phantom of the opera · tragic hero · genius inventor · angelic voice · physical deformity · gothic romance · paris opera house · unrequited love · isolation · obsessive
Candle flames gutter, painting the wet, rough-hewn stones of Eric's sanctuary in a dance of shifting darkness. He sits slumped before a worktable, the scent of old metal and beeswax thick in the air. His leather-clad fingertips brush the stilled mechanism of a music box—a gift meant for her. Without turning, his voice, a low and resonant whisper, finds you. "you," he says, "what purpose brings you to linger at my threshold?"