Masquerade

Chapter 1 – Memories

In the depths of our mind, we can hold memories that have been lost to us, suppressed. This is usually due to a dramatic event or the fact that it is a painful memory, but these memories can return at any time. The memories can reveal themselves in many ways, visions, dreams hallucinations, and the trigger for that memory could be anything a feeling, an object, or a person, but the question is, do you really want to get the memory back? Was it lock away in your mind for a reason? And it may be something that you don’t want to release, don’t want to remember, but sometimes you don’t have any choice, you have to remember, when that trigger gets hit, the memory will come back whether you want it to or not, and when it does come, think of the effects and consequences that that memory will have.

It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and the heat was immense. Women walking around in bikini or strappy tops, with shorts or mini skirts, the men in vest tops or none at all and shorts. Anything to keep cool. The streets were packed with people, shopping, sitting outside of pubs and restaurants, roller blading and riding on bicycles. There seems a sense of equilibrium, everyone happy and peaceful.

Maya was 18 years old, living with her mother. Maya was two weeks away from graduating High School, and her prom. She was walking through the street with her best friend Isabelle; they are on the hunt for a prom outfit. This street has many different stores, that sell all different kinds of things, clothes stores, toy stores make-up, shoes, etc, and all very popular. Maya was wearing white shorts, with a white strappy top, and white shoes. She has long black hair, which she wore half in a bobble and half down. Isabelle wore white shorts, a red strappy top and white sandals. They were talking and laughing while walking down the street.

“Oh my god! How cool is the prom theme, it’s going to be so much fun” Isabelle seemed very excited. “Yeah, no one knowing who anyone is, well maybe, I always wanted to got to a masquerade, on films they look so elegant and so much fun, cant wait to see what other people wear, it’s going to be interesting,” they both laugh. “We now just need costumes…and masks” Maya smiled, she stopped walking, and looked into a store window, Isabelle stopped and walk back up to Maya. “What is it?” Maya’s eyes were just fixated on a mask that was in the store window, she had a vision that lasted a few seconds, she saw people, dancing in a dark and gloomy but elegant ballroom, everyone was wearing such beautiful outfits but they were all dark colours, dark blue’s, green’s, red’s, and their faces covered with masks. Everyone looked sad, lost, and alone. “Maya, are you OK?” She snapped out of her vision and came back to reality she turned to Isabelle. “What did you say?” Isabelle just looked at her with a puzzled face. “You were staring into space, “ Maya turned back to the window, to the mask. “Oh…. lets look in here,”

Maya walked into the store, Isabelle followed her. The store was full of beautiful costumes, of all kinds, soldiers, sailors, Cleopatra, noble ladies, pirates, witches and so many more, also masks and other accessories. Maya walked straight up to the mask that she saw in the window. “Hey wait up!” Isabelle caught up to Maya; she looked at the mask for a few seconds and smiled. “I like this mask,” Maya took it off the stand that held it and tried it on. The mask was black, and made of a soft smooth material; it covered her eyes and half her nose. “Very nice choice, that mask has a lot of history,” the storekeeper came out of the back room. Maya took off the mask and placed it back o n the stand then turned around to face the storekeeper. The storekeeper was a woman who hard short brown hair, wearing black trousers and a white blouse. “It has a beautiful dress to go with it, would you like to take a look?” Maya smiled at the storekeeper. “Yes, please if you don’t mind,” The storekeeper smiled back at her, and turned around, “Follow Me,” the storekeeper walked into the back room, both Maya and Isabelle followed her into the back room.

This room was full of many different costumes all hanging up neatly. The storekeeper pulled out an outfit from a cupboard; it was covered in a white sheet. She pulled back the white sheet, off the outfit and revealed a black dress, it was off the shoulder and very elegant. Maya smiled “That’s beautiful,” she looked at Isabelle, “Yeah, it’s nice, it’s very black, but nice, don’t you want something with a little more colour maybe?” Maya looked back at the dress, she was still smiling, she looked back up at the storekeeper, “Nope, this is exactly what I want, how much is it?” the storekeeper smiled, “you get the dress, the mask, shoes and gloves for $650. Isabelle’s eyes widened. “How about we look around first, might find something cheaper…I mean there are….” Maya interrupted Isabelle.
“I’ll take it!” the storekeeper smiled at Maya.
“Very we’ll, I take cash, card or cheque, and I’ll get it wrapped up for you.”

