Monochrome Masquerade

The scene starts off in the flat to a traditional office building; little gray cubicals splitting the room in half; while at the left side of the room (When seen at the door) has three one-sided mirrors which are said to have the director, secretary, and manager's offices behind them. At the end of the flat, there is a long stretch of glass windows that reveal the view of the city around; below having an eighteen-story drop. The entire place was deserted except for the last row of lights which shone especially on a single cubical: Inside a woman, looking to be about mid-twenties is staring at the computer screen, fingers flaring across the keyboard.

The woman sighs, leaning back in her black swivel chair, and staring at her work. "This is enough for today..." She states tiredly.

She draws her hands over her head and breaks into an enormous yawn. She turns around, and quickly piles her things together in a small black bag; basically shoving the papers in that she was too tired to organize. On her way out, she checks her watch. It's 10:35pm. Work ended over three hours ago.

She heard the door close slowly behind her; her shoulder still burning slightly from when she unintentionally slammed into it a bit too hard while staring at her watch. She casually made her way to the elevator, and calmly pressed the main button.

She rocked back on her heels, listening to its 'dinging' as the elevator slowly made its way through the empty building, and to the floor she was standing on.

The elevator finally reached her, and opened slowly; its old doors slowly retracting into the walls.

She stepped inside casually; jumping slightly when the elevator doors slammed shut behind her at an abnormally fast snap.

She looked around the small room; feeling the elevator drop the stories. Her gaze scanned the several reflections of herself in the room. Four on the mirrors that lined each wall, and four blurred, and smeared ones that were on the rail. She never was a big fan of mirrors; they scared her for some reason. She always had the strangest fear that she'd one day see something else in her reflection with her, even when she was alone.

Shaking the thought away, she swiftly made her way from the building, and checking out by using her employee card which gave her access to the entrance and general floor openings.

Being entirely aware that a woman should not be walking city streets at night alone, she was on extra precaution, and held her bag tightly against her side. She noticed the tall shadow of a man before her; he had a dark black hoodie, baggy black jeans, black shoes, and shaggy brown hair that jutted from his hood. His face was hidden by the shadows that were cast from his overdrawn hood. She accidentally bumped shoulders with him; but as she past, she could have swore she saw him grinning with sets of sharp, nubby teeth.

He kept walking like nothing happened.

She watched him a moment before blinking it away and heading to her apartment.

She twisted the key in the lock, hearing it relieve, and turned the knob. She tiredly tossed her bag onto the couch, and went straight to the refrigerator; her stomach endlessly reminding her of her hunger by groaning like a dying animal. She hurriedly grabbed some left over Mac n' Cheese, and closed the fridge door.

She was about to close the fridge when she noticed a little sticky note on the door. She paused, using her fingers to scoop up some of the Mac n' Cheese while reading the note.

"Check the phone."

How odd. Maybe she'd put it there without thinking...out of morbid curiosity, she went to check the phone. There was a red blinking dot which meant she had a viocemail. She hastily pressed play.

"Aidry, you have ONE unheard message. First unheard message:"

The noise was static for a long period of time with nothing but the sound of someone breathing on the other line. After about twenty seconds or so, a hushed voice of a man spoke "I can see you." Was all it said, then went static again, then ended.

Aidry dropped her little box of food out of shock; her mouth drooped open in surprise.

"It has to be a prank..." She convinced herself, and began hastily cleaning up her mess. After she was done, she plopped down onto her bed, not even bothering about the covers. She draped one arm across her forehead, and store up at the ceiling. She couldn't get the message out of her head: "I can see you." But after a while of staring at the ceiling, she fell asleep.

Aidry awoke the next day in her clothes; remembering that she'd forgotten to change the previous night. She made a quick run to the bathroom, and stripped, stepping into the shower and running her fingers through her hair. She went blind for a moment as shampoo covered her face; and spat against the water that pounded against her mouth as she faced the faucet.

She heard something click against the ground just outside the shower.

Aidry froze "Hello?"

Another tick.

Aidry turned off the water. She could hear someone breathing; their breath was huffed and slow, as if breathing through cloth. Aidry wiped soap from her eyes, and squinted through the shower curtain. There was a shadow of a man standing outside her shower.

Aidry grabbed her towel and wrapped it around her body; still staring at the shadow, breathing sounds still going.

For some reason, she outstretched her arm, grabbed the curtain, and flung it aside. Nothing.

Only a set of muddy boot prints showed in the tile.

An alarm went off in the other room. "Shit!" She was going to be late for work!

Aidry quickly shoved on her work dress, and shoveled some oat meal in her mouth on her way to work; her business bag held ungraciously in her arm as she ate on the way.

A pain seared along Aidry's side as she accidentally bumped into a hooded boy with brown shaggy hair, black jeans, and black shoes.

