Fellow horror writer
recently issued three visual prompts in the form of masks she drew. I’ve written stories on two of the masks that were both set in the same fictional universe.You can find the first one here, and the second one is located here. This final story, based on the third mask, ties everything together.
Please enjoy…
My hands shook as I pulled back the lid of the cardboard box. Within, beneath a sea of packing peanuts, lay the final piece of the set.
The third mask.
The first was thin, soaked with blood, but no less beautiful. It was cut from a larger work of art. Those deep violet eyes held secrets that I craved.
The second was sturdier, but it was marred by tiny punctures around the edges where it had once been sewn to its owner's face. A clever trick, and a level of commitment I couldn’t help but respect.
And now, rising from the unassuming box that had arrived moments earlier on my doorstep, was the third mask. It was the heaviest of the three. Made from porcelain and painted with vibrant details. Hues of teal mixed with intricate patterns across its surface.
A true work of art, and the most impressive of the set. I approached the wall where the other two masks hung beneath warm lights. I gingerly placed the third mask upon its hook and took a few steps back to admire them in all their glory.
“Marvelous. Simply stunning,” I whispered.
I walked across my penthouse suite, passing all manner of gruesome treasures and supposed curse objects that I had collected over the years. My taste in decoration had a flare for the macabre. The darker the story, the stronger my desire to add it to my collection.
When I reached the kitchen, I grabbed a cocktail glass and made myself a gin and tonic with a slice of lime. As I looked back to the far wall where the masks sat, I felt an unseen pull toward them. A desire to approach.
I walked back over to the display and took a sip from my drink. The floral notes of the gin danced on my tongue as my eyes leapt from one mask to the next. I could feel them staring at me. Like an unseen pair of eyes sat beneath each one.
One by one, each of the masks lifted off their respective hooks. I stumbled backward, dropping my drink as they floated silently through the air. The glass clattered against the floor and rolled to the side.
“What the fuck?!” I shouted.
Ethereal forms began to emerge from each of the masks. Each one was a silhouette that shimmered like a mirage in the desert. Each of them took on sleek, slender forms, with skin that matched the color of their respective mask.
Under any other circumstances, they would have been indescribably beautiful.
“What are you? What do you want with me?” I asked
The purple mask spoke first. It had a sharp, feminine voice. “I was so close! She was almost beautiful.”
The figured in the horned mask spoke next. “Perfection comes from uniformity. All must become one,” she whispered, with a voice that was monotone and emotionless.
My eyes spun over to the figure wearing the third mask. She approached slowly, moving like ink through water.
“I applaud your dedication, dear sisters, but allow me to show you how it’s done,” the third mask said, her voice sultry and mischievous, as if it were laced with poison.
I backpedaled into my couch and fell over the backside. I tumbled across the leather cushions before finally landing on the surface of my glass coffee table. I scrambled for balance as the third mask hovered over me, now detached once more.
“Perfection cannot be achieved in a flawed world, dear sisters. To achieve our goals, we must first bathe their souls in the waters of the Styx. This one will become our vessel.”
The third mask turned away from me, and I beheld sights unlike anything that words could describe within its depths. My body went limp. My jaw hung agape. Forbidden knowledge and unfathomable truths flooded my mind as it descended like an autumn leaf onto my face.
The moment it touched my skin, all that I was, and all that I could ever be, was annihilated. My body became a shell. Nothing more than a vessel.
A vessel for her.
***
The following article was published approximately two months later by an online and print tabloid known as World News Weekly.
Thanks for Reading! Here’s Your Musical Pairing
Listen to this after reading, like pairing a glass of wine with dinner.
WOW this was a perfect way to end this!
Not only is it incredibly creepy, but it adds more terror to the other ones even after I've read them!
This is so amazing, you really did a fantastic job!
That was cool, especially the newspaper. But how did the main character described that they’ve been destroyed after they’ve been destroyed? Maybe their mind survived somehow, hmm…