Ilios ran to the edge of the book and overlooked the crows of dazzling rich women and men.

"Eli!" She called out, rushing back to the doorway again and nearly tripping over her dress. "Eil come and see! The fifth cello is so dreadfully out of tune their trying to drag him out by his trousers!"

Eli checked the lock one more time and jogged up the stairs with ease.

"Quiet!" He scolded putting a finger to his lips.

---------

The rest of the show went by fairly easily, there were no signs of an angry Phantom coming after his missing children, no yelling from box five and no incidents in which his sister found herself in a precarious position.

Until intermission all was silent.

Until intermission, all was right for the Destler Children.

The trouble started when as the house lights turned on and the crowds erupted into the conversation from side to side, Ilios swore she saw a woman she had recognized.

"Eli!" she said enthusiastically, "Who was that girl? Right there, sitting in the third row?"

Eli shrugged, "I don't recognize her."

Ilios strained her eyes, "There!" She exclaimed, "The one with the handsome gentleman and the baby?"
Eli scrunched his nose, there was nothing handsome about being rich and muscular. His father was handsome, he was tall and thin, which showed moderation and a good mind. Who would love someone like a rich man?

He rolled his eyes and heaved a heavy sigh.

Ilios.

Innocent, unburdened, unbiased Ilios.

"I remember!" Ilios shouted loudly, "It's that woman! The one Gustave brought to dinner oh so long ago. How you hated her Eli. I love her, she was always so pretty! Look how she gushes!"

Eli glanced over the banister and spotted the young woman. She did indeed have a beautiful smile, her dress decorated in shimmering gold and the baby in her arms silent as a lamb. Which was, as in Elis opinion, exactly how babies should behave at Opera houses.

"Ana!" Ilios shouted waving her hand nervously over the banister, "Anabel!"

Eli seized her dress in shock his face losing all color, "Ilios stop!"

But it was no use, Ilios climbed up the chair and held tight to the curtian. Her proud, defiant voice much like her fathers, booming across the whole of the auditorium.

She stood, on two small tippy toes, grasping tightly with one hand to the red of the curtains, the other waving as hard as 7-year-old hands are able.

Silence swept the entire crowd, all eyes fixed at the small child, standing freely without any parent in the heights of box five.

"Anabel!" She cried out, "Oh look at me! Do you remember me?!"

Eli grabbed her by the ankle to drag her down and the girl gave out a scream.

"Someone do something for God's sake! Can't anyone see that there's something wrong?!" One woman cried out nervously.

A mad rush of young men kissed their girls and wives and rushed into the Ailes madly pushing each other. Each one seeking the reward for helping some poor innocent child dangling from the precipice of danger.

"Look what you've done!" Eli boomed."

Eli climbed himself to the edge of the Box, standing far above and holding tightly. 

"She is fine!" He exclaimed earnestly, "There is no need for fear. She is young."

No sooner had the words left his lips than had his cripiling anxiety returned. But he was relived as the theater fell silent again.

But it was a different silence this time.

All eyes looked up with fear, with dread at the small boy, deformed and irate, holding tightly to the young girl's hand. 

Eli had never before wanted a mask, never before needed one. 

"It's the opera ghost!" A horrified man shouted, "He's come back!"

"He's too small!" The man's wife sneered.

"Oh Eli, what have I done?" Ilios cried in horror, realizing the dangers she had exposed.

She watched the helpless face of Anabel fought desperately to reach her.

"Eli please, look at me!" Ilios cried tugging on his pant leg as the banging on the locked door increased.

Eli turned to dry his little sister's tears, and as he did the light lit the entirety of his deformity for all to see.

Screams erupted from all over, people trampling each other, others attempting to climb the banisters up.

"I'm sorry!" Ilios sobbed.

Eli didn't have time, they would be breaking in any second. "Ilios grab my shoulder," He commanded overcoming his shock and letting his adrenaline take over. 

"Eli I'm so sorry," She cried again, repeating it to herself as if it would undo the damage.

"Ilios," he smiled sadly, comforting her more than words could convey. The first smile he had given her in her little life, "Trust me."

She climbed up the banister and more screams came louder than before.

"When I say hold tight hold tight," Eli said running the numbers in his head and praying they were correct.

Ilios nodded.

"Don't try to hold on the ledge when we go over, let it go and we'll be fine?"

"The ledge?!" Ilios screamed, trying desperately along with her brother to block out the calls of demon and monster and hate.

Her little eyes turned down to Anabel who was yelling something and shaking her head vigorously no.

Who could she listen to now?

Eli placed his sisters hand tightly around his waist.

"Touch me," he nodded, "Trust me."

Ilios gave a grave yes and buried her head in his back.

Eli gave a violent tug on the tall forty foot his curtain that ran from the box to the stage and pulled it, breaking it lose.

