by K. Weikel
Chapter 29
Becca finds herself lowering the gun with a scowl on her face. Banshee just watches her, not an ounce of fear in his eyes. He’s perfectly at ease.
Becca, on the other hand, is not.
Something inside of her has snapped. Snapped mentally. This alter ego of hers, this other side to Becca hasn’t gone away. Instead, it tucks the gun into the back of her pants and turns away without a word.
“Good luck,” Banshee calls as she reaches the door. “You’ll need it.”
Becca reaches the door and touches the knob, and suddenly, there’s a splintering bang right beside her head. A knife sticks out, wobbling a little. She looks back at Banshee, who is still sitting in the chair, and he pulls another knife from his sleeve. It twirls around his fingers like a baton as he smiles at her.
Becca’s new attitude wavers a bit, but she takes a deep breath and the false confidence is back.
“One more question, Banshee,” She asks before opening the door up. He nods and she continues. “What was the paper you gave Quill?”
Banshee chuckles and shakes his head. “All in good time, Becca. Don’t rush anything. Not just yet. Baby steps. Baby steps…”
Becca stares at him for the longest time, trying to decipher what’s going on in his head, what he’s talking about. Could he be warning them about the Maskless? About her?
She swings the door open and steps through, the wood shutting out the sudden burst of insane laughter from Banshee and another knife hitting the door.
She starts to run, starts to sprint back to the room with the boys. The door opens easily, but both of them are up and wandering about the room. Mikey looks up from the book Becca had stolen from the library, and Eduard whips around the corner of the bathroom to stare straight at her. He pushes forward a bit, and then stops himself to backpedal a few steps.
“Where did you go?” He asks her.
“Nowhere. I need all of the Maskless. Now.”
“What—why?” Eduard barks.
“Because Quill might know who I am. Where I am. We need to get out of here. He’s going to be looking for me. For us.”
“But he doesn’t know our faces or our masks—”
“And that’s the problem,” Becca says, grabbing her things and throwing them in her bag, including the black box. “Everyone is starting to get ID’s with both their faces and masks on them, and pretty soon everyone is going to have to have it. I know if we don’t have that, they’ll automatically know that we’re the Maskless.”
Eduard nods and looks at Mikey, who walks up and hands the book to Becca. She swings the bag around her shoulders to the front of her and shoves it inside.
The sound of barking dogs slip under the windowsill.
The trio glances at each other and a painful thought crosses Becca’s mind.
“I don’t have a mask,” she says, but instead of the normal feeling of panic she’s so used to in these situations, it’s replaced with anger. A slow, churning anger that starts to rise from the bottom of her torso and makes its way up to her brain.
Mikey shakes his head and pulls his bag out from behind him. “I brought extra. I have one white and a few black. Pick one.”
Becca reached in without looking and grabbed one of the masks edges. She pulls it out.
White.
Eduard pulls out a black mask as Becca stares at the mask in her hands. She’s pressing too hard. She’s too angry. Of course she’d pull out the white mask. It looks at her with a smile, almost seeming to taunt her, to laugh at her. Banshee’s laughter rings in her mind as she stares at the plain white mask.
It snaps in half before she realizes she needs to release the tension between her hands. It’s almost a perfect split down the center, and she stares at it, amazed.
“Great,” Mikey says, not smiling anymore.
“I’m sorry, I’m—”
Suddenly she remembers the dreams. The half masks. Black and white.
The white part she holds in her right hand is a smile, a smile that reminds her of Quill’s mask. A malevolent smile. A Banshee smile.
She digs her hand into the bag again and produces two black masks. She takes the one with the biggest frown and snaps it in half as well, throwing all four halves of the masks into her bag and placing the last mask on her face.
“What are you doing?” Eduard asks, his mask already over his face.
“Nothing,” Becca says, not knowing exactly what she’s doing, but she knows it feels right. “Let’s go.”
“Becca, are you—”
“I am fine, Eduard,” Becca snaps, spinning around. Her hair brushes against his shoulder and she feels the blood rushing to her cheeks, but not from embarrassment—from anger.
“Hey, calm down—”
“Do not tell me to calm down, Mikey,” she spits and her eyes dart between their two masks. “I could die today.”
“What?” Eduard asks, stepping closer to her. Becca’s heart flutters a little bit, but she ignores it. “What do you mean?”
“Just come on.”
“No, I want to know what you mean, Becca.”
“Eduard. You’ll see. I just need someone to help me. I need everyone to—”
“No.” Eduard says, cutting her off.
“What?” Becca asks, the anger inside her simmering now.
“I said no.”
“Why?” Becca steps closer to him, wishing she looked like more of a threat. Suddenly, the gun feels heavy as it sits in the back of her pants.
“Because you don’t seem to be in your right mind.”
A short laugh slips out from her mouth and she takes a step back. “I’m certainly in my right mind. Now do as I ask.”
“No.”
“I’m the freaking Face of the Maskless, Eduard, you said so yourself. You want me to lead? This is me leading.”
“Yeah, but, newsflash, Becca—you’re just the Face. I am the brains, and you know it. So shut your trap and listen to me.”
Becca is taken aback and the anger is boiling now. “You know what? I don’t need you. Any of you.” She turns toward the door.
“Becca—” Eduard reaches out to grab her arm.
She pulls the gun out from the back of her pants and points it at him. “Let go.”
It takes a moment before he follows her instructions. When he lets go, she lowers the weapon and tucks it back into place as she opens the door and steps out into the hallway, her destination in her brain. She’s doing it. She hates him. Hates Quill. Hates Banshee. If Quill wouldn’t have chosen her… if Banshee wouldn’t have had those dreams… she could be home with her family right now. She sees it all clearly now.
And it’s time for someone to pay for what has happened to her.