We went on a field trip to NYC and saw the Phantom of the Opera. My best friend sadly couldn't afford to go on the trip, so, I brought her to my house to watch the movie instead. After watching the movie with my friend, I remembered a story I had written a long time ago on Phantom. Sadly, Blacky has moved on, leaving a question in the movie unanswered once more. Where the heck did that black horse come from? Seriously, it appears once in the movie for like no reason. All that happens is Phantom leads it down some stairs with Christine. She walked the other stairs! Whatever, I've rewritten the answer to this question. So enjoy

First Chapter is just setting up the main character, Phantom will be introduced hopefully in the next chapter

A young girl slipped silently through the streets of Paris, clutching a small piece of bread to her chest. She ducked into an alleyway and stopped to catch her breath before looking down at the small piece of bread in her small hands.

She was nearly 15 years old now, but she was so small many thought her to be younger than 10. She was very thin, she'd always been thin, but now that she went without food for days at a time, she was hardly more than skin and bones. The girl had short, dark brown messy hair, and gleaming chocolate brown eyes. That was the most striking thing about her, her wide brown eyes.

Quietly, she began nibbling on the small piece of bread, savoring each bite. She nibbled for several minutes before licking the crumbs carefully off her fingers. Glancing around, she ducked back out onto the streets once more and headed towards the outskirts of the city. She had gotten used to the walking by now, though she hadn't worn her only pair of slippers this evening, so her feet were numb with cold.

Cold was not unusual, considering she did most of her traveling and stealing at night. Stealing was wrong, she knew it, but it was the only way. As she left the city, she spotted some grass, and grabbed a few handfuls, she had family to feed when she reached home.

In reality, she didn't have a family. She'd once had two loving parents, who owned one of the most prestigious horse farm in Paris. They bred the finest, most beautiful carriage horses in all of France. The girl had loved the horses, and always treated them like her family. Unfortunately, her house burned to the ground two months ago, she was able to climb out her bedroom window and escape, her parents however were not as lucky, and both died in the fire.

After the fire, all of the horses had been sold away, and all of the barns were empty. Only one horse remained, the girl's horse. She'd ridden him out during the auction, and made sure she stayed away from the farm until every person and horse was gone. When they returned, she lead her horse back into one of the barns. She settled in one stall, her horse in the stall next to that, and this is where they stayed.

Finally, the girl reached the remains of her farm. Since the fire, only three of the five beautiful barns remained standing. One of the barns had been damaged by the fire, and eventually collapsed. That had been the yearling barn, the other barn to fall was the barn where the mares were kept when not in foal, which had fallen during a storm. The two barns not in use were going to fall, they were just plain barns and she had no intentions on up-keeping them, but the barn she'd picked for herself and her horse was the finest barn of all.

It was not a big barn, but it was the most detailed. She compared it to the inside of the Opera Populaire, she'd been there once with her mother and father to see an opera. That was when she decided she'd wanted to be a dancer. She dreamed of being the best ballerina, and in her spare time she'd have her horse. Sadly, only a week later was when the fire happened. She wondered sometimes if that was fate saying, she was never to dance.

As she walked into the stallion barn she inhaled the sweet scents that still clung to the walls. She remembered the mighty stallions that had once inhabited these stalls. Only one horse was left, and though he was small, she knew he would have one day been here as well.

His pedigree was perfect, the finest mare and the finest stallion had been paired and he was the result. He'd been bred just for her, her mother gave him to her. She smiled as she approached his stall, he whinnied and stuck his nose over the door. Tenderly, she stroked his nose and held up the grass she'd picked for him. It had been raining lately, but she promised him when she weather cleared, she would lead him out for some good grazing time. "Good Night Cesar" she told him softly when he finished nibbling the grass out of her hand. She stretched and yawned before walking in the stall next to his and lying down in a pile of straw. She'd completely cleaned the stall, and moved whatever was salvageable from the house into her room. It wasn't really anything. Most of her things came from a small fort she kept in the foaling barn from when she had to keep watch. She pulled up a small blanket and closed her eyes, she decided if she closed her eyes and didn't open them, sleep would eventually come, and so it did.

When she woke up it was mid-afternoon and drizzling outside. She lay in the straw for a while, it was warm and she had no reason to get up anyways. Cesar's whinnying finally roused her. She stood and smoothed out her dress. It was her only dress, plain and white. Though looking at it now it didn't really look white, more of a very light brown. She tried to wash it, but living in a barn didn't really help any.

She walked over to the end of the barn and measured out Cesar's grain. They were nearing the bottom of the barrel, but she knew her mother always had tons of food in all the barns. And since all the grain was the same, she simply got barrels from the other barns when she ran out. She'd made sure to empty the mare and yearling barns before their collapse, but since the mare's barn had been sudden, she had lost a couple barrels in the wreckage.

She placed the grain in Cesar's food bucket and he ate it up hungrily. His water was halfway empty, she would fill it when it was all the way empty, or right before she went to the city to find more food. She climbed up onto the coal black stallion's back and lay down, listening to the horse munching on his food. She began thinking of the opera house again.

Smiling, she climbed from the black stallion's back and out into the isle of the barn. "Watch this Cesar" she said, she rolled up onto the balls of her feet and spun around. Her horse nickered to her before dipping his head down and grabbing another mouthful of grain "Yes, I have been practicing. I'll practice more, cause I think I'm supposed to be on my tip toes when I do it" she told him. The small stallion lifted his head and flickered his ears in response.

The rest of her day was spent dancing up and down the isle of the barn. She felt like she was in the Opera Populaire, the barn was beautiful, just like the opera house. She finally went into her stall and fell into her mound of straw "When I go to Paris today, I'll go near the opera house, just for a peek" she told Cesar. He snorted "Don't worry, I'll be fine!" she told him playfully.

The girl stood up and combed her fingers through her hair before going over and filling Cesar's food and water buckets "Just in case I don't come back until tomorrow" she told him. He tossed his head in understanding. Quietly she stroked his neck and kissed his nose "I'll be back as soon as I can, I promise" she told him.

She closed and latched his stall door shut before leaving the barn. Silently, she began heading towards Paris again, hopefully for some food, but more importantly, to see the opera house one last time.