Shouts of horror and terror arose from the house as the two small children swung across the way to the catwalk of the stage.

Eli listened and heard the footsteps of the guards and volunteers racing up the metal stairs. It had to be here somewhere, he had read about it in the floor plan.

"Ilios let go its over!" Eli stated crossly, prying her little hands off his waist. Ilios' eyes were still shut, and she refused to open them no matter how Eli begged.

Perhaps it was for the best, he reasoned. At least one person would not have to see his monster of a face tonight.

"Please! Let me through, their just children, have you no pity?!" Anabel screamed fighting her way through the crowd.

"Eli..." Ilios said slowly, "They're getting closer."

One by one her little eyelids opened.

"Hold fast!" Eli shouted cutting another rope and having it pull him up into the very top of the ceiling mechanisms.

"Eli!" Ilios screamed her heart stopping as a gunshot rang out.

Eli gave a sharp cry and applause erupted from a few of the men. Others screamed at their cruelty, others still laughed.

Ilios screamed until her throat ran dry, her brother's arm was covered in a sticky dark red and he looked as though the color and life had drained out of him completely.

"Young girl!" A man called, "We're coming to save you! Hold still, do not follow that man!"

"He's a child!" Ilios screamed, "He's not an opera ghost."

"He is cursed none the less," One man hissed. "Come down from there, and we will make amends. We did not fire, it was the work of a drunken idiot."

Neither Ilios nor Eli felt inclined to trust them.

"Eli?!" Ilios sobbed in a panic.

Eli had sunk to the floor, his knees scrapped and tattered, his hands demolished from the burning of the curtain and the rope.

His little eyes were losing light and he felt as though he might throw up.

Despite his pain, he managed to turn to his sister and smile. 

"Do you think?" he choked out, his eyes brimming with tears as he weakly laughed, "Father will notice?"

Ilios felt a new fire of anger within her a sign of newborn courage.

"Eli we have to move now, come on. Father will help us."

"Father wouldn't care if I lived or died," Eli spat deliriously, He pointed angrily to his face, "All I am is a reminder of everything he hates."

Ilios shook her head angrily and lifted him to his feet, her own strength surprising both her and her brother.

"Eli this is going to be scary," Ilios whispered, her brother losing all signs of comprehension. "But I read those layouts too. I know what father built here."

She watched as the masses of men like hornets slowly closed in closer, their feet like drums banging endlessly in her head amongst the screams.

Her brother held tight in her arms, she stood in the middle of the structure and glanced the long way down.

"Oh please God." she laughed to herself hysterically as she sobbed, "Please let this work."

Just as the first of the men arrived, their hands outreached and eyes staring at the twisted flesh of the monster they had hunted since long before, Ilios reached for a lever.

"Why," A man whispered, "They're just children. That boy needs medical attention."

"That boy is a monster," Another argued from the opposite side, "Must have escaped from the gypsies."

Ilios felt a deep seething hatred burning within her, one she had never felt before. She grasped the lever tightly and screamed at the top of her lungs through broken sobs.

"That boy is my brother!"

With two small hands, she pulled with all her might, the floor slipping out from under her. She screamed as down she plunged, down down down into the Opera house below.

The men looked from the hole in the floor to each other.

Fifty feet.

"There's no way they would have survived," The kind man said solemnly, tears in his eyes, "Even the Opera Ghost of old dropped from twenty."

"Call the policemen, let's put an end to this dreadful business and hope they recover the bodies."

"What a face."

"What a haunted massacre."

"Poor girl."

-------

"Where are they?!" Anabel screamed grasping her escort by the vest, "Oh please tell me, Lord tell me they're okay."

The handsome man shook his head, tears streaming down his face, "The young boy was shot, a bullet grazed his arm, the dropped the fifty feet down the pit below. Ana, I don't think-"

Anabel shook her head violently, handing the baby to the man and heading off towards the stage.

"Anabel where are you going?!"The man yelled desperately amidst the uproar.

Anabel slipped down the staircase and ran into the underneath of the Opera house.

"Erik!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, her chest heaving, "Erik! Christine? Erik!"

"Please help me," A little voice sobbed from down the way, "Please Mamselle help him."

Anabel turned and placed a quivering hand to her face.

"I want my Father," Ilios sobbed, her little red face swollen from choking on tears and lack of air.

Anabel rushed to her side, gripping her scarf from her neck and placing a torinuquiet around Elis bleeding arm.

"Shh child, your father will have heard us, he'll be coming. Your father will be here."

She pulled Ilios sobbing face into her arms, hugging her tightly as her own tears flowed.

"I want my Mother." Elis faint little voice cried.

Anabel closed her eyes and prayed.

What else was there to do?

How else do you summon an Angel?