Mystery of masquerade

It started as an ordinary day until I saw an envelope underneath the door on my way to work. The envelope was glittering gold with a card inside. The words were written in red in an elegant font and edges defined in silver. It was an invitation of a masquerade ball by my new neighbors next door on up-coming  Sunday night. The envelop came with a wine red mask with black long feathers in the edge. I was really interested and curious about the ball.

Next Sunday night arrived late. I wore a white silk gown with icy white heels and kept my long black hair open. And at last put on the red mask which covered my emerald eyes and cheeks like the wings of a butterfly.  When I reached the  front door it was opened and decorated with golden and silver laces. It looked like I was entering into a castle. The inside was beaming with gowns and glitters. People wearing mask everywhere. Red, green, blue, yellow, black every color one could imagine. Looked like  a palette poring its color. Velvet curtains covering the windows and candelabra was lit giving a medieval castle look inside. I looked around. Mrs. smith was dancing her heart away with all her unwanted fat. Mr. Evans were chatting with a bunch of stranger. There were some other people whom I recognized even with the mask on.

Though it was mid-summer but the inside was comfortable. A melody started to play, people took their partner and started to sway with the music. The shadows casting on the walls danced with one another. But I stood there, didn't know what to do.

A stranger's silhouette approached me from the crowd and rescued me from all the confusion. He wore a black coat and white shirt with a navy blue mask on. He didn't even have to ask, just extended his right hand and I knew the question along with the answer. He led me within the shifting figures and stood just under the candelabra. Putting his one hand over my waist and another in my hand, he took the first step. I never stood so close with a stranger before let along with a mask on. So close that I could almost feel the heartbeat and sighs harmonized. I shivered as the sighs touch my bare shoulder.  All the whispers disappeared and the vicinity changed.  The orchestra started playing another tune. An unknown melody but it seemed like the stranger knew all the notes and guiding me through all the steps. It was a slow waltz. After each steps I was on a flight and travelling through time. A little ballerina flourished within me and took her first steps, flawlessly. Like the routine was practiced over and over again. My white gown fluttered as I circled him like I was casting a ice spell all over. For the first time I looked in his eyes. It was bluest of the blue, a smirk at the angle of the mouth and his messy, untamed brown hair played along with his steps. Steps after steps. I felt like I was writing my own symphony, telling  a story. The steps were the quill and the melody was the words.

There were no words exchanged. None. The music did all the talking and we communicate through the steps . It changed and changed but our rhythm remained unchanged.  Our fingers entwined and our feet synchronized. I was a white swan and he was a dark raven. The light and the dark has collided in that very room. We twirled, swirled and spun as we were in a race against time. The hands of the clock went faster than our steps. Then the clock struck twelve and announcing the arrival of midnight. The melody changed in to a melancholy one. Like it was a farewell letter of mine. I knew that the tale has come to an end. I wanted to look in his eyes in the flickering light of candelabra and wanted to know all his mysteries. But before I could, he embraced me with the deepest affection and left me speechless. Then I felt his rough cheek brushed against mine and his fingers leaving mine. And the stranger got lost in the crowd like a mystery unsolved.



Next day, I overslept and was late for the office. While working I looked across the room and I saw those familiar deep blue eyes with brown hair, smiling at me. And thus the mystery of the masquerade was solved.