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“You have to. Turn off everything. Turn off every last emotion apart from the ones that will help you to do what he wants. Become cold, hard, empty. You have to surrender to the darkness, Jakub.”
“I’d rather die than become like him!”
“He will kill Nala, and then he’ll kill us. Is that what you want?”
“I don’t want to be like this…” Jakub cries, more tears falling as a biting wind wraps around his thin frame, making his jaw chatter and his body shake with cold.
“Then become someone else…”
Konrad and Jakub look up at another boy approaching. He’s slightly smaller in stature than Konrad, but still big for his age, with the same dark hair, and piercing green eyes. In his hands he’s holding a mask. It’s black, with two holes for the eyes and two smaller ones for the nose and mouth.
“How long have you been watching?” Konrad asks, helping Jakub to his feet.
“Long enough. It’s time. Malik—Father—will kill Nala the next time he refuses to do as he asks.”
“I know.”
The two older boys look at one another, a silent conversation going on between them before Leon steps towards Jakub and lifts the black mask to his face, securing it behind his head. “When you wear this you become someone else. You’re not Jakub anymore. You’re not kind or sweet. You’re something else. Something dark. Kon and I have one too.”
“But I’ll still be me underneath… I’ll still be me.”
“Eventually that will change. You’ll wear this until the boy underneath becomes the man he needs to be to survive. Do you understand?”
“I think so… b—but what happens when I take it off? I'll see what I’ve become.”
“Then we don’t take the masks off,” Konrad adds, swallowing hard as Leon hands him a mask too.
“Never?” Jakub asks.
“Only when we’re alone together. The rest of the time we’re The Masks,” Leon says with a firm nod of his head, securing his own mask in place. “Agreed?”
“Yes,” they agree.
“We should go,” Konrad urges.
Jakub flicks his gaze to the dead dog, his jaw gritting. Stepping towards her, he lays his hand on her bulging stomach, whispering words that are too private to be heard. Then, agonisingly slowly, he removes her leather collar and leash with one hand, holding it lovingly against his chest. “Goodbye, Star.” Climbing to his feet, Jakub faces his brothers and nods.
“Who are we?” Leon asks.
“We’re The Masks,” all three say in unison, the howling wind dragging the declaration from their lips and throwing it out into the frigid air.
