It has been a couple days since I heard the sweet singing outside the window. Many things have happened since then, things that concern me. I try not to worry, I listen to the singing instead. It calms me.

I still do not know the name of the owner, but she seems to be very popular with the crowd. The opera house has been doing better.

She practices a lot, several times a day. She often comes to the opera house in the evening after the shows and practices, she talks to herself. I wonder if she is lonely sometimes…

Kurt dropped his pen, spinning around.

He was sitting in box five, invisible to the young woman on the stage walking back and forth, practicing her lines and songs, waving her arms and then getting frustrated when it didn't turn out to her satisfaction. Kurt liked watching her very much, it definitely wasn't her that was bothering him.

It was something else.

He flashed the brunette a quick glance before going to investigate, keeping to the shadows where he was safe and unseen.

Just inside the opera house, Kurt saw them from the room beams. He crouched flat, tucking his tail in and swallowing.

Five men dressed in black with masks over their faces, slowly they peeled away from each other and split up.

He'd a man like them before. Just one. And he'd died.

Kurt tried to supress the panic at what this mean, when he blinked, yellow eyes widening as he realized that Wanda was still on stage practicing, oblivious. She was in danger. They couldn't find her here! She'd have seen too much for their liking.

In a second he was gone, back in the auditorium, desperately trying to come up with a plan in the few seconds he had left. "Quickly!" he whispered as loudly as possible, trying to shush Magneto's daughter as she sat on the stage, going over her lines several times under her breath. "Quickly!"

She glanced up, blinking and looking for the owner of the voice.

Kurt appeared back in the shadows near the stage, his large eyes darting to the double doors. One of them was sure to be here any moment. "Miss, you must come with me!"

"Is someone there?" Wanda asked nervously, clutching her script tightly and quickly getting to her feet. Was it the ghost? She'd disobeyed Simon's instructions not to come at night, but it was the only time when she could practice without being disturbed…and nothing had happened anyway. She was positive everyone was overacting, there had to be more sensible reasons to what had been going on.

Although…how that man had gotten hung she wasn't sure. She tried not to think about it. "Hello?"

"You're in danger. You must come with me. Now!" Kurt was getting desperate. "Go backstage then wait for me." They didn't have any more time. He had to trust she'd do it.

Wanda swallowed, wondering if she was just going crazy. But if she wasn't, if she was the ghost…she didn't want to get murdered either. Then, she spotted a shadowy figure against the double glass doors entering the auditorium carrying something. Very quickly she darted backstage. "Hello?" she was whispering now, scanning the darkness.

"Follow me. Down the stairs." A large board on the floor got pushed aside, uncovering stairs leading into pitch black.

Wanda could hear footsteps pattering down, she hesitated a moment, glancing over her shoulder. But she had a very bad gut feeling that the man she'd seen wasn't friendly, so she followed the strange voice down the stairs, deep into the heart of the opera house. She wasn't sure what was down here. The voice kept whispering for her to hurry, scrambling around corners and further down, always down. Wanda couldn't help but feel like she'd been led into a trap. "Wait! Wait for me!" she ran, slipping on the mould and slime growing on the stone, groping blindly in the darkness. "Wait!" she skidded to a stop as it ended suddenly, nearly smacking into the wall. "Hello?" she was desperate now, terribly scared. "Are you still there?!"

"Shh!"

She quieted instantly, swallowing the lump in her throat and wrapping her arms around herself. A few moments later, just when she was wondering why she'd been shushed, she heard footsteps. Far, far above them. She shivered, wondering was the hell was going on. But she stayed silent, until the footsteps died away.

"Can I ask you what's happening now?" her voice held a tone of sarcasm, trying to hide the face she was terrified. However the answer she got wasn't comforting in the least.

"Those men would have killed you."

"W-why?" It took her a moment to recover enough to speak. To speak to an invisible figure. She had to be going crazy. "Are you the ghost? Did you kill that man? Were those men looking for you?"

Silence. And Wanda didn't think she'd get an answer.

"I did not kill that man." The voice was very quiet, almost…sorrowful. "Despite what you have heard, I did not kill him. I would not hurt anybody."

Wanda blinked. Her eyes were adjusting to the darkness some and she could swear she could see a faint outline…but then it was gone. "What…what are you?"

"I have to go. There's a passageway here leading outside."

A stone in the wall got pushed, and it opened to a small tunnel. Wanda could smell fresh air. "Wait!" she glanced around, hoping it hadn't gone yet. "At least tell me your name?"

But the voice, the ghost…whatever it was. It had gone.