Unmasked (16 page)

“Well, we don’t want to be enemies right?” Blade placed a devious smile on his face. “And coach says that enemies are intolerant…so I need to know that you’re not hateful about a little idea of mine.”

Noelle let out a defeated sight, “Yes?”

“You and me.”

Noelle frowned, “You and me, what?”

“It’s not hard to connect the dots, Saint,” Blade said. “One night, you and I, and you can break that saint status forever.”

Noelle shifted very far to the right eager to get away from Blade.

“I’m tolerant of a lot of ideas, Blade, but not that one.”

He answered coolly, “I can guarantee you, in a couple months you’ll take me up on my offer.”

Noelle rolled her eyes as she spotted Bri and a group of characters gathering on the bleachers singing another tune that Noelle couldn’t quite distinguish.

The male coach stormed over toward them and motioned for them to test out their strength with the weapons.

Bri shoved herself off of the bleachers, shaking her head defiantly, and serenely exiting the arena with the group following closely behind.

The coach paraded over to Noelle and Blade and pointed toward the door almost as if he just had seen a ghost.

“Did you see that group of characters?” the coach asked.

Noelle and Blade nodded.

“Those are your enemy, target them before they target you,” and the coach left without another word.

Noelle paled horrifically.

“What?” Blade asked.

“But Bri…” Noelle began slowly as her hands shook either due to symptoms from the night before, or just from pure shock, “Bri’s my friend. She wouldn’t hurt – I’m not sure if she’s really the enemy. She seems so innocent…I can’t betray her.”

Blade frowned, “Saint, this is a battlefield. You can’t alternate sides. Because you picked this one, you need to stay on it.”

“I know,” Noelle said and she muttered under her breath, “
but what if we picked the wrong one
?” 

Dear Noelle,

I am afraid, terribly afraid that this will be one of the last letters to you. War broke out in the Adventure story the other day. While this is not the first news of wars occurring in other genres, I imagine that it won’t be the last.

They are starting to close down all communications between campers and characters in stories. We are trying to avoid war here as much as possible, but the training sessions have increased substantially. They even cut paper rations; I’m just using a few napkins that a nice hot dog vendor gave to me…dunno why she’s selling in a coffee shop, but that’s beside the point.

Although, camp does plan on having one more Redemption before they’re certain that war will strike here. So I do have one more chance. Though, I suppose that none of that really matters that much when you consider that characterization is really a small thing when you stare life directly in the eyes.

I heard that Aleesha is coming to your school during your prom, although don’t mention it to anyone else. We weren’t really supposed to tell you, but I eavesdropped on a conversation that a few scribes were having. After all they aren’t monitoring these letters, at least, not yet. I heard about your loss, and I’m really sorry. Word at camp is that you upgraded to Supporting Character, and I imagine that you probably knew the Main Character by some degree.

But if anything should stick out to you in this letter, it is this; you need to know your enemy. So many people are going to tell you who to oppose, and I have the most awful feeling that you will likely fight against people like me when the war starts, and it’s coming. I don’t want to fight against you, Noelle. Please open your eyes and see that we’re the ones defending ourselves against the other side’s attacks.

Keep your eyes and ears open, please, and take these words into consideration.

Lacey

The only thing that Noelle absorbed from the letter was the mention of prom. She felt somewhat remorseful about this, but she didn’t want to hear about a war right then.

She already had to deal with training taking a toll on her body, considering her alcohol consumption had skyrocketed that week. The kitchen had begun to notice their supply of booze was running down, and had begun to suspect the characters. Noelle attempted to go another week without it, but she could feel another addiction beginning to grip her bones while she craved nothing but a taste of it again.

She stared at the letter furiously wondering why the administration had never mentioned a school dance.

“Since when is this happening?” she demanded to the air as the desolate Supporting Character cabin yielded no reply.

Her suspicions from the letter were confirmed later over the announcement system by the speaker enthusiastically informing the students of a school dance with the theme of “masquerade.” Each student could collect a mask from the art department and decorate it as he or she pleased and was to wear it at the formal a month away.

