Paper Masks | ᴊᴜɴɢᴋᴏᴏᴋ

prologue

Chloe's eyes opened painfully. Her head hurt and her throat was parched. The darkness around her was not welcoming and she felt a sudden rush of fear travel down her spine.

She quickly looked down at herself and realised that only her hands were tied. It surprised why whoever had abducted her did not tie her up completely to prevent her from running away.

The room was quiet, dark and cold. She could hear the crickets chirping and she immediately realised that it was way past noon. How long was she knocked out for? She heard a sound of a metal instrument falling on the table and she responsively turned to look in the direction of where the sound came from.

She was not alone in the room. She sees the silhouette of a tall man working at the table in the corner of the room. Bile rose into her mouth and she could almost taste it. Chloe, in her entire lifetime, had never felt as scared as she was today.

She remembered how she got here. After all, it was the same man. The evening was extremely calm and pleasant. It surprised Chloe because a calm weather in the month of December was not usual. She had left the club to get something.

"Excuse me," a man called out to her. She turned to look at the man and suddenly, down in the back of her head, the man seemed very familiar yet she could not lay a finger on who the person exactly was.

"Yes?" She raised her eyebrows at the man. The man who seemed young had a black cap covering his eyes and a crisp white shirt. His jawline was prominent and his shoulders broad.

"Come with me," the man firmly said, taking her back in surprise. Chloe shook her head slightly and gave a very confused expression to this familiar stranger.

"I'm sorry?" She coughed. "I don't even know you." She ran a hand through her auburn hair which she'd preferred for people to call it strawberry blonde.

She remembered how the man moved very agilely. The man came up front and close to her and the next thing she knew of was the dark room and her, waking up from unconsciousness.

For a brief moment, the silhouette of the man stirred and she stood still. He turned slightly to grab another work instrument from another table. Chloe noticed the mask on his face, that covered it entirely. He was wearing a black robe and he smirked throughout. Chloe noticed the table as he moved away from it and her eyes bulged. The man was laying out his murder tools on that workbench. He continued with his work as soon as he grabbed another tool.

Chloe frantically looked everywhere. The room as she observed, looked like a cabin. She quickly noticed a small door which was partially opened to let the light in, which seemed to be the exit to the cabin. She knew she could wiggle out through that door. It was either that or screaming for help.

Currently, screaming for help did not seem that helpful. If she could crawl out through that door, quietly and without a sound heard, she realised that she could probably save herself. She moved ever so slowly and occasionally turned to look at the man, who was engrossed in his work.

There was a staircase that led down from the door of the room. She stealthily reached to the door unnoticed by her kidnapper. She walked down the staircase, turning back once or twice to see if the man had realised yet. She stepped on the next stair and it creaked loudly.

Chloe had her heart caught in her throat. She realised she had no way out now. The man had definitely heard the sound. She ran down the staircase, making sure she did not fall. The man ran behind her, humming, "Babygirl, where do you think you can hide?"

The man was right. Chloe stopped on her tracks as she realised where she was. She was on the deck of the ship and she had no way out. Tears ran down her face and she begged the man walking closer and closer towards her, "Please, don't. Don't kill me."

The man laughed and smiled, "I'm not going to kill you, babygirl. I'm just sending you home." He came closer to her and in a flash, he injected her. She wasn't sure of what it was but all she did know was that she couldn't move and she was paralyzed. She cried and wailed in vain as the man chuckled.

The man carried her in his arms, a smile plastered on his face. He took Chloe back to the cabin of the ship and gently laid her on his workbench that he was previously working on. She watched him take a scalpel out and examine it. He did the same with the box and opened it. She realised that it was plaster and she wept more.

"Hush, babygirl. Don't cry," he whispered. The man kissed her forehead and applied a stroke of plaster on her face. One after another stroke of plaster was applied to her face as she went through it.

She could feel the air being taken away from her. She wished it didn't. She tried gasping and inhaling to breathe some air, but it was of no use. The plaster covered everything but her eyes. Her nose, her mouth, her forehead.

She had no choice but to welcome the darkness that was trying to swallow her up as a whole, as she watched the smirk on her killer's face grow bigger and bigger.