Plebian Masquerades

''This is a sequel to Mr. Trenchfoot, if you haven't read it, some things may not make sense, read it now. Thanks. ~MACARONIARTZOMBEH''

Hey, it's me again. I don't think you remember me, if you don't you might soon. I am George Millagin, you may know me as the one who told you about Mr. Trenchfoot and my encounter with him. Most "sightings" of him have pretty much ceased after another popular urban legend arose in our town. These were called "Plebian Masquerades", or for a more watered down version "Common Parties" as some of the locals call it.

Anyways the legend goes like this, I'll try and elaborate it while keeping it brief. Daniel Webber was a middle-class kid living in our town. He was said to have been invited by a kid to a party down in the outskirts of town. No one really lives in the outskirts of town, the nearest civilization from this "Common Party" place was miles, even that was an old trailer park. Daniel was unknowing of the dangers of going to these parties, for his parent's at the time didn't know of the growing danger of these.

He arrived on the night of the party. It was a big house, it looks smaller from the outside but once you enter, it seems very spacious as described. There are people dancing, all with full-face masks. Some of the masks are colorful and decorative, covered in sparkling gems and glitter. Others are either plain white or black. It's said they are unresponsive to anything you can do, no one has really ever tried to remove their masks, but it's said that if you do you'll look straight into the eyes of pure possession itself. It all seemed stupid and very untrue, but with the Mr. Trenchfoot incident, anything seemed possible in this town. Daniel said that the punch tasted like salt water and the only food out was crackers with some purple cream on top. He said he didn't dare even touch it. He eventually left, or at this point tried to leave. He twisted the knob. It was locked, the lock was busted off and it seemed there was no way to open it. The whole crowd stared at him with their black holes of eyes which were unable to be seen due to the darkness of the masks. One slowly paced towards him. They only moved inches in minutes but Daniel described as one of the most brutal forms of torture you can put a man through. Daniel didn't know what they would do, and he wasn't prepared to find out. He busted through the window head first, covered in cuts, bits of glass shards in his skin. He said the pain was immense but fear was his only drive to keep him from stopping to faint in pain and shock.

Of course he's fine now, and refuses to tell anyone where it happened. He said he burned the invite later that night so that no one would ever have to go there. I figured it was for the best, but Cody wasn't thinking the same thing. God dammit Cody. He told me he was going to ask around, see how he could get invited and crash the place. I told him how stupid it was and that it might not even exist. Daniel could tell me otherwise but what proof does he have? The scars could have been from anything, although the back story seemed promising.

Months have passed but the discussion of Common Parties still was trending. We have even had to have an officer come in to speak to us. He told us never to accept any invites. It turns out a couple girls from our school had gotten phony invites from a man and almost got murdered upon arrival. Cody wasn't shaken by this shit, neither was I but I was still unsure about actually going to one of these, I mean, what was I too expect? What would I even do their? What do we have to prove? Cody's probably doing it for more publicity (as if he needs any more). I guess if I do it, I have nothing more to gain than Cody, so I told him that I would go if he got invited. I even swore on my life. I regretted every word. I, at the time, thought it was a clever scam to get kids to stay away from strange parties.

Another couple weeks had passed an it seemed like Cody, gave up. It was until late at night while studying, I got a call from him. "You'll never believe what I got!" Cody said. My heart sunk, I hopped to god or whatever could have helped me, but to no avail. "An invite to the Common Party, it's tonight, be ready!" He hung up before I could ask him anything. I was too scared to do anything at the point. After I got ready, I stood staring blankly into the empty roads in front of my house. Nausea panged at me as I watched for Cody to roll up on his bike. When he did and could only sigh and jump through my window. My parent's would figure me asleep by now, it being 10:30. We rode for miles out of town, I was already using up what left I had of my energy left. Even Cody, being the muscle junky jock he is was breathing heavily. I was about to stop and catch my breath when we both caught sight of a single house, far away from the road.

It's no surprise no one ever could find the exact location of this, I almost missed it, an could you imagine driving down the high way at 70 miles per hour and trying to spot it? We road down the dirt road towards the house. The lights grew brighter and the sound of peaceful music started to echo. As we approached I could make out silhouettes dancing together. I was scarred I have to admit. When we made it to the door, the only thing I could do was make an elongated choking noise as I swallowed my spit. Cody knocked, no one answered, but the sound of music and dancing made it clear the party was still going and we could let ourselves in. As we entered, it was as described, bigger on the inside, punch and crackers set up, and the masks were as described. Cody pulled out his phone and started taking pictures. They completely ignore our presence. We discovered two unmentioned rooms and began photographing this, if this doesn't give us our five minutes of fame, nothing will.

