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It’s a strange night that you haven’t heard anything from Mikey tonight—he usually is spamming you with his messages throughout the night, talking about everything. The clock hit 10 pm, you felt uneasy, skin started to shiver randomly, and worse, you felt a pain in your stomach out of nowhere—it made you feel like throwing up at any moment.
Your heart was beating so fast it could explode at any moment, even your eyesight started to be muddy, all you could’ve thought was; to leave this state as fast as possible!
Both of your eyelids lifted from their place slowly, you still felt dizzy from the sudden uneasy feeling. It was all just a dream from the nap you took. It is still 4 pm, and the sun hasn't set in its field, yet. And you suddenly saw a wooden box on your coffee table in front of you, it looked new and fresh like it was just brought from a store.
You realized the box was locked and needed to be open with something like a key or… screwdriver? Anyway, you leaned slightly to see it more clearly, then it suddenly unlocked itself, an old wood crack sound appeared, the box showed a stone mask that had a single blood drip stain on the cheek.
“It’s just a mask, what’s so special about it?” You muttered to yourself, until you felt a cold air swing around your neck followed with a breath. “What the fuck is that?!” You turned around as you see—there he is, Mikey, your man. His fangs looked more visible, his skin turned pale.
“Mikey..? What happened to you?” You looked at him, observing the change in his face—but he looked away.
“Don’t touch that stone mask,” he said. His voice was soft but there’s a hint of hoarseness, like he was just crying.
“Why? What if I touched it? What will happen?" You wondered, thought it wouldn’t be so bad if you just tap the mask on its nose or cheek.
“It’ll catch whoever tried to touch it,” he finally looked up again at her, slowly walking around from behind the couch to her, "I made a mistake.”
“What? I don’t understand this poetic shit.” You grumbled as you held the stone mask—Mikey immediately swatted your hand away from the mask, he didn’t realize that the small swat made your hand get a slight cut, a small drop of blood landed on the mask, making it activate something that shouldn’t be in the first place.
“What was that?!” You glanced at your small cut before looking at the stone mask that was currently on the floor. It showed a hook on the mask’ edge that looked like it was programmed to grip onto someone’s head and crush their brain.
“I told you, this happened to me yesterday, it changed me.” Mikey waited for the stone mask’ hook to retract to its place, he took the stone mask and placed it inside the wooden box again. “Don’t ever open this box,” his voice firm, you nodded.
. . .
The next morning, you both acted like nothing happened yesterday. The wooden box is still placed on your coffee table in the living room, making you reluctant to go there again. Now, you’re curious about Mikey’s story that changed him into a vampire. He’s not here, of course. Her place had too many windows that could bring the sunlight in—that’s a big risk for Mikey.
You couldn’t hold back anymore, curiosity filled you that you decided to go to Mikey’s place by yourself. You remembered that Mikey had told you that he lived in a basement with his brother—Gerard. You’d assume that his brother also got turned into a vampire like him, they’re brothers anyway.
In the afternoon, you finally arrived at the Way brothers house, it looked simple, like a usual house you’d find around the neighborhood. You approached the door and knocked, it didn’t take long when you saw someone open the door swiftly—Mikey himself! He hid behind the door to avoid the dim sunlight.
“I knew you’d come over,” his voice carried a sense of emerge. You can tell he’s somewhere but the door—but you can’t find him when you walk inside the house. The door behind you was quickly shut down by him, he grinned awkwardly as he leaned against the door, as if he’s trying to mouth “hi” but nervousness took over him faster than himself.
“So, you knew I'd be asking about the stone mask then?” You asked him, crossing your arms.
“Huh? I thought you were gonna play Dungeon & Dragons with us again!”
“Don’t play dumb, Mikey.”
“Uh…”
. . .
At the basement, you could see Gerard asleep on his bed, half of his body was on the floor. Mikey let you sit on the small couch, you took your seat and waited for him to start to explain everything to him. Why would he have a stone mask that could change someone? Why did he leave it in your house? Questions started to pop up like a small quiz in a newspaper.
“Tell me your words,” you urged him.
“It’s.. complicated,” he replied with a sigh. “I was helping an old man when he fell near the river, then he gave me that wooden box. He told me to not drop any blood onto that mask, any kind of blood, little or much, I can't.”
“But why then-” he interrupted you as you wanted to ask another question, “I accidentally slit my finger when I was cutting an apple, dumb me, I put the stone mask near the counter where I was cutting.” He took a deep breath, “The stone mask shoved the hook up, it jumped onto my face and grip onto my head, it felt like the mask knew where the blood came from.”
After the quick and concise explanation, you started to understand, but there’s still a question left in your head. You wanted to speak, but you felt like you'd lost your words. If the mask knew where the blood came from, why didn't it chase you yesterday? There was clearly a small cut on your arm and a small drop of blood came out, touching down the mask.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Mikey suddenly said again, “it’s an old artifact, Gerard said he had read something about the mask—it was used for an ancient Aztec ritual that took place in Mexico.”
“I could tell you the whole story. A British man used this mask and became a vampire. He was beaten in Egypt by a group of his family’s rivals that appeared to get a curse because he ruined the family’s bloodline,” he continued. It’s a bizarre story.