Mask

A short story written for a contest which required certain words (underlined) to be used.

            Roman hid behind the door, carefully putting his ear near the crack. On the other side, he could just barely hear the sound of a man's voice.

            “Masks... Halloween... Perfect... Costumes...” said the muffled voice.

            Roman smiled. He knew he would find something good in one of these abandoned warehouses. He listened harder as he strained to hear. To his delight, he soon heard the sounds of footsteps retreating until they disappeared with a bang of a faraway door. Quietly, the boy opened the door and inspected the interior. The ground and shelves were littered with varying sizes of trash. There was no sign of the man he had overheard.

            Growing more courageous, he stepped in the warehouse and looked around. To the far left of him was a large machine. He walked over to it and inspected the controls. Finding the switch, he flipped it and crossed his fingers that it wouldn't be loud. Luckily for him, the machine produced a low hum, but it wasn't loud enough that he would get caught. Working quickly, he sifted through the commands on the keyboard and selected what he wanted. Two minutes later, he had a dozen masks in his hand.

            Just as he was deciding whether to make more, he heard the sound of a far off door creaking open. Heart beating fast, he quickly left the warehouse, forgetting to turn off the machine in his haste. Just as he disappeared outside, the man from earlier returned, looking through several papers in his hands as he approached the machine. By chance, he looked up at the machine and happened to see the lights flashing which meant it was turned on. The man's face drained of all color as the papers fell through his suddenly lax hands.

*                                  *                                  *

            Roman watched as people filed through the door, or, should he say, creatures. As it was a costume party, everyone was dressed up as one thing or another. Mummies, werewolves, vampires, angels and more were slowly gathering in his 'haunted' house. Roman himself was wearing a costume he had put together himself. This year he had decided to become a butler. He wore a fancy looking black suit with matching black dress shoes. He slicked his normally messy hair back and even went to the trouble of carrying a silver plate around with a fake glass of wine glued to it. Altogether, he felt pretty proud of how well he was able to pull it off.

            Once everyone had arrived, they would have a spectacular costume contest. The prizes for this contest were the masks Roman had 'found'. Of course, as the host, he wasn't allowed to participate in the contest, so he reserved a mask for himself. He'd have to wait for the end of the contest though, so he couldn't wait.

            He looked over at his sister Emily, or Em for short. Though she initially refused to wear a costume, Roman had pestered her until she gave in. Since she didn't have any ideas herself about what she should be, Roman had suggested getting a costume to match his. This lead to a whole new argument between the two, but in the end, Roman won. Now Em was dressed as a maid to go with his butler costume. She had on a slightly frilly black dress with an equally frilly white apron. For her legs, she had tall black and white stockings and pretty black heeled shoes. To top it off, she had her hair pulled up into curly pigtails, held tight by ribbons. Add in a little feather duster and her maid costume was complete.

            Right now his maid sister was busy filing each participant's name and costume into each category for the judges. He had a mask for her too, but he wanted to surprise her. He had the perfect mask for her. Despite wanting to run into his room where his mask lay, he contented himself to continue watching his guests walk through the door.

*                                  *                                  *

            “Let's give a round of applause for the winners of this year's costume contest! Thank you all for participating and enjoy the rest of the night. And don't forget to grab your prize on your way back to the crowd!” one of the judges announced.

            Em couldn't believe the people who had entered the contest. They were all so amazing. She had never seen costumes so well made and so elaborate. They had been hosting this contest for several years now, but this one topped all of them. Now the winners looked even more impressive wearing the masks Roman had brought.

            Speaking of Roman, she hadn't seen him since they had announced the last winner. He had probably ran into his room to grab the mask he had saved. The thought made her chuckle. She had been really surprised when he suddenly exploded into the living room earlier, arms full of masks.

            “And where were you? I'm almost finished with the decorations and you haven't even done anything yet,” she had said, hands on her hips as she stared him down. This question seemed to frequently worm its way into many of their arguments.

            “I got the prizes for the contest tonight,” he had replied, showing her the masks.

            “Where did you get those?” The masks were unlike any she had ever seen, no way did he get it from any store around here.

            “I...made them,” he had said, and refused to say anything more.

            Em was so focused on her thoughts that she didn't even notice the hand reaching toward her from behind.

*                                  *                                  *

            “And our winner for the scariest costume goes to Anthony Barnes who was the most favorable by far. Congratulations for scaring all of our judges into picking you.”

            As soon as Roman heard the last winner's name called, he rushed up the stairs. He could no longer wait. Opening his door, he saw his mask laying on his desk. It was fairly simple. It was just a white mask with a large smile. The perfect mask for a butler who always had to smile for the guests of his lord. Without hesitation, he ran over to it and picked up the mask. As he wondered how such a mask could stay on a person's face without tying it or having any kind of skin glue, he pressed it to his face. As soon as it touched his skin, a wave seemed to move through the mask and he felt a tightening in places as if it was adjusting to his face. As he looked at his reflection on the small mirror he owned, everything seemed to darken slightly as a sort of fuzziness consumed his thoughts.

*                                  *                                  *

            Em nearly screamed as something grabbed onto her arm. Whirling around, she turned to face her 'attacker'. To her surprise, she saw a young adult, probably somewhere in his twenties standing before her, though only teenagers had been invited to the party. Not only that, but he wasn't even dressed up.

            “Might you be the host of this party?” he asked, over formally.

            “My brother and I, yes. What is it?” Em asked, suspicious.

            “I had heard that the prizes for your costume contest were special masks, is that correct?”

            Now Em was really suspicious, the man wasn't even dressed up, so what was he getting at? “Sorry, but the contest is over. All the prizes have been handed out.”

