was wrong, and screamed. I asked the doctors what was wrong and the told me that I would forever have a deformation on my face.