The Music of The Night  I. Overture / Think of Me
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A/N: So here is the first chapter! I canât believe so many of you were interested in this project- I really hope you like it! PS: click the title/musical notes for this chapterâs soundtrack.
                           OVERTURE đ¶
                           Flowers fade
                      The fruits of summer fade
                      They have their seasons
                            So do we
                 But please promise me that sometimes
                        You will think of me
The Opera Ghost really existed. He was not, as was long believed, a creature of the imagination of the artists, the superstition of the managers, or a product of the absurd and impressionable brains of the young ladies of the ballet, their mothers, the box-keepers, the cloak-room attendants or the concierge. Yes, he existed in flesh and blood, although he assumed the complete appearance of a real phantom; that is to say, of a spectral shade.
The Opera Velarisâthe residence of the legendary ghostâwas the most famous opera house in the mortal lands. Though it was hidden in a small city in the South of an island, people from all over the continent had heard of the magnificent opera and its infamous ghost. No one remembered when the opera house was built or how it came to be. It seemed, perhaps, as if it had appeared there one day by magic.
This would not be a total stretch of the imagination, as some people remembered a time, long before the Treaty, when the Fae and humans lived together on the island, and magic was everywhere. Most mortals, though, only remembered the bloody conflict that followedâwhen the Fae kept humans as slaves, and the humans hunted down Faes to kill them. Such people were thankful for the Treaty that separated the two races on different parts of the island, and ensured they would never have contact again.
Previous to the conflict, however, the Opera Velaris had been owned by a tremendously powerful and rich Fae Lord who loved music above all else. The popular legend among the cast of the Opera Velaris was that the ghost which haunted the theatre, and attended every performance religiously from his spot in box five, was none other than the ghost of the old Fae owner.
Many claimed to have seen the ghost. Some said the ghost had appeared to them in the shape of a gentleman in dress-clothes, who had suddenly stood before them in the passage, without their knowing where he came from. He seemed to have come straight through the wall. He stalked about the building, like a shadow, spoke to nobody and nobody dared to speak to him and vanished as soon as he was seen, no one knowing who or where. Others had far more impressive stories to tellâof a creature made of pure shadow, dark as night, terrible as death. And some older members of the opera company spoke nothing of the Phantom, and did not like to spread stories and sensationalise the tale, but if asked about the Opera Ghost, it was clear they had an unwavering conviction in its existence.
So while the Opera Ghost had become something of a running joke between all the members of the companyâand every fall during rehearsals, or broken prop, or missing powder puff backstage was blamed on the Ghostâthere were other strange occurrences at the Opera Velaris that truly couldnât be blamed on anything other than the real Phantom of the Opera.
