The Masquerade

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐎𝐧𝐞: 𝐀 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞

Karl Jacobs stepped through the gates of the old property, adjusting his mask that just barely fit his face. As he walked up to the doors of the capacious house before him, he took a deep breath, preparing himself for the night of fun to come. He passed a quartz fountain, water spewing from the top. He admired the white walls of the house, noticing that through the tall windows, a face peered through the mask before moving away so Karl couldn't take a closer look.

Karl climbed up the stone stairs to the tall, dark oak doors of the house. He barely got a chance to lift the gold door knocker before the door opened revealing a tall man, pink hair sitting in a bun atop his head.

"Hello, and welcome. Who is this?', said the strange man. He was wearing a black suit, with gold shoulder pads and buttons neatly sewn on the front. Karl looked up to face the man, studying the black mask with gold detailing covering the man's eyes.

"Um... I'm just in the area," Karl began, "Who are you?"

"Well, I am Sir Billiam III, and this is my humble abode... Now I'd like to know who you are,"

"I'm Karl."

"Come in, Come in! Let me give you a tour of the house."

Karl followed Billiam into the house. The entryway was very large, with a red carpet on the ground and stairs encasing either side of the room. Hanging on the roof was a bejewelled chandelier. In the middle were two large doors, opening into a larger ballroom where Karl assumed he and the rest of the guests would socialize and spend the night.

"I don't come here often, I mostly live in one of my other mansions along the coast." Billiam stated as he led Karl up the stairs, "now before we get too deep into the tour, the invitation clearly stated that no poor people were allowed in. Where do you reside? And what is your profession?" Billiam almost choked in disgust when the word poor left his mouth which left Karl wondering why he disliked the poor so much but decided to go along with it anyway.

"I'm a writer," Karl said, not having an answer for the first question.

"Oh! A rich person!", Billiam started to smile wide, "I didn't realize we'd have someone of your.. class at this party!" They continued to walk up the stairs. "Butler!", the man called. "Fetch our guest some wine." On cue, running up the stairs was a skinny boy who was carrying a bottle of wine with two glasses. He set the glasses on a nearby table and poured some wine for both Billiam and Karl, and handed the glasses to them before running back down the stairs with the wine before Karl had the chance to get out a 'thank you'.

"I don't talk to my butler much as he's very poor.", said Billiam. "He often doesn't have the money for food every week!"

Karl couldn't help but feel bad as he followed Billiam into one of the rooms on the left side of the house. The room was large, with a single bed in the center and a painting on the walls.

"This is one of the spare rooms. You'll find there's a lot in the mansion as most of my family has died off.", Billiam smiled.

"Oh... I'm so sorry Billiam.", Karl said empathetically.

"It's okay, they died for a good cause.", Billiam said without any emotion. "Onto the next room!"

Billiam led Karl into the next room which was somehow larger than the other. Red carpet, bedsheets and curtains were found around the room. The room opened up into a hallway on the right side along the wall facing the outside. "Here's another guest room, and down that hall is the outdoor balcony.", Billiam explained as they went through the hall past the balcony to a tiny library on the right side of the house. "This room here is useless. It's too small and a waste of space. However my favourite painting is in this room.", Billiam said pointing at a rather large painting on the wall. It was a painting of a strange thing Karl swore he had seen before. The creature on the painting was rather blocky, T-shaped with three black head-like figures on top. Karl stared at the painting a minute more before going running after Billiam who had already left the room. They went down the stairs on the right and to a room on the left side, the doors sitting comfortably under the stairs.

"Here is the dining room!" Billiam stated as they walked into a large room with a long table in the middle. The table had a table cloth and had what looked like a six-course meal sitting on it. Billiam walked past the table quickly, not giving Karl any time to admire the food. Karl set down his now empty glass of wine and caught up to the pink-haired man. At the end of the room was a door, "Behind this door is the kitchen but I will not be going in because it makes me feel poor".

The butler walked out of the kitchen door, again as if on cue, and poured more wine into the wine glass set on the dining table. He then handed the glass to Karl and walked back into the kitchen.

Karl and Billiam kept walking through the house, across the large entry room and into a massive library littered with paintings and bookcases. As he looked around, he noticed a weird book that stuck out among all other books in a room but didn't put too much thought into it as he continued to sip his wine. The two awkwardly stood around, occasionally glancing at each other before Karl noticed two identical paintings on the wall.
"You have identical paintings on the wall," Karl said.

"Ah, yes I do. I had it commissioned for me and I liked it so much I paid extra for another one." Billiam said proudly. "Let's move on before the other guests arrive."

They kept walking until they found themselves in a massive ballroom. On the far end of the room was a long bar with barrels full of wine behind it. On the counter were eight wine glasses evenly spaced out. Karl and Billiam walked to the end of the room, leaving his empty glass of wine on the counter. "Butler!", he said, "Fetch me some wine!"

The butler repeated what he had done before when Billiam first asked for some wine. Karl's glass wasn't half empty before he felt it ripped out of his hands and refilled with more wine. "Thank you-", Karl barely managed to get out before the butler quickly walked out of the room with a bottle of wine in his hands.

"He is so slow.", Billiam muttered to himself before turning back to Karl, "Thank you for coming, here take some gold... I have so much gold I cannot store any of it.."Karl gasped as he was suddenly holding many gold chains and rings. "Thank you Billiam,", Karl said. Billiam quietly acknowledged him before Karl asked, "Are other people going to show up?"

"Oh, yes they should be here any minute now. I've invited quite a few others. I do hope they'll show up.." Billiam revealed. "Or this is going to get a lot more awkward.", he muttered.

Without warning, the butler opened the ballroom doors before turning to Billiam and pointing to the front doors. A quiet knock was heard."They're finally here..", Billiam smiled to himself as both he and Karl walked to the front doors to greet their guests.

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