The Masks

Day 19

I woke up with a start. I had that same nightmare again. I would be walking down a long, dark passage. I could hear screaming and laughing. There were doors on both sides of the hallway and I could see red lights coming from inside a few of them. The rest were black. I would reach a door that was open, and inside I would see a monster, with a small head. It's clawed hands and feet were large. It was bone thin and it was stripped of all skin. Leaving only red flesh that oozed blood onto the floor.
The monster was eating a girl who's face was frozen in a scream.
The monster would look at me and jump...I would wake at that same place every time.
I got up off the hard floor of what I called my bedroom and walked to the window. I opened it with a creek and stared out at the darkness. I had been living in an abandoned house in some random suburb for the past few days now. It was boring and cold and I was always afraid that Merdo would find me again.
Why the hell was he even following me? I wasn't a slave anymore, so I wasn't a danger to the Lord of Hell. So I didn't understand why he would want to kill me.
For the past week and a half I'd been trying to come to terms with what I had done while I was with Amethyst.
I had killed four men and a demon. At the time I hadn't felt anything. But that was because Amethyst was controlling the way I felt. Now that I was free, I found it difficult to live with myself knowing the things that I had done.
I would look at my hands and feel the strength in them. The strength I had used to kill.
I stepped back from the window and stared up at the ceiling and cried. Not for the first time.
My life had been taken away from me in the blink of an eye. And for what? For me to just end up alone and without a family? Why had Amethyst chosen me?! I didn't deserve what I'd been given. No one deserved what I'd been given.
I wiped my tears and ran my hand through my hair. It had gotten quite long. And it was beginning to go black. It was now salted and peppered and looked sort of cool.
And people could actually see me now. Not that it mattered.
I turned away from the window and left the room, closing the door behind me.
I went into the main hallway and left through the front door. I wanted to go and look for my family again.
Over the time I'd been alone, my memories had slowly been coming back to me. I could now remember things from before the day Amethyst had taken me, until the day I left, except for about three or four days after I had been taken. Those few days weren't coming back. And I wasn't sure why.
I stepped out onto the pavement and looked up and down the street. No one was around.
I wanted to go and look for my family. At least I could remember them.
I sighed and walked off down the street, pulling my hood up over my head and putting my hands in my pockets. Even though it was the middle of winter I never actually felt the cold. I just liked having my hands in my pockets. It made me feel a little comfortable.
I continued down the road, thinking more about Amethyst. For some reason I didn't want to kill her. I didn't want revenge. And I didn't know why.
I didn't know anything anymore though. I didn't know who I was.

****

I found my old house as the sun was coming up, turning the sky red and chasing the night away. I walked up to the front door and held my hand up to knock.
No. This didn't feel right. Something was wrong. What wasn't though?
I walked around to the back of the house and looked up to what was the window of my bedroom when I had still lived here.
I jumped up and grabbed hold of the window sill and pulled myself up. The curtains were open and I could see inside the room. On the bed, lying asleep, was a boy who looked exactly like I had before all this had happened.
It took me by surprise and I let go of my handhold. I fell backwards. But before I hit the ground I spun around and landed on my feet.
What the hell? How could that be?
I wanted to find out who that was. But I couldn't exactly go barging into the house, demanding answers and causing trouble.
No. I would wait until later to sneak into the house and find out more.
Maybe this was the reason why no missing person report had been filed. I'd been looking around the area for a while and I hadn't heard anything about myself going missing.
I had a double.
I ran away from the house and down the street. I needed to do something to pass the time until later.

****

When the sun was beginning to go down, I stopped floating and fell to the ground. It had taken me a couple days to figure out how to float. It was a strange sensation.
I would have to place my Mist beneath me, in small pockets, and lift it up. This pushed me up into the air. It took a lot of concentration. And I would sometimes end up with a headache if I used it too often.
I had spent the day practicing my skills. With nothing else to do, I had become very good at controlling my Mist during the time I was free.
So I'd decided to practice some more while waiting for it to get dark. It also helped to take my mind off of my ever present problems.
I breathed in, pulling the mist back into my lungs, where I kept it. Luckily I didn't die when doing this. Something I still couldn't explain.
I headed back to my old home. When I reached it I went to the back of the house again and looked up at the window. The lights were on inside and the curtains were drawn.
I jumped up to the window again and grabbed the sill. I tried to look into the room through a gap in the curtains, but I couldn't see enough.
I reached up above me and grabbed the gutter that ran along the roof of the house.
I pulled myself up and onto the roof, making as little noise as I could. I slowly made my way to the small window that opened into the attic.
I climbed in.
It was dusty, and dark. There were a lot of boxes in here. I hadn't ever listened to my mother whenever she told me to clean it.
It seemed that my double didn't listen either.
I crept to the hatch a few feet away and pulled it open. It was dark in the hallway. My parents...that was still weird to think about...must have been asleep. That was good. I slipped down through the hatch, pulling it closed behind me.
I looked down the hallway to my bedroom.
I slowly edged towards it, stopping to listen before turning the handle and stepping into the room.
Instead of going into my old bedroom, I was now entering what seemed like a cavern.
The walls were all red. And the ceiling was spiked. The ground was burned and black. I could hear singing far away. And shadows dashed along the walls.
"What the..."
Where the hell was I?