Most of the girls congregated in excitement at this news, while several boys looked as if a ton of weight had been heaved upon them as they began to form clusters of their gender when they meandered in the hallways. They often quickened their pace when a female passed.

Noelle, on the other hand, feared for her life as she roamed the halls. She often didn’t talk to many boys, and only one paid her mind, and that was Blade.

But she decided that she would much rather go to the prom alone, or with a baboon, at least the baboon would respect her significantly more than Blade.

Of course, Noelle’s heart sank when Blade came running toward her like a male turkey about to get lucky.

Noelle remembered when their history teacher, who was also a hunter, explained the odd phenomenon that would occur when a male turkey suspected his female counterpart lurked nearby.

“Depending on how well you’re turkey calls are,” he had explained to his class, on one of their lazier work days, “you’ll see the male turkey running. They’re pretty easy to shoot down. So this male turkey is coming; he’s wobbling up the hill as fast as he can, thinking that he’s going to get lucky… and the next thing you know, he’s in turkey heaven.”

Noelle peered anxiously over to the side, hoping to find her history teacher ready with an AK-47 ready to shoot down Blade, but no one was there.

She whipped around as Blade wobbled but inches away.

“Do you want to go to the prom with me?” Blade asked haughtily while stretching his knees to the ground scornfully like a mocking wedding proposal.

“Blade,” Noelle began slowly checking over her shoulder to ensure that no one else could hear her rather terse reply, “I just want to be friends.”

“Friends go to prom together,” Blade said earnestly looking quite uncomfortable squatting in the middle of the hallway on one knee.

Noelle pressed her forefingers to her temples in a desperate attempt to seek out the correct words to shun Blade away.

“Come on, Saint,” Blade took the gap of silence as his turn to speak, “let’s be more than friends, let’s be –”

“I want to be less than friends,” Noelle burst suddenly hoping that Blade would not expound on his requirement to be a “more than” friend. “In fact, let’s be acquaintances. Well no… I guess that we’ve known each other for a long time….let’s be….oh how do I word this?”

“Friends with benefits?” Blade added helpfully.

“What…no! No! No! NO! Not that. I mean, how about you mind your business and I mind mine? We may know each other, but we’ll only speak when necessary, which hopefully will not be often.”

Blade’s face turned sour.

“You mean like mutually separate colleagues?” he asked now rising from the floor. It was his turn to check over his shoulder to clarify that no student was in view.

“Sure,” Noelle said brightly, “if that means that you will leave me alone.”

Much to Noelle’s surprise, Blade’s expression curved into a smile.

“I think that I can convince you to take up my offer about prom.”

Noelle crossed her arms defiantly, “Oh really?’

“How about a guessing game,” Blade mocked playfully. “I know two words that will guarantee that you’ll likely want to do anything that I say.”

Noelle frowned slightly. She knew that Blade often fiddle with gambling with some Supporting Characters during late hours of the night, so this could very well be a bluff.

“What are the two words?” she asked scornfully. “‘I do’?”

Blade shot her an odd expression that mused into a humorous one.

“I don’t want to marry you,” he laughed scornfully. “Do you think I’m a guy who likes to make commitments like that?”

“What are the two words?” Noelle repeated impatiently.

Blade left a pregnant pause before he answered.

“
Hera’s hair
.”

Noelle froze and stared at him in horror, but she tried to bluff her way through her response.

“Y-yeah, what ab – what about it?”

Blade’s grin widened as her voice shook horrifically. He had caught her in her crime.

“Don’t ever play cards, Saint,” Blade shook his head disdainfully. “You can’t lie to save your life.”

“How did you find out?” Noelle asked him finally eagerly eyeing the door awaiting an escape from the paralyzing fear gripping her bones.

“Step one of committing a crime,” Blade continued as if Noelle had never interrupted him, “
Never carry out a crime against a close friend of the detective
. I’ve had my fair share of felonies and know how a criminal mind works.

“Step two:
if you’re the criminal, don’t execute a crime where there are fewer culprits to suspect
. While, yes, there are several Extras, won’t some find it suspicious that you managed to “find” Hera’s hair and the shears on the exact same day? Not to mention that you used to be close with Bri. I don’t imagine anything would have spurred you to betray your best friend if she had confided in you, not even for a chance at Main Character status.

