Page 147 of The Masks She Wore

?She came out a moment later, her eyes alight. “Don’t worry,” she said, flashing her ring. “I’m all yours.”

?I stared at that ring as she made her way to the door. “You’re not taking it off for the assignment?”

?She laughed. “I’m not taking it off ever again. I’ll be buried in it. I’ll wear it in the afterlife. It’s mine,” she said almost fondly.

?She wasn’t worried about the ring jeopardizing her plan. “What about Viv?” I asked as she gathered her jacket and purse. “What will you tell her?” While I was proud that she never wanted to take it off, we were trained to play the part, no matter the cost. I knew she would have been too. If the ring jeopardized her chances, as much as I hated admitting this out loud, she should take it off.

?“The truth,” she answered as I followed her out the bedroom door. “I’m engaged. I’ll introduce her later. She’s never met you, so it’ll be easy. I’m not taking it off,” she said again, joining me. “Ever.”

?If only she knew the true status of what we were. I’d give it a few more days before I told her though. I wanted to reveal it when I had her pinned to my bed. “You can dance with whomever you like so long as you understand I can kill them if I feel they’re getting too handsy.”

?She smiled knowingly. “Deal.”

?I hoped she understood how truthful I was being. She was mine, and the world would know it, no matter how much blood I needed to shed.

?Maybe if they were innocent enough, I’d leave them scarred and whimpering, but those who pushed too far?

?I cracked my neck, already feeling the agitation grow under my skin. I had a feeling these clothes would be ruined by the end of the night.

33

Rae

February 7th, 2020

Iwould have to start wearing a mask too. Jack said as much on our drive to Viv’s place.

?I didn’t wholly mind, so long as I could pick it out, which Jack had assured me I could. I already had one in mind, if I were being completely honest. The idea of wearing a mask sounded fun and different. Far different than what mom had me do. Temporary hair dye, certain makeup to change the shape of my face, my eyes, and whatnot. A mask seemed a lot more fun. And I had always had a thing about rabbits. Cute, cuddly, and nobody wouldexpect something so adorable to be so…cunning.

?He dropped me off three blocks from Viv’s house and kissed me goodbye, the taste of my own cunt still prevalent on his lips. It caused me to shiver and at the same time nausea twisted my stomach.

?No, I couldn’t remember everything that had happened to me during those four months, but I did remember everything Jack had done to me and every time I had a nightmare, it was always Jack doing something he had never done.

?I hated it, but I would move past it eventually. These nightmares would stop. Rationally, I knew he hadn’t raped me. I knew he hadn’t taken a blow torch to my skin or broken my fingernails. I knew he hadn’t broken my fingers or made me drink small amounts of bleach until I puked.

?But even so…

?I was trying. I’d move past it, I knew I would.

?I pulled my jacket closer as I headed for Viv’s house. I wasn’t worried about being mugged by some horny male in the shadows, I could take care of myself, so I allowed my mind to wander.

?I think I would pick a black bunny mask. A bunny to represent my feminine side. The world looked at women and assumed we were so weak, so useless outside of creating babies and drama. The mask would represent that even those clothed in rabbit fur could bite like a lion and sting like a wasp.

?I rolled my shoulders when her house came into view, but honestly, I was less nervous now than I had been the night we had gone to the club.

?I couldn’t be sure if that was a purposeful attack or if it had been something else. I had only met ‘Beth’ a few times before this. She had been kind and really good at her job.

?She and her parents were similar to us, only on a far smaller scale. She never had the training I did, she just did what her parents wanted and that was that.

?Her family, like most in this world, had been close. Taking pictures with her had been one of the only rules my mom had given me that I had ever dared break. We had been friends. As friendly as we could have been in a world like this, but when her parents died, it had been horrible.

?An assignment gone wrong. We had all been involved, and everything had been going so well until one of our targets caught sight of one of us. After that, it wasn’t really clear what happened.

?All I remembered was lots of gunfire and shouting and then silence before Beth’s wailing rang through the world.

?I didn’t see her again until two months after my mom ‘died’.

?Max hadn’t said a word about her. None of them had. It gave me hope that maybe Malachi had known that she was Beth Dorsey and that’s the only reason he had said what he had.

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