THE 33 KEYS: Key 2 - ANSWER THE CALL "Listen for that Perfect Beat"

CHAPTER 65: THE DEIFIC MASKS

Once again, we are in the white room where there are five masks on the farthest wall. Bronze. Copper. Crystal. Gold. Wood. Fantum's mood remains unchanged. Still, I stand around in silence waiting for something to happen, for her to make the first move.

"These are deific masks," she begins, her tone more thunderous than usual. "Put one on that you're not ready for and it will grind you to bits. You only get three chances to choose wrong. The fourth time will kill you where you stand. But get it right and you'll get out of here safe. You'll live to fight another day, or whatever. Understood?"

"Yes," I reply, too weak for her tennis match.

"Well, get to it then. I'd like to finish in time for my daily game of bully the humans."

Again I refuse to hit the ball back. Instead, I move towards the wall wondering what snares she has laid out for me this time. I look up at her using the thought technique to ask if there's any specific order.

"Ugh! Don't do that!" she says aloud. "What makes you think I want to communicate like that with any puny human?"

"I just thought."

"Stop thinking!" She cuts me off. "Just pick one! I really don't care which."

"At least give me a hint. You know; to avoid picking the wrong one."

"The quicker you die the better for me."

This time I hit the ball back at her.

"Not if I find a way to kill you first."

"What's that?"

"I think you heard me the first time."

Fantum snatches me with her ruby-studded tail and throws me against the wall. The wooden mask falls off. I reach for it but change my mind when I see her enthusiasm.

"Look at that. Even lifeless things have to make choices for you. Well, try it on then."

I hang it back on the wall and choose copper instead. Now I am immediately thrown back into my Bunny House room, in my familiar corner of shame. Crying over something locked deep in my trunk of memories. Some thoughtless thing my mother said. It keeps me there for what seems like eons but in reality is immeasurable.

"Ah! Strike one!" Fantum knocks the mask off my face with one flick of her tail. "Try another one. The wooden one, perhaps?"

"Not a chance!" I reply and select the gold instead.

As soon as it touches my face, I am surrounded by all the people who ever said no to me. No to the family. No to the house. No to the experience. No to the job. No to their heart. This time there is no corner of shame. Just hands reaching out to hide me in another type of darkness. The kind that is murky and confusing. That doesn't allow me to peek out for fresh air. Slowly but surely, I am losing my ability to breathe. Now they're covering my nose and mouth. Inhale. Exhale.

For goodness sake! Everyone I meet seems to want to suffocate me.

"Strike two!" And now she taunts me with the wickedest smile. "Last chance to lose the lotto."

"Ahhh!" I scream with my first breath of air; then. "You evil bitch!"

"Point to note," Fantum interjects. "Don't mix the two up. I prefer witch."

I yank the mask off with the realization that the lotto and I are sworn enemies. Once it comes down to survival based on luck, there's no way I can come out on top. So I pick the bronze one confident that I am about to fail for the third time.

The bronze mask dissolves on my face and the bacteria – called goodbye – melts and leaves its essence all over my life. Everything is coming undone. All the jobs I once held. Loves I embraced. Schools I attended. Parties I enjoyed. Lessons I learned, Friends I laughed with. Corners I cried in. Lunches I hid to throw out as a child. And countless moments I spent alone while Ebony entertained her admirers. Everything is simply fading into oblivion. Taking with it the wholeness that is me. And now I too am beginning to melt.

As I melt with the past and present, I become part of emotion's mould. I feel everything imaginable and then some. That's when I realize that I do want it all back. The pleasure and pain that have become my sordid existence. The me I wanted gone so much that I drank the elixir of erasure. And I admit to myself for the very first time, since I first constructed my corner of shame. that I do want to live.

"All right! Enough of that foolishness! Get on with the show. And remember what I said."

I reach for the crystal mask now but a force slaps it out of my hand, so hard that it splits into two. Fantum tries hard to compose herself but eventually shows how she really feels.

"Looks like death is more imminent than we thought," she says with an evil grin. "Wood it is then."

I stand before the remaining mask near tears. This is the one she's been throwing in my face since her little game started. Surely, I'm about to die. I put it back on the wall and reach for the two halves of the crystal one instead. The same force makes them fuse together when I put them close. Now I have two masks again. Fantum becomes enraged. She's doing her best to hide it but I've come to know her body language. Or at least I think I do.

I draw the crystal mask closer to my face. But intuition cries out to me so I pick the wooden one up too. Is this the appropriate time to play eeny meeny miny mo, I ask myself? Then I take Fantum's advice and plunge into a decision before my mind switches out again.

That's how the wooden one gets to comfort me like Ebony's haunting voice, strolling down our castle hallways. That's how I remember who wrote the words to their songs. Now I imagine her loving arms caressing me. And with each embrace I feel stronger and stronger. Like someone readying herself for a great big war.