Emma’s Perspective
In the mists of my mind I started to dream. I found myself in front of the gates to a very extravagant estate. The entrance was an obnoxiously large gate that loomed over me. Although it appeared to be made of gold it didn’t reflect light, but had a matte design. On the right side I saw thousands of people moving in a single file line through the gate. Each person wore a different kind of formal wear. Some wore ornate, others simple, but the most striking feature was that each person wore a mask. The designs of the masks were completely unique from person to person. As far as I could tell, the only thing people had in common were the occasional color schemes.
The next person that approached the gate was a woman wearing a blood red dress. Her dress was a slim fit, but it also seemed to flow like water around her. Every step caused a small ripple of change in the dress, almost as if it took on a new look every time. She wore a pink mask that only covered around her eyes. Although the area was small it felt like it hid all of the attributes of her face. In addition to the alluring color, the mask had a faint glow that made it hard to retain observations I made. I found myself constantly noticing how the decorations of the corners of her mask discharged the glow into a lingering swirling pattern that trailed behind her as she walked.
When she approached the gate she produced a thick envelope that had a red seal on the flap. Apparently the seal was all that mattered because guard gave a cursory glance at it, handed it back, and waved her through. As she walked through the gates my eyes followed her and I finally noticed the garden past the gates. I wasn’t sure if I never saw it before or if because I was watching this woman it appeared in my dream. Either way, I found the garden was a mix of several styles. The front was composed of a hedge garden that made several paths to different attractions. The term “front” was relative because the garden expanded the whole distance between the mansion and the arches.
Suddenly, an elderly man emerged from the hedge maze and walked towards the crowd. Immediately, everyone went down on a knee or gave some kind of respectful greeting. The old man had a simple mask that covered the upper half of his face. Oddly, the mask didn’t seem to hide much because the contours and detail of the mask matched what was probably the face he had under. His hair was the same silver color of his mask, which made the transition from his hairline to his mask a little awkward. Coming out of the gate, he approached me and my initial thought was to attempt a bow of some kind. However, I found myself unable to move anything. I realized that moving a body part in my dream would be extremely difficult, but moving my point of view or my entire body shouldn’t have been that hard.
He stopped in front of me and said, “Welcome to everyone new to The Masquerade. I imagine all of you were anxiously waiting for me to deliver your certification. Before I give it to you I would like to remind you that once you enter you must return what I am giving to you in full.”
Hearing his words I looked behind me and was surprised that there were quite a few other people behind me. All of them looked a lot more steeled than me and carried grim expressions. Whatever this masquerade was, it seemed like it wasn’t the happiest place ever, maybe this old man was a loan shark with insane interest rates.
“Although you aren’t here yet, you will be in a few days. Luckily, you will get a preview of the venue tonight,” he continued. With a wave of his hand everyone suddenly had an envelope similar to the one the woman from earlier handed into the gate.
Shifting my view, I looked down into my own hands and saw nothing. I guessed I wasn’t actually part of this scene and was just a viewer. That changed when the old man walked closer to me and held a flat metal box. It looked to like a necklace box that stores would have on display, except on the box were metallic lines that bloomed into complex swirls on the box.
“Yours is a little different than everyone else,” the old man said directly to me, “You have been summoned by a lord, there is no option.” His eyes contained a bit of interest and pity.
At the appearance of the box every person in the line at the right of the gate shifted their gaze over to me. Looking at their eyes they looked like a pack of wolves waiting to devour me. Despite this being a dream I was still a little shocked by their reaction. This box definitely transformed me into the prey of a thousand eyes. Despite the fact that I held off most people at school with a blank stare, in front of this crowd I felt uneasy. Unlike the immature people at my school, every person here seemed to have overwhelming willpower.
“Aren’t you going to open it?” the old man asked motioning the box towards me.
Reluctantly I took the box from his hand and lifted the cover off. To my surprise, the contents of the box were quite ironic. Fitted into jewelry packaging was a simple silver chain necklace with a single pendant on it. Although the chain wasn’t excessive, the pendant was alluring because of its reflective properties and, in my mind, it looked like a Mobius strip. Stuffed on the side of the box was a folded note that I took out.
I quickly scanned the writing which said, Now you have a backbone to your lie. With a talent like yours I suspect you will have more troubles in the future. If Jessica had any impact on me, it was probably that her attitude had pervaded into this dream and onto this note. That was freakish talent that she had to make a large impression on me. I looked for a signature at the bottom, but the only writing I saw was a little heart which, quite frankly, freaked me out more.