Maya and Isabelle walked back out to the front of the store and waited by the cash register. “Are you sure about this dress?” Maya smiled at Isabelle.
“Yes I’m sure, I love it and $650 is not that much, I have the money,” Isabelle had a puzzled look on her face. “And where are you getting this kind of money from?” Maya smiled, “My mother has a very high paid job remember, she’s been putting money into an account for me since the day I was born, she gave me the card last year to access it.”
“OK then, there you go,” the shopkeeper came out of the back room, the dress had been neatly wrapped up, and in a nice box she placed it onto the counter. “Just need one more thing,” she walked over to the window and picked up the mask that was on display, and then she walked back to the counter and placed it in the box with the dress, and places the lid on the box. “So how will you be paying?” she smiles.
“By card,” Maya handed over her debit card.
“So do you get many customers?” Maya asked,
“I get enough,” she started to process the card, “could you put your pin number in please,” Maya place her pin number into the machine. Isabelle just looked at the shop keep she seemed quite puzzled. “You know…I don’t every remember seeing this store before, how long have you been here? Are you new?” the shop keep gave them both a smile and returned Maya’s card, “Oh I’ve been here a while, it’s a small store easy to miss, have a nice day,” she smiled Maya picked up the box and smiled back. “OK, Thanks,” Maya and Isabelle left the store.

The storekeeper stared as they left. Maya and Isabelle started to walk down the street, “You know, there’s really something very weird about that woman, and that store, did you not sense something weird?” Maya laughed, “what?”
“You, you always like to point out how weird or strange something is,” they both laughed, “not always, now it’s time to find a nice outfit for me, preferably in a lower price range than yours,” they both continued to laugh.

It was dark, the stars were shining brightly in the sky and it was a very warm night. Maya was in her room sitting on her bed, she was wearing some black shorts and a black strappy top, and her hair was tied back. Maya was just sitting, drawing, her drawings were of ballrooms, masks and dancing, all that she saw in her vision, it’s all that seemed to be in her mind, ever since she saw that mask and dress. Maya stopped drawing and closed her sketchbook; she took the sketchbook and her drawings over to her desk and placed them in the top draw. Maya walked over to her open window, she stared out for a few minutes, and remembered something that Isabelle had said. It was when they had left the store and started to walk down the street, she said, “There’s really something very weird about that woman, and that store, did you not sense something weird?” she then pictured the mask as she saw it in the window, and remembered her vision, of the ballroom and the people dancing, “There seemed something strange about that mask, it’s like I’ve seen it before, but I…na listen to me I’m talking to myself now that’s strange. Maya laughs to herself, and closes her window.

She turns and looks at her closet for a second, “hmm!” Maya walked over to the closet and took out her dress and mask, she placed the mask on the bed and took the dress and held it up against herself while looking in the mirror, “Its so beautiful, and yet so familiar,” she place the dress on her bed and picked up the mask and put it on, and again looked into the mirror, and she smiled. “You look so beautiful, as always,” a male voice spoke, Maya looked around, puzzled, no one was there she turned back to the mirror, a man was standing there, in the mirror. “Oh My G…” she looked frightened, and confused she backed up towards the bed. The man was wearing a black suit, with a black mask; his hair was medium brown his eyes were a deep brown, and he seemed very hansom he smiled at Maya. “What the…?” Maya quickly looked around the room again, behind her, she then turned back to the mirror, he was gone, and just her reflection and that of her room was in the mirror. Maya sat down on her bed and closed her eyes; she took a deep breath then opened up her eyes and stood up. “OK Maya, your going crazy, and talking to yourself is not helping,” she smiled to herself and shook her head, she place the dress and mask back in the closet and then turned out the light and climbed into bed.

Dreams can be fun, they can make you happy and make you feel like you don’t want to wake up, your mind seems so much better than reality, but dreams can also be scary they can make you want to wake up, make you afraid of closing your eyes, those dreams are nightmares but what if it scares you because it was once your reality, do you be face it, close your eyes and see it through, remember or do you try to stay awake try not to let yourself remember, believe that it’s just a dream and wish it away.

