The Phantom Ascending |✔| [Phantom of the Opera Fanfiction]

The New Opera

The brief encounter with the strange faerie-demon woman released something powerful within me.

Perhaps it was because, for the first time in my life, someone reacted to my disfigurement with enough indifference. She talked directly to the man behind it and made me forget the phantom that I've become.

And then afterwards, her touches brought me unexpected pleasure and joy. It felt like the unlocking of countless locks within my body and soul, and the key was acceptance.

When she left, I wept, overwhelmed.

The next day, I sat down to write an opera, the best way I knew to honor our encounter and to honor her, even if she may never learn of it or even care.

Months have passed. I worked like a man obsessed.

My opera, Titania Enthroned, was finally done, and not a moment too soon, for I was running out of banknotes, and the date of Christine's eighteenth birthday was in only three months' time.

The newspapers reported of her performances, and the gossip columns talked of her impending marriage to Vicomte de Chagny, which was to take place not long after her birthday. I felt invigorated. As wrong as it would be, I wanted to try, one more time, something. At least to see her again, to see if anything could change...

And then the morning came when I woke up to find a strange object placed next to my piano, with a note attached to it.

My dear fellow outcast,

I managed to obtain something for you after all. Place this on your face just once, and its effects will last forever. Every solstice, for a full day your face will be cured of any abnormality. From midnight to midnight.

It was the best I could achieve, and it is the best for you, I think, to essentially stay who you are on the outside, to be able to properly heal on the inside.

Farewell and good luck,

Willow

I took the fragile object into my hands. It was a mask that looked like it was made out of moonlight and stars, and it fit my face perfectly, vanishing upon touching my skin. I couldn't feel a thing, and I looked the same, but I believed.

Two days a year a normal face – the idea of it was overwhelming. I felt that small light within me glow and fill me with warmth and courage.

With a plan already forming in my mind, I said goodbye to the isolated mansion that's been my home for over a year, and left for Italy.