“And step three:
if you want to succeed, you must be able to lie
. You must have an alibi. Even a weak one is better than nothing. Although you can’t make it too well thought out, otherwise others will suspect you.”

Noelle shifted back and forth on her feet glancing at the patterns and cracks in the tile.

“Thank you for the information?” she said hesitantly. “Um, I guess I’ll try to use that next time…So why exactly do you want to take me to prom anyway?” she asked, eager to change the subject.

“I’ll be the one asking the questions here,” Blade answered haughtily. “But if you must really know, you reek of saint-y-ness, and I think it should be my personal goal to destroy any of those saint-y qualities that you had when we first met.”

Noelle looked positively stunned by this news.

Why did Blade care? What was so wrong with her now?

She drew herself up and stared at him square in the eye only to feel emptiness. Although she greatly disliked him, somehow she wanted to prove that she was worth something.

Why couldn’t he accept her for who she was then?

“Plus,” Blade added with a savoring look in his eyes, “you’re kind of hot, or at least, you started to get that way when you started hanging around Hera.”

Noelle frowned slightly remembering that when she had begun her friendship with Hera she had also started her addiction to losing weight.

Did he love her for that?

“I don’t even know why you want to go with
me,
” Noelle clarified. “After all, Aleesha is coming as a Main Character to prom and – oh crap you weren’t supposed to find out about that!”

“I already knew.”

“What – but how?”

Blade threw a dismissive wave as he brandished a pair of napkins that had Lacey’s handwriting on it. It was the letter that had brief mention about Aleesha’s arrival.

“Step four:
Always suspect pick pockets
. It was actually quite funny earlier this morning. I managed to nab it when you were listening to announcements. Almost failed though because you managed to bolt off at rapid speed after they reached the word ‘prom’.”

“All right, all right,” Noelle rolled her eyes as she snatched the letter. “But you still haven’t answered my question.”

“Which is?”

“Why me and not Aleesha?”

Blade eyed her carefully as he began to pace back and forth.

“I’d rather you be the Main Character of the story because everyone would be inspired by your example of forgetting about childhood dreams and facing the real world.”

Noelle stared at him skeptically.

“There’s something else. What’s the catch?”

“Maybe there is something else, but what you should be worried about is what happens when you refuse my offer.”

Noelle sat down back pressed against the wall for she had grown tired of standing in one place at one time.

“All right, what happens if I refuse?”

“Not only are characters going to know that you chopped of her hair due to a little helpful hint from me, but they’ll assume that you murdered her as well.”

“I DIDN’T KILL HER!” Noelle snapped defensively.

Blade winked deviously.

“Well aware of that, Saint, but how do you explain that to them? They’ll assume that you first attempted to dethrone Hera was through chopping off her hair, and you were unsuccessful, so they’ll assume that your schemes worked the second time around, and you managed to give her a heart attack. After all, you were present when she died.”

Noelle stared at him furiously at a loss for words, drops of gasoline burning her eyes as she held back tears of fury.

Where did he get these ideas anyway? I wonder how he even got into this genre anyway. I feel like a mystery subgenre would fit him better.             

But what if he was right? Would she risk everything for the simple sake of pure defiance during a school dance?

“It’s up to you, Saint, but I will make my offer again.”

Blade squatted to the ground so that they were nearly eye level.

“Will you go to the prom with me?”

“Yes,” Noelle barely whispered.

“Good answer.”

#

Dear Noelle,

I’m probably going to have to tackle a scribe for this letter to get to you. This is it. This is the last letter; they aren’t letting any more through. I don’t imagine the war has started there yet, but I’m guessing that it’s coming soon.

There are so many things that I want to tell you, but so little time.

So here are a few pointers that I think you’ll appreciate when those who we love pass:

Don’t sweat the small things

Times will be bad, but times will be good as well

Appreciate every moment in life it is a gift

Live every day like you’re dying

Forgive and don’t let the sun set while you are still angry with friends