Maya was in a deep sleep she was smiling, and seems peaceful. Maya is dreaming that she is dancing in a big elegant ballroom, like the one in her vision, wearing her new dress and mask. There were a lot of people dancing around the ballroom, around her, in their elegant outfits and masks; they were all smiling and happy. Maya’s partner was the man that she saw in her mirror, he was smiling at her and smiled back she enjoyed dancing and didn’t want to stop. But suddenly it all went silent, the music had stopped playing, everyone in the ballroom stopped dancing as did she her partner slightly backed away from her. Maya looked around everyone was staring at her, then blood started pouring out of everyone’s, eyes, nose and ears, some even coughed blood and they all collapsed to the floor. The last to fall was her partner tears started forming in her eyes she fell to her knees and hit her hands on the floor, when she lifted them up she saw that they were covered in blood. Maya looked terrified she screamed it echoed through the halls, tears fell down her face. Maya suddenly woke up from her dream in a cold sweat, she quickly looked at her hands, and around the room everything was normal, the put her hands back down on the bed. Maya closed her hands and took a deep breath, “It was just a dream, a bad dream,” she opened her eyes and glanced at the mirror, “yeah, just a dream!”

Maya was in her art classroom standing by her canvas drawing, she was drawing the image that had been in her mind all day. The dark and gloomy ballroom she didn’t know how but she was connected to this place, like she had been there before a distant memory that had been locked away inside her mind. Also that man, the one she was dancing with, the one she saw in her mirror he seemed so familiar to her. Maya felt as if she they had some sort of connection she was concentrating hard on her drawing trying to remember every detail that she saw, the grand clock in the corner, the extremely large mirror that was on the wall, the elegant crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Maya was entranced with remembering she wanted to know more, she had questions that needed to be answered. “That’s looking good, you seem to be putting some nice detail in,” a female voice spoke from behind Maya, it was her art teacher Maya turned to face her and smiled, “It’s just something that’s been in my head all day, I just needed to get it out,” the art teacher smiled.
“I can’t wait to see the finished piece, keep up the good work,” she smiled again then walked over to another student. The bell rang everyone started to pack all their things away and placed their work in the cupboard. Maya walked slowly out of the classroom, thinking.




Chapter 2 – Into the Mirror

It was late, Maya came into her bedroom, she had been hanging out over at Isabelle’s house. She put her bag next to her bed and then lay down. Maya just stared at the ceiling, thinking she pictured the white ceiling, with the beautiful elegant crystal chandelier, that she had seen in her dream. The music played in her head; she closed her eyes and remembered her dream, dancing with a hansom young man. “Why is this in my head? Why can’t I think of anything else?” Maya sat up, she glanced at her mirror, she saw the ballroom within it, all the people dancing around, it seemed as if it were a window to another room, another place. Maya closed her eyes for a few seconds, hoping that it was just her imagination or even a hallucination. She then opened up her eyes, nothing changed, and the mirror still had those images within it, the ballroom, and the people dancing.

Maya stood up and walked over to the mirror, she placed her hand upon the mirror; it suddenly began to sink through as if she had placed it into a pool of water, and she quickly removed her hand before it had a chance to fully submerge. Within the mirror, the man who she found herself dancing with in her dream walked up close to the mirror it was like he was standing in a doorway, he smiled. Maya again placed her hand upon the mirror, hypnotised within his eyes, but her mind hoping the mirror would stay solid this time. But her hand again started to sink through, but before she had a chance to pull her hand away from the mirror, the man grabbed it, and he pulled Maya through the mirror, as she got through to the other side, she found herself wearing the dress and mask that she had bought for her prom, like her dream.

Maya was fully through the mirror and stood in the ballroom from her dream it was magnificent the music played elegantly as she had dreamed it, she quickly turned around and there it was the extremely large mirror, and through it she could see her bedroom, it was as if she had walked from one room to another, she was overwhelmed by what had happened. Maya just stood there staring for a few moments, and then she walked as close as she could to the mirror and placed her hands on it, but she could not push herself through, the mirror was solid.

