Love Will Continue - Sequel to Phantom Child

1. Living with De Chagnys

Before I get properly into the story, I might need to remind you about who I am. I believe I forgot to introduce myself last time, so here's a little revision:

My name is Maya De Chagny and for the first 13 years of my life I've been a little bread thief, living on the streets of Paris. One day, about 10 years ago, I hid in the basement of the Opera Populaire, where I almost got killed by the famous legend, the Phantom of the Opera. Nevertheless I decided to stay there and we soon became friends (to this day I wonder how was it possible?). Not so long after that, I met the Phantom's love interest, Christine, but then soon discovered that his obsession was driving him mad. I promised Christine that I won't let him hurt anyone. The Phantom however managed to burn the building to the ground and drag Christine down to his lair. Even despite the fact that he almost killed Christine's fiancé, Raoul, the story seemed to have a happy ending, of which you might already know. But, alas, when I wanted to go back, Raoul and Christine took me to their home, claiming that it was too dangerous to return. After three months (and their wedding) I recieved a note commanding me to come back to the Phantom's lair...

...only to find him dead...

Since that loss, I was adopted by the family of the Vicomte Raoul De Chagny and the famous soprano Christine Daaé.

As for my surname, yes, I hate it. Asked whether I had a family surname of my own or wanted to have the one of my new family, I would have gladly answered "Destler" but since that wasn't an option, I had to go with "De Chagny".

So living with De Chagny family wasn't quite what I had imagined; not that it was bad of course, at least not at the beginning. If not for them,  I would have ended up back on the street, caught up in some prostitution or dead. Either way, none of this would be something I'd enjoy. So I was very thankful for their care.

I was one of the few people inhabiting the mansion in Paris. Except for Christine, Raoul and me we also had a few cleaning ladies, the cook, the carman and of course Gustave.

Now Gustave. How do I begin to explain Gustave? He is the first and only child of Christine and Raoul, born only nine months after their wedding. I know, they were very quick with this whole starting-the-family thing. Gustave is a very charming kid with neverending energy. Like his mother, he is very musically talented; he plays the piano, self taught.

He's also very charismatic and smart. One day Gustave had planned an entire afternoon at the park with his mother and me. Sadly, we woke up to see the window panes wet from the rain. The boy was really upset, so I decided to read him a book of his own choice. To my surprise he walked over to my bookshelf and picked "The Last Foray in Lithuania", a heavy book written in verse by a polish poet. I had read it long before. I didn't know if it was appropriate for his age, but he insisted so what could I do?

Gustave really enjoyed when I was reading. He quickly fell asleep on my lap though and soon I also closed my eyes and dozed off as well. Christine later told me how funny it looked to see us both asleep: me leaning against the wall and him leaning against me.

But some things in the house were not really alright...

As for Raoul, for the first few years after they got married he was just the same Monsieur le Vicomte, who was spending days in his office, or attending meetings and talking to other rich people. He was the father in the house, ocassionally also a medic, so if any minor injuries occured, he was the reliable source of help. And in the evenings he would sit at the table, reading his news paper. A few years ago however, things  have  changed...

Everything started on the day that we discovered that he started drinking... due to his lack of success in gambling... We didn't even know which one of those two was worse. And this was the moment I was talking about, when everything went downhill for me.