SHE

The Mask

***The mask in the picture above is just an example and not the actual mask depicted in this story.***   

Long ago, before SHE was even born, her parents lived near the arctic circle in a small aviation town called Pevek, USSR. Her mom had always bought different things from the Eskimos living in the region. One of her purchases was two masks of native origin. Her mother named one Peliken or Pelikesha as a nickname because he was smiling and looked like he was happy and laughing all the time. The other one mother named Shaman because he was frowning and always looked contrite.

    SHE never knew much about masks or that they could come with something; an attachment from the spirit realm. The first time SHE noticed something out of the ordinary was when SHE and her parents lived in one of the round buildings in her city in America. The mask known as Pelikesha was hanging in her room across from her bed and that grin looked pretty scary at night. SHE started noticing that SHE couldn't sleep in her own room at night.

    SHE felt like she was being watched and not in a good way. The room always felt heavy and uncomfortable. Even hiding under the covers didn't work because it seemed like whatever the being was or the feeling, it would swirl under the covers right to her chest and make breathing difficult. SHE was never afraid of the dark but something about that room scared her. Facing the mask and sleeping that way, proved to be difficult and damned near impossible because her eyes would never be able to close. SHE would spend hours just staring at the mask; waiting for it to move or shift in some way.

    Finally, having had enough SHE moved to her parents' bedroom and slept in bed with her mom while her dad slept in her room. Nothing untoward happened to him nor did he feel the malevolent being there. Then again, he not being open to the paranormal or the strange as SHE used to call it because at that time she was in the 4th grade and the word paranormal wasn't something SHE knew of yet.

    SHE wasn't able to sleep in that room at all at night. SHE didn't sleep in her own room until the family moved into a townhouse and though the mask came with and once again hung on a wall in her bedroom, this time it was across from her bed and SHE only had to look at it ever so often. SHE figured that whatever it was must have had something to do with that old apartment. After a while, SHE forgot all about the mask's sinister motives and moved on with her life.

    The other mask being creepier looking always hung in a bathroom somewhere. It wasn't allowed to be anywhere else in the house because it always gave her the heebie jeebies. Time passed and not much happened in the way of the mask until the family moved into the house that they bought. It was there that as SHE had gotten older and started to understand exactly what the paranormal was that SHE began to become more and more intrigued in the prospect of what was happening with the mask in the first place.

    It was years after the fact, that memories of when SHE was 4 or 5 years old started popping into her head. SHE remembered that when she and her parents lived in Bobruisk, Belarus USSR, SHE had grown out her crib and because of how tall or long SHE was, SHE had to sleep in the living room on the couch. Except that the normally inviting living space scared her. SHE couldn't go to sleep but kept staring at the curtains like they were alive. They felt like they were watching her or something behind them was. It wasn't a good feeling at all.

    It wasn't until recently that SHE realized that the mask of Pelikesha was hanging in the living room that whole time while SHE slept there. The other day at the beach, when SHE and her mother were talking, SHE finally remembered to ask.

"Mom, when father looked in the attic, we indeed had thrown out the masks during that first remodeling of the house. But do you remember where Pelikesha hung when I was a young child and slept in the living room; could it have hung there?" Mother thought for a moment.

"Yes, that definitely makes the most sense, if you tell me where everything else hung, that mask was in the living room."

    It was then that all of the pieces fell into place. The apartment they lived in wasn't the problem, the mask was. Whenever it was that her mother had bought the mask and from who, something had attached itself to the mask to come forth when it knew SHE would be open and become sensitive to the spirit world and the paranormal.

    True to form, when the first remodeling was done to the house in 2010, the masks were thrown out because SHE didn't want anything with bad energy in the house. By that time, SHE knew that at least one of them was causing extreme havoc in the house and in the body of the people living in the house. Unfortunately, before they got rid of the masks, it was like the masks knew they were about to be thrown out.

    The entity attached to Pelikesha transferred some of its negativity to a picture made out of iron that SHE had hanging with every bedroom SHE ever slept in since SHE was born. SHE had named the picture Natasha after her first childhood friend. And Natasha started showing signs of malevolence that SHE never had before. The picture hung in the bedroom near the closet. Suddenly, SHE started to feel from Natasha the same things she felt from Pelikesha and it was quite negative and uncomfortable.

    So as sad as it was, SHE took the iron picture down and put her in the attic where she remains to this day. Natasha has yet to be smudged with sage but that is something that SHE will do in the future. Because all of her childhood, SHE felt protected by this iron woman and wants to have the same for her children when SHE has them. And the only way to do that is to make Natasha a positive light again in the room. But that's for the future.

    This goes to show that when one purchases an object like a mask, it is very important to know its background and where it came from. Granted no one knew of such things in the days of the USSR, one lives and one learns and is careful of what comes into the home.