14 Days

The mask

She couldn't remember how she got here. There was nothing but darkness in her head - darkness and the strange sound of an organ playing somewhere near. Christine sat up, undecided, not knowing where she was. Slowly she became aware that she was sitting on a big bed in the middle of a room that was full of flowers and was lit only be a few candles. A memory stirred in her head: Long corridors and the ice cold touch of a stranger. A stranger? She had the feeling that that was not the right description. She remembered thunderous applause... She had been playing the lead and the audience had loved her. Had it been today? Yesterday? Maybe it was even longer ago. Her semi-dormant memory told her that the door of her dressing room didn't open up and then suddenly she had heard her angel of music again. At this point, her memory broke off. Panic started taking possession of her body, she wanted to cry, but no tears came out of her eyes. Her voice didn't obey and she breathed hysterically. She wanted to get out of this room, away from that place; she wanted to know where she was and why she couldn't remember getting here. So she jumped to her feet and looked around, but she couldn't find a door, there seemed to be tapestry everywhere! She felt her way along the wall until she finally found unevenness... and a second one parallel to the first. Desperately, she pushed against the wall between, more forcefully than she had known she was able to. Indeed, only seconds later the tapestry moved and a door opened right in front of her. Christine could see a dark living room behind it. Hesitantly she left the door frame and recognized an organ at the other end of the room. There was a big, dark figure playing on it, but she could only see his back. Slowly, she approached the instrument. The figure must have heard her steps, the music stopped abruptly, but the musician didn't turn to face her. Christine took a deep breath and asked the question that bothered her the most:

'Where am I?'

'You are in my house' the figure answered with a voice, soft as the music he played, tempting, seductive and prepossessing as the angels above and authoritative as the devil himself at the same time.

Christine's heart jumped in that moment of recognizing when the familiar voice electrified her body.

'Angel...' she shouted overjoyed and stormed over to him.

'Do not come closer!' commanded the voice and Christine obeyed while her fear came back.

She recognized that the figure was tall, slim and mysterious, but definitely human. She remembered that she did not know anything at all about her angel. Who was he?

'Monsieur?' she asked timid and insecure.

The figure slowly turned away from the organ. Only two meters separated Christine from him so she could see dark eye caves behind a white mask. Suddenly she remembered everything; the angel of music had come to her dressing room to pick her up and she had followed him trough her mirror to his underground labyrinth. She remembered the white, lifeless face of his mask in the mirror; he had taken her hand and led her trough the dark. There had been his ice cold hand and the sweet sound of music. He had sung to her when they rowed over a dark lake and he had brought her to the room with the flowers where she had woken up.

'Angel?' she asked once more, afraid that he would shatter her dreams.

'No, Christine...' the person began reluctantly, 'I am sorry. There is no angel, there is only me, Erik, I am nothing but a man.'

Something in the way he said 'nothing but a man' sounded strange to her, but she could not think much about this detail right now because her feelings overcame her and she felt anger, fear and disappointment. She cursed her childish greenness; did she really believe in the tales her father had told her about the angel of music?

'Christine...' his voice was even more beautiful, now that he asked for forgiveness, but he did not dare to come closer to her.

Christine looked up to him, full of an anger that expelled her fear.

'Did you have fun, Monsieur?' she cried, 'Are you satisfied now, seeing me standing in my ruined childish dreams?'

Her anger only grew as he just stood there and didn't answer. She felt that he didn't want to lower himself by answering to her.

'Well' she said now feeling the whole amount of sadness, realizing that her father had lied to her 'The game is over, now I know that everything was a lie. Now you can remove your mask, too, you are frightening me with it.'

She waited, but he did not move.

'Please!' she begged.

'Believe me, my dear; your fear would only grow if I removed it.'

Christine did not understand what he meant and reached out for his mask.

He moved faster than she ever thought someone could move; he grabbed her wrists and she freeze in place. Now that she stood right in front of him, she could see that his eyes had a scary gold color - amber gold. In these eyes she looked for an explanation, but she just saw a deep pain that touched her pity.

'Nothing will happen to you if you just don't try to see my face.'

Cautiously examining he let go of her wrists and expected her to grab for his mask again.

But she did not try to; she just looked at him in a way that almost frightened him. It was the first time ever a woman - or any human person - looked at him like that, almost compassionately. She looked in his eyes as if she could see all the pain he had ever felt in his loveless life. But of course this was impossible, she did not know him; did not know anything of his dark past. And yet there were her eyes, full of pity...

For a second, time seemed to have stopped and he lost himself in painful memories. He almost did not notice her succeeding in grabbing his mask, but then, suddenly, his anger and his hate on humans came over him. Had it ever been different? Never! Everybody had wanted to see his face at last, only to scream and run away in fear seconds later.

Christine did not run away. She only looked at his face in disbelief, which turned into terror at the next moment. Her eyes widened and she stared at the deformity. They always stared!

Raging, Erik made a threatening step towards her. She stumbled backwards, but he grabbed her arm forcefully and pulled her close to him.

'You wanted to see it!' he shouted at the trembling girl, 'Now regret taking my mask away!'

She let out a little scream and tried to get away from him and after a few seconds Erik let go of her. Christine turned and ran back to her room where she slammed the door and sank to the ground in tears. Never again she would feel as much fear as she felt in the moment she had taken the mask. Her heart pounded in her chest and she saw that horrible face before her inner eye. She had never seen something like that before, the pale skin covered the gaunt form of a skull, but the worst was that in the middle of this face had been nothing, no nose, just a dark hole.

Still crying Christine walked over to her bed, she now was sure that Erik would not be coming after her. She buried her face in the pillow and cried herself to sleep.