ماسک روح زده فصل 08

The Haunted Mask - Chapter 8

Two dozen empty eye sockets stared blindly at Carly Beth.

She gaped in horror at the distorted, deformed faces.

They were masks, she realized. Two shelves of masks. But the masks were so ugly, so grotesque—so real—they made her breath catch in her throat.

Carly Beth gripped the doorframe, reluctant to enter the tiny back room. Staring into the dim orange light, she studied the hideous masks.

One mask had long, stringy yellow hair falling over its bulging, green forehead. A hairy black rat’s head poked up from a knot in the hair, the rat’s eyes gleaming like two dark jewels.

The mask beside it had a large nail stuck through an eyehole. Thick, wet-looking blood poured from the eye, down the cheek.

Chunks of rotting skin appeared to be falling off another mask, revealing gray bone underneath. An enormous black insect, some kind of grotesque beetle, poked out from between the green-and-yellow decayed teeth.

Carly Beth’s horror mixed with excitement. She took a step into the room. The wooden floorboards creaked noisily beneath her.

She took another step closer to the grotesque, grinning masks. They seemed so real, so horribly real. The faces had such detail. The skin appeared to be made of flesh, not rubber or plastic.

These are perfect! she thought, her heart pounding. These are just what I was looking for. They look terrifying just propped up on these shelves!

She imagined Steve and Chuck seeing one of these masks coming at them in the dark of night. She pictured herself uttering a bloodcurdling scream and leaping out from behind a tree in one of them.

She imagined the horrified expressions on the boys’ faces. She pictured Steve and Chuck shrieking in terror and running for their lives.

Perfect. Perfect!

What a laugh that would be. What a victory!

Carly Beth took a deep breath and stepped up to the shelves. Her eyes settled on an ugly mask on the lower shelf.

It had a bulging, bald head. Its skin was a putrid yellow-green. Its enormous, sunken eyes were an eerie orange and seemed to glow. It had a broad, flat nose, smashed in like a skeleton’s nose. The dark-lipped mouth gaped wide, revealing jagged animal fangs.

Staring hard at the hideous mask, Carly Beth reached out a hand toward it. Reluctantly, she touched the broad forehead.

And as she touched it, the mask cried out.