The Masquerade
"Party guests milled by, on an eerie and moody, haunting night. The mansion was severe and Victorian, a deep amber obsidian stretching into the night. The many windows were lit with yellow light, party guests apparent in almost all of them. A strange subject. Elite Victorian parties in the twenty first century. All in masks.
The music emanating from the party was haunting and orchestral, and various torches and candles sent an eerie glow over the scene. An almost full moon was out, drawing an opaque filter to the strange, stirring night.
A young party guest, who was mysterious and unknown even to the partygoers, traversed the party, clad in a dashing red and black cape. He was about fourteen, angelic seeming, and very handsome. Strange things were happening, he thought to himself, as he looked around the party. He had to pay attention.
A crowd was gathering, and an air of menace grew over the party. Gasps and murmurs filled the night for hours, as the guests milled curiously through the mansion and grounds. The young boy thought to himself again, nervous and pulling at his sleeve buttons. Follow the rules. Stay calm.
A coy young girl, her beauty apparent and beaming behind her mask, nodded politely at him in a circle and slipped away. His heart jumped. Not tonight. Where did she go? The boy pushed a few people aside and tried to follow.
The young boy noticed candles going out as he looked for the unknown young girl. Something was wrong. There was a violent murder, he had heard, and no one had reacted to it much at all. The music and murmurs continued calmly, the strange tension pulsing throughout the busy night.
The candles flickered and waned, one at a time. The torches followed, too. The young boy inspected one, suspicious that the party guests were putting them out. He could not find the young girl in the mask, wherever he looked. No one seemed to know the young girl, or where she was.
He left the party hours later by limousine, shaken, unsure of the world he lived in. He sat in the dark back seat, calm and exhausted, as the car pulled away towards the road. The party shrank in the background, various capes and elegant masks cascading over a flickering, romantic scene.
Glancing once more at the party, he put his head down in dour earnest.
He would find her. He must."
Short Stories