I am the storm

Chapter 14 | The masks we wear

When I got home I opened the door and for once my Dad was home.

He barely noticed when I walked in. I decided it would be best not to tell my Dad where I had really been for the past few days, so instead all I said to him was "hi Dad no time to talk I desperately need a shower."

"Okay I can't be bothered to make dinner so what takeaway do you want?" My Dad barked toward me as I tried to walk up the stairs, but I enjoyed his question, it was normal I could seem like a normal average girl.

"Umm oh god. Choice already and I've only been back for less than two minutes!" I retorted, "umm can we have pizza with the stuffed hot dog crust" I shouted back excitedly wanting a large portion of food because I felt like I was starving!

"Okay I'll call the place now" my father shouted back.

I then walked upstairs into my room and grabbed some spare clothes and underwear. Then I walked into the bathroom and turned on the water to run a shower for myself.

Standing in the shower the water cascaded onto my head then ran through the crevasses of my mousey brown hair like many running rivers and streams. The water trickled aimlessly down my body refreshing my battered skin as it warmed my tired bones.

Peaceful.

Focusing on the rhythmic pattern of my own breathing in and out, all that mattered was the water running down my body and the air entering my lungs, filling every crack and crevasse and my lungs deflating it was peaceful. A peacefulness that I so desperately longed for.

After a while I got out of the shower and got dressed in my underwear then I pulled on a pair of pair of pink pyjamas with long sleeves and long leg lengths. Walking down the stairs was also unfamiliar yet it was enjoyable to walk free not stuck in four walls that had grown to become my own personal hell.

Reaching the living room my nostrils were bombarded by such familiar smells the smell of cheap air freshener that loitered in the air with the smell of cheese and tomato pizza spreading from a plate on the floor next to two full size pizza boxes!

The crust of the pizza abnormally larger than usual due to the hot dog that ran through the crust.

My Dad sat to the left of the pizza with his own pizza littered with bacon, chicken and emanating a barbecue sauce smell which replaced the usual tomato sauce that would lie under the cheese.

Dad wasn't a particular healthy man he was certainly fat but not to huge he was taller than me he had black hair on his head with bushy eyebrows atop deep brown eyes around his chin was mostly stubble from a beard he refused to let grow! He wore a pair of long red pyjama bottoms and a short sleeved grey pyjama top along with a cheerful smile.

I sat to the side of my pizza and my Dad said "well what do you want to watch?" In a kind voice as he motioned toward the the TV.

"Ummm what movies are on?" I responded trying to sound confident so my Dad wouldn't worry.

"Well on tonight- can we have drumroll please!" He replied in a announcers voice as I tapped my fingers on the table to make a drum roll sound. "We have Darkness Falls a movie about supernatural forces that attack an unsuspecting seaside town. Next we have The Loop a story about a couple doomed to live the same seven eventful days forever unless they can stop the time loop. And finally we have Pyro a story about a girl with pyromania trying to cope with he condition in everyday situations!" He finished and waited for me to choose one.

"You know what I feel like I'm in a real science fiction or paranormal mood, so can we watch The Loop... no wait is Darkness Falls a horror movie?" I asked my Dad.

"No I don't think so it's an action thing," he responded calmly after looking at the description.

"Then let's watch Darkness Falls!" I replied and edge of excitement creeping into my voice.

We sat on the carpeted floor and watched Darkness Falls: the movie was about a young girl with clairvoyant powers that could sense incoming 'darkness' so her older brother used this to his advantage as he, their mother and father all fought off creatures made of shadows using lights! To me it sounds like a crap premise to base your film but it did tackle issues such as being different and being powerless, so it was a good movie but I probably wouldn't watch it again.

Throughout the course of the movie I had finished most of my pizza leaving only two pieces behind while my dad left only one piece behind.

So Dad collected up the three spare pieces of pizza and placed them into the fridge to eat later and he said "I'm going to go to bed it's late!" As he motioned toward the clock that read eleven forty six p.m.!

Dad then walked upstairs every step creaked and groaned and as he entered his room I heard him collapse onto his bed.

Drowsily, I stumbled upstairs and into my bedroom and I saw on my bed lay the taser, the PTD and my phone.
I placed the PTD on my bedside table and the taser in the drawer of the bed side table so it would be easy to get to of I were attacked during the night.

I lay on top of the covers and let my thoughts race: the killing game one of the rules explained that if I did not meet another participant within a seven days time their chip implant would administer the electric shock resulting in death, but now that I had met Patricia and Michael I could hope that us being near each other would negate the electric shock being administered but this plan relied on the three of us being alive.

But if they weren't, I had to meet another participant which I had to do before the time limit was up! But all I could do was hope it wasn't true.

Next I thought about...masks and I know how that sounds, but I was referring to the mask I wore when with my Father.

We all wear masks. We are completely  different people behind closed doors, we hide our true selves from most people, our true selves are the darkest parts of us that we desperately try to bury deep down within ourselves so no one can see how ugly we truly are...on the inside beneath the makeup the clothes and the mask we wear.

If we all took are masks off the world would be a very darker place being that every dark impulse we ever got would rise up and people would see us for what we truly are. But ultimately  the worst part is that everyone would accept it as no one could hide behind a mask so the world would be a dark place indeed, because the darkness breeds more darkness and that leads to chaos!

Like this killing game would have only started out as a dark thought then it grew until finally it pushed past the mask and became a sick and twisted reality all because of one dark thought.

It makes me glad that the world wears masks because if we didn't there would be a lot more violence and more horrible people all visible as they wouldn't wear a mask.

To put it in simpler terms when I pass someone in the street I think to myself what is that person like on the inside. When I see my friends and the people I know what I see isn't truly them but what I see is the mask they wear to hide themselves.

Like Patricia being a participant.

We as the human race are deceitful, hateful and awful creatures! Some can kidnap people and lock them in a shipping container. Some can attack people in the street. Some can shoot at  a populated area aiming for one target!

But all of us wear masks to hide ourselves, because at the end of the day we are all monsters we all do horrible things! We may do these things to other people or to ourselves but people will always suffer.

But in my mind I had decided that I needed to remove the mask, I need to show the man in the skull mask for what he truly is. And if I couldn't expose that monster, then i'd kill him.

So calmly I could say that, I was numb to the fear, the man needed his comeuppance he needed penance for what he did to me I could barely look at my own face and body without those same words ringing out 'Piggy Piggy.'

The man in the skull mask had to pay!