It was one thing to wake up exhausted, it was another to wake up next to an absolute stranger.
When she first woke up, she found herself in the fetal position nestling the mask on her torso; hugging the hunk of wood like her life depended on it. Katelyn, now wide awake, stared at the nude jock that lay in front of her; she felt confused and embarrassed.
She quietly crawled and tip-toed out of bed while keeping her eyes locked on the snoring male on the bed. She slid towards the door, with the mask in hand, and looked around for some clothes to cover up her sweaty torso. Fortunately, she was in some girl's room filled with wall tapestries, hair ties, and most importantly some clothes to borrow.
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Now fully clothed with a jacket, baggy jeans and the mask in her jacket pocket, Katelyn carefully walked downstairs and saw mountains of bottles, cans and bodies lounging on the furniture all over the house. Feeling parched, she sneaked her way to the kitchen and found her cousin faced down on the countertop. She was, fortunately, untouched but still asleep; recovering after her brief night of partying.
"Cuz... hey Chloe... hey..." Katelyn whispered and she poked her cousin. Chloe jerked sideways and then slowly woke up and stretched on the table.
"Ohhh hey... glad you made it. Wanna go back our room?" Chloe replied softly. Katelyn nodded and the two girls headed out of the house with a water bottle in hand to rehydrate themselves.
On the walk back, Katelyn tried to piece together the events that led up to her one-night-stand with some random guy. She remembered: being in her bed, a blurry image of something green, and then waking up in another person's bed. She figured that something had to happen in between but the blanks couldn't be filled. The only common thread was that mask; it was with her in Chloe's dorm and it was with her when she woke up in another person's bedroom. She had to figure out what it was; too many things were left unknown; she didn't like to be caught off guard especially after this episode.
"Hey Kat..." Chloe mumbled. "Did you come find me or did you actually join in last night?"
"I... uhh... yeah... I came back to find you. You weren't at the dorm when I woke up so..." she lied.
Chloe interrupted. "Your the best... I'm glad I can trust you." Katelyn smiled.
Little did she know, Katelyn already violated her cousin's trust the night before. As she walked on the lawn, Katelyn felt her midsection dripping from her experience last night.
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Waving goodbye, Katelyn's family headed home. Her brother was playing with the wand he received from the mystical wizard at Ollivanders. As her dad drove out of campus and onto Highway 1, Katelyn began to look into the green artifact on her phone. She took a picture of the green hunk of wood with her phone and reverse image searched it.
"Creepy?" She asked herself as she looked at the her google image result. Confused, she poked around similar images and eventually found herself on a Wiki page for: "The Mask of Loki".
For the rest of the drive home, she combed through countless webpages and watched videos of the numerous personalities that the mask spawned. She now understood how it transformed its host, what magic it provided to its wearer, and most importantly how she could, somewhat, control the artifact when transformed. For male hosts, they were aggressive if not violent. For female hosts, the mask seemed to over-sexualize and bring out the wearer's deepest darkest fetishes. She looked out the car window, trying to imagine a world with an "anti-Katelyn". Someone vain. Someone bold; like an alpha female. Katelyn shivered at the thought.
While looking through the web, two topics stuck out to her: the Sister Mask and a split mask. The potential, or curse, to be stuck in a masked persona forever (or until someone released its grasp) made her spine tingle. Splitting a mask in half and having two personalities spawn... intrigued her.
She peeked into her purse and looked at the mask. "Is this real? Would it turn me into someone else if I tried to wear it?" She knew she had to test it when she got home. "Just two more hours..." she said to herself; genuinely giddy.
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Katelyn threw her unpacked luggage into the closet and stood in the middle of her room ready for her first experiment. She setup her phone in the corner of her room to record whatever would happened. She made sure to lock the door to her room, and attempted to cleanup her room to avoid the aftermath of a transformation twister.
Now in her sleep clothes, a loose shirt and panties, she was dressed for bed but mentally ready for her experiment. Her alarm clock read, 10 PM. She knew her brother would be asleep by now and her parents routinely dozed off in front of the TV downstairs.
She was ready.
She approached her mirror with the mask cradled in her hands. She raised the mask just under her chin. Nothing happened.
She raised the mask over her head, just far enough away to avoid it leaping forward. Still nothing happened.
She forcefully slammed the mask on her face... "Oww", her face hit the hard surface of the mask. It was almost as if the mask was bashful; only activating when the environment was just right.
She sighed, and gave up. She turned off her lamp light and then turned to get her phone when all of a sudden a familiar glow emanated from the mask in her hand. "It is real..." she mused.
It was time. Katelyn approached her mirror again and watched as she carefully moved the interior of the mask towards her face. Now in the dark with only moonlight cascading light in her room.
If the mask was real, she would see it transform in front of her. If it was real, her phone would capture everything for her to see later. If it was real, she needed to accept the ramifications of what would happen to her that night.
"Please be gentle." She meditated on those three words. After repeating the phrase a third time, the mask's familiar tendrils reached for its prize; it's third time in a week.
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Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times...?
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