Phantom

"Turn your thoughts away from cold, unfeeling light
and listen to the music of the night."
Andrew Lloyd Webber - Music of the Night.

The music stopped.
The shrill monotone resumed, unceasing.
The Phantom, hands trembling, stood unmasked.
The facade, fallen
(should've known, most man-made things don't endure).

Alas, he realized --
the mask was never to hide behind
but to practice apathy.
Recalling his boundless cruelty,
he wept.

"A lack of empathy is an acute failure of the imagination."