The Mystery of the Mask: Part 1

A lonely boy balanced on a fallen tree trunk deep in the woods, filled with a green glow all around. He held his arms out as he stepped precariously on the mossy wood. He was about six years old, with short red hair and freckles that stippled his nose and cheeks. The boy lived in a town nearby called Crater Town, which received its appropriate name after people built a city in the middle of a crater in the forest after a strange meteor had crash landed their hundreds of years ago.

The legend the lonely boy heard of his town was that a meteor had circled the earth for decades, orbiting around the planet like a second moon. Many people wondered if it was a new moon; others debated if it was going to fall; and some theorized it was extraterrestrial, a spacecraft that was watching them. A group of people began to worship the strange meteor, seeking its approval and pardon if it ever chose to land on their planet. After several decades, the meteor circled into Earth’s atmosphere, and hurled down in a fiery blaze. The group of worshippers became terrified, believing the meteor had come to judge them. The rock crashed in the forest nearby the followers.

They traveled for days and days, following a pillar of dust and smoke in the sky that signaled the crashed meteor. When they came to inspect the crash site, as they got closer, a strange green haze filled the forest, illuminating neon particles in the sky. The meteor had destroyed acres of trees and laid waste in its trail, but when they had found the crash site, the meteor was gone. The followers believed the meteor had judged them fairly, but some became increasingly concerned of the strange disappearance.

In an attempt to solve the paranormal mystery, they stayed in the crater and slowly built a civilization in the forest, aptly naming it Crater Town. To this day the mystery of the disappearing meteor remains unsolved. However, a new myth was born following the crash.

After the town had settled and begun living regularly in the crater, children would often run off to play in the woods. Parents wouldn’t mind since there were no predators that stalked the woods, only gentle fauna and small rodents. The only worry was the still unsolved mystery of the green aura that hung in the forest. As children would play, climbing the trees and playing tag, one day they told their parents an unusual man came to play with them. Naturally, all the people knew each other as life outside the forest was far, so they asked who came to play with them. The children didn’t know who he was, but when they explained what the man looked like, and the town grew worried.

The children explained the man that came to play with them was an abnormally tall man who had a wooden mask on his face, like that of ancient folklore. He offered them all to wear his mask, saying it held great powers and could reveal the mystery of the meteor if they inherited the mask. As the adults heard this tale, they went out in the woods in search of the masked man. Though they searched for hours at a time for several days, no one found the masked man. But the curiosities of this strange encounter lead many to wish for his reappearance to finally solve this mystery of the disappearing meteor. It had been years and years since the masked man had come, and he faded into old legend along with the town.

The lonely boy slipped on the mossy log and scraped his knee. He sat up and held his knee, staring at the fine red lines as droplets of blood formed. He winced, trying to hold out through the pain, but as a little boy he couldn’t bear pain well yet.

The lonely boy heard footsteps crunch on green leaves and soft grass. He looked up and saw a very tall man approach him. He had a strange wooden mask covering his face.

“Hello,” the tall man spoke softly. His voice was gentle and oddly boyish, as if his voice had never matured.

“Hello,” the lonely boy answered.

“Did you hurt your knee?” the masked man asked compassionately.

“Mhmm,” the lonely boy tried to be brave and not show pain.

“I’m very sorry. I hate when I am hurt.” The masked man walked over to the boy and knelt down beside him. The boy saw his mask in full display. It was carved very delicately and sanded with great precision. It had purple lines like claw marks that cut across the mask starting from the outside and towards the center. There were bold green lines that went over the eyes, like a clown, and overlapped the purple stripes. The eyes weren’t hollowed out or even had an opening the see through; rather they were large yellow circles with tiny red iris’s inside. In the yellow eyes was a strange orange glow that moved inside, barely visible. The mask itself was larger than the tall man’s face.

“What is your name?” the masked man sincerely.

“Adam,” the lonely boy replied.

“Adam. That’s my favorite name.”

“It is?” he asked excitedly.

“I just love the name Adam. It was the very first name ever.”

“What’s your name?” Adam asked hopefully.

“You’ve hurt your knee, Adam, does it still sting?” the masked man refused to answer.

“Yes, it stings.”

The masked man cocked his head and presumably stared at Adam. “Would you like me to kiss it?”

Adam thought about it. His parents had done that in the past and it seemed to work. And since he was friends with everyone in his home of Crater Town, he thought everyone must know this trick too. “Yes, please.”

The masked man held up his pointer finger. His voice deepened strangely as he spoke. “Would you like a present, first?”

“What kind of present?” Adam rubbed around his scrape as it started to hurt more.

“Something you must accept now.” The masked man spun his pointer finger around and pointed at the mask. “You must take this mask, Adam.”

“Why?”

“Because I think you should have it.”

“Why do you think I should have it?”

“This mask is very, very special. Just like you. And it can give you special powers.” The masked man gently placed his strange fingers on the boy’s shoulder. “Have your parents ever talked about a meteor before?”

“Yes,” Adam said loudly, “They said a meteor came and made the forest green, and it’s why we live in a crater.”

“Very good, Adam. You are very smart. Have your parents ever wondered what happened to the meteor?”

“No one knows,” Adam said regretfully.

The masked man gently tapped on his masked with a long nail. “The mask knows.” The masked man removed his hand off the boy and pointed at his scraped knee. “If you take the mask, I’ll make sure your pain goes away.”

Adam nodded and agreed. The masked man curled his fingers around the masked and slowly peeled it off. Adam realized there was no strap or band to hold up the mask, it simply stuck to his face. As the tall man pulled the mask off, he revealed his face. It was white as snow, eyeless, and a wide smile stretched above his tiny nose, with sharp teeth like a wolf’s. The man slowly pushed the mask onto Adam’s face.

The mask began vibrating and Adam shook violently. A hollowed scream echoed from the mask – it wasn’t Adam’s. The boy tried ripping the mask off but he couldn’t. An orange light shot out in all directions from the mask, blasting through the forest. The light dissipated and Adam fell to the ground motionless.

Inside Crater Town, the people noticed the orange light glowing from inside the forest and up in the sky. They thought it might be the tall man from years and years ago, and they quickly ran towards the light. When they arrived, Adam’s parents stepped forward and began to cry.

“Adam?” his mother said nervously. Adam was levitating in the air, curling his fingers as orange dusts of light floated underneath him. He spun in the air and faced the mob, revealing the mask upon his face. The tall man was nowhere to be seen.

His mother gasped and his father cried out in denial. “Who did this to you, Adam?” his father shouted.

Adam tilted his head and presumably stared at them. “You have one day,” Adam’s voice was distorted with a static, gravelly voice that reverberated.

“One day until what?” his mother asked afraid.

“Darkness.” Adam levitated over the crowd and flew back into Crater Town. He stood on the top of a church over the bell tower and held his hands high in the sky. The ground began shaking around them as they hurried back into Crater Town. As the ground shook, the sky darkened over them, and the woods were glowing greener than ever before.

One of the townspeople ran towards a stable and hopped on horse, galloping away. Adam saw the man and shot his hand towards a barrel standing beside a house. He clenched his fist and the barrel lifted up with an orange glow around it. Adam hurled the barrel towards the man but the man veered his horse out of the way and continued riding. Adam threw three more barrels but the man ducked and dodged the oncoming attacks.

The man rode out of the crater and into the forest, reappearing into the light as he cracked the reins on his horse towards the nearest town, several miles away.