"Sorry," She murmured as she past. He kept walking as if not caring--or not noticing.

Five minutes later and she was traveling through the express ride up to her work's flat, nervously rocking on the balls of feet, occasionally shooting nervous glances at her reflections. 'Ding'

Finally, her floor. She stepped out hastily, and entered the floor. The entire flat was filled with hurried people in their cubicals; paper flying in different directions: The sound of fax machines, and printers filling the air as well as paper as people sorted through, or shoved away their work.

Aidry calmly made herself to her own cubical; and quickly began going to work. Three endless hours of computer work later, she decided to take a coffee break.

Aidry stepped away from the computer; and made her way to the door, stepping into the hall. It was completely empty.

Aidry went over to a little plastic table that was sorted neatly against the wall; a small coffee machine, plastic cups, napkins, sugar, and tiny boxes of cream sprawled across.

As Aidry was filling her foam cup; the lights above her flickered, then died completely. Then the next set, and the next set, all the way until only the last set of lights at the end of the hall still remained. Someone was standing there. Watching her; a black hood pulled over his or her face.

Aidry felt a scorching pain on her hand; she looked down to see she'd accidentally moved her cup away, and was pouring boiling hot coffee onto the surface of her skin. "Fuck," She hissed, taking her hand away, and began toweling it off with a nearby napkin. When Aidry looked back over; the shadow was gone. The lights flickered a moment, and they all turned back on at once.

The elevator made a dinging noise; and Aidry immediately turned around to see the doors closing. She could only catch a glimpse of a hooded figure standing inside before the doors shut her away.

A bit startled, Aidry went back to work, and continued her endless job all day; once again being left the last person in. This time, she packed her stuff a bit quicker than normal, and left the room before anything had the chance to stop her. On the elevator ride; she kept her eyes nailed shut, and hummed a happy tune to herself nervously until she was at the bottom. Aidry swiftly made her way from the building, and was walking down the same sidewalk as always.

She spotted the hooded figure ahead of time this go around; and shuddered when they bumped shoulders. Something fell from her bag; but she didn't bother picking it up, only kept walking. Whence inside her apartment, she went to the fridge to have some quick dinner. She was frightened to see yet another note on the fridge. "Check the mirror." It said.

Aidry only had one mirror in the small apartment; the one in the bathroom. This was again due to her fear of mirrors. She swallowed her fear "It's only a prank." She said doubtfully, and entered her bathroom.

The entire bathroom was fogged up from the hot water that was blasting from the bath tub; left on by someone, yet not too long ago, for it wasn't completely full yet. She hastily looked towards the mirror.

There, written in the moisture was: "I'm watching."

"It's just a prank, It's just a prank, It's just a prank," She thought, cuffing her hands over her ears, as if trying to hold her head together. She flopped down on top of her bed blankets; not even bothering with them, and curled into a ball "It's just a prank...It's just a prank...It's just a prank..."

She awoke to the buzzard noise of her alarm clock.

Aidry lifted her lazy head from her pillow; wild strands of cream, brunette hair was stuck to her lower lip.

Her eyelids felt crazy heavy; she had no idea why she was so tired. She could taste the morning breath on her tongue, and decided she best get out of bed before she was late for work again. Deciding to skip the shower today, Aidry went to the bathroom to wash her face off.

Aidry splashed some cold water onto her face, wiping it away with her fingers. When she looked at her reflection, she saw a shadow standing by the bathroom door. Aidry screamed, and fell to the tile ground.

She looked behind her at the door...nothing.

Aidry was too jumpy to fix breakfast, and instead, she slipped on a blunt brown shirt, a tie, and a formal skirt, nabbed her bag, and raced out the door. Her heels thudded against the stairs as she made her way out of her apartments, and onto the street. She kept her head low, and covered her face with her hand as she skimmed to work. She felt someone bump into her shoulder, but she was far too afraid to look up.

On the elevator ride; Aidry store intensely at her reflection. It seemed blemished, and more smudged then usual. Her hair stuck up in odd directions due to the fact that she didn't brush it that morning. Aidry swiftly went to her cubical, and sat down. She rested her elbows on her desk, laced her fingers, and put her clotted hands to her mouth while staring blankly on her computer screen; too startled to work. At some point of time, she must have fallen asleep because she didn't wake up until it was far past work hours; and she was the only one left.

Aidry felt her arms shaking; her gut twisting from that odd feeling of 'being watched'. She grabbed her empty bag, and left to the elevator as quickly as she could. She thought she could see someone standing in the hallway down from her; but she ignored it, and pressed impatiently on the button to the elevator multiply times.

She entered with haste, and closed her eyes to avoid the reflections. There was music playing above her head. Old, scratchy music that sort of repeated the same tune over and over again.

