ماسک روح زده فصل 24

The Haunted Mask - Chapter 24

“Wh-what do you mean?” Carly Beth stammered.

The store owner didn’t reply. He turned toward the back of the store and motioned for her to follow him.

“Answer me!” Carly Beth shrieked. “Don’t walk away! Answer me! What do you mean the mask can’t be taken off?”

She followed him into the back room, her heart pounding. He clicked on the light.

Carly Beth blinked in the sudden brightness. The two long shelves of hideous masks came into focus. She saw a bare spot on the shelf where hers had stood.

The grotesque masks all seemed to stare at her. She forced herself to look away from them. “Take this mask off—now!” she demanded, moving to block the store owner’s path.

“I can’t remove it,” he repeated softly, almost sadly.

“Why not?” Carly Beth demanded.

He lowered his voice. “Because it isn’t a mask.”

Carly Beth gaped at him. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

“It isn’t a mask,” he told her. “It’s a real face.”

Carly Beth suddenly felt dizzy. The floor tilted. The rows of ugly faces glared at her. All of the bulging, bloodshot, yellow and green eyes seemed to be trained on her.

She pressed her back against the wall and tried to steady herself.

The store owner walked over to the display shelf and gestured to the ugly, staring heads. “The Unloved,” he said sadly, his voice lowered to a whisper.

“I—I don’t understand,” Carly Beth managed to choke out.

“These are not masks. They are faces,” he explained. “Real faces. I made them. I created them in my lab—real faces.”

“But—but they are so ugly—” Carly Beth started. “Why—?”

“They weren’t ugly in the beginning,” he interrupted, his voice bitter, his eyes angry. “They were beautiful. And they were alive. But something went wrong. When they were taken out of the lab, they changed. My experiments—my poor heads—were a failure. But I had to keep them alive. I had to.”

“I—I don’t believe it!” Carly Beth exclaimed breathlessly, raising her hands to the sides of her face, her green, distorted face. “I don’t believe any of it.”

“I am telling the truth,” the store owner continued, running a finger over one side of his narrow mustache, his eyes burning into Carly Beth’s. “I keep them here. I call them The Unloved because no one will ever want to see them. Occasionally, someone wanders into the back room—you, for example—and one of my faces finds a new home….”

“Nooooo!” Carly Beth uttered a cry of protest, more an animal wail than a human cry.

She stared at the gnarled, twisted faces on the shelf. The bulging heads, the open wounds, the animal fangs. Monsters! All monsters!

“Take this off!” she screamed, losing control. “Take this off! Take it off!”

She began tearing frantically at her face, trying to pull it off, trying to rip it off in pieces.

“Take it off! Take it off!”

He raised a hand to quiet her. “I am sorry. The face is your face now,” he said without expression.

“No!” Carly Beth shrieked again in her new, raspy voice. “Take it off! Take it off—NOW!”

She tore at the face. But even in her anger and panic, she knew her actions were useless.

“The face can be removed,” the store owner told her, speaking softly.

“Huh?” Carly Beth lowered her hands. She stared hard at him. “What did you say?”

“I said there is one way the face can be removed.”

“Yes?” Carly Beth felt a powerful chill run down her back, a chill of hope. “Yes? How? Tell me!” she pleaded. “Please—tell me!”

“I cannot do it for you,” he replied, frowning. “But I can tell you how. However, if it ever again attaches itself to you or to another person, it will be forever.”

“How do I get it off? Tell me! Tell me!” Carly Beth begged. “How do I get it off?”