Adriana rubbed her grey eyes tiredly. The tic below her left eye would not stop plaguing her, Exam stress, she thought resignedly, glancing again at the half-completed chemistry practice exam spread before her. Try as she might, question seven would not give up its secrets, and the fact that she had gone through this question's exact twin only a few hours earlier that day gave her an immense feeling of pent up frustration. She shoved her chair back and sighed, giving the damned paper a look of disgust.

Ugh, she hated Ka questions anyway. The silence of the house was irritating. The rest of the family was out for tea, her three brats of brothers and over interested parents finally leaving her in peace, a peace that for once did nothing to assuage her grumpiness. And it was grumpiness, she was forced to admit, no "out of sorts" or mild misdemeanour" for her, the words she usually adored were nowhere to be found, even writing couldn't take her mind out of this dreary world at the moment. Adriana groaned, she needed music.

Kneeling by her CD rack she ran her fingers along the various artists and burnt copies. "Eenie meanie, minie mo." She hummed, fingers pausing on her favourites. The Phantom of the Opera. A grin stole over her face as she looked at the four different recordings. Original London Cast, Movie Edition, Special Movie Edition, and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Greatest Hits. Plus the DVD tucked into the drawer beneath the TV. Her grin widened, Why not?

Slipping four selections into her jumper pockets, Adriana made a quick deposit tour of the house. The normal edition in her own CD player, Greatest Hits in her brothers DVD player, London Cast in her parents alarm CD player, Special Edition in the kitchen radio, and finally, the movie, complete with the dreamy Gerald Butler, in the TV DVD player.

Now, this would take careful timing. Rather than running around, stopping and starting 5 different discs, Adriana decided to let one song play, and begin the next disc when the second song started. She had just started the first CD in her room, when a flash of gold above her bed caught her eye. The fabulous gold, white, purple and black masquerade masque direct from Venice seemed to watch her from its vantage point. She sighed, she loved that masque, her aunt had given it to her as a gift on her 18th birthday, and she couldn't get enough of its mysterious curves and brilliant touches. She was an addict of beautiful things. Art, painting, dance and, above all else, music, she loved the soaring heights that a full orchestra offered, played with passion and soul-ache in every note.

With a giggle of delight, she leapt up onto the bed, carefully untying the masque from its holding place she pulled her hair back and admired the effect of the masque on her face in the mirror, then frowned. True, she was wearing a Phantom of the Opera themed T-shirt, and jeans that made her look slimmer than her real size 12-14, but it only made her look like a child playing dress-ups, this masque needed something extra to go with it.

Turning, her gaze fell on a picture of her at the ball last year. Her black and white dress made her look like she owned the stage. And not three metres away hung the dress and all its entourage in her wardrobe. Adriana chuckled wickedly, I've gone this far, she thought. Why not really make it worthwhile? Besides, she wanted to see if the dress still fit.

Quickly ducking out to get her brothers DVD player started on "Think of me"

Adriana rushed to her room for her dress, stripping down to nothing but her underwear she shuddered with voluptuous delight at the smooth black satin sliding over her skin. She replaced her dragon earrings with pearl drops, and her Celtic pewter cross with a pearl and velvet choker, her hair went back in a low Spanish bun, encased in a pearl clip-net, and she pulled elbow length white gloves over her now ring-less hands, wincing as the fine threads got caught on the red rash that ruined her palms. No matter what she did, it refused to go away. Lifting her skirt to run and hit play on the player in her parent's room, she ran back to her room, humming "Angel of Music" and slipping her feet into sexy little black strappy heels. Normally she went barefoot, but the dress length required a little extra height. Stopping, Adriana admired the effect in the mirror, the white bust dropped into form-fitting black satin that gave her a tiny waist (from the side anyway). Twirling on her toes, Adriana took up her mask and walked into the kitchen/lounge, tying the mask as she went to start the kitchen radio with the "Phantom of the Opera" on Special Edition. Turning to the time of the music, and letting the voices of Gerald Butler, Michael Crawford, and Timothy…oh hell she forgot his last name wash over, Adriana nearly went crashing into a six-foot tall, cloth-covered object. Perturbed, she stared at it, she must have walked straight past the thing, not that she wasn't as vague as hell sometimes, but the mask didn't blind her for God's sake. Stripping off her right glove, she reached up and pulled off the coarse sack covering. As a cloud of dust rose at her feet and settled on the hem of her dress, Adriana stared in wonder at the mirror before her. Edged in gold leaf, and grimy with age, it was an imposing figure. Not sure why, Adriana grabbed a cloth and slowly swept the rag over the dirt encrusted glass, still with the Phantom of the Opera wrapped around her thoughts. The wide sweep left a smooth, clean swipe on the mirror, and the sight of herself, still dressed in shoes, gown, jewellery and masque gave her a start.

Gently she pushed on the glass. To her astonishment, the mirror slid to one side, but instead of the brick encased oven she should have seen, a dark black tunnel beckoned her forward. She turned and looked at the TV, glimpsing the Phantom leading Christine down the candle-filled hallway, then returned her gaze to the mirror. It couldn't possibly…

"No way," she murmured, stretching one hesitant hand through the frame-way. Straightening her shoulders, Adriana pulled on her other glove and stepped determinedly through the mirror and into the realm of the Phantom.

Turning back to look into the kitchen she shrieked.

"Aagh!" her exact double stood in the kitchen watching her with a shocked expression.

"Uh, hi," the double said, waving a gloved hand, Adriana blinked,

"Hi, um, this is incredibly stupid, but who are you? Apart from being me I mean,"

The double grinned, "I'm a plot device, I'm here to take care of things for a while," Adriana processed this information, "Ah, well, ok then, thanks."

"No problem," the double laughed, "Now we could get into a big discussion on this but the story really needs to hurry along a little, so I'll go do chemistry and you can go play with the Phantom."

"Sounds good to me," with that, Adriana curtseyed to her double and turning dramatically, stepped through the shadows