The Masquerade House
In the darkened woods, there sits a house which everyone is too scared of to go near as they believe it’s haunted and dangerous but no-one knows that I own that house.
I bought it some years ago through an auction and I’ve been going back and forwards to the house every now and again when it suits me.
Tonight is no different as midnight now approaches and I wonder in the pitch black towards the house, I pull my jacket closer to my face as the wind bites at my skin, I slowly walk up the dirt road with some difficulty.
I only have the moonlight to guide me along the lonesome road but I’m only travelling to the house to collect something.
I finally reach a small clearing and I can spot the ramshackle house in the distance with ease despite the fact it has tree’s surrounding the entire house, engulfing it in darkness.
The house is small in size but it’s perfect for my purposes, it’s made out of blackened wood so it looks like cabin to most people and the windows have been boarded up through time by me.
Upon reaching the door, I reach into my jacket pocket and pull out a slender but old fashioned iron key which has also been stained black.
Once I’ve unlocked the door, it push my hand lightly to the wooden frame and it opens with a creak at my touch and I step into the darkness.
I place my hand against the wall and I feel my way across the room until I reach the top where there is a tall lamp.
Despite the fact that I’ve been coming here when I wish, I always stumble into the lamp and fumble as I try to find the switch but eventually I flick the switch and the lamp flare into life.
I start to blink away the green dots that appear before my eyes and I venture to the door and close it despite the fact that I know no-one will know what I do here.
With the door now closed, I stare at the room and sigh.
Despite the black wood lining the walls and the lamp as the only piece of furniture, the room would have felt homely but the masks on the wall, tell a different story.
Each mask is different from the last as each portrays a different emotion or persona that I made with own two hands and I can adapt to each of the masks easily.
I scan the walls and find the mask that I came here to collect in the first place.
The mask is pale but has a creamy texture like skin, the mask has no emotion, just a persona, a persona of a dead-man.
Well dead is an exaggeration, the man has never existed in the real world but he doesn’t have to be real for the magic to work.
I take the mask of the wall and carry it in my hands with some sentiment and care, this mask is by far, my favourite as it’s my own creation that manifested itself from my imagination.
I put the lamp off and take one last look around the room in its darkened state before I leave out the same door in which I entered.
Before I leave the house, I notice that the night feels less cool than it was when I first arrived, I lock the door and place the key back into my jacket pocket.
I begin my journey down the dirt path however as I do so, I can’t resist the pull of the magic of the masks power, I can’t resist changing into someone else.
I press the mask to my face and for an all too brief moment the world spins in a vicious black circle but soon the persona takes control.
I am no longer myself, despite the fact that I’ve still got my jacket on but I am now Edward Hyde, I am a monster.
I am confident and charming.
I am flesh and blood, a living breathing person.
But for one night, I am no longer a villain hiding in the shadows.
I will do justice with my cane.
For one lonesome night, I will make the world remember my name.
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