ماسک روح زده فصل 21

The Haunted Mask - Chapter 21

On her knees on the carpet, Sabrina glanced up from her piles of candy bars. “Carly Beth, stop clowning around.”

“I’m not!” Carly Beth insisted, her voice shrill with panic.

“Aren’t you tired of scaring people tonight?” Sabrina demanded. She picked up a clear plastic bag of candy corn. “Wonder if Mom will let me keep this. It’s wrapped.”

“I’m not trying to scare you. I’m serious!” Carly Beth cried. She tugged at the ears of the mask, but couldn’t get a good grip.

Sabrina tossed down the bag of candy corn and climbed to her feet. “You really can’t get the mask off?”

Carly Beth pulled hard on the chin. “Ouch!” She cried out in pain. “It—it’s stuck to my skin or something. Help me.”

Sabrina laughed. “We’re going to look pretty stupid if we have to call the fire department to get you out of your mask!”

Carly Beth didn’t find it funny. She gripped the top of the mask with both hands and pulled with all her strength. The mask didn’t budge.

Sabrina’s grin faded. She stepped over to her friend. “You’re not goofing—are you. You’re really stuck.”

Carly Beth nodded. “Well, come on,” she urged impatiently. “Help me pull it off.”

Sabrina grabbed the mask top. “It’s so warm!” she exclaimed. “You must be suffocating in there.”

“Just pull!” Carly Beth wailed.

Sabrina pulled.

“Ouch! Not so hard!” Carly Beth cried. “It really hurts!”

Sabrina pulled more gently, but the mask didn’t budge. She lowered her hands to the cheeks and pulled.

“Ouch!” Carly Beth shrieked. “It’s really stuck to my face.”

“What’s this thing made of?” Sabrina asked, staring intently at the mask. “It doesn’t feel like rubber. It feels like skin.”

“I don’t know what it’s made of, and I don’t care,” Carly Beth grumbled. “I just want it off. Maybe we should cut it off. You know. With scissors.”

“And wreck the mask?” Sabrina asked.

“I don’t care!” Carly Beth exclaimed, tugging furiously on it. “I really don’t! I just want out! If I don’t get this thing off me, I’m going to freak out. I’m serious!”

Sabrina put a calming hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Okay. Okay. One more try. Then we’ll cut it off.”

She narrowed her eyes as she examined the mask. “I should be able to reach underneath it and pull it away,” she said, thinking out loud. “If I slip my hands up through the neck, I can stretch it out and then push it up.”

“Well, go ahead. Just hurry!” Carly Beth pleaded.

But Sabrina didn’t move. Her dark eyes grew wide, and her mouth dropped open as she studied the mask. She uttered a soft gasp of surprise.

“Sabrina? What’s the matter?” Carly Beth demanded.

Sabrina didn’t reply. Instead, she ran her fingers over Carly Beth’s throat.

Her astonished expression remained frozen on her face. She moved behind Carly Beth and ran her fingers along the back of Carly Beth’s neck.

“What is it? What’s the matter?” Carly Beth demanded shrilly.

Sabrina ran a hand back through her black hair. Her forehead wrinkled in concentration. “Carly Beth,” she said finally, “there’s something very weird going on here.”

“What? What are you talking about?” Carly Beth demanded.

“There’s no bottom to the mask.”

“Huh?” Carly Beth’s hands shot up to her neck. She felt around frantically. “What do you mean?”

“There’s no line,” Sabrina told her in a trembling voice. “There’s no line between the mask and your skin. No place to slip my hand in.”

“But that’s crazy!” Carly Beth cried. She moved her hands to her throat, pushing up the skin, feeling for the bottom of the mask. “That’s crazy! Just crazy!”

Sabrina raised her hands to her face, her features tight with horror.

“That’s crazy! Crazy!” Carly Beth repeated in a high-pitched, frightened voice.

But as her trembling fingers desperately explored her neck, Carly Beth realized that her friend was right.

There was no longer a bottom to the mask. No place where the mask ended. No opening between the mask and Carly Beth’s skin.

The mask had become her face.