Ella and the Ten Keys

Chapter 2: Masquerade

The cat rummaged through the box's contents until he found it. Oreo jumped out of his box with a mask in his mouth. It was one of the party masks that one holds up by the stick attached to the bottom of it. There were blue sequins around the eyes that perfectly matched Ella's shirt and a swirling pattern on and around the facial features. The mask was mostly white, and had a few blue and violet feathers on the top.

"Um, Oreo?" Ella said with a confused look.

"Yes?"

"That's a mask."

"I know. It's your mask now." said Oreo.

"Thank you...but I was under the impression that you were going to take me to a place, not an object. Although it is a very nice mask, I don't really know what is so important about it."

"But it is important. Here, just put it on, you'll see."

Ella decided to humor her pet and put the mask up to her face. Instantly the small, dusty old attic transformed into a gigantic ballroom filled with people in elaborate and flamboyant costumes. There were chandeliers hanging from the tall ceiling and the guests were dancing with glee to music that Ella had only one memory of hearing before, in a dream she had long ago.

"Whoa! What is this place?" asked Ella. Looking down at her cat, she noticed that he was now wearing a cute little red bowtie against his black and white fur, as well as a top hat with two holes at the top for his ears to poke through. Ella thought that he looked quite adorable, but was afraid that he may not like being called so. "You look very...handsome, in that outfit."

"Why thank you Ella, you don't look so bad yourself." Ella looked at her free hand, which now had a silver colored glove over it. She saw that her t-shirt and jeans had turned into a beautiful ball gown, and came with matching shoes. There was a violet ribbon tied around her waist and a bow in the back. The dress matched her mask, which she continued to hold up to her face and didn't dare take it away for fear that this beautiful picture in front of her may disappear.

"This place," said Oreo "is a masquerade. You mustn't remove your mask until you've reached the end."

"But, it was my attic a moment ago" said Ella, more confused than ever.

"Yes it was, but things change; dear Ella, and you can't stop change from taking place. All you can do is adapt and learn how to handle the changes. Besides, isn't a masquerade much more fun than an attic?"

"Well yes but-"

"Change can be a good thing; in fact I think that's exactly what it is...most of the time anyways. So rather than trying to understand how or why, I say that as long as we're here, we should enjoy it. Come with me, let's have some fun!" With that, Oreo ran off into the crowd of dancing people.

As Ella examined the crowd more closely, she could almost recognize the dance they were doing. It looked like a traditional waltz, although she wasn't quite sure. She'd never danced the waltz before, only seen movies that showcased it. Still, it did look like fun, and she needed to find Oreo. Who knows where he could end up if she didn't look after him?

Ella ran after him but finding him was proving to be more challenging than she'd thought. While Oreo swerved around the crowd's feet with ease, Ella could not maneuver as quickly or gracefully as him. Losing him didn't take very long, and soon Ella found herself in the middle of the ballroom, surrounded by dancing people in masks.

She didn't know how, but once the music sped up a bit, she was suddenly dancing with a stranger. Or at least, she thought it was a stranger. If it was someone she knew, she couldn't tell from his mask, which hid his entire face. Even the eye holes had a thin lining of black fabric so that the man was able to see out of them, but no one could look at his eyes.