"Hello," said the man with a gentle whisper and chilling smile. I grew worried. Who was this man? "Who are you?" I asked the mysterious stranger. "That's why I'm hiding in a mask," he replied "So you don't know who I am."
In my city you might meet a superhero... But rarely will you meet a villain face to face. Unfortunately, I've met a hero twice and both times it was the same sidekick of Green Serpent: Goggle Kid. Yeah, he's pretty lame, and what's even lamer is that I've never met a real superhero like Golden Dream, Blue Shadow, or as mentioned before, Green Serpent. I met a villain. This villain doesn't have a name, he only goes after heroes for no reason, and he seems to have an interest in me. Recently, heroes in Red Dale, my city, have been taken down one by one by this villain. Since he doesn't call himself anything, I just call him Hidden Mask, or Mask for short. Well, let's hope him and I can be friends, and I don't have to be a target. Will he kill me? What are his plans? All I know is that he's in that mask, and he's hiding in it.
Geoff and Naomi are dead, and they're depressed, but when Geoff's cat Bernie dies as well, they embark on a wild journey to find it in the underworld.
*****
When Geoff dies, alongside his girlfriend Naomi, they end up sharing an apartment in the Underworld as skeletons. But after a few years, Geoff starts suffering a mid-death crisis. What's the purpose of going through the motions as a skeleton if you can't really live? Then he gets word that his cat, Bernie, just died and he can collect him and bring him home! Geoff and Naomi hurry to get Bernie only to discover that, due to a clerical error, their cat has been lost. With the hunt for Bernie giving new purpose to Geoff's un-life, he and Naomi begin a quest to get back their cat. Battling skeleton pirates, climbing the sky ladder and facing off against the villain who took Bernie, Geoff is determined to find his purpose - or die a second time trying!
[[2018 Wattys Winner - The Originals]]
[[word count: 30,000-40,000 words]]