The following day, Christine was sitting on her bed with the same music theory book as last year. Just one more chapter and she will have gone through the entirety of the theory... for this course. She'd still have to learn it all by heart, but at least she understood the theory now. She was able to recite pieces that were presented as examples already and able to dissect them all using everything she had learned up until now. She certainly felt a lot more knowledgeable, but she was wondering when she would be allowed to do some more actual singing practice. She wanted to sing so desperately again, feel the joy and warmth that it brought her. Not to mention all the memories of her father that came flooding back to her. She longed to hold him tight again and sing those indie rock songs while he was playing its cover on his violin.

Her thoughts got interrupted by a phone call. She took a look at who it was. Meg.

She picked it up quickly.

"Meg, what's up?"

"Oh, Christine!" she heard a sob coming from the other end of the line, "You were right! You were right all along!"

"Meg! Are you crying? What happened?"

"It's Erik! He's just like you said, an egocentric ass!"

Christine wondered where this comment came from. Had he hurt her in any way? He must have. Meg rarely cries. She is the most cheerful person Christine has ever met.

Meg continued, "H-He told me that my routine was sloppy and I-I wasn't focused! M-Maybe that was true, b-but... he said it with this tone! It completely threw m-me off..."

"Oh, Meg... don't let this put you down! How the hell would he know? I imagine he's not a professional dancer like you."

Meg laughed at the comment and Christine joined in for a chuckle, "Ha! I already imagine him joining us during ballet lessons. What a sight." a brief pause, "I-I'm sorry for calling you so abruptly by the way. I just... needed to let it out to someone I trust."

Christine's heart warmed. Meg is so sweet, she will always cherish their friendship, "Anytime, Meg. If you need me to beat him up, just say the magic words."

"Thank you. And that is not necessary, yet... I'd like to keep our jobs for a while," Meg said with a smile on her face. Her voice already sounded a lot clearer than before, "well, I'll need to continue my exercises. Will I see you at the opera later tonight or do you not have to work today?"

"I can come by a bit earlier, need an excuse to escape my study time anyways."

"Superb! I'll see you later, Christine!"

"See you later." they both hung up.

Christine tried to process what she just had heard. Meg was a sensitive girl, but not one to easily cry. Or she just never showed it in public. She felt protective over her like she was her sister and best friend. How dare this man hurt her? What was he thinking?

Egocentric... Arrogant...

...jerk!

He will get what he deserves, someday. She was certain of it. Christine wasn't a firm believer in Karma, but on this occasion, she just had to believe it. She wanted to believe it.

But why was this arrogant man still in her thoughts? Emotions can take over quite easily for her nowadays, but it seems that this man has pushed her emotional limits with pure anger and frustration.

She has never hated someone so much.

She wanted nothing to do with Erik.

Christine left earlier from home to check up on Meg after the incident. She wanted to know how she was doing and if he kept pestering her after the phone call. Maybe she'd get a glimpse of him during the act and then she could... yell at him? Ah, being confrontational didn't exactly work on him, as she had noticed the day before.

The bus didn't take too long and she quickly made her way inside the opera, drenching wet. Bless having raincoats in rainy England.

Meg was nowhere to be seen and the entire entrance had been empty, once again. All performers were practising today, however, how come they aren't here? And how come it's so incredibly quiet?

Christine walked slowly towards the only two rooms she knew: the ballroom and maintenance room. Then she all of a sudden heard a sound coming from the other side of the entrance hall.

"Psst! Christine! Over here!"

It was Meg, acting very stealthily. Or so she at least thought.

She looked a lot more cheerful than before. It put Christine's heart at ease and a smile formed on her lips, "Meg!"

"Shhh! We need to be quiet!" she hushed and took Christine's hand to lead her to a dark room, "I want to show you something."

It seemed as if Meg had guided her backstage at the opera. Faint murmurs could be heard from the other side, one directing someone firmly but clearly, while the other only seemed to make acknowledgement sounds.

