I enter the lift with barely a glance at the existing occupant and press the button for the ground floor.
Wait. Is he wearing a mask?
I turn around. Yes he is and he is staring right at me. I’d better make small talk.
“Hello, that’s an interesting costume. Are you off to some fancy dress do?”
No response. No nod of the head. Nothing. Just the stare.
I try again. “Doesn’t the mask make your face itchy, what with the beard?”
Again, nothing but the stare. I decide to give up and try to look away but find I am unable.
There’s something about the mask. There’s something wrong. I move closer, or did the stranger move closer? Regardless, the mask is larger now. I look into the eyes. What is it? There’s something missing. I cannot turn away, I must look at the eyes. The mask is growing, the eyes holding me.
The mask grows. The eyes are all I can see. But there is nothing to see.
The mask grows. The eyes are empty. Behind the mask nothing but a black, infinite void.
The mask grows. I step into the eyes, into the emptiness, into the darkness.
All around there is nothing. I look at my body. Nothing. No breath escapes my lungs. No heart beats out my life’s rhythm.
I have no form. I am the darkness. I am the void. I am eternity.
Now I see. Now I understand.
I am the mask.
—–
My darkness is pierced by a shaft of light as the lift door opens. A young man enters, glances at me and turns away.
He presses a button, then slowly turns around to look at me. His mouth moves, I hear nothing.
I simply stare, waiting.
My entry in the July 2018 300 Word Story Challenge at SFFChronicles
Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, or other Speculative Fiction
It got 3 any votes: POLL — July 2018 300 Word Writing Challenge
M. Robert Gibson 