The Mask

The Mask

He stared at the mirror as he grabbed hold of the sink to steady himself.  His naked body shivered in the cold as his legs bent against his will.  In the mirror he saw a white mask.  Black hollows instead of eyes and a maniacal grin spreading across the width of the mask.  It stared back at him in silence, unnerving, unsettling… and still in grinned, silent, unmoving as if waiting for something.

Shakily, he leaned on one arm as he raised his other hand towards the black, grinning lips of the mask.  They were cold.  He felt an icy shiver run up his arm as his fingers touched the black lips.  His heart started racing as his fingertips explored the surface of the mask.  They started hurting from the cold and became stiff.

He felt a quick rush of panic in his chest.  He fell on the floor and he reached and grabbed the mask with both hands.  He tried to pull it off but it didn’t budge.  Panicking, his hands feverishly ran up and down the mask feeling its sides in search of whatever was keeping hold of it.  The edges of the mask touched his skin seamlessly all around, as if it had been custom made for his features.  With his finger tips now throbbing from the intense cold, he fiercely yanked at the mask in a desperate attempt to pull it off.  He felt as if he was trying to rip his own skin off.  He continued in a feverish trance repeatedly trying to remove the mask by grabbing hold in different places and pulling with all his strength.  His fingertips started bleeding.  In a final, desperate attempt he pulled with all his might grabbing the mask at the sides of his temple as he screamed.

‘Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh…aaaah…

haaaa……haaa…haa…ha… haha…hahahahaha!’

He froze as the scream turned to laughter, a cold shiver running through his spine.  He could hear himself laugh, but he was not laughing.  He was crying in despair… but instead it was laughter he heard.  He lay still on the floor as his mind raced.  His thoughts were inarticulate, confused.  But in the midst of the anxiety there was something else, something alien…  As if someone, or something, lurked inside his head, just outside the reach of his thoughts, but allowing its presence to be felt.  It was like the feeling someone was looking at you behind your back.  It was unsettling… It was more than unsettling, it was disturbing…

He slowly steadied himself as he tried to stand once again.  His fingers were throbbing but his legs seemed to be his once more.  He felt fear as he slowly turned to look at the mirror again.  The mask stared at him.  Not as a reflection, but as someone else looking at him mockingly.  A tiny red dot now lit each hollow eye.  Somehow it seemed alive.

He was afraid.  He stared away as he moved into the bedroom and searched for the door.  He ran towards it and without a second thought pulled the handle and ran outside…

The glare blinded him for a few seconds.  As his eyes got used to the brightness, he found himself in the middle of a busy street.  There were people all around him.  They were naked.  He suddenly realised that he too was still naked.  He hunched over slightly as he covered his groin with a hand while he reached for the door behind him with the other hand… but the door wasn’t there.  Instead he bumped into someone who was passing behind him.  The person stopped and his head turned towards him.  He was wearing a mask.  White, with three concentric black circles and a black hole in the middle, only lit by a tiny red dot.  It seemed to look at him as he stared back in confusion.  Someone else stopped besides him.  He turned to look at him and he saw another mask.  This one completely white, with only two downturned halfmoons instead of eyes.  He looked around and realisation hit him as he noticed that everyone around him was wearing a mask.

He tried to say ‘help me.’

‘Hello!’  he heard the mask say.  No one was moving anymore.  People were just standing there, turning one at a time to face him.  He looked around in confusion and said ‘help me’ once again

‘I am happy!’

…

‘Help me!  Help me, Fucking hell, HELP ME!’

‘You look great, so nice to meet you, let’s have fun together!’

He started crying in despair, but all he could hear was his mask giggling.  Everything looked a blood red tinge now.  He tried to close his eyes but he could not. He looked down at his body and noticed he was shivering violently.  He was shaking so much that his legs seemed to dance as they wobbled from side to side.  His skin glistened with sweat as thick droplets slowly dripped down his chest and legs.

‘Hello!’ Someone said

‘Hello!’ Another voice said

‘Let’s Party!’

‘I’m so happy!’

As he looked up he suddenly realised he was surrounded by people wearing masks.  All different, all naked just like him.  Some were trembling, sweating profusely like him.  Others were just standing there, in perfect stillness and yet others slowly walking towards him.

‘I’m so happy… I’m sooo haappy… sooooo haaaappy…’

‘Help me…’