She was relieved when the elevator ringed that the final floor had come. She swiped her card over the lock, and just as she exited the building, she could hear the elevator door ring as someone from another floor pressed for service. Even thought she KNEW she was the only one in the building.

Aidry was ready for the man as she passed him on the street, yet this time, she swerved her shoulder out of the way. He stopped walking, and just stood there in complete silence. Aidry walked as quickly as she could to her apartment. She nervously filed through her keys; accidentally dropping them due to her extreme shaking hands. "Damn it," She growled, bending over to retrieve them. She shoved the correct key in the lock; and listened to the lock click free, and stepped inside.

She was greeted by an eerie cold draft; as if foreshadowing some near doom. Aidry set her bag down carefully on the counter; and eyed the living room from the kitchen; her gaze occasionally looking out the huge window at the end of the living room.

Aidry swallowed, and went to the refrigerator, and pretended to look for something to eat.

She felt like someone was breathing down the back of her neck.

Aidry closed the fridge; and looked at the little yellow note. "I'm right behind you."

Aidry turned around slowly; her back brushed something as she did so. She had her eyes shut tight to avoid having to see whatever was in front of her. She could feel hot breath on her face; and tears began to form in her eyes. Without realizing it, she was full-on crying. She slowly opened her gray-blue eyes, and found herself staring into a set of deep-blue eyes. There was a man standing in front of her who looked to be about early twenties; he had a black hood pulled over his head, causing his dark brown hair to jut from the top, and shadow his already dark eyes. His mouth, and chin was covered by a black bandanna.

Aidry breathed heavily when he didn't move, glancing down nervously to see a steak knife held firmly in one of his fisted hands. She locked gazes with him for a moment, the moment seemed to stretch forever. Before Aidry could make any sort of action, he slammed his open hand onto her throat; his long, bony fingers squeezing around her windpipe and eliminating her from breathing. He lurched his other arm, and stabbed the steak knife deep into her core, twisted it, and ripped it out from her ribs. She choked as blood gurgled in her chest; and bubbled at her lips. He lunged the knife again; hitting the exact same spot as last time to make it bigger, deeper, using the knife as a spoon to scoop out bits of flesh, and string the smaller intestines out of her bleeding gut. He slowly released his hand from her throat, and she fell forward, grasping the sweater on his chest while holding her flesh together. He punched the blade in again, searing it through her hand, and into the same spot he'd gutted. She gave one last squeak before her dull eyes rolled back into her head, and she fell to the ground. Dead.

The man grabbed Aidry's body by the arms, and began dragging her backwards from the spot of killing; a large mass of dark red scarlet drooled the trail behind him.

He carefully undressed her, and put her into new clothing; a black and white uniform which consisted of a completely white, sleeveless top, and an ebony-black skirt. He pulled a black masquerade mask from his bag; that of a cougar, and gently put it over her face. He then set her up to where she was in a correct sitting position on the cough. He took a note from his sticky pad, and dipped his pen in the blood from her hollow gut, and wrote "You're next." On the yellow pad, then stuck it to her chest for the first witness to see.

He then took a step back, and store at her lifeless corpse in complete silenced still for about an hour; admiring his artwork.

He left the apartment like so; purposely leaving the door open, and slipped off his black gloves, tossing them into the road-side gutter.

When he reached his small little house on the other side of the street, and calmly locked the door behind him, and made his way to the basement. Inside, there was countless of brutally mutilated bodies; each of different age groups, and different genders. The females all wore the same outfit, while the males wore black pants and white-top tuxedos. The males also had white fog faces for their masquerade masks. Each body dangled sickly from the ceiling by long, metal hooks. All of the bodies were aligned neatly in rows; similar to a meat locked but without the cooling systems to object away rot, and without anything to keep down the putrid stench of decaying flesh.

He made his way to the sink on the other side of the room, and stripped his sweater, and began washing the blood off when he heard a crash from upstairs.

He quickly shut off the water, and silently made his way out of the basement to find the front door open.

He calmly walked over, and shut it.

Strange.

His eyes wavered; for a he could have swore he saw movement flash from the TV screen reflection. He immediately whipped around; his dark blue eyes glinting int he night as he scanned the room.

Completely empty.

He grunted at the strangeness of the situation, and sat down on the couch, staring blankly at the Television for about an hour or so before one of the glass vases on the shelf behind him crashed to the floor.

He growled in contempt, and made his way over to clean it up. He crouched next to the rubbish, and store into the glass pile. He slowly picked up a large piece of glass before noticing a little yellow sticky note from the middle. He picked it up with his free hand, it read:

"You're next.

-A"

And from the reflection of the glass he was holding; he could make out the shape of countless people standing behind them: all in uniform for the Monochrome Masquerade.