Imperfect

Man in The Mask

Chapter 2
It started with music, and not just any music. It was the type of music filled with so many instruments playing at once that no one could pick out which instrument was which. It was the type of music with words that I didn't understand but I could feel. It was the type of music that gave you the urge to move around. To jump. To throw your hands up and smile the type of smile that actually reached your eyes. It was crazy. It was beautiful. It was banned.
It started off slow and low. I, along with everyone else, strained to hear it. As it grew louder, people began to whisper, "Do you hear that?"
"Yes."
"What is it?"
"It's an atrocious sound that was banned years ago."
With every passing second the music grew louder, which caused the whispers to turn into grumbles and the grumbles to turn into shouts.
"Is anyone going to stop this!?"
"What is going on!?"
"Who's causing this!?"
Soon enough the music was so loud I could feel the beat inside my chest, it reverberated inside my head, throughout my body as if it lived inside of me. Boom. Boom boom. Boom. Boom boom. And it kept getting louder and louder until the outcries of the people could no longer be heard.
Then it became too much. The shrill sounds pierced my ears. My hands, no longer being held by Jared's, were pressed firmly against the sides of my head. With my eyes shut tightly, I couldn't think, I couldn't move. It no longer sounded like music. It sounded just like an atrocious sound that was banned years ago.
Someone shoved my shoulder and tugged at my arm. Next thing I knew, I was on the ground. And it was then, in the midst of complete disorder, that I remembered what my fifth year instructor told the class.
"Without order there is chaos."
He told us about the wars and murders and hatred that consumed a world that was now perfected. He told us how our rules and regulations are the very foundation of our nation.
"It's the glue that holds us together," as he would say.
Lying on the ground, my hand having been stomped on, my leg kicked, I realized that I hadn't experienced chaos until that moment; complete disorder and confusion. I didn't know how to deal with it. I was never given instructions on how to react in a situation like the one I was currently in because the council didn't anticipate anyone or anything to go wrong.
Tears welled in my eyes as the music continually pierced my eardrums. I stood up, amongst all the people clutching their heads, running about, and lying on the floor, looking like a herd of sheep without a master. I couldn't make out any faces. They all looked the same; a lump of grey and brown and white. I called out for Jared, but I knew he couldn't of heard me, I couldn't even hear myself.
People began running in a cluster toward the exists. Stumbling over one another, pushing and shoving to be the first one relieved of the chaos. I found myself unconsciously following behind. But to no avail, for all the doors were locked from the outside.
Turning around, I stumbled toward the back entrance of the building. My heart was beating like the drums in the music. It pounded within my ears. The pressure was increasingly intense.
Boom. Boom. Tat. Boom. Boom. Tat.
A women fell down. Two man plowed over her legs and back.
Boom. Boom. Tat. Boom. Boom. Tat.
A little girl with straight chocolate hair wrapped her small body around my waist.
Boom. Boom. Tat. Boom. Boom. Tat.
I lifted the girl in my arms and kept moving towards the exit.
Boom. Boom. Tat. Boom. Boom. Tat.
Someone pushed me, knocking the little girl out of my arms.
Boom. Boom. Tat. Boom. Boom. Tat.
I couldn't find the girl.
Boom. Boom. Tat. Boom. Boom. Tat.
I kept moving forward.
Boom. Boom. Tat. Boom. Boom. Tat.
Every man for himself.
Boom... Boom... Tat... Boom... Boom... Silence.
People stopped moving. Children stopped screaming. Everyone looked around confused; in a daze. Stillness overcame the uncertainty and eeriness of the impending situation. It was suffocating.
Everyone looked about, assessing the damage. Tables were overturned. People looked disheveled and scared. No one dying, no one on the brink of death. But everyone looked unordinary. Nobody had their hair in place, or their passive expression plastered across their face. And that seemed more horrifying than death. How does one fix this?
Someone began to chuckle. It was low and fleeting, but sliced through the piercing silence like a whip. Every head turned towards the sound and every eye fell upon a figure standing atop a still standing wooden table. The figure was tall. So tall, that when standing on the table, caused even the tallest man in the room to look up. The figure was most likely male. With the low timber of his voice and broad shoulders as well as narrow hips. Yet, one couldn't be sure because he wore a mask. It was grotesque with fangs and horns. It was long, covering his fore head all the way down to just below his neck. And painted along the curves and outrages expression the creature the mask wished to portray, was every banned color. Red, blue, orange, purple, yellow. They were all there. And in the two cut out holes of his mask revealed his eyes.
I gasped. Never had I seen eyes any other color than brown. Dull, plain, brown. My mother, father, friends, teacher, governor, fiancé. Everyone. Everyone had brown eyes. But not this man. No. This man in the mask, his eyes were the most brilliant shade of green.
How is that possible?
I was hypnotized by his eyes, which skimmed the crowd back and forth. I knew he was smiling beneath his mask. He must have been giddy with the feeling of being able to cause chaos in a society that prided itself in eradicating that very thing. He tipped his head back and closed his eyes, shielding me from looking into the brilliant green, and began to laugh.
He laughed so hard that it seemed to make it hard for him to breathe. He bent over clutching his stomach. And all the while everyone just stared. Wondering what he was going to do next. But he did nothing but laugh. And that irritated me. He was laughing at us. Why would he do this? What did we ever do to him? We were just minding our business. Wondering through the motion of every day. Who was he to cause a rift in that?
I became so angry, I unconsciously clenched and un-clenched my hands, and began to move forward. But when I took my first step, the man in the masks head whipped up and his green eyes locked with my own.
He was steel. He was mischievous. He was calculating.
Cocking his head to the side, I thought he was going to say something, but not a sound left him. He lifted his index finger, and pointed it up at the ceiling. I looked up but saw nothing but the ordinary white panels that had decorated every ceiling in the nation. When I looked back at the figure, he was no longer standing on the table, but running towards the back doors.
"Hey!" I yelled, "He's getting away!"
Why wasn't anyone moving?
Just before he pushed open the doors to the building, he turned around, looked at me with those green eyes, and winked. The doors closed, and he was gone.