So many questions.

So much evidence.

History has been staring me in the face.

Why me?

Why now?

I have all of Paris to show me her history.

Her entire story is in the pages, scattered about the city.

Everything is here.

All my family has told me is a lie... but do they know this?

I run downstairs, with my own journal of notes, where my current grand'mere has prepared a lunch. "Bonjour, Nicollette. I have not seen you for some time."

"Grand'mere," I huff, clutching my journal. "Everything she claimed... about the phantom... it's all here. Every last detail..."

"Oh, I see you are hot on the trail," she giggles.

I sigh and catch my breath, eager to tell her all I know. "Grand'mere, it's here... All of it! Every word! History was written for us!"

"Oui," she smiles elegantly. "And you wish to tell me this..?"

"The proof is all here," I slap the journal down. "Everything she has been accused of, being crazy and mental with absurdities, completely disoriented with stories... the story is all in here."

She nods nonchalantly, but her eyes and expression say far more. "Of course it is. She was a very talented writer."

My frustration has just climbed to an all time high. "Grand'mere, if my family just read this they would understand everything she told them was the truth. They probably don't even know it exists."

"Oh they know."

"Exactly! If I can just-" I pause in my words, suddenly processing what she just said. "They know?"

An expression came across my grand'mere that told me she was meant to prolong a secret she had sworn to keep. But it seemed she had other ideas in mind. "Nicollette, with all of this evidence right here in the family, and the entire attic flooded with our history, do you not find it odd that they would force me tell you one thing, and they are already aware of the circumstances our family is under?"

New evidence brought to life.

"Circumstances... What does that mean?"

She leans forward with a determined look on her face, enticing my curiosity all the more. "The family knows the entire history of Nicollette and her days in the opera."

Now I'm confused. "Hold on. If the family knows the history, and possibly believes this story, why would they have you tell me something entirely different?"

My grand'mere leans in, as if frightened she will be executed on the spot if she says anything more. "They swore me to secrecy when you were born. When you were birthed, you were given the name Nicolette, not to return pride to the name, though I have always believed you will carry the pride of the name, but something entirely different."

It's incredible how one can suddenly find their family crazy without any context beyond the words of her grand'mere. "What exactly?"

"It still remains to be known what happened to your grand'mere Nicolette beyond the diary, but the entire family believes her disappearance has something to do with the phantom."

The criminal himself.

I'm rather terrified to know where this is heading.

And yet it's enticing. "They believe he took her?"

She shrugs, uncertain. "In a sense. But our family has made it this far, so there are many theories that have been produced."

More theories.

"Such as?"

She straightens herself as she begins to ponder. "Well, there is a theory that she was forced to marry the phantom, or was threatened to do so, or even that she did it willingly. And she produced children. Or merely that he held her captive... and she ended up with children."

I scribble down each riddle, listing the possibilities of each. "Well... that's a category..."

"It is also said that she escaped the phantom, and found someone else to love."

"That's right," I interrupt at this. "Because she was in love with the De Chagny."

"Precisely," she smiles, impressed. "But their lives were threatened by the phantom. Were they not?"

"Oui. Nicollette was terrified when she discovered the dark side of the phantom."

"You have done a fine job in your research already I see."

With these theories in hand, and my creative ideas to support the list further, only a few things remain before I can begin any real investigation out in the city.

"So what does the burden of the name on the first born daughter have to do with it?"

"The family believes that we are under the curse of the phantom."

Superstition.

"A curse..." I blink a few times to further process the information. "But the phantom's dead. What effect could he have on us today that he couldn't do before?"

"The family believes the first born will somehow recover six things from the phantom and destroy them, lifting the curse."

Wow... My family really is crazy.

I roll my eyes. "But that's all superstition. It's not true."

"Perhaps not. But they also believe if she does not complete this by her seventeenth birthday, the phantom will return and we will all bear death at his hand."

Of all the research in reality I have studied, historical legends and stories, ancient curses and mysteries that have no evidence but the words of the explorers, and the prophecies of the priests remain to this day mere spoken words.

And now I find my family has resorted to this notion of ghostly superstition and curses that exist only in the realm of fairy tales.

"But this is absurd," I nearly laugh in mockery. "Surely they are aware this is nothing more than a ghost story."

"And yet the mystery still remains," she reminds me. "Believe what you will, Nicollette. No one condemns you for not believing, or taking truth from this legend. But there is still a mystery behind the pages of her journal. We have yet to know what it is, and I believe that you will be the one to solve the missing piece of our family's history."

A missing piece.

It seems my mission is far bigger than I anticipated.

If I am to get anywhere with this, I will have to travel to the source of my grand meres history, and discover these gifts my family is so ardent for me to find, and perhaps fake their destruction for my own personal discoveries.

Everything has fallen into place.

My entire family has prepared me for this.

Every history lesson, every french lesson, my yearly trip to Paris, it all makes sense. It's a wonder I did not find this out sooner, then again I had no other contact with my family's history until this very year.

I suppose my mission now is to go beyond the tale of this superstition and find out what really happened.

Though I don't believe in superstitious ghost legends, but my subconscious tells me a part of this may be truer than I am allowing myself to believe. After all, the phantom left his mark on the opera house. He may still reign in spirit.