I had no intention of attempting to put on the necklace, but the old man and the crowd kept staring at me like they were frozen in time until I did the right thing. So I took the necklace out of the box and pulled it around my neck while unhooking it. Since there weren’t any additional hooks I reattached the hook at the original point. This caused the Mobius strip to land lower than I liked hanging between my breasts. The second shocking thing I noticed when I looked down was the gown I wore. It was strange how I never noticed it before since I typically felt dresses were impractical and uncomfortable, but this seemed to fit better than most. On the other hand it was much more…liberating than any of the clothes I had. The gown stuck to my body line a lot more closely than my regular clothing, which made everything stick out more. Secondly, on my left side was a slit in the dress that ran from my ankle all the way up to my hip. In fact, this made me question if I even had underwear on in this dream because I could feel every bit of wind brush against me. Luckily the dream seemed to obey part of my will and the wind did not excessively blow at this spot. Finally, the worst part about the gown was the top component. There weren’t any straps which left my shoulders exposed. To make it worse, the collar line that started above my breasts dove sharply when it should have converged. This made the pendant the centerpiece of my upper body and would undoubtedly draw the attention of people.
However, my upset was overthrown by the pattern of the material of the gown. At the slightest movement it would shimmer in a wave following the motion. The wave had reflective properties and made it all the more eye catching. When I didn’t move it stayed a vanilla color without any trace of the shimmer. I was tempted to experiment more with it, but people continued to stare at me and I decided that I would have to wait.
“This way please,” the old man said extending his hand in the direction of the mansion.
I followed him under the arches towards the mansion. I didn’t make it past twenty feet into the garden when a young man stepped in front of my path. Well, I couldn’t definitely say he was young because he wore a mask, but using my best judgment of the rest of his physical appearance I would put him in his early twenties. Although he wasn’t too much taller than me, he was surrounded by an intimidating feeling.
“Miss, are you going in?” he asked staring at my bare face.
“I suppose,” I said hesitantly.
He didn’t say anything, but it was apparent that he my response made him displeased. From his left a young woman came to his side.
“Don’t be stupid,” she said knocking against his shoulder, “She’s obviously lost. Look, she’s even going bare faced, you know she wouldn’t do that if she was with a family. We should help her.”
“This,” he began hesitating.
“She reminds me of your sister,” the woman said softly.
He looked at me for a while as if validating the woman’s statement.
“Take this,” he said giving me a black box, “Before you get inside you need to be able to put on your mask. I don’t know who invited you, but it was clearly a mistake. For now this will hold off most people if you use it as a substitute mask.”
“I knew you’d help,” the woman said squeezing his arm.
“She’ll be paying me back in the future,” he said turning away.
The woman turned to follow him, but suddenly turned back towards me. “I know, take this,” she said producing an item from sash tied around her waist.
It was a simple hairpin made of wood that had a thick end tapering into a thin point. The thicker part had a small round cyan ornament that looked like it contained a murky gold colored fog.
“The pin is an artifact I made; it can pierce through anything lower than a seven star rank with ease. Past that you’ll have to get stronger yourself for it to be of use. As for the orb, it’s called ‘Little Planet’, if you break it we’ll come help you, but you shouldn’t have the need for that until much later,” she explained.
“Mm,” I said, not knowing a single thing she said.
“Don’t worry, you’ll understand in a bit,” she laughed as my confusion was clearly shown. “Take care,” she said leaving this time.
After she left I turned to the old man who I found was kneeling on the ground. I thought he was in pain, but he got up like nothing happened.
“What was that?” I asked.
“Your amazing luck,” he replied, “The man was one of the four Deathgods and the woman was his fiancée, she is a Fate Weaver. It seems like they are giving you the backing of their family, the Indusia Solta.”
I looked at the items they gave me in my hands, this dream has a fetish with boxes, I thought. The old man continued to look at me until I felt uncomfortable again. I guess this dream wouldn’t progress unless I opened the damn box.
Opening it up, I saw a mask with the same color as the orb on the hairpin, but it didn’t have traces of the gold colored fog. Instead it had thin black lines tracing around it. On the top part was an insignia that I couldn’t identify, it probably had something to do with the family the old man talked about.
I wanted to satisfy my curiosity and see what was so different about wearing a mask. I put my hair in a bun and secured the hairpin with it. Then, I took the mask and lifted it to my face. As it approached I heard a faint rhythmic buzzing noise. I did my best to ignore it, but it grew louder until it filled the whole space.
“Fuck,” I said trying to pull the mask up to my face.
At that moment I woke up wide eyed in my bed. I glanced around and saw my phone buzzing with a call, it was Kelly.
Lantern Dragon Works 