Meg guided her even further towards the stage, now climbing on top of a large wooden box. Christine followed and sat down next to Meg. From here, they had a good, secluded view of the stage. The others were very unlikely to see them this far up and merged with the shadows.

A lady started singing, followed by the orchestra. She was... incredibly loud! And without any microphones that is. Meg pointed towards her, "That's our Prima Donna, Carlotta. She has the leading role in our next opera performance."

Christine was still taking in the marvellous sight of the auditorium and the beautiful music that was being played, except for the singing, it just had way too much vibrato that it was becoming slightly intolerable. She spoke, "This is beautiful, how did you find this particular place?"

"Sometimes I need some alone time, but I still want to remind myself of how grateful I should be for having this job. So I sit up here and admire the other performers while I eat my sandwich."

"Sounds like a great break."

They smiled at each other and Christine gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder before continuing, "How are you doing now? After the, uh, incident with mister grumpy?"

Meg gave a slight laugh, "Oh, never mind that! I just had a moment. Mother talked to me about it and explained his critique more in detail. It was all quite constructive, really."

Christine wasn't convinced, "Your mother had to talk it right for him? Is that what happened?"

"Well, I'm not sure. I didn't see them talking together. H-He probably didn't mean to be rude," she took a quick pause and took something out of her bag, "so I went to work on his action points and the routine did feel a lot smoother afterwards. In my dressing room, I even found a KitKat on top of my bag. That MUST have been him apologizing, right?"

Christine was massively confused and laughed at seeing the chocolate bar, "Ah! So now he's training you like a dog to perform tricks for him?"

"I mean, I still got free chocolate. Can't complain."

She dropped the subject. Meg thought it was all forgiven and forgotten now, but Christine still felt that something was wrong with all this. Just his entire attitude and personality fluctuating like an ebb and tide in the ocean felt off and irregular. To Christine, he had only been a massive prick. Except for that time when he opened the maintenance door for her. But that must have been part of his job as owner of the opera house. It wasn't even meant to be a nice gesture.

"Either way, I should get back home. I'm exhausted. When do you start work?" Meg broke the silence.

Christine took out her phone to check the time and saw that she had about 5 minutes left. Perfect timing, "Very soon."

Christine accompanied Meg towards the entrance and said their goodbyes, but not before Meg begged her to join in on a new Netflix show she had started. Christine just HAD to watch it with her. With a slight laugh, Christine promised to watch it with her tomorrow night. And they both walked off to their next task of the day. For Christine, that was to walk towards the maintenance room and get her cleaning supplies. She'd have to clean up the auditorium today.

When she walked into the large opera hall, she noticed the woman was still practising her piece. Christine figured she'd just keep on working as they were performing, maybe taking a glance or two every so often and correcting Carlotta's mistakes in her head. Oh how glad she read that music theory book from start to finish, she felt so much more knowledgeable and was able to dissect a song in real time.

Soon after, the singer and maestro were done and took their leave, not even glancing at Christine who was busy cleaning up the audience's seats. It suddenly became quiet, eerily quiet. She just kept on working through the seats, ignoring the silence as much as she could.

That is until she came to the front row. There, on the maestro's music stand, she found the sheet of music for the song they were practising before. She didn't recognize the words and notes, but they flowed perfectly into each other. On another page, it displayed its title: Think of Me.

She looked around to make sure there was no one else in the auditorium with her. When she looked back, she started humming the first few lines, not confident enough to sing out loud.

Think of me, think of me fondly

When we've said goodbye

Christine felt more at ease as the song went on, imagining the music from before in her head to guide her. She imagined the maestro directing her and practising the piece. Wishing she'd be standing here every day.

Remember me, once in a while

Please promise me you'll try

Her song became slightly louder until she was confident enough that she was able to sing the piece fluently and as it was meant to be.

When you find that once again you long

To take your heart back and be free

She grabbed the sheet music from its music stand and walked on stage with it, looking around, amazed by the room's decorations and how the lighting fell perfectly on the stage.