Maya looked so scared, she hid her face against the mirror. “Don’t be afraid,” Maya turned around, the man from her dream smiled at her. “Where am I?” she forced the words out of her mouth, her voice trembled with fear. “Your in the place where it all ended, for all of us, you are the only one who can set our souls free, take us out of this loop,” Maya looked puzzled “Dance with me,” he smiled, and seemed gentle and kind, he did not feel like a threat, but Maya was scared and puzzled and needed to know what was going on. “Who are you? Where am I? What is going on?” the man just walked closer to Maya. “My name is Henry, the rest you will remember in time, and then you will understand.” Maya still looked puzzled,
“Remember…what am I supposed to remember? Please just tell me what is going on. Who are all of these people?” she sounded scared enough to cry but she held back.

Everyone one else was still just dancing around the room in their elegant outfits, masks covering their faces, Henry Smiled. “All of these people are from your past, from the life you once had before, you see we are all cursed to relive the same night that we all died, over and over again, for all eternity.” Maya looked around the ballroom at all the people, and then her face turned back towards Henry and she took a deep breath. “Cursed? How? What has this got to do with me?” Her voice was much calmer now. “It was a long time ago, a dark force threatened us, and it used you to spread its evil, it needed a human to infect so it could kill us and trap our souls, in return for using you to do its bidding your soul was able to move on, be reborn.” May walked forward, past Henry and glanced around the room. “This is crazy, I don’t know you, I don’t know any of these people, curses they don’t exist, I must be dreaming, her heart began to race, she closed her eyes. “I want to go home, I just want to wake up in bed,” Henry turned to face Maya.
“You are not dreaming, this is all real, and I prayed for the day when I would see you again, we have all been waiting for you to come and free us, to break the curse, it is only you who can do it, none of it is your fault, no one here blames you, all of these people were once your friends.”

Henry reached out his hand to Maya, “Dance with me, I wish to remember your warmth, remember our last dance.” He smiled sweetly, Maya looked at him, and then placed her hand on top of his, and it seemed familiar. Henry pulled her closer; they began to dance, going around the room, spinning. It felt safe to Maya, right; she looked into his eyes, and smiled. It was just like her dream, both Maya and Henry was smiling, they seemed happy within their dance; nothing seemed to matter but the dance.

The music suddenly stopped, Maya’s smile faded, as everyone stopped dancing including her. Maya looked around, everyone else was looking back at her, Maya remember her dream, and fear fell back into her mind. “No!” and the fear also fell back into her voice. It was happening just like her dream, blood, running down their faces from there eyes, and their nose, falling down the side of the heads from their ears, they all fell to the floor screaming in pain. “NO!” she fell to her knees, covering her ears, and closing her eyes. “No, this can’t be happening,” Henry took Mayas hand and brought her back up from her knees. “You must leave, it’s happening again, quick the mirror, you can now go back through,” she looked around the room.
“But…everyone...”
“GO!!” Henry shouted and then the same happened to him, he fell to the floor, Maya placed her hand on her heart, she felt his pain. Maya backed up; tears were falling down her face. She then turned and ran to the mirror, and placed her hands on it, they began to sink through, she turned and took one last look and the tragedy that had befell that ballroom, the pushed herself through the mirror.

When she arrived back in her bedroom, she was wearing her normal clothes again. She quickly turned to the mirror and it was also normal again, no people, no ballroom, just the normal mirror image of her room. Maya placed her hand upon the mirror, it was solid, she then removed her hand, and then she went and sat on her bed. “Oh my god, what the hell just happened? Was it real? Or was it just a dream? A very vivid dream.” Maya climbed into her bed and just lay there staring at the ceiling, too afraid to close her eyes.

The sun rose, it was a beautiful morning; Maya woke hearing the sound of birds, even with her window closed. She sat up, her night was peaceful, no dreams, at least no dreams like she has been having recently. She looked at her mirror, thinking that it was all just one big nightmare that was now over, but she was wrong. Maya was suddenly drawn into a vision; she was standing in the ballroom like before in her mask and dress. She looked around everyone was lying on the floor, dead. Henry was lying face up in the centre of the ballroom; she walked over to him, and kneeled down beside him. Maya stroked his hair behind his ear with her fingers, sadness filled her, there was blood everywhere, covering his face, and on the floor, all over the ballroom. Tears fell down her face, “Is it all true? Did I do all of this? I’m so sorry, how can I make this all stop? I…”

Suddenly Maya noticed a black cloud filling the ballroom; it wrapped its self around the chandelier, which was above Maya, the chains the held it up were beginning to break. The chandelier then came crashing down, Maya just managed to jump out of the way, as it hit the ground. She landed in a pool of blood, Maya was covered in the blood, she looked at her hands, more tears fell down her face, and she closed her eyes, “No! This isn’t happening,” Maya then opened her eyes, and she was back in her bedroom, sitting on her bed. She heard a crash, her head raced. Maya took a couple of deep breaths, then got out of her bed and went downstairs, her mother was in the kitchen, she had dropped a couple of plates and was cleaning them up.

