When His Perfect Mask Shattered, I Awoke Novels & Stories

cold, unreadable behind the mask. “When you wake up, remember….. you chose this.” his voice was muffled and echoing almost gentle. Then everything went black.

I sobbed silently as I leaned back on the headboard, I was confused and all i wanted was to have my parents here. Suddenly the door clicked open, the man that I've always seen with a mask was standing with a bare face today, right infront of me. Just how could somebody be so perfect? I thought as I wiped my face. "You are awake, how do you feel?" He asked, pulling a chair and sat on it backwards near the bedside. "Mmmm, fine" I said my eyes wondering around the room, "Um…thank you for saving me Rys" I saw his lips curling up and I froze, staring at him. "That's okay, but have you decided yet?" He asked, the tension was getting bigger wherever his eyes looked at mine.

Is that who he’s been? I don’t want to know. I don’t want to see. I lean against the wall in the shadows grasping for a steadying breath, my heart shredding to pieces. He’s Jake Carrero. This is how he is; this is how he always is. I need to forget all that crap on the boat and get a grip, put the mask back on … Please put it back on! … I can’t! Its fallen on the floor and broken into a million pieces today and I can’t find any crazy glue to piece it back together. I’m left vulnerable and I hate it. This isn’t me. I stare at my hands in the dark watching them tremble, then my body follows suit.

In the end, I didn’t even get to see his face. He was wearing a black mask and just when he was about to take it off, I woke up. Those blue eyes, those graceful fingers, and the black mask. A sharp pain shot through my brain and then my head started to ache like never before. I quickly closed my eyes and concentrated on breathing deeply as I waited for the pain to subside. When I opened my eyes again, a plain white ceiling greeted me.

My fingers curled into fists. “You’re throwing your life away,” he said—snarled. Because the mask had cracked. He was seeing the real me, and I was seeing the real him, too. He rose from his chair. “You’re allowing one heartbreak to turn you into someone I don’t even know.”

The same claw-mark scars from his human face ran across his muzzle. He lunged—not at Samuel, but toward the broken window at the end of the hall. Glass shattered as he crashed through, landing on the grass below. I staggered forward, trying to follow, trying to finish the fight. But my vision wasn’t working anymore. Darkness crept in at the edges. The last thing I saw was the white mask lying on the floor. I reached for it, fingers grazing the smooth surface. Then— Everything went black.

For a heartbeat, my hand felt exposed, and vulnerable. My mask crumbled with it, the illusion shattering.

And now…this. I tried to move, but the chair creaked loud in the dark, and a voice cut through the silence. “You’re awake.” I froze. The man stepped out from the shadows, pulling the mask off slowly, almost theatrical. I couldn’t breathe for a second. My stomach went cold, like the air got sucked out of the room. It was his face that made me surprised. He was familiar in a way that made me sick. Like a half-memory you don’t want to remember.

The hooded man died when his mask was shattered. I dashed towards Tracy and struck her abdomen with the bottom end of my sword's hilt. She growled with pain and fell on the floor. I flipped her over, sat on her, and tried to pry the mask from her face. She clawed at me and scratched me. I was bleeding. It took almost all my strength to remove the mask. Her mask was glued to her face with black slime. I pulled and I pulled until finally, I got it off her face. Tracy stopped struggling and lay motionless on the floor. I threw the mask behind me and checked for a pulse. She was still alive, thank God. I felt my mask vanish from my face like blowing on a dandelion. I shook her trying to wake her

The Masked Guy has been my sanctuary, my escape from reality when everything else became too much to bear. But another part of me— the part that's been shattered and rebuilt so many times I've lost count— needs to know. Needs to understand how he's here, in this moment, when my life has just exploded into a million jagged pieces. The mask lifts away from his face like a curtain being drawn back on a stage. And everything stops. Every thought in my head evaporates. Every breath leaves my lungs in a rush that makes spots dance across my vision. The face looking back at me is impossible, incomprehensible, a reality my mind simply refuses to process.