Small Anomalies (Phantom of the Opera Fanfiction)

A Brief Introduction

A Brief Introduction

Seventeen-year-old Raeann Mackenzie Fisher resided in a small New York apartment with her mother, father, and sister Bee. They were a tight-knit family with lots of traditions, such as playing checkers and decorating a tree each Christmas. Sometimes, they would have nights where they made up complex games with elaborate rules. Others, they would sit by the fire as the father played his old violin.

The father, Jonathan, loved his family and job very much. All was happy, and they were content with their lives. Jonathan had recently recieved a job offer at the World Trade Center. He happily excepted, oblivious to the fact that this agreement would lead to his imminent destruction.

It's happy, isn't it, to be carefree?

The morning started out like any other. September 11, 2001, a day that started with alarm clocks beeping, messy hair, and bowls of cereal. Bee, then eleven, was fighting with Raeann over the hairdryer. Jonathan gave his wife a quick peck on the lips before rushing out the door in hopes of beating the Manhattan traffic.

If only he would have been late for work. Just a mere hour would have saved him.

 Raeann's second period biology class was in session, and she glared at the miniscule font of her textbook pages. To this day, Raeann remembers the small details of that early autumn morning. 

The sirens ringing at 9:30.

Children shouting as they ran through the front door.

Teachers ordering for them to find their parents.

Raeann didn't know what to do. Lost in a sea of bodies, she was pushed toward the rubble. Debris scattered the ground. Police officers warned people not to come closer to the scene of the disaster. Raeann looked up, expecting to be under the shadows of the two familiar buildings.

One remained.

The other was shattered like a broken heart, bits of it strewn on the city streets. Cars were burried. Bodies lay on the pavement. 

"A few of 'em jumped," A police officer announced to his partner beside him in a gruff voice. "They was the lucky ones. Others came down with the thing." 

Death hovered above like a cloud.

Cries filled the empty air.

Raeann stood.

She didn't cry.

She didn't run.

She stood.

She stood until her legs grew weak and her mother found her to drag her home. "He might still be alive," her mother didn't believe it. Neither did she. He was gone.

For the record, Jonathan Fisher jumped. He held a portrait of his family to his heart and flung himself out of the window, praying on the way down.  As he collided with the concrete, he died painlessly.

Raeann entered Jonathan's room and smelled the bed sheets. She put on a large shirt of his and sat on the floor with mascara cheeks and a soul like bricks. And she wept for hours.

A dusty violin case stood in the corner. A solitary reminder of Jonathan's death. The violin inside would be burried with the man, who loved music as much as his life. But Raeann kept the case.

Two years later, she would pack a rusty locket, a screwdriver, a teddy bear, and her heart inside the tattered case. And she would leave.

A.N. Hello readers! I hope you're enjoying this story so far... Sorry the intro was so short, but it is titled "A Brief Introduction." Not every chapter will be in the third person, because that gets boring for me to write after a while.

Well, that's about it! Wait, one more detail. Raeann's name is pronounced RAY- AN. That will be all. -Madeleine