Third place winner: Masquerade by JesslinaN

A masked Valentines & a secret Challenge 

The Masquerade Ball at Claire Darling's mansion was the most awaited event of the season. Ever since the Great War had ended, it had taken place every year on February 14, on Valentine's Day. The atmosphere in the room was electrifying to say the least: The room was filled with an air of seduction, mystery and a dizzying sensation of déjà vu since most of the guests had been here before. As a matter of fact, the same colour masks were worn every year, black for the gentlemen and white for the ladies.

A careless confidence ran through my veins as I stepped through the big doors in front of me again. Even though I had been here before, everything was different this time. My entire life had changed since the last ball. Back then, I had been a mere girl, whereas now, I considered myself a woman.

But before I could think of the many things that had changed in the past year and how they would affect me tonight, I noticed him. For the first time since we both attend this ball, his gaze was upon mine. That was the gaze underneath his mask, which was half black and half white, something that had never been done before. It was downright outrageous, a very obvious provocation as it was clearly against the rules set up by the rich widow.

Whereas I knew some of the people present or could at least guess their identity, I had never been able to find out who he was. But then, no one knew who he was. There were intriguing rumours, of course, and a lot of people had tried to guess his identity as they had flirted with him, left red lipstick on his mask or invited him to drink champagne with them, but no one had ever been able to find out who he was.

Someone had once suggested that he might be Claire Darling's nephew or illegitimate son. Those people who claimed he was related to the mysterious widow argued that no one had ever seen him enter the front door of the mansion as if he had already been there. Otherwise, it would be hard to explain how he had managed to enter the ball. He had laughed when someone had asked him whether he was the lost heir of the darling family. "You honour me by thinking I'm related to such a great family. But no, I'm not some mysterious relative you have never heard about," he had replied courteously, and you could have seen him smirk through his mask.

Someone else had suggested that he was a famous actor from Hollywood. After all, this was still the time of silent films, and no one knew what their favourite matinee idol sounded like. "Do you really think I'd go to a society event that was this risqué if I was famous? It would damage my career beyond repair if someone found out that I was here in that case," he had said with that charming voice that sounded neither British nor American, but both somehow.

Tonight was different because tonight nobody tried to challenge him, but he appeared to challenge me. At least that was the feeling I got when his gaze rested on mine. On the other hand, it was more than that: Something had happened to me last year at the ball, and he was the only person who knew the truth. He was my savior and thus the only person who could get me out of this mess. That was part of the reason why I needed to know his identity.

It still pained me to think of the last ball and how careless I had been. But I loved to dance and had had a lot of fun on the dance floor as I could dance the Charleston better than the other female dancers and kick my legs higher. I drank too much champagne that night. I'm perfectly aware that it is forbidden to drink alcohol, but nobody at this ball cares about the stupid law. A couple of years ago, there was a war, and people died. So I don't think anyone has the right to take anything away from us, least of all our right to enjoy ourselves and have fun!

And then, I woke up on the lawn in front of the house on the next morning with the broken neck of a bottle of champagne in my hand and my clothes in disarray. When I looked down, I had just known what had happened: Someone I could not even remember had slept with me, and I did not know whether I had agreed to it or not. Nor did I remember a lot about the act in itself. I started crying because I felt so used, abused and scared and did not know what would become of me for a second.

That's when I saw him coming towards me. I don't know how long he had been observing me, but as soon as I was conscious, he acted and did the only sensible thing: He carried me out of there.

"C'mon, there are still a few guests on the property. We need to get you out of anyone's sight!" he said.

I was numb and did not react, although I had heard his words. I could just about imagine what people would think if they saw me like that. My reputation would be ruined forever.

That was when he must have decided to carry me out of everyone's sight. I don't know how he did it because I had been certainly too shocked to be of any help. "Let's get you cleaned up!" he said and carried me towards the nearby guest house. The door was unlocked, and the place had been smashed last night by those guests who knew that it existed. Whoever had abused me had obviously not known that the small house was there.

"Do you know who did this?" I asked him. It was all I could think about. How could I have been so stupid! I did not even know when I had passed out!

He shook his head. "No, I saw you lying on the lawn about an hour ago when I left this house with someone."

I had taken a long bath in the tub after that and considered whether it was worth going on living my life for a second. Due to the prohibition laws, I couldn't just go to the police and report that I had been taken advantage of while I had been intoxicated!

He must have anticipated my crisis because I had him call me from the living room after a while, "Are you all right in there?"

"Yes, I think I am," I had said. "You can go if you want to go."

"No, that's okay," he had replied.

After I had cleaned myself up, he had called me a cab that was supposed to take me back to the city. The city - that's New York City in case you don't know. "Don't tell anyone. I know that's hard, but nobody shall ever find out what happened to you last night," he advised me.

And for a long time, I had thought that was it. It took me months to get over the situation which I now considered a rape, but again, I felt unable to report it. Nonetheless, I had thought nobody knew about the matter until as few weeks ago when my soon-to-be-mother-in-law had received an anonymous phone call from someone who had claimed that he had nude pictures of me. Until now, I had reassured my boyfriend and his mother that it was a lie, that someone was trying to taint my name. But there was a reason why I had chosen to come here without him tonight: I wanted to find out the truth. Thus, I needed to talk to the mysterious stranger who had found me.

When he left the room, thinking that nobody saw him exit because everyone was having fun somehow, I followed him and hoped that he wouldn't notice me because I was so bad at this. I saw him go into the direction of the men's toilet at first, but all of a sudden, just steps away from the toilet, he disappeared in a room on the left side of the hallway.

I somehow managed to be there and open the door just as he was about to lock it again.

He looked at me with curiosity - Well, at least I thought he did because I couldn't see his face.

"Darling, who is it?" I heard a female voice call out from behind him.

"I'm an old acquaintance of the gentleman," I called out and looked up to him. "We need to talk. This won't talk long."

"Look, this is the wrong time and place..." he started.

His female companion was the only person I had seen in the house tonight who was not wearing a mask as she left the bed she had been lying in and slowly made her way over to us. I realized that she was a very old woman who could barely walk, but she looked just like the elusive widow Claire Darling, the hostess nobody at her balls had ever seen. "Just who do you think you are?" she asked and was obviously annoyed that I was there.

"A guest, Madame," I said.

"And you think you can follow my boyfriend just like that?"

"I'm sorry, Madame, this is a private matter..." I stuttered. Her boyfriend? It was true that I had never seen his face, but the stranger must be a great deal younger than she was. Perhaps that was the reason why she was obviously very possessive and kept a close, jealous eye on him. On the other hand, I hadn't even known that the widow was seeing someone, and I doubted that even the shrewd gossip columnists knew.

"Oh, Jason and I don't keep any secrets from each other. Let me guess: You are probably that unfortunate girl who made out with the Grey boy last year while you were completely out of it."

"The Grey boy? You mean, Willy Grey?" I said and was utterly shocked.

"Yes, the one and only Grey that is worth knowing because he is a good-looking man. He has asked you to marry him now, right? I told him he had to after the scandalous display he put on last year," she said as if it was the most natural thing in the world to find out that the man you are about to marry is also the one who abused you while you were totally out of it.

"But that's impossible! Willy would never be able to hurt me!"

"Honey, I may no longer be able to be present at the ball for the entire night, but I have my eyes everywhere. Just trust me: It is true! I heard he is trying to wriggle out of the affair because someone told his mother you were in a few nude pictures?"

I nodded.

"They don't exist. Just tell him from me that we will all be held responsible for our actions eventually... Now be a doll and go back to the ball. I want to have fun with my favorite baby boy!"

Yes, she really said that.