Quelle Beaute

Disclaimer: All characters are property of either Gaston Leroux or Susan Kay with the exception of Lenita. I do not make a profit or claim ownership of anything Phantom related, anytime, anywhere…although I wish I could own Erik, but hey, don’t we all?

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Quelle Beauté

Part One:
Erik

Although with my efforts to do so otherwise, I simply could not stay away. I loathed Paris for the most part and its inhabitants, but it was my Opera House that I could not leave behind. More than a year had passed since the fire, to be precise, eighteen months since I lost all below the cellars and still, to my dismay it stood alone and untouched. The broken windows had not been replaced, the exterior still black with soot and the whole….in overall neglect. My heart sunk as I felt I could wretch where I stood. I continued to walk around the exterior, my accursed mask hidden from view by the familiar black hood, shaking to control the despair that threatened to erupt from inside me. It appeared that no one even noticed, nor cared that such a landmark was crumbling before them.

All except one person, that is.

The woman that I spied out of the corner of my hooded sight was looking up in awe and admiration. That, I could not understand. Awe at a destroyed building? I had to see her more closely, for surely, she was new to Paris and did not understand.

I could only see her from the back at first. Her sleek, dark hair hung midway down her back, pinned only up from the sides and contrasted with her soft blue gown. Yet, as I inched closer, moving softly from one hidden corner to another, her face came into view.

That unmistakable face.

That olive skin accented by eyes that were bluer than turquoise.

In shock, I mumbled only one word, “Lenita?”