            His eyes seemed to grow wide with fear. “No... no! Those masks aren't supposed to be worn. You must make your guests take them off quickly!”

            Em didn't understand what he was saying. “I can't just take them away after we gave them out. And what do you mean, ‘they aren't supposed to be worn'?”

            The man huffed in annoyance as he looked around behind Em. “Come this way,” he said, grabbing her by the arm and towing her towards a group of people talking in a corner.

            In the middle was a girl wearing a white, flowing dress with large white feathered wings and a halo above her head. She was one of the contest winners, so she also had a feathery white mask that matched her costume. Beside her was a boy dressed as a devil. He had a red suit on with the trademark red tail and horns. On the angel's other side was another girl wearing a witch costume. She wore a tattered black dress with an old looking cape over her shoulders. Her messy hair was mostly covered by a large, pointed black hat which was tipped forward just enough to cover part of her face. To top it off, she carried an old broomstick in her right hand and for some reason, was barefoot.

            The man dragged Em right up to the three of them. When he got to them, he let of of Em's arm and started to speak to the angel girl.

            “Excuse me, but your mask looks simply exquisite, may I take a look at it up close?” the man asked the girl.

            The angel girl frowned. “I don't wanna,” she wined, turning her back on the man. “You can't make me.”

            “Don't be mean,” the devil boy next to her said. As he went to grab the mask, the girl turned away again refusing to allow him to touch it.

            “Mine,” she said.

            Frowning, the boy grabbed her shoulder to keep her from moving away again and started pulling at the mask. He kept at it for another couple of seconds, then turned back around to the others waiting, his frown getting deeper as he said, “It won't come off.”

            “Don't be silly,” the witch girl said and joined him in pulling the mask off. Between the two of them, despite the angel girl's struggles, they managed to slowly pull it off of her face. When it was fully off, the mask curled upon itself and crumpled in the boy's hands. A one use only mask apparently.

            To their horror, underneath where the mask had sat on her skin was all red and was even bleeding in several places. The mask had taken some of her skin with it. After the mask had been pulled off her face, her glass-like eyes had cleared. When she looked at her friend's faces and felt the pain on her own face, she took a small mirror from her pocket. When she saw what had become of her face, she screamed and ran out of the room and probably to the bathroom.

            Her screams alerted the rest of the teenagers in the crowd. They watched in fear as the angel girl, with tears flowing down her bloody face, ran by. Taking this opportunity, the man stood up upon the stage that had been set up for the contest.

            Making sure he had everyone's attention, he yelled out loud enough for all to hear, “For all those who received masks tonight, please hurry up and take them off. These masks weren't meant for your face. They must be taken off now or they will never be able to be removed from your skin.”

            Though many still stared at him in confusion despite seeing the angel girl for themselves, some turned and began to try to peel off the masks. Some refused to remove it like the angel girl, while others worked on it themselves. A couple masks came off relatively easily, though the people's faces were still red. Others had much more trouble, their reactions becoming more frantic as the masks continued to refuse to yield to the people's attacks. As more of these difficulties arose, those who hadn't believed in the man's claims began to peel the masks off as well.

            Finally, the last of the masks were removed. Throughout the room, the other nine people who had been wearing masks showed varying injuries. Some had only mild redness, while other's faces were bloody and raw from the masks refusing to come off. As soon as they were removed, the masks all shriveled up like the first.

            With the hysterics gone with the destruction of the last mask, everybody all slouched into chairs, against the walls, or on the floor tiredly. Without the fear to motivate everyone, they were all just tired teenagers. They didn't feel like partying anymore, nor did they have the energy to leave. They were all in a state of tired shock. Em retreated with the young man to another room so they could talk alone.

            “What was that?” Em asked angrily when they were alone. “What were they?”

            “To be honest, I don't know myself,” the man replied, dejected.

            “But, they were yours right? That's how you knew about them.”

            “Not really, I found it a little while ago while doing inventory for the warehouse because it was going to be cleared out to be used again. I had only just found out earlier what they really were.”

            'But I still don't understand what they are,” Em said, frowning as she crossed her arms.

            The man sighed. “From the looks of it, they're supposed to be permanent masks. They would mold to your face within an hour and become your face itself. I don't know why anyone would make that kind of machine though.”

            “Maybe it was for a circus act or something,” Em shrugged. “But if they're so dangerous, why didn't you stop Roman from taking...” At the thought of her brother, she remembered that he had a mask for himself too. Leaving the man, bewildered at her sudden departure in the middle of her conversation, she ran past the recovering guests and up the stairs.

*                                  *                                  *

            Roman was crouching over the last mask, wondering if he should give it to Em now, when he heard footsteps and his door being thrown open. Turning to see Em in the doorway, he picked the mask off the floor. It was a pretty mask, similar to his, but shinier and more feminine.

            “Here, I have one for you too,” he said, almost emotionless.

            Em smacked the mask out of his hand. As he looked at Em in astonishment, she said, “There's no time for that. We need to remove that mask now.” She tried to pull at it, but Roman's clouded mind couldn't comprehend what she was saying.

            “Why do I have to take it off?” he said, annoyance pushing through his dulled emotions.

            “I can't explain right now, we're running out of time.” Em replied and renewed her efforts to remove the mask.

            Roman tried to object to her actions, but she only kept telling him to remove it as she grabbed at the mask. Left with no choice but to do as she said, he began to pull at it as well. Despite everything they did, the mask refused to come off. As Roman's mind finally began to clear, his serene attitude from before melted away into a deep fear.

            The mask couldn't be taken off.