(BEING REWRITTEN) An Opera Ghost- A Phantom of the Opera Fan Fiction

Chapter Twenty-Three {The Final Chapter}

Olivier felt both shock and anger as he saw his Opera Ghost unmasked before him and all the other patrons of the opera. He heard the screams as people saw the grotesque scars that went from the middle of her forehead to where her ear was on the left side. Olivier felt the need to conform, to scream like all the people who saw the poor girl as a monster… But he couldn't, because he knew that sweet girl on the stage. He knew she was an angel from the darkness. And he was becoming angrier by the moment as he saw his Little Opera Ghost try to scramble away only to be caught by that fop of an actor, Anderson, who held her around the waist.

"Messieurs and Mademoiselles!" he called to the frightened audience, "I give you, our lovely playwright and Opera Ghost, Lady Florence de Phant!"

"You fool!" Meg Giry screamed out from where she sat up in Box Five, standing beside Olivier and slamming her fists down on the banister. All the occupants of the opera looks to where Box Five was. "You are a fool Anderson! Leave the Opera Ghost be or her master will punish you greatly!"

As this argument was going on, another was happening in Box Six, where the de Changy's sat privately.

"She is alive!" Christine screeched as Anderson went to pull the wig off of the Opera Ghost, too, to reveal a head of hair that would only resemble Christine's. "My child! My only child!" Raoul's eyes were large as saucers. This was not as he planned.

"Christine, my love-" He began but was cut off when Christine turned and pushed him away.

"You lied to me Raoul!" Christine shouted, tears springing up in her eyes and streaming down her cheeks, "You told me that my child died! That the Phantom had died!"

"You wanted her here, Christine!" Raoul countered, remembering how when he had told Christine the baby had died, all she had worried for was her own skin if the Phantom had learned of the death, "You wanted her to be with her father!"

"I could have come and seen her, Raoul!"Christine cried, running to the door of the box, but Raoul grabbed her am to prevent her escaping.

"If you had returned to the opera house, that devil of a man and his little demon child would have taken you from me," Raoul told her angrily. Christine stood silent for a moment, then pulled back her gloved hand and slapped him with such force he stumbled over.

"That demon child," Christine hissed, "is mine, too." Christine looked to the stage to see her poor daughter being held against her will. Where was her father? And then he came out from behind the back curtains of the stage, making the entire crowd go silent from their screams and jeers.

"Good evening, my kind patrons," the Phantom began, making his way slowly to the center of the stage. Anderson, having heard the voice, turned around and dropped Florence as her father approached. He ran off the stage, and the Phantom made no effort to stop him. Glancing up to Box Five, he saw a fuming young man who looked more than willing to string the pompous boy up in the rafters. Erik looked to his daughter and held out a hand for her. The audience watched as Florence got to her feet and went to the Phantom, and hugged him without any words. And in that moment, most of those audience members felt a pang of guilt strike through them. Erik wrapped an arm around his daughter, before glaring out towards the audience. "It seems, sadly, because of an overly curious and arrogant boy, history is about to repeat itself."

"Papa," Florence whispered, but Erik shushed her gently, so he could continue.

"Now, for all of you who gasp at the appearance of my daughter, I reprimand you. But to those who gasp at the appearance of myself," Erik tore the mask and wig from his face so they could scream a true monstrosity, "I allow you! For the face I have I deserve, I am a monster, but my child is an angel! I once cared for my appearance, thought myself ugly. Until a little girl called me marvelous… And now it no longer matters what any of you disapproving pests feel, it is only those who can see through to the soul who matter." Erik looked down as Florence tapped his arm gently. He removed it and nodded to her to go on. Florence walked to the front of the stage.