Warped Masquerade

"Oomph!" There was a loud screech and a faint curse that came from in front of me as the car slammed to a halt just in time. Good thing too, I couldn't miss this event. My social life has been falling to pieces and this might be my one chance to recover it. I adjusted my mask, which was made of some unknown substance and covered with white paint and two blue feathers came from the top corners. I stepped out of the taxi nervously and heard the wheels screech away again. In front of me was the massive ballroom-like-building I was told to come to. It was usually used for its stage to put on plays but today it hosted a masquerade ball which I had somehow come to know the hosts friends brothers sisters cats taxi driver, or something like that. I could see other people walking inside and tried to follow without attracting too much attention.

Inside, the people seemed to vanish within the other crowds of people that lined the hallways and main hall. I dodged around them and found myself walking straight into the chest of a man that seemed to be at least double my size. He looked down at me and smiled. His mask was black with green swirls moving from the edges to over the nose of his mask before joining the other side in a delicate pattern. "I'm sorry miss, are you ok?" He had a warm smile, not one that seemed to be mocking someone so small. "Y-yes. I'm fine, sorry for bumping into you." I nearly kicked myself for sounding so pathetic. "Did you come with a mask?" he frowned slightly as I felt my face in embarrassment. Damn! Where was my mask? "Yeah, I don't know where it went though..." I sighed and looked at my feet. So much for building my social image! "I think they have spare masks somewhere, I could help you look for one if you want." His smile returned as I nodded my head furiously "Oh yes please! Thank you!" He weaved his way around the crowds surprisingly quickly, waiting for me to catch up as I ungracefully tripped over every foot in existence.

Eventually, we came to a door "I think this is where they put the costumes for the plays." He flashed a cheeky grin and vanished inside the door. I glanced around me before opening the door to go in after him. A thought occurred to me, what if he was really a rapist or a serial killer? I barely know him or anything about him! I don't even know his name! But.. I guess he seems nice enough, and there are plenty of people who could help me if something goes wrong. I stepped inside the room and closed the door behind me. He was right, there was rows upon rows of costumes on hangers that lined the room in a maze. I crossed the room towards him and looked up to him asking "By the way, what's your name?"

"My name? Oh, it's Cameron, but please, call me Cam." He turned to the opposite wall and I noticed that it was full of hooks. Hanging on each of the hooks was a mask, some of them were used for more villainous roles than others. They had masquerade masks too. I sighed in relief as Cam picked a mask off the wall and held it out to me "Is this one ok? Or is there another one that you like?" He sounded like a shopkeeper and I took it saying that it was fine. We crossed the room again and he winked before disappearing out of the door again.

Looking down at the mask I began to notice odd things about it. The eyeholes were almost exactly the same size and shape as the human eye, rather than just a bit bigger or smaller or at least different in some way. I must have looked down at it for too long because after a while I swear I saw it blink. I blinked back and waited for it to blink again, but it never did. I shrugged it off as being a trick of the light and carefully placed it over my face. Unlike my other mask, this one covered my entire face so you couldn't see any of my features, save my eyes through the eyeholes. The next strange thing I noticed was that the mask fitted the rest of my face perfectly. The nose was the right size and the lips were full enough. It was as if it had been made just for me. I wondered if it was some kind of prank, but put it down to coincidence, I wasntt going to let silly things like this and the mask blinking scare me.

I stepped out into the crowd again and instantly knew something was wrong. At first I couldn't work on it what, but then someone turned to face me and I found out. Their face was a grotesque mix of a face and a mask, swirled together to form some kind of mutation. The next person had their facial features replaced by that of their mask. Everyone at the ball had become warped. I tried to think of a rational explanation for it. Maybe it was a hallucination caused by some kind of allergic reaction to the mask's material. I tugged and pulled at the mask and started to panic when I couldn't get it off.

I yanked harder at the mask and with a vile rip, it came off, but not without taking a lot of the skin on my face with it. I clutched my face in agony and fell to the floor, the mask dropping beside me. I didn't see someone pick it up and I didn't see the smile that was once warm, standing above me, his face twisted and warped with his own mask, mocking me.