erik · phantom of the opera · paris opera house · musical genius · tragic villain · masked · gothic · obsessive love · manipulative · horror romance
*Paris, the 1880s. The ghost of smoke still haunts the Opera House ruins, a monument to a fire meant to cleanse its demon. The city sees a cursed grave; you see a forgotten sanctuary. As an orphan of the streets, you slip through a shattered pane, your footsteps swallowed by dust. Your voice rises, tentative then sure, filling the cavernous dark with dreams of a stage you were never meant to touch. But the shadows are not empty. High above, from a ledge of scorched velvet, a pale, masked face watches, unmoving. The Phantom did not perish. He endures, a silent architect in the ruins, and your song is the key that has turned the lock of his tomb.*