[BROOKE]
(to ZEKE) Ok. Put on your listening ears for five minutes. Got them on? Good. Now just listen

(We see the story play out upstage as BROOKE begins to tell it.)

[BROOKE]
Long ago, there lived a man
His name was Carlo, and he ran
An ancient theater where his daughter was the star

With me?

[ZEKE]
Karla's the star, yeah

[BROOKE]
No! His daughter's name is
Esmerelda, and she's famous
People come to hear her sing from near and far

[ZEKE]
Got it

[BROOKE]
Good

Now, there's a rumor going round
That in the tunnels underground
Thеre lives…

[ZEKE]
Wait, I know, can I guess?

[BROOKE]
Surе, if you can

[ZEKE]
A mysterious phantom! Me! Right?
[BROOKE]
Right, well, mostly
But the twist is that this ghostly
Evil presence isn't monster, but man

Now, this man had been blessed
With a gift he possessed:
Musical talents completely unmatched

But, as you often will find
In epic tales of this kind
This gift came with a curse attached:

A face that was hideous
And so jarring
He wore a mask to cover all the scarring

[ZEKE]
Cool!

[BROOKE]
And lived underground inside a hole

[ZEKE]
Wait, a hole? Why a hole?
[BROOKE]
All his life, he'd been tormented, teased, and taunted
But now his hunters would become the haunted
The world that always made him feel unwanted would hear the toll:
The sounds of a tortured soul

[ZEKE]
Ok, so I was born with a lightning scar, got it

[BROOKE]
No, no. Your typical, everyday scar

[ZEKE]
Ohh, Scar like Lion King!

[BROOKE]
You know, you are actually the worst. Listen up, you're gonna need to know this

[BROOKE]
One day at his piano
Distant sounds of a soprano
Drifted towards him from the theater above

[ZEKE]
K, so this hole has a piano?

[BROOKE]
(ignoring him)
Sweeter than a bird
In all his life he'd never heard
A sound like this, and he was instantly in love

The voice, of course, was Carlo's daughter
And the Phantom went and sought her
To become his secret student, and his muse

And if you think she found this oh-so-
Enigmatic virtuoso
Kinda creepy, then I've got some shocking news:

Because she fell, and fell hard
He was battered and scarred
But she could see that inside, there was more

Something alluring, she'd find
In the sadness behind
That terrifying mask he wore

[ZEKE]
Wait a minute, I'm your boyfriend? Are we gonna have to kiss? That's gross, you're like my sister

[BROOKE]
Zeke, it's called acting

And though he was hideous
And she was perfection
Through music, they found their connection
A bond beyond their own control

[ZEKE]
You better not get sick, I am NOT kissing Tina!

[BROOKE]
And though his face tormented her and chilled her
His compositions haunted her and thrilled her
His mesmerizing melodies fulfilled her, made her whole…
The sounds of a tortured soul

[ZEKE]
She was beautiful, and he was hideous…ok so this IS Beauty and the Beast?

[BROOKE]
Zeke, less talking. More listening. 'Cause here's where it gets interesting

[BROOKE]
Ezzy has another man, some
Guy named Raoul who's tall and handsome
And not all that pleased about her latest beau

[ZEKE]
Ah, always a triangle

[BROOKE]
Angrily, Raoul tracks him
To his lair, where he attacks him
And they battle in the passageway below

[ZEKE]
Awesome!

[BROOKE]
And when he took his last breath
The Phantom welcomed his death;
He'd rather die than live apart

When it was over and done
Raoul had killed him—he'd won
But he'd lost Esmerelda's heart

'Cause though he was pretty, yes
And a keeper
The Phantom's love was so much deeper
A loss that nothing could console

No more, she'd see that face that once had chilled her
No more, she'd hear that music that fulfilled her
And people say that that's the thing that killed her, on the whole

She ran away and was never seen again. But get this:

When they returned to find the Phantom and unmask it
They never found a body for the casket
They say he had, depending who you ask it, one last goal…

[ZEKE]
One last goal?

[BROOKE]
To this day, inside that theater, or near it
If you listen very closely, you can hear it:
The songs of a tortured spirit's final role
The sounds of a tortured soul

That's the basic plot, anyway

[ZEKE]
So it's about a person who died at a theater and then haunts it forever?

[BROOKE]
Yes

[ZEKE]
Brooke! That's just like the story Ms. Walker told! This play is just like the story of our school. That is so… meta. Man