A Phantom Christmas Carol - *Phantom of the Opera*

Chapter One

For my story to fit the season, I changed around some times/dates from when they occurred in movie. All usual disclaimers apply. Based on the beloved classic of Charles Dickens' - "A Christmas Carol" - this is a "what if" tale, with a Phantomy-Scrooge we all know and love as Erik ... ;-)

I am also putting my video story here. I will post each full video chapter along with its corresponding written chapter. (The video quality gets progressively better as I learned more about the craft of video editing. lol)

Asterisks shown in video denote thoughts not spoken aloud. :) Also, I go by honeyphan on Youtube, different from the name I use with my written works.

 My video story is similar to written story, with minor changes- (needed to adapt to video)- and so, I give you, a quite bizarre and magical Christmas tale that can only belong to a Phantom ...

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You Belong to Me!

I

"The fools! Will they never learn?"

If the incompetents had their way, they would destroy the sanctuary of music he had worked so hard to create!

With his lip curled in a sneer, the Phantom dipped his pen into an inkwell and finished scrawling the final note. Those idiot managers thought they could ignore his mandates and challenge his power? Based on the extent of their ignorance and conceit, they alone placed the cast and crew at risk. This had been his home long before it became theirs, once their pathetic manipulations in the junk business came to naught. Did a pair of imbeciles, whose scope of intelligence lay smothered in rubbish, truly believe they could manage the art of opera with finesse?

He slipped the parchment into its envelope. Twenty-thousand francs per monthly allotment was a pittance to ask in return for his protection and aid in orchestrating an opera of sublime perfection, one that would ensure instantaneous success. Moreover, he needed that money, to conceive and carry out his plan...

Christine...

He stared into the distance, barely noting the stage before him, a replica of the one on which the bungling performers rehearsed and executed their deplorable arias. Only Christine had been blessed with a voice created for those immortal, of angels and of goddesses. Only she possessed a talent worthy of his tutelage.

To convince her of the destiny he planned for them would involve trickery and manipulation; no other method presented itself. Even with a mask to conceal the fearsome truth of his visage, she might deny him if she witnessed the reality of these chill, damp surroundings that encompassed his prison. If she glimpsed what lay beyond the safeguard of his mask, she most certainly would flee.

His large, slender hands curled into fists. The torment of such possibilities ripped through his heart. He must blind her eyes to the truth and create a deception within her mind, so as to make her fully his. He must have her! At some point, during these past nine years, she had become a part of his soul ...

The Phantom poured blood-red wax onto the flap of the envelope and sealed it with the crest of the Opera Ghost, a leering skull of terror. As he worked, he heard the constant slosh of water behind him. Setting his writing apparatus aside, he rose from the chair and came around it to greet his visitor.

Over the curling mists of the underground lake, beyond the rock shore, the bow of his boat moved into view followed by the emergence of the slim but sturdy form of Madame Giry. He raised the portcullis, noting her drawn features, tense and pale.