[MASQ]

I had to think about that for a while. My eyes were shut the moment I touched the floor, and my immediate instincts were to drink a cup of water and find somewhere comfortable to lay. Fortunately, the tap in Hodek's kitchen worked fine. Unfortunately, the moment I swallowed the water my throat felt like it was on fire. I coughed and tried to spit back as much of it as I could. What's in this?

So I settled on just laying down on the ground for the moment.

It seemed so easy, but after a couple minutes, I couldn't keep still. His words bounced around in my head, prodding at me, laughing at me. No, not me. At...

I sighed and pulled my mask off my face. I still felt naked without it on, but I wanted to get used to that. Maybe he was right. He never hid his face, and he'd made it this far. So why should I?

Because you don't just throw something like that away! Do you really think they gave it to you for no reason?

Shut up.

You're finally breaking. You're starting to doubt them. All because of what some guy said with no actual information about your family! Pathetic.

"Shut up," I muttered at no one.

Your name is Masquerade. You've worked too hard to stop here. This Jeff Hodek has no right to talk about your brother that way, especially considering the relationship he has with his own.

"He helped me!"

When?

"I..."

I couldn't think of a response to that. I sighed again and rubbed my eyes.

"Why is this happening. Why now? Why did he even say that?"

Beats me. You should just kill him. He's been slacking off on his sprees lately, I have no use for him now.

I should kill him.

"What are you...? You're clearly not me. How did you get in my head?" I glanced around myself, hoping that maybe there would be someone—or something—there. Just to be sure I wasn't hearing voices that didn't exist.

What do you mean, I'm not you? I've been here from the beginning.

"No. I'm sure I wouldn't tell myself to kill someone like Hodek. If I wanted to, I would have done it already."

Don't trick yourself, now. You think you need him, that's why you haven't done it yet. Well, I won't just sit around and let him walk all over you. I know all his tricks.

"So you admit it. You're not really me. Why should I kill him? Maybe he hasn't helped me as much as I thought, but..."

Isn't that reason enough, Masquerade? The name's Angus. And I don't feel like leaving you until you make up your mind. After all, I helped poor Jeffrey with his, all those years ago.

"You...what? No, forget it. I don't care who you are, I won't kill Hodek. It's not worth it."

Hm. Have it your way; I suppose you just aren't willed enough. I'll see you and your friend around. That is...

Something cold brushed my arm, and I backed into a counter, not even noticing I'd walked into the kitchen. I glanced at my hand, and realized I was holding a knife.

...unless you have a change of heart.

When did I even stand up?

I asked the question to myself, realizing with the ringing in my ears ebbing away that "Angus" was gone. I felt my head grow heavier by the second.

I'm not going to kill him.

As I lifted myself from the counter I was leaning against and set down the knife, something slipped to the ground out of the corner of my eye. It was an old photograph. At least, it looked that way. It was tattered, even burnt in some places. But it didn't seem like it was taken that long ago. It took me a while to realize that it was of Jeff and...somebody else. It must have been before whatever accident made him like this, because they both had long, well-kept brown hair and undisrupted skin. The other person had glasses and a shirt with a strange plant printed on it, and Jeff was dressed how he usually was.

Is that...his brother?

I picked it up and looked closer, eventually spotting what looked like a black smudge in the empty space of the picture. Trying to wipe it off didn't work. Before I could wonder what it was doing there, I heard a gruff, scathing voice right over my shoulder.

"What did he tell you."

I jumped and turned around, dropping the photo on the floor. It would only make it more obvious to pick it up, so I tried to ignore it for the time being.

"You're back. What did who tell me...?"

Jeff scowled. "The thing that was talking to you. Don't bother lying, I know he was here. God...he ruins everything!"

"Wait, that was real? I thought I was just losing my mind, I..."

"I'm going to ask you again. What did Angus Grimville tell you?"

Grimville?

I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. I wanted to tell him, but something was shutting me up. By the way his expression faded to dread, he could tell what was doing it.

"He told you to kill me."

"W-well, yes, but—"

"That son of a bitch. He really won't give me a break, will he? Max, don't listen to a thing he says, he's only trying to mess with you. He brought up a bunch of personal shit, right?"

I slowly nodded, looking down.

"He said something like, you're not strong enough, or, you just don't have the will for it?"

I nodded again.

"It's a good thing he left before I came back. I think I know what he's trying to do, but..." he trailed off and closed his eyes. "Just don't listen to him. Okay?"

"Okay," I responded, my voice shaky. I just had some sort of demonic entity in my mind who tried driving me to even more murder. What could go wrong from here?

Before I could say anything else, Hodek took a convenient glance at the ground where he saw the photo. His eyes widened, and he looked back to me.

"Wait, did...did you—"

"I-I didn't do anything to it. I swear." I stepped back and held my hands up. He cussed under his breath and picked it up, dusting it off and eyeing the front and back of it with melancholy.

"I never told you what really happened, did I?"

I gulped when I realized how close he was standing to me. "What...what happened, then? That's your brother, isn't it?"

He didn't answer directly. It was as if he couldn't even hear me.

"It's Liu. It's us before everything got so fucked-up."

Hearing that sentence felt wrong. He phrased it like after whatever happened to make him look this way, whoever Liu was abandoned him.

"That's not right. Family shouldn't just leave you, no matter what you look like—"

"It wasn't because of the acid," he said briskly, nearly crumpling the picture in his hand. He seemed to realize what he was doing and set it down gently like an ancient relic. This must be all he has left of him. He glanced at me and sighed, as if realizing he should have expected this.

"We still lived a normal life. Did regular brother stuff. Went golfing on weekends. One time there was a karaoke night, and he laughed at me as I tried to sing without sounding like a dying whale." Jeff scoffed, but in a strangely fond way. "He knew I killed people sometimes. He was the only one who knew."

"And let me guess, once he found out—"

"He's always known, Max. He knew since the first kid I slaughtered, because I came to him less than and hour later crying. I didn't want to go to jail, and I didn't know what came over me. He never said much about it. I knew it made him uncomfortable, but he never told anyone. And I couldn't afford having anyone else know." He sighed and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"Then the police came to his door and asked if he knew anything about me. He tried throwing them off track, but eventually, they found me. So I had to run. And when I asked Liu for a place to stay...he refused. Said it would only put us both in more danger."

"...Mr. Hodek, I'm sor—"

"No matter how much I pleaded, he wouldn't let me in. He slammed the door in my face. It's kind of funny; through all that, I learned that sometimes you can't depend on family. They might be more worried about saving their own skin," he finished bitterly. He turned to me after a moment of strained silence, his eyes shiny.

"You said you're looking for your own family, didn't you. Well, who says they'd even want to take you back after all this time?"