Maya looked at her mother, who was knelt on the floor cleaning up the mess. She took a deep breath and smiled, “it’s just as well those weren’t the good plates isn’t it,” her mother looked up and smiled, “you wanna give me a hand” Maya gave a little laugh and went over to help her mother clean up the mess, they put the broken bits of plate in the bin and brushed up the small bits.

They then sat on the table when they had finished. “You want some breakfast?”
“No thanks. Mom…. Do you believe I past lives?” Her mother gave her a puzzled look, “Past lives, like being reborn, going in a karmic circle, that sort of stuff?” Maya smiled “Yeah, every time you die, you get reborn into something else, someone else, a new life,”
“I don’t know, never really thought about it, but I guess anything is possible, its sound s better than thinking your going to fade into nothing when you die.” Her mother smiled, she was an open-minded person, and Maya enjoyed talking to her about many things. “What’s all this about anyway?” Maya smiled, she stood up from the table.”
“It’s nothing, just a dream I had that’s all, don’t worry about it.” Maya started to walk to the kitchen door. “Hey!” her mother shouted, Maya turned around as she reached the door, “So you glad to finally be finished school?”
“Yeah, not quite free yet though, I have an art project to finish, it was for extra credit, I really want to finish it” she smiled then walked out of the kitchen.

Maya had a much clearer picture in her head of the ballroom, and her masked man, enough information to finish her drawing, she stood all day in her art classroom alone trying to finish, and make it perfect. Maya was covered in paint, trying to match ever colour, trying to make it look so life like, so real, because it was real to her, it looked dark and sad, because that’s how she felt when she saw what happened to those people. When she had finished she was happy with what she had done, she put all of her emotion into her finished piece. She placed her finished painting back into the cupboard for the teacher to look at and grade.

Maya went along to the gym locker rooms, so that she could have a shower and wash all of the paint off. It was nice that the school was empty; it was quiet and peaceful, not hectic and full of noise. Maya was soaking herself in the water, it’s as if she was trying to wash away more than the paint. She closed her eyes as the water fell on her face, when she opened her eyes she was again laying in the pool of blood upon the ballroom floor.

The black cloud still consuming the entire ballroom, until Maya could see nothing but darkness. She stood up “WHATS GOING ON!!!” she screamed, her vice echoed into the darkness. Maya felt a sharp pain as the dark cloud dug into her body, her chest, it was crushing her heart. Maya couldn’t breathe, she fell to her knees in pain as she was drawing her last breathes. She closed her eyes and let go, her breathing completely stopped, as her body fell and hit the floor. A white light released itself from her body and pierced its way through the darkness, her soul was escaping, moving on, while the souls of everyone in the ballroom, were trapped by the darkness.

Maya’s eyes suddenly opened and she was back standing in the shower with the water falling down her face and body. She fell to her knees and held her chest, she took some deep breaths, Maya had never been in so much pain she relieved the moment she died and felt so much pain. “It used me, to kill everyone, to trap their souls, but it could kill me its self, and I was the only one that was able to move on, everyone else’s soul’s could not, all of those people, I have to stop this.” Maya stood up and turned off the shower, she got out and went to her locker to get changed into some clean clothes; she always has clean clothes kept in her locker. Maya’s cell phone began to ring, she answered it. “Hey Isabelle…uh huh…yeah…. i’ll come by…I could use the company…ok…I’ll see you in a bit then…ok…bye” she hung up the cell phone and packed up her stuff in her bag and locker, then left the school to head for Isabelle’s house.



more coming when my writers block goes away.......and yes i know its not a great story, the grammer sucks....lol...but you know i enjoyed writing it.....chapter 3 will eventually come to me....lol...xx

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