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Diana stood on the stage later that night. Rehearsals were done for the day. Not even Buquet was out at this hour. Just hours ago, she stood down there… with the seats, at an auction of a burned down Opera House. She raised her gaze, looking up at the shadowy ceiling of the building. With all the lights of the Opera House out, the details in its paintings could just barely be seen, but it was better than the charred ceiling she had first seen.
She welcomed the darkness. It felt more comforting than the false love and warmth of light. Everything that came with light was full of lies. It only led to pain. Turning, her eyes caught sight of an abandoned piano, just stage right.
Pulling it out just a bit more from behind the curtain, she pulled the canvas that covered it from the night, tossing said fabric somewhere behind her. Could she still play? Had all the lessons her families had given her paid off, or were they as useless as all assumed? She let her fingers roam over the keys softly, making sure to not apply enough pressure for a note to ring out.
The hair on the back of her neck stood up as the feeling of being watched returned, but she tried her best to ignore it as her fingers finally pressed down on the notes that have been stuck in her head since she was a young girl. It was a bit sad, she supposed. Then again, she herself knew only sadness. How else is one supposed to feel with a past like hers?
Her breath caught in her throat when she heard a voice.
"Play that again."
Without a second thought, she played the notes again, refusing to take her eyes from the ivory keys.
"How… how can it be, you hear the music?"
Finally, she lifted her gaze, not caring that a man more dangerous than Buquet now stood beside the piano. How had she missed him?
"You hear it too? You hear the music?"
"Sing…"
Diana seemingly couldn't stop herself as she let out a few notes then, but instead of coming from the piano, they came from her.
"Sing, sing for me!"
She knew she was no Christine Daaé, but she went as high as she could. Perhaps with the practice, of course, she could get there.
"Have you ever yearned to go, past the world you think you know? Been enthralled to the call of the beauty underneath?"
She stared at the man, startled as he suddenly reached for her hand, pulling her gently towards the center of the stage.
"Have you let it draw you in, past the place where dreams begin? Felt the full breathless pull of the beauty underneath?"
She watched as he slowly circled her, a shiver running down her spine at the sound of his voice, wishing she could wrap herself in it. It offered comfort, true comfort, and she didn't bother trying to stop herself as she let herself get lost in it.
"Can you taste it? Have you heard its music and embraced it? Do you crave the visions that it shows you?"
A smile slowly spread over her lips, letting her eyes fall closed as he took her hand once again, pulling her back against his frame. Her head immediately fell into the crook of his neck, feeling his hands at her hips.
"Do you wonder why it chose you? Like it knows you, knows you have a darkness running through you. If you're not afraid I'll show it to you…"
"You don't fear the darkness, do you?"
Part of her felt like it was a game they were playing, as she turned in his arms, looking up into his eyes. She had no idea what the game would have been, however since this was a far cry from cat & mouse.
"Do you find yourself beguiled, by the dangerous and wild, and been hooked as you looked at the beauty underneath? Have you felt your senses surge and surrendered to the urge?"
She certainly felt the need to surrender right now… to him, to his voice, to his touch. It wasn't fair, how her body betrayed her like this. She knew she should run. She knew she should wake up those who stayed at the opera, who lived here, but… he understood her. Understood how she worked, how her mind worked. No one ever has before…
"Tell me you know it too, know the beauty underneath. If it's in you, in your skin, and bone and blood, and sinew…"
She felt another pair of eyes on them, but as he led her around the stage and she followed, she found she didn't care. Not at this moment. Not when everything suddenly felt right, when she felt right.
"If it doesn't frighten you and shake you, there are places I can take you…"
It was her turn to pull him to a stop, stepping into closer to him, one hand rising to his chest.
"I can taste it, I have heard the music and embraced it. Even in the wonders that you've shown me…"
Diana couldn't stop the grin from forming as he was suddenly pulling her up a flight of stairs, up into the rafters.
"It's as if she's always known me…"
She couldn't help herself from pausing once they got to the rafters, remembering the stories of those the Opera Ghost had hung from here. Was he just luring her to her death? She met his eyes, seeing that he himself was second-guessing his decisions. No… he wasn't.
"It's all so beautiful. So strange, yet beautiful… Everything's just as you say…"
She let him lead her across the rafters, looking over one of the sides, her hand tightening in his at the height. She trusted him to not let her fall. She trusted him.
"And she's so beautiful, perhaps too beautiful… What I suspect cannot be, still, she seems so much like me. I can't look away…"
She studied his features as he opened a secret passage in the wall, pulling her along a corridor. She guessed this was how she got around, how he had adopted the moniker "Opera Ghost."
"Can you taste it?"
"-You have seen the darkness and embraced it."
"-have seen the darkness and embraced it."
She lost her way as he led her through the tunnels of his home, her breath rushing out of her as they finally reached his lair under the Opera House, her eyes widening at the sight of it. It seemed almost mystical, and she couldn't stop the grin that grew.
"-Don't you crave the visions that it shows you?"
"-Don't you crave the visions that it shows you?"
She took in the sight of the lake, of the boat that was secured to the makeshift dock, to the organ, and everything her eyes could take in all at once.
"-Don't you wish that it had chose you?"
"-Don't you wish that it had chose you?"
"-But it knows us, knows our skin, and bone, and blood and sinew…"
Diana turned back to face the Ghost- no, the man that brought her here.
"Knows the things I recognized within you, are you willing to continue?"
“But it knows you, knows your skin, and bone, and blood and sinew… knows you have no beauty deep within you. Knows the madness can continue.”
“But it knows you, knows your skin, and bone, and blood and sinew… knows you have no beauty deep within you. Knows the madness can continue.”
As their voices joined together again, she felt a warmth spread over herself, watching as the masked man stepped closer to her with calculated steps.
"And you're ready?"
He led her around his lair, showing her the things he had created. The automatons, his music, his designs.
"Yes…"
"Come closer…"
She let him pull her closer, a shiver running down her spine as one of his arms snaked around her waist.
"Yes…"
"You've no fear of the beauty underneath, you can face it…"
"Yes!"
"You can take it?"
She was only slightly ashamed of how deep her chest rose and fell, everywhere his hands trailed seemed to set her skin on fire, and she couldn't help but crave more.
"Yes!"
"You see through to the beauty underneath… to the splendor, to the glory, to the truth of the glory underneath!"
She wasn't frightened as he was suddenly grasping her arms, instead, she felt a strange calmness wash over her as she looked into his eyes.
"You'll accept it?"
"Yes."
"You'll embrace it?"
"Yes!"
He guided her down from the platform his organ sat upon, towards a secluded wall of the carved out home. She noticed the drawings that littered the walls, but she hadn't looked close enough yet, refusing to take her eyes from him.
"Let me show you the beauty underneath, all the splendor, and the glory, all the truth of the beauty underneath… you'll accept it…"
"Yes!"
"You'll embrace it…"
"Yes!"
"Let me show you the beauty underneath…"
He turned her himself, towards the papers that decorated the wall in no manner of organization. While she saw drawings of Christine, she had noticed one thing in particular. Her face took up most of the space. Her face at different stages of her life, all from different angles. Air rushed from her lungs as her knees suddenly gave out from beneath her, her head lolling back against the Phantoms shoulder as his arms wrapped around her waist just in time to catch her.