It was a breech birth; and so, right up to the very last moment of innocent

ignorance, I remained aware of the midwife's boisterous, bawdy enccouragement.

    "Just the head now, my dear...almost there...your son is almost born.  But 

now we must take great care.  Do exactly what I say-do you hear me?--exactly!"

    I nodded and drew a panting breath, clinging to the towel that had been hung

on the wooden bedstand behind my head.  The candlelight threw huge shadows up to 

the ceiling, strange, leering shapes that were oddly threatening to me in the 

mindless delirium of pain.  In that last, lonely moment of thrusting anguish it

seemed to me that there was no one alive in the world but me; that I would be 

shut up for all eternity in this bleak prison of pain.

    There was a great burting, tearing sensation and then peace...and silence; 

the breathless hush of stunned disbelief.  I opened my eyes to see the midwife's

face-rosy with expression only moments before-slowly draining of color; and my 

housemaid, Simonette, backing away from the bed, with one hand pressed against 

her mouth.

    I remember thinking:It must be dead. But sensing even in that confused split

second before I knew the truth that it was worse than that...much worse.

    Struggling to sit up against the damp pillow, I looked down at the bloody

sheets beneath me and saw what they had seen.

    I did not scream; none of us screamed.  Not even when we saw it make a feeble

movement and we realized it wasn't dead.  The sight of the thing that lay upon the

sheets was so unbelievable that it denied all power of movement to the vocal cords.

We only stared, the three of us, as though we expected our combined dumbstruck 

horror to melt this harrowing abomination back into the realm of nightmare where 

it surely belonged.


           


A name...I must decide upon a name.  Erik.

            

  


     Fearfully, with a trmbling hand, I parted the shawl that covered the childs

face.  I had seen deformities before-who has not?-but nothing like this.  The 

entire skull was exposed beneath a thin, transparent membrane grotesquely riddled

in little blue pulsing veins.  Sunken, mismatched eyes grossly malformed lips, a

gaping hole where the nose should have been.

     My body, like some imperfectly working potter's wheel, had thrown out this

pitiable creature.  He looked like something that had been dead a long time.  All

I wanted to do was bury him and run.



    
     What you have just read was the birth and a description of Erik; our The Phantom

of the Opera begins.  The birth of Erik is where the story of our famous legend of the 

Phantom of the Opera.  And under normal cercumstance the death is where the story

ends.  That is not the case in the novel PHANTOM by Susan Kay.  She not only tells

the story of Eriks life, but also the after math of his death.  She tells what 

happened to Christine and Raoul.  


I am a big fan of The Phantom Of The Opera.

I also collect Phantom of the Opera items.  I have read many books, heard many plays on 

album, and heard many different versions of the legend and have always wanted more.  I 

have had the same questions at the end of each book, play, and stories.  I wanted to know

what took place after Eric died.  I wanted to know what happened to Christine and Raoul.

I was never fullfilled with the legend until I read a novel by the name of PHANTOM

by Susan Kay.  This book answered every wonder that I had in full detail.

     In the novel all the questions I had were answered very completely.  The book

goes into detail about Erics birth defects, his mother, things he loved, and most

of all why he was so hateful before he fell in love with Christine.  The end of the

book goes into great detail of what happened in the life Christine after Eric died

and how she dealt with the loss of a love.  

     I have read this book many different times and I get the same joy out of it

each time I read it as the first.  I enjoy not only the story of the Phantom, but

I also enjoy listening to the play.  The whole play is out right now on compack

disk.  It is very hard to find right now.  Most places that carry it have it on 

back order.  If you should get your hands on a copy I think you too will enjoy the

work of our Phantom.

     If you want to know a little about Erik's life go to ERIK from my home page

and there is a little history for you.  If that is not enough history then get the

novel and read it.  All your questions will be answered.