The man behind the mask

Truth or dare

"It's your turn to spin the bottle now" Jane said and looked at Cole, pointing at the empty wine bottle that has been spinned over and over and over for minutes.

It was a casual friday night. We were at Jane's house all day long, chilling and talking about life, school and other kinds of stuff. Madeline came to the brilliant idea to play our favorite game of all time: 'Truth or Dare'. Jane got us a empty wine bottle and put it on the floor to spin it. We always played it when we were together. We had own version though. We changed the game a little bit to make it more fun and interesting, by leveling up the truths and dares. We dared and asked each other insane stuff, no one would ever normally do or answer to, but it was fun and something different.

Cole grabbed the bottle and spinned it. The bottle pointed at our friend James. Cole started giggling devilish. I immediately knew that would not end good.

"Truth or Dare?" Jane asked him.

"Dare" He smiled, thinking Cole would be easy on him.

"Hah that will be interesting" Cole laughed, with his intention to make James nervous. He knew what he was doing. He knew it very good.

"What is it dude?" He tried to laugh his anxiety off, but knew he was fucked. Cole loved to make him nervous. He was the devil of our squad. He always had the craziest ideas and never failed to make anyone nervous or scared to their cores. We loved and also hated him because of that.

"I dare you to kiss the girl you are in love with and don't try to talk yourself out of it." James eyes went wide and his face had a bright shade of red. Cole started laughing hysterically. He knew who James' crush is and hit his soft spot successfully with his dare. We all were shook and interested to see who it would be. I had absolutely no idea he was in love with one of us girls.

"Are you serious?" James looked at Cole, wanting to kill him.

"Yes, my friend and now do your dare" Cole smiled to both of his ears.

"Fine" James took a deep breath.

"Girls, get up. Romeo wants to kiss one of you"

"Shut up dude. You'll see" James said, pointing at Cole, trying to threaten him.

Madeline, Jane and I got up and stood next to each other. Nervousness was written on our faces but mostly on James'. He was bathing in his sweat.

"Let's close our eyes so it will be a surprise" Madeline suggested.

We closed our eyes and waited until something happened. All of a sudden I hear a loud scream from one of the girls and it was Jane's. She got kissed. James was in love with her. That surprised me but I somehow knew it. Jane immediately hugged and kissed him again. The boys started cheering for him and Madeline and I stood there frozen of amazement because we knew this would happen someday. Jane was madly in love with him too but was too scared to admit it and to tell him. That kiss was the proof for both of them.

"You are in love with me?" Jane asked still hugging James.

"Yes, I am. I love you Jane" He smiled at her.

"I love you too James" She said and kissed him again.

"So lovebirds you are adorable but let's continue with the game. I can't watch you kissing. It makes me sick." Cole said and sat down.

We all started laughing and sat down. It was James' turn to spin the bottle. He grabbed the bottle and spinned it. The bottle pointed at me. I was scared but tried to cover my anxiety with a fake smile.

"So Elenor, truth or dare?" James asked me.

"Dare I guess" I answered.

"Sadly I don't have an idea of what you could do so I let the other guys decide for me" He looked over to them. My smile fell and got really scared. Not a couple minutes later Cole came up with an idea.

"So I have an idea for you. I dare you to go into the woods, to find the temple of the maestro" He smirked devilish.

"Are you insane dude?" Ethan was shook. Everyone clearly was. I didn't understand why.

"Cole, are you fucking out of your mind?! Are you trying to kill her?!" Madeline shouted at him furiously. Everyone was visibly upset. I got even more scared.

"Wait kill me? Did I hear that right?" I asked.

"Have you never heard of the story of the maestro?" Ethan asked me confused.

I shook my head. I really didn't know what they were talking about. I wanted to know what or even who that is but I also didn't want to hear it.

"So let me tell you the story" Ethan began, taking a deep breath.

"So, the Maestro is a very very powerful man. He lives deep in the dark woods in his huge temple. A few people have found his temple but they never came back. People say you can hear singing coming out of the temple when you are in the woods. If you hear it, you have to cover your ears immediately. If you don't you'll be under his spell and you'll never break out of it. You'll become one of his slaves until you die. No one really knows who he is or where he came from. All we know is that you should stay away from him and his temple. Far away."

"I don't believe in that" I blurted out. They looked at me as if I had lost my mind.

"Are you for real? That tale is true" Jane said.

"I think that it's bullshit. I don't believe in it. There can't be someone living in a fucking temple in the middle of the woods, I mean c'mon. Do you really believe in it?"

Everyone looked at me with wide eyes. Except for Cole. He was surprised and pissed off at the same time, because he thought I would believe in that shit and be too scared to see it for myself.

"Why don't you go and find it out? I notice you have the balls to go and look for it, do you? Or are you someone who is too scared to go into the woods, because they think they gonna get killed by wolves?" Cole said, looking at me with his arms crossed with a grin on his face.

"As you notice Cole, I have balls and I will go into the woods and look for this bloody temple. You really think you can intimidate me? Hah nice try dude, but you've failed." I back clashed him and that felt better than I've expected. Everyone was shook to their cores and forgot how to move.

"Don't do it! You gonna get killed!" Ethan shouted trying to convince me otherwise.

"I don't care. I want to see if that's true or not" I got up.

"Yor are not going alone! We are coming with you!" Madeline said and got up.

"Fine. Let's go. I don't want to loose any time" I headed towards the door of Jane's room.

We got out of her room, put on our jackets and shoes and headed out of the house, on the way to the woods. It was night and really dark outside.

"Elenor, are you sure you want to do this?" Madeline stopped me.

"Yeah. I want to see it with my eyes" I said confidently. Madeline looked at me worried.

"Look, I won't get killed. I promise" I smiled.

"Who knows?" Cole shouted, walking past us.

"Fuck you Cole. You will be the reason why she will die" Madeline shouted back at him.

"She wanted it by herself, so it's her fault if she dies" Cole shrugged.

"Fuck you Cole!" Madeline tried to attack Cole but we held her back and calmed her down. After she got herself together we started walking towards the woods. No one really knew the way except for Cole. He was in front of all of us and directed us. We walked for a long time and still there was no sign of the woods. Eventually after an hour we finally arrived in the woods. It was very dark but the moonlight helped us to see the way. We walked into the woods and I started looking for the temple. The guys were behind me, looking around and making sure there was no one or nothing that could kill us all. All of a sudden I hear a voice quietly singing. I thought it was made up in my mind or the guys would make a joke but as I walked to the direction where it was coming from it became louder and louder. The more I walked the louder the singing got and I started to see the temple. I was shook. It was true......The tale was true.....