Christine. She stood there before him, the same beautiful woman who had left him all these years ago. And now finally she was here, with him. How he had longed for this moment. "Hello little Lotte," Raoul greeted her. "How you've been?" she asked him.

How could he express how he had felt the moment she had left, for now it was all he could think off. "Not too good in the beginning. But I managed to go on after you decided to stay with that monster."

"He's no monster Raoul, he's …"

"I must say, I longed to save you from him. All those months after that fateful night, all I could think about was you," he said. Sadness had now crept over the persons in the room. "But you found your happiness somewhere else, didn't you? I'm sorry to hear she has left this world"

"Hmm, the second women I that left me for an angel." Christine didn't wanted to talk any longer about these sad things.

"Please Raoul, let us no longer talk about these things. How was she?"

"Lovely, perfectly shaped to become a noblewoman. She loved music too, but I don't think it meant that much to her as it does to you. Phillipe inherited his love for music from her."

"You named your son after your brother, what has become of him?"

"He was found dead that the same night you stayed down there. Rumors said it was the Opera Ghost who killed him."

"Oh Raoul, I'm so sorry to hear that"

They talked for some time, recalling memories they shared from the time in Perros-Guirec. Before Christine stood up to go home, Raoul said one last thing. "We can start anew, you know. We can flee, far away from Paris, he'll never be able to find us."

"Raoul, you know I can't. I'm married to him and I love him. Besides, I've got Melody to think about. I couldn't leave her behind."

"We can take her with us. And then it will be like old times, remember them?" Unvoluntary, Christine's mind drifted off to her trip to the roof of the opera house. There she had sung her devoting love for Raoul. "Raoul, I don't feel the same way for you now as I did then. You're only a friend to me now, not a lover. Please try to understand," she pleaded. By the look of Raoul's face you could tell he understood. He wasn't too happy with it, but he understood. "Perhaps, we can visit each other more frequently?" "I'd love to. But you must excuse me, I have to go home. Goodbye Raoul"

"Goodbye Christine," he said and watch her leave. Leave him to go back to the monster for a second time. If she thought he would give her up without a fight, she clearly was mistaken. He had any intention to win her affection back and steal her away from him. His eyes drifted off to a picture of his deceased wife. He had loved her too, but not in the same way he loved Christine, still love her. He had never dreamed to see her again, but a cruel twist of fate had decided against that.

"She's gone. She said she'd returned soon, that it wouldn't take long. Now the boy must have somehow swooned her. No, I mustn't think these things, she loves me and she'll be faithfull. There's no way she would betray me," Erik rambled. He thought he'd better calm down before Christine came home, he knew what temper problems he had. He wouldn't want to lash out on her. "It only drive her in his arms," he added. " Believe me, that would never happen," she said, standing right behind her husband.

In all his rambling, Erik hadn't heard Christine walking in the tunnels to the underground home. "Christine," he said surprised. "What the heck took you so long? It's not like you had to tell each other your life story," Erik added tempered. "Why Erik, we haven't seen each other in 20 years, there's a lot to catch up with," she said innocently. "I'm glad you're home," he said giving her a kiss on her cheek.

That night, Melody woke up. She tried to go back to sleep before she'd had to go to school. Unfortunately for her, she couldn't find sleep anymore. She got dressed and took her dark cloak before she went outside. Glad she was the daughter of Erik, and therefore had learned how to be almost invisible in dark spaces, she walked the streets. She had never seen Paris in the dark and was sure she'd discover something tonight. She somehow stumbled upon a fight between two men, seemingly drunk. Knowing she would get in trouble if they saw her, she stayed in the shadows of the night. The fight was getting worse and worse, these men seem to fight with broken bottles. At one point in the fight, one man swung his broken bottle at the other's throat. And he didn't miss his target, blood oozed out of the large gash. Choking sounds came from the man's throat. As Melody watched him dying, she took a few steps backwards, disgusted by the scene playing before her. But by doing this, she hit a bottle that was lying on the floor.

The man heard this, and in all his drunken logic, he instantly went to check the place the noise came from. There he discovered a small figure hiding in the shadows. He could easily tell it was a feminine figure. "Well well well, what do we have here?" he tried to sound threatening. "Go away chap, before you'll get hurt," she said with detachment. The guy laughed. "Trying to be tough huh? Let's see how tough you are after I'm done with you"

Within a second, Melody had the man pinned against the wall with his arm twisted behind his back, a knife placed against his throat. "Who's tough now huh?" she said. "Now get out of my sight," she said. She let go of the man and before he went off, he looked at her face only to be surprised to see a black half-mask.

He hid in the nearest tavern open. Luckily for him, there were a few men he know. "What the bloody hell happened to you? You look like you've seen a ghost," one of those men said creating laughter with the other guys. The man paled even more. "A ghost, perhaps it's just that what I've seen."

Melody decided it was best to return home. Before she had the chance to leave the alley, she was grabbed by someone. Thinking it was stupid of herself that she hadn't heard the attacker coming closer to her, she turned her head in the direction of the person grabbing her arm. By doing this she came face to face with none less than her own father. She looked at him questioningly. "If I called you by your name, people might hear me and then they know who you are," he answered her unspoken question.

"Why are you here?" Melody asked her father. "I could ask you the same thing. Don't you know how dangerous it can be on the streets at night?"

"If you had seen what I did back there you shouldn't say it's dangerous for ME" Erik chuckled. "Oh I say. But not everyone is some drunk with no real fighting skills"

"He had skills enough to kill a man," she retorted. "Ah, but therein lies the tricky part: the guy he killed was drunk too and they both fought out of instinct"

Melody knew better than to start an argument with her dad, so she went back to her original question. "Why are you out tonight dad? Surely there must be more interesting things to do than wandering the street's if you're all alone with your partner"

"Melody," he warned her "Not a too proper subject to talk about is it" "Ow, but I thought of having a playing music. Now who's the one bringing up improper subjects" Erik shook his head lightly. "I couldn't sleep and I went out for a little walk"

"Same here," Melody said. "But I think it's best if I went home now, seeming as it is school tomorrow. Have a lovely evening stroll," she said as a goodbye and went home. "Wait a minute," Erik said. Melody stood still. "How rude off me not to ask you to accompany you home," he said walking to his daughter. "I'd be delighted if you did," Melody answered and the two of them went to her home.

"A female Opera Ghost? What gave you that idea" one man said. "Like I said, she wore the same sort of mask like they said he did"

"And that automatically makes her a female Opera Ghost? Tsk, she wasn't even in the opera dumbass. More off an Alley Ghost then," another said laughing with his own joke. "But she didn't kill you, that's a difference is it not? I mean, everybody said that a person who came in touch with the Opera Ghost was killed, like Buquet," the first said again. "Then it's best you don't meet her a second time, maybe she only kills at the second encounter."

They speculated for a moment who she was and what this "Alley Ghost" wanted.