"Hey Cass? Who was that dude that came out of your room?"

"That was my dad!" Cassie turned, the beads on her skirt clacking noisily as she turned and grasped Ryan's hands. "He came Ryan! He actually came and saw us perform!"

"That's great! I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to meet him." Ryan's face instantly lit up with the realization that he'd over reacted…the gentleman was only her father….

"There was hardly time for me to have a decent conversation with him!" Cassandra said fixing her hair and talking animatedly. "He was in a rush to get to his hotel and relax, I was trying to change." They exited the room hurriedly and made their way to the stage, Cassie chattering excitedly the whole time.

"My earring!" Cassandra said grasping her ears. "I forgot to put the left one in, I'll be right back!" Cassandra dashed out of Ryan's grasp and back to her dressing room where she picked up the earring and quickly fastened it. She was almost back to the stage when she saw Mr. Villefort come out of a nook in the wall where she was sure there was no door. He was in his full Phantom costume and the moment made Cassandra's blood run cold. He did not see her but moved towards the stage. Cassandra looked for a door where he had come out of, but could find none, not even a crack where one might have been. "That's impossible…" She heard the orchestra start up and sprinted to the stage to get ready for her entrance.

"Villefort walked out of a wall." She said to Matt and Ryan as they stood aside during a costume change. "I think he knows more than we do about the passage ways."

"That's creepy."

"That's not the only thing….remember the roses you gave me yesterday Ryan?"

"Yeah…."

"They're red."

"What?" Ryan looked skeptically at Cassandra as she leapt into the trousers for Il Muto.

"They were red! They weren't white anymore. I was going to say something, nice joke, but now…"

"I told you there wasn't something right with Villefort."

"Maybe it's all coincidence, I'm not sure yet….we just need to be aware…and watch each others' backs." Cassandra rushed on stage for the scene with Davette.

"Don't piss him off Cassandra…he saw you with that man earlier."

"Who? What?" Cassandra whispered at Davette as they moved to take their places for Il Muto.

"He saw you with that man….he wasn't real happy about it." Cassandra had noticed Villefort's eyes were a little colder than usual during the 'Phantom of the Opera', but thought nothing of it.

They finished the Act smoothly and Cassandra got dressed for Masquerade. She entered the hallway pulling her bodice into place and tucking her lustrous hair behind her ear. Cassie went to find Ryan but was waylaid by one of the costume mistresses.

"Cassandra! I need you to run to Mr. Villefort's room and get the bottle of glue that we left on his dressing table." The woman said as she worked furiously on one of the girls' skirts. "We left it in there and he's got a bit of latex hanging off his face. Hurry!"

Cassandra dashed up the hall, a flurry of tulle, ribbon and glitter. She opened the door to Villefort's room and rushed to the dressing table looking furiously for the glue but couldn't find it amongst the other prosthetics and paint. She went to the bedside table and then to the desk. Every flat surface of the room was covered in papers. Cassandra grumbled to herself as she moved about the room, pieces of paper sliding beneath her slippered feet and making getting through the room difficult.

"You'd think with him being an administrator, he'd keep a better filing system."

The bottle of glue was on the far side of the desk and she leaned far over the paper strewn desk top to grab the bottle. She turned quickly and dashed out, her skirts catching some of the sheets and knocking them to the floor. She crouched down and picked them up. She was just going to fling them back on top of the desk when something caught her eye. On the top sheet was a map, drawn by hand in black ink. Cassie read some of the words and realized it was a map of the secret passages of the opera house. The second sheet contained sketches of some of the dancers. Cassandra thought they were remarkably good. There were several others of various people in the cast doing things in the back of the stage, but then Cassandra found one that made her blood run cold. It was a picture of her sitting at the base of a statue looking down, light reflecting off her hair. By the dark background, she assumed it was night. She quickly folded the piece of paper and stuffed it into the bodice of her dress before flinging the papers onto the desk and running back to the stage.

"What took you?" The costume mistress asked as she snatched the glue from Cassandra's hand. Villefort stood, with the big skull mask in his hand, his eyes blacked out so his skin wouldn't show through the eye holes of the mask.

"I had to look for it….it wasn't on the dresser, it was on his desk." His eyes were cold as he watched her turn away. Cassandra shrugged and moved to go stand by Ryan.

"When we both get a chance, we need to talk." She said clasping his hand in hers. Her fingers were icy and he looked down at her concerned.

"Villefort?"

"Yeah."

They entered the stage with huge smiles and played everything off smoothly. Their first chance to speak came almost fifteen minutes later.

"Look at this."

"What…?"

"I went up to the roof one night when I couldn't sleep…..I found this in his room…there were others of other cast members….but this one…this one meant he was up there too…."

"Is there a problem?" Mr. Villefort came down the dark corridor where Cassie and Ryan were standing whispering.

"No…nothing." Ryan said tucking the paper into the sleeve of his shirt. "We were just talking about her dad, that's all."

"Your father?"

"Yes, he's here!" Cassandra said catching on to the lie. "Well, not here here, but he came to Paris and was at the matinee."

"I see. We should get back to stage, you can all discuss this later."

Cassandra was in the middle of a costume change between the graveyard scene and the performance of Don Juan Triumphant when Mr. Giles came up to Mr. Villefort on the other side of the curtain.

"You seem to be enjoying those pyrotechnics just a little too much, eh Rick?" Mr. Giles' seemingly innocent conversation rang warning bells in Cassandra's head…bells that didn't make sense, but just added more pieces to the puzzle.

'Eh Rick….Ay Rick….Erik?" She moved the curtain to the side and looked at Mr. Villefort with wide eyes…..there was no way she heard what she just had…..