Their plumbing worked fine, they had a fridge stocked with unlabeled bottles of water, and the only real food was the crackers, but we weren't too hungry anyway. I hadn't noticed the time and realized it was hours later. I decided it was bout time to head out. "Dude," I started nudging Cody's arm, "I think it's time to go." He looked down at his watch. "Damn, we should, it's getting late!" He said, grabbing a few bottles for the road. I walked through the crowed expressionless while Cody smiled and waved shouting "Thank you for inviting us!" and such, with no reply as you would expect. I seemed to cope with it but it was strange that they completely ignore our existence the whole time. We approached the door and Cody snapped one final picture. I twisted the handle, but it was locked, the lock was busted. Oh shit, no now, why the fuck am I here? Why the fuck did I listen to Cody and go with him? WHY did I make that promise? The room was silent and the only sound was mine and Cody's breathing. They started towards us slowly like Daniel described, and I nearly lost it. "Watch out, I can pick this lock, it looks easy." He said, pushing me away.

He was taking his sweet ass time. It was about 10 minutes later, they were drawing closer, Daniel was right this was torture, even worse, hell. Something happened that Daniel never described. The ceiling fan stopped and all the lights in the house dimmed. Some type of luminescent paint, because I definitely could see it when the lights were at full brightness. Things were written on this mask, things like "Kill" and "God". They had pentagrams drawn on their foreheads and a crooked smile was painted onto their faces. As they drew closer I went to tell Cody to hurry the fuck up, but he had given up and was trying to force through the door. "What the fuck are you doing!" I yelled. I was panicking, I didn't know what to do. "Getting the fuck out of here man!" He said, slamming his shoulder into the door. "I'm not going to die." He backed up and rammed into the door one last time. The door gave away and flew off it's hinges. Cody toppled with the door. I looked over to see the party members stop in their tracks, and for the first time, waved, one even said in a high pitched voice "See you soon." I saw the boarded up window and realized this wasn't some kind of clever prank, but a honest to god mad house. I'll spare you the grueling details of our trip, but it wasn't a pleasant one.

As we arrived at my house he told me "Don't tell this to your parent's, we don't need the police involved.". He rode off, and I couldn't agree more that the police didn't need to know, there's already been one happening this school year, I don't need another thing. I climbed through my window, and slept peacefully that night. I had a weird dream though, that I had a mask on. I was in the house dancing with someone I didn't know. I couldn't fight it, I knew I was dreaming, I couldn't wake up, but I wanted to see where this went so I didn't fight it. Two kids walked in the room, amazed. They snapped pictures, I attempted to speak to them but I realized I couldn't move my lips, not because they were frozen or any shit like that, they were sown shut. I darted my eyes around the room. I realized the light made my body burn whenever I moved my eyes towards it. I danced for what seemed like minutes before they tried to leave. The music stopped, it felt like a 2 ton weight being removed from me. I had little motion left and I struggled to move towards them. The lights flickered off and another weight seemed to be removed. I could move now, though slowly. I don't know why but fear shot through my body. I wanted to scream help, but no noise escaped my lips.

I watched as they banged on the door and screamed for help. One turned to meet eyes with me, it was Daniel. I had no idea who the other person was. Daniel made a bolt for the window and busted through. The other kid started to run towards it but another party member grabbed him slammed him to the ground. He removed his mask. The skin ripped off his face, and his lips parted and blood spewed as he started to scream in agony, all I could do is watch. When the mask was fully removed he put the mask on the boy's face. The boy struggled but the mask attached itself. He screamed and writhed as the stitches implanted themselves onto his face. The screaming stopped and the boy stood up before standing still. The man who placed the mask on the boy's face jumped through the window and ran. The lights started to flicker dimmer and dimmer. I woke up in cold sweat.

The next sight was one of pure terror. My parent's were standing beside my bed, with the same fucking mask. They did nothing when I moved, not even when I screamed and cried for them to do something. Even worse, their faces followed my every movement. When I exited the room, they followed. I ran outside, the people walking on the sidewalk, the people in cars, all had the same fucking mask on. The same mask from the party. Cody ran at me and almost tackled me. "Please tell me... " He said panting. "Please tell me you can fucking see these masks!" I nodded intently, to afraid to say anything. The days continued and the dream reoccurred. Eventually I stopped visualizing everyone with the mask on. I still when to therapy which was no help, and continued school, but I was quiet. No one knew why but I do.

I felt the mask on my face. My lips sown shut. My parent's admitted me to a doctor, they said I was fine, they didn't know why I wasn't talking. This mask isn't in my head, I know it isn't. I think the only way to get rid of it is to give it to someone else... someone unsuspecting... I know just the place.

OC by MacaroniArtZombeh