Page 141 of When Darkness Calls

He turns to him, face scrunched up. “Huh? No. Not the fire. That was cool as fuck and kind of deserved. There was no way we could have moved all the shit in there by ourselves, and those guys shot you. Fuck them.”

Then he turns, looking at all of us. “No, what I mean is, we fucked up cause all our masks are wrecked. Keegs’s is burnt, mine’s stained with blood, Nick’s is cracked and has a bunch of little holes in it from the glass, and Grays’s is…actually I’m not really sure? Is your mask good?” Alex tilts his head as he looks at him.

“It’s gone. I left it in the building.”

“So, it’s gone. Perfect!” Alex claps once, beaming around the room.

“Okay, so what’re you getting at?” Cade steps closer coming around towards me.

Alex bounces on the balls of his feet. “Okay, so I was thinking of all of this, counting down the seconds ‘til they let us all leave, and the second I walked out I looked up the nearest craft store.”

“We’re doing arts and crafts because…you’re sad all our masks are fucked up?” Grayson says it slowly.

Cade chimes in with, “Not all of them.” Which earns him the middle finger from Grays and Keegs.

“What? No! Oh, my God. Are none of you listening to me? Jesus,” Alex huffs, bending over the bags and beginning to rifle through them, pulling out random art supplies.

“He bought the stuff for us to make new masks, dipshits,” Nick says, his lips tugging up on one side.

Three resounding, “Ohhh”s echo around the room.

Still bent over the bags, Alex points to his brother and says, “Exactly.”

How the fuck did this group of idiots spend the last couple years pulling off their vigilante shit?

Alex stands straight and begins passing out white, acrylic carnival masks to all the guys, starting with Keegan. “I got enough for all of us, —even you Cay—and a couple of extras in case we mess up or have another situation where we need to make a new one. But I got us good ones.” Then he stops in front of me wearing a soft smile. “And I got one for you too, Doll. Even if you don’t find yourself wanting to wear it, I figured it’s about time you got to have one of your own.”

“Thank you,” I whisper, taking the mask from him and returning a smile of my own.

The mask is heavier than I expected in my hands, but it’s the same kind of cool, smooth surface I’ve become familiar with from Grayson’s, if not harder, but the shape is slightly different. The edges of the face are rounder, the eye cut-outs aren’t as angular. But other than that, it’s identical.

“Alright. So, what now?” I ask, glancing around as everyone waits for his reply.

“We get crafty!”

Someone—probably Keegan if I had to guess based on the song—gets music playing from the speaker set up on the entertainment center. Alex and Nick finish pulling out all the supplies from the bags, Nick even pausing to say, “You actually got different paints too?” when he pulled out a long, metal container holding little pots in an array of colors.

There are six packs of paint brushes, two metal containers full of paints, a pack of short, hard graphite pencils, heavy-duty glue, multi-colored foil sheets, and—

“Is that glitter?”

Alex glances at me. “Yeah. I got everything I could think of. The last time we did this, it was a spur of the moment run to the store for cheap plastic, and we used leftover paint we found in the garage. Y’all, we were on the fucking news, and our masks looked like shit. We need to up our game here.”

I snicker, shaking my head. “Alright then.”

They all get to work, grabbing the pencils first, beginning to sketch out the shapes, ensuring every line is exactly where they want it to be. Small conversations break out between us. Everyone but Keegs, moves to the floor to have room for their paint pots and masks. Keegan has pulled the small folding tray out and has set it up to work on.

He’s getting better, healing, but even I know it’s best if he stays off of the floor right now.

Soon, the paint starts being used. But my mask is still blank.

Fuck, I don’t even know what to do? How did they come up with the designs? Should I try to do something detailed? Will it even be scary? Creepy? Is it supposed to be?

Grays bumps my shoulder with his, holding out his mask. “Whatcha think, sweet girl?”

“I think it looks exactly like your old one.”

“That’s just what I was going for.” He nods once, setting off to the side before turning back to me, brow raised. “I see you’re also going for the simple look.”