Hodek held me by the shoulders as I fell forward, clutching my head. I clenched my teeth and tried to open my eyes, but that only hurt more. "What the...?"

"Max, are you—"

"Not really," I struggled to get out. "Why is this...Hodek, is there something in my head?!"

"I think I would've noticed by now. How bad is the pain? Can you walk?" There was a trace of panic in his voice as he tried propping me up again. I slowly nodded; it was starting to ebb away, anyways. Something was definitely still there but I could bear to stand up by myself. We got up and made for the bottom of the hill, and after a couple feet I couldn't move any further. The pain came back, and it was even worse.

"No. Nope, no. Not this way. How...god, I said not this way!" I snapped when he tried gently pushing me forward. He raised his eyebrows and held up his hands. "Okay," he muttered, looking around and slowly dragging me back. Somewhere along that way, the screeching in my head completely cut off and I fell limp again, chest heaving. For a couple minutes, everything was silent. Looking back to him, I managed to say, "What the hell was that?"

"You think I know?! That was kind of all you. I—no, that doesn't matter. Are you okay now?"

Still breathing heavily, I thought about it. "...yeah. That...oh, my god. Something's wrong about this place. I don't know what, but—"

I was interrupted by a distant yell coming from the tunnel below us. It sounded like about ten or so people, crying out in pain. It stopped almost as soon as it started, and something urged me to go down there and find out what exactly had happened.

I sat up and leaned forward. Nothing. A couple more steps down the hill, and nothing. Without looking behind me, I made for the street that paralleled the forest we'd left and reached for my pliers. The underground lot had fallen completely silent, at least it seemed so from where I was positioned. I moved further down with Hodek on my tail. Despite everything I knew about him, this was definitely one adventure he didn't want to embark on.

"Max."

I ignored him and kept going. It turned out that what we had thought to be some underground parking station was really more of a cave than anything. The walls were bumpy and eroded, a job far too messy to be intentional or even man-made. Dirt and dust lay in a thick coating on the ground; all traces of plant life abruptly stopped at a line near the entrance. Strangely, I had the feeling that it didn't have anything to do with how much sunlight was able to reach the grass there. Placing my hand on the outside concrete, I could feel that something was in constant motion under our feet. Maybe a giant machine. Maybe other people.

I heard distant voices echoing from the tunnel-like cave, and crept inside to try and make out what they were saying.

"Max, what are you doing?" Hodek half-whispered, reluctantly following me into the dark. "We're barely armed, we don't even know if there's anyone in there...this is beyond stupid!"

"Well, then you don't have to go in here with me," I muttered, almost to myself. I didn't look back to see if he had heard me, but from the silence that followed, I could tell I'd struck a nerve. I considered apologizing, but then thought it could be left for later. I pressed myself flat against the nearest wall, put my mask back on, and listened in to what seemed like someone's frustrated rant.

"...another one of those idiotic teenagers. Oh, no, not you. The bad kind. Do they even have half a brain each, or do they split it among themselves?"

That earned a couple of muffled laughs from whoever was inside there with them. I narrowed my eyes. That voice sounded familiar. The noise in the back of my head was starting to ring a bell, too. I walked farther down towards what I assumed to be the source. Another voice interrupted, soft but strained.

"What if it's the police again?"

Everything fell silent at once. Even Hodek seemed to notice this. "Do they know we're here?"

"They know someone is," I whispered, reaching back and tugging on the arm of his sweater. He leaned forward and tried eavesdropping, too.

"It's fine. It's fine! We've got the upper hand anyway, right?"

"Do we, though...?"

"Oh, don't give me that. We've been...Garde, stop it!" One of the voices added through gritted teeth, as if they didn't want anybody else to hear that. Somebody else piped up.

"Wait, you didn't bring anybody else with you, did you?"

"Huh? Oh, um, no. I didn't bring anyone else."

"Then stop talking to yourself, somebody is clearly trying to get in. Just two people, if I had to guess, but it's still not good."

I froze up at that. Had our whispers given us away that much, or were our footsteps enough? Was it just easier to hear these things underground? I made the mistake of stepping forward again, and the second mistake of keeping Hodek latched onto me. We fell straight off a ledge of some sorts, letting out one yelp before landing. Painfully. No more than two seconds later, I heard mechanical whirring and a loud blast of steam over my head. I looked up. A metal door was closing, many feet above us. Hodek tried standing up, and a crack echoed through the dark as he winced and fell back down.

"No. No, no no no...!" He reached up with one hand towards the vanishing daylight, fully aware he wasn't going to make it. As pitch black fully surrounded us, he sighed and let his arm drop to the side.

"Fuck." A pause. "Well, it's been a good run, partner."

"Okay, I don't think we're going to die in here. Just let me—"

A tiny light in the corner of my eye flickered on. After a moment I expected blinding overheads to follow suit, but it was just the one for about five minutes. At least we could see now. Neither of us wanted to move; after all, the impact had rendered our legs nearly immobile. I was willing to bet that after a couple minutes the pain would fade and we could walk again. At least, I would have been if there was time to think about that right now.

"They're here," somebody muttered from beyond the light's reaches. My heart started racing as I heard faint static accompanying their voice. I couldn't place exactly why, it felt more like a recollection than instinctual fear.

"Of course they are, the door's closed. Why...why aren't they moving?" An impatient woman's voice spoke just a little bit louder than her friend, cutting through the silence. I clenched my hand into a fist, trying to get a firm grip on the ground. This was completely stone; any dust sticking to my hand was probably from the aboveground platform.

After another failed attempt to stand up, the woman whispered, "Shh! Stay. Perfectly. Still," although it didn't seem like she was addressing us just yet. I heard shuffling feet and murmuring too soft for me to comprehend. I was tempted to call out and ask these people what they wanted, but before I could do anything one stepped out of the shadows and grabbed my face as if they were examining me. From the sounds of struggling beside me, it seemed they were doing the same to Hodek.

"A mask," the person said blankly. They sounded intrigued. Surprised, maybe, but nothing more. They dug a finger underneath to lift it, took one look at my face in whole (not a great experience on my part) and flinched away from me as if I'd burned them. I took the opportunity to locate Hodek in the half-dark and yank him away from whoever was trying to get a good look at him, but it seemed he'd already fought them off. He shifted back and closed a hand over mine, looking just as confused as me. I glanced around, my vision starting to adjust. Three silhouettes towered over us, more curious than malevolent.

"What? What did you see?" The woman asked. Somebody beside her—the one who examined me, I guessed—was struggling to get their thoughts out.

"Well, ma'am, it's...you know the file you showed me about a year ago?"

"Spit it out, Handle, which one?"

"Uh, th-the one you said was missing, not dead. Blueish mask, kinda flashy—"

"Flashy?" I echoed incredulously. Hodek squeezed my hand, almost crushing it.

"Shut up, shut up," he said through gritted teeth. The whole cavern was silent for almost a minute. My pulse was racing, despite everything else being completely still. This was more nerve wracking than facing death itself, partially because I had no idea what these people wanted with us. Now that we'd stumbled into their territory, there was no going back.

The woman, who was now about five feet from us, seemed unable to form words. She still wasn't completely visible, the only thing reflecting any light was a bow tie fastened not around any type of collar, but directly onto her neck. She crouched down and reached to touch my face. This time, it was gentle and hopeful rather than cold and unfeeling. Her hand was chestnut brown and the fingertips were calloused beyond anything real, but I didn't push it away. Something was finally coming back to me. It was on the tip of my tongue. She spoke before me, her voice hoarse and rising a couple pitches.

"Masquerade?"

My eyes began welling up with tears as I remembered.

Anniversary.