If you ever find a moment

Spare a thought for me

She turned around to look backstage, closing her eyes as darkness overtook her. As she stood there on stage, knowing that a full audience normally sat behind her on the seats, she smiled and continued her song.

And she thought back to that first night, as she danced the night away at the masquerade. His eyes were engraved in her mind and overtook her when she felt at peace.

All of those thoughts combined brought her nothing but pure happiness. A happiness to cherish.

Flowers fade, the fruits of summer fade

They have their season so do we

Lifting her hands on her heart, she felt herself control her breaths.

But please promise me that sometimes

You will think...

Opening her eyes, she performed a quick spin back towards facing the auditorium, the light blinding her. But she didn't care. She was lost in the music, and music overtook her. She sang the final notes with such energy and emotion, she had to put her hand on her chest to make sure her heart wouldn't burst.

As the song came to an end, she opened her eyes.

Glancing about the auditorium, she caught sight of a shadow. Piercing golden eyes staring right at her. Christine abruptly stopped and stared right back at the glowing eyes. Her body fell stiff and a lump was caught in her throat. Her right hand made its way slowly from her heart towards her neck, slightly caressing it, as if to dampen the lump that she felt was stuck. She knew whose eyes they belonged to.

They both stared, and they both didn't say a single word.

Upon regaining herself, reminded by the owner of those eyes, Christine shot him a glance of disinterest and went down the steps towards the orchestra pit, placing the music sheet back where it belonged. When she glanced up again, the shadow was gone.

Christine's feet were hurting. She was exhausted, mentally and physically. Lying in bed all day proved to be worthless and she only felt guilty for not doing anything all day. But sometimes you need to force yourself to rest. Especially when you need to do work after attending university AND studying. Seriously, how does everyone else do it? Nevertheless, she finally caught up on all the Netflix shows she and Meg watch. Sometimes they still watch together, but due to schedule differences, they switched over to watching them mostly in their own free time. Now they finally had another topic to discuss, other than complaining about the mystery that was Erik or Meg complaining about something her mother did during practice.

Tomorrow she'd have to work again, an evening shift. At the end of it, she promised Raoul to go out with him for dinner. Just a one-time thing, she had said to herself. But who knows, they might hit it off. Meg certainly was betting on it. She truly hoped Meg's gut feeling was right on this one.

However, her thoughts seemed to keep flowing back to yesterday, while she was singing on the stage. The shadow in the dark, merging effortlessly within its unlit surroundings, the eyes that burn through her soul and see all that's good and bad in one single glance. She knew who they belonged to, but that look she had gotten was different. It felt different. It felt... like he was waiting for her, longing for her presence to be felt on that stage.

Wow, okay, Christine, too many sugary sweets for you today, she thought. Where was her mind wandering off to? She hated the man. That's all she had to think of him. The other man in her mind was merely a figure, a non-existent character.

She just had one thing to look forward to for now and that was tomorrow's dinner.

Christine was rounding off her work that day at the opera, putting all supplies back into the maintenance closet where they fit perfectly in the cheap storage cabinet. One of the managers, Gilles Andre, she seemed to remember, had given her a quick call during her shift today to discuss whether she was still enjoying it or not, or if she'd need anything et cetera et cetera. "Everything is perfect, thank you for checking in!", she had told him, ignoring the fact that she actually wanted to ask him why the owner of the opera always seemed to be roaming about the halls and why there was never someone guarding the entrance... a lot of questions were left unanswered, but Christine figured that it wasn't a good time to bring those topics up. Gilles seemed extremely pleased and eagerly hung up the phone to continue doing whatever he was doing.

She picked up her bag from the corner of the maintenance room and turned to walk out, ready for her date with the patron of this opera.

"Jesus! Must you scare me every other day now?"

The dark figure from the other day was now standing in the hallway once again, those glowing gold eyes piercing right through her. Up close, its energy, which almost seemed to radiate through her entire body just from his glance, appeared much more intense than before. And her thoughts from the day before came running back... all those thoughts that she wished were silenced.

