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

Chapter Four

A/N: The long awaited update! Again, really sorry this wasn't in sooner everyone!! I did, infact, have most of this written. I have no clue why I didn't think to add it earlier. Well, enjoy! And feel free to comment/vote! It makes me feel loved :D ENJOY!!

                                                       

~Four years later~

"Papa! Papa!" a little voice screamed as a tiny figure sat bolt upright in the bed. Erik looked up from the desk where he had been writing a note for Madame Giry to deliver to see his child wrestling against the blankets that had covered her.

"Florence, my dear," he cooed soothingly as he stood and walked across his lair to his little girl was crying out for him, "What is wrong? Have you had another nightmare?" He pulled the blankets off and away from little Florence and pulled her to him. She was very petite even for her age, with her mother's curly dark hair and his black eyes... and a little bit of his disfiguration. That had been something he hadn't taken into to consideration, and as the child grew and developed it he had almost wept for her. Her pale and creamy skin seemed marred from the middle of her forehead down to her left ear, though it was nowhere as bad as his own mutilation. It was only a bit blotchy and red, and simply looked as if she had been badly cut or had an accident with a fire.

"Yes, papa," Florence cried softly into Erik's shoulder, "There was a man chasing me and screaming at me..." Erik frowned at this. She had dreamt this same dream many times, and it was truly a memory. Just the past year, Florence had wandered off from Madame Giry- who Erik had asked to take Florence for the day- and had gone to the theater where men had been trying to reconstruct the stage. A man had seen her and- thinking she was just a stray child who had come into the opera house unknowingly- had chased her from the room screaming at her to get out. Meg Giry fortunately heard the commotion and rushed to find Florence crying as she ran down the corridor and harshly told the man off for scaring the girl. When Erik had heard what had happened, he took care of the man.

"It was only a dream, my child," Erik soothed, running his fingers through her thick hair, "Your papa would never let anyone hurt you, darling." He kissed one of the long scar like gashes on his daughter's forehead.

"I know, papa," Florence said softly, beginning to calm down as she took in reality around her. Erik, knowing his daughter was not going to be able to go back to sleep, picked up the small girl and carried her back to his desk where he sat down with her in his lap. He picked up his quill, sighing as he saw an dark blotch that had formed on his paper from where the ink had leaked from the tip of the quill, then continued to write his letter.  He would soon have it be delivered to Messieurs Andre and Firmin who had managed to hold on to the Opera Populaire thanks to Erik's own generous donation to the cause of rebuilding the opera house. The rebuilding had finished just a month before and now they were trying to find their various actors. Erik's letter was both one of reminder of his rules to run his opera house- which hopefully they would abide by unlike the last time- and one of recommendation for Meg Giry whom he had been told by Florence was an excellent singer.

"My dear," Erik said as he wrote, "how would you like to see Madame Giry today? Would you enjoy that?"

"Yes, papa!" Florence said happily, bouncing a bit on his lap. Erik chuckled, completing his letter. He looked it over and read it through:

Dear Messieurs Andre and Firmin,

                    I would like to welcome you back to my opera house and remind you to leave box five open. I still require my salary of twenty-thousand francs, more if possible as I seem low of funds since my donation to the cause of rebuilding the Opera Populaire. I advise you not to try to rid the opera house of me. I hope that this time you follow my instructions gentlemen, as I would hate to have an accident like the last one.