When the clock blinks ten at her, she hears the doorknob on her front door turn, creaking open. Minnie’s lungs forget to operate, her eyes wide.
A tall shape enters the dim of her townhome, slinking in like a thief would. Adrenaline pours into her veins faster, like gasoline. She’s shaky with it, hands trembling as she stands frozen in place like a doe.
She looks to the entryway, taking in the dark shape that stands there. The door shuts with finality, the various locks clicking into place by his gloved hand. Then, the shadowed figure turns to face her, standing in all his ominous finery. Blackjeans, lace-up boots, and a black leather jacket over a dark hoodie. Minnie feels her breath catch in her throat as she glances down. Dangling from his hand isthe mask, the very one that she’ll never forget.
The Skull Mask. Gage’sotheridentity.
He takes in the darkness of the townhome, his glance sweeping about. Gage swallows as he carefully moves another step in. He makes to take off his boots, but Minnie stops him with a sharp, “Don’t. Leave them on.”
It’s hard to see the exact expression on his face, but he darn well knows she expects visitors to take their shoes off at the door. Minnie keeps a clean, orderly home.
But no thief would care about her darn floors.
“Minnie-,” he starts to say, but she interrupts him again with a sharp shake of her head.
“Don’t call me by my name.Youdon’t know my name.” She needs it to feel real, and Skull Mask never called her anything other than princess.
Stock still, Gage takes measure of the tension filling the room. “Alright.” He sounds off balance, his voice hesitant. “What do you want me to do with this thing?” The hand holding the mask moves slightly, making it shift in his grasp like a floppy, uncooked steak.
Minnie has been chewing on this since the night prior, tormented by the very concept, yet unable to stop fixating on it. “Put it on,” she barely utters, feeling her pulse madly racing through her veins. Fear coils with a strange type of want. It mingles until it begins to get difficult to decipher what is fear and what is desire for the man who shares her bed. “That’s what you’re here for.”
The shadows cast over his face, hiding his eyes, making them appear black in their sockets. Very much like the skull inked at his throat. Gage’s mouth twists into a grimace, a flash of teethas he looks away from her sharply. “I don’t think this is going to help you.” He bites his tongue to stop from saying her name.
“We won’t know until we try.”
Agonized, he looks to her again. “What if it makes thingsworse?”
That’s not possible. Minnie is certain there is nothing that would make the emotional scars inside of her worse than they already are. Finding an edge of calm, grasping at it like a straw, Minnie says softly, “Put the mask on and come to me. Let’s see what happens.”
His breathing shifts, each inhale sounding heavy. “See whathappens?That’s…great.”
“I want to relive it.” Minnie continues firmly. He’s being a naysayer because he thinks she can’t handle it. “But I want tochange it. I want to replace my memory of this.”
“I refuse to scare you, I won’t do it-”
“You don’t need to do that. Just play the part. A watered-down version.” She places a solemn hand over her heart. “I need to see the phantom from my past. Ineedit. I need to remove the teeth of that memory.”
With a short nod of acceptance, Gage sighs and slowly pulls the mask over his face. In that moment, everything slows down. The way he moves, the way Minnie breathes. It all seems to descend upon this very act of him becoming the thing of her nightmares again.
Within moments, Skull Mask stands there, looking every bit as terrifying as he did over a decade ago. A tremble starts in her hands, and Minnie stands like a statue in the darkness of her townhome, alone with this tower of menace, standing there, looking right at her. The ivory of the bone on that black material, the wicked grin of the skull.
In the darkness, he steps towards her, all slow, measured menace. “Don’t scream. Not a word.”
Minnie feels her breathing come quickly, short and nervous. That voice, paired with that mask. Her memories come tumbling to the forefront of her mind, and she feels frozen in time. She can’t move, standing there with wide eyes as she looks at him.
She can almost feel the sensation of his gloved hands on the back of her neck, echoing in memory.
With two more steps, he is right in front of her, close enough to touch. Now, his gloved hand reaches out, slow enough to allow her to escape. Minnie forces herself not to move, to allow him to touch her. His hand makes its way into her hair, tugging gently.
She can’t help the whimper that slips from her lips as she stares up at those threatening eyeholes. It’s too dark to see his eyes, so it’s as if the abyss is staring back at her.
“Shh. Easy. You’ll be fine,” that rusty-nail voice rasps, familiar. “So long as you do exactly as I say, princess.” The hand in her hair is an effortless show of dominance; he barely has to try. Despite this, he uses his free hand to gently stroke her cheek as he leans down over her. “Be a good girl, yeah? You can do that for me?”
Despite the menace of his appearance, his words are all Gage. Her apprehension is soothed by the fact that he’sso carefulwith her. His hands, his words-
Swallowing thickly, trembling, Minnie nods. She tells herself this is what she needs, that this is what she wants. To make Gage and Skull Mask one, to blend everything together.
The fangs will be ripped free of this ghost in her past. It cannot hold sway over her.