"Hello to you, too," Erik said casually, taking a step towards Christine. The light now easily fell on top of his entire form, revealing half of his face and mask, along with all the other typical clothes he always seems to wear. It looked as though he thought of something important, coughed slightly and continued, "ah- excuse me for frightening you."

She tilted her head and blinked. He just apologized? That's a first. She replied, "Oh. So, do you need anything? Or-"

"I also want to apologize for my staring yesterday," he quickly interrupted. There was a short pause and it appeared as if he was looking for the right words to say next, "I... Your voice... Never in my life..."

He stopped for a while and Christine thought he'd never finish the sentence, "Sorry?"

"I-It's the most beautiful version of the song I have ever heard. Your voice was exactly what was missing in it."

Christine's mouth fell right open, shocked at his compliment. Erik just complimented her voice. She fell silent, but he continued, "You don't need music to guide or support you. Your voice by itself is a... a musical masterpiece!"

She regained control and felt her cheeks flush red. Never had anyone given her compliments such as these. They didn't feel meaningless, cheer-up compliments given by your loved ones no matter your skill. This is from a complete stranger. From someone she thought must hate her to the core.

"Wow, that's... that's very kind of you, Erik."

He nodded and he also steadied himself, raising his head more than before, "Who is tutoring you?"

"The university, mostly. But... it's never private tutoring. Hell, not even in groups. I don't think I've sung in a very long time-"

"No tutor? Are you mad?" he seemed to have become lively old Erik again, "Blasphemy, honestly. You better not be paying this university for whatever you are doing there."

Christine fumbled with her hands at that comment and looked down at her feet. She needn't give him a response.

He continued, "Well since your university is incapable of delivering something you truly require," he raised his hand to his chest and performed a slight bow, "I will be offering this to you instead."

She stopped fumbling and looked up, raising an eyebrow at Erik, "Excuse me? You are offering me singing lessons?"

"Tutoring, mentoring, whatever you may call it," he smiled ever so slightly, "your singing truly was angelic, but there were some clear improvement points that we will need to work on. Your higher notes were slightly off-key and your vibrato could use some work. Also your breathing-"

"Yeah yeah, I get it!" she cut him off before there could continue his early 'mentoring'. It reminded her of how he had treated her and Meg the other days. Being criticised until she was left crying, needing to call someone so she could calm down? Would she truly resort to him, did she truly want that?

No. She didn't need that right now, "Look, Erik," she looked him in the eyes. Those golden, piercing eyes. They seemed to know what was coming from her mouth before she spoke. They pleaded with her not to say it aloud, "I don't think this is a wise idea. Our interactions haven't exactly been... pleasant. Plus, how would I know the feedback you will be giving me will be useful? Do you even know anything about music?" at that comment, Erik raised an eyebrow curiously, "All I see you do around here is walk and criticise others, but not actually performing. Do you know what it's like, or are you just assuming things?"

After she spoke, she noticed she had been a bit too judgemental and harsh. She couldn't control the words that flew out of her mouth. She needed to get out of this situation, quickly, "Anyways, sorry but I need to leave. Someone is waiting for me."

Christine brushed past him and said a quiet goodbye.

"No one speaks to Erik like that," he muttered under his breath.

"Did you say something?" she turned around briefly.

He gave her a smile and said, "Goodnight."

She nodded as well and walked into the opera entrance, where Raoul was waiting eagerly for her presence.

"Christine! I thought you said you'd be done at 7! It's way past that, what were you doing? Over hours already?" Raoul said while hugging her. She was surprised by the affectionate action but returned it easily.

"Hi, Raoul. Y-Yes, I guess so. I just wanted to make sure I got everything before I left."

He took her hand and guided her towards the exit. Finally, she was getting quite hungry. But did he have to hold hands already, isn't that a bit too eager? Or was she just overreacting? He's just being nice, is all.

Right before they both exited the opera house, she took one last look towards the hallway where she came from. The same figure stood there, watching.

The eyes knew.

It's the girl who danced with the Vicomte at the masquerade ball.