Hiding Behind A Mask (The Maskless Trilogy #1) Read online

  Chapter 4

  The group of kids in the auditorium is dismissed as the spotlight goes out and the lights placed around the room fade on. Becca is the last one out. She’s shoved in every which way as the new Dark Clan members rush in laughing and cruelly try to make her fall over. One of them succeeds, and she tumbles into someone else. When she turns around to apologize, she feels her blood run cold.

  It’s the man in all black.

  He kneels down beside her, his plain black mask getting closer to her. A small whimper makes its way from her mouth and she feels a knee hit her head, jerking her forward. She’s almost touching the mask now.

  “Please…” She whispers, trying to make her voice work. “Please leave me alone.”

  He turns his head to the side like a curious dog.

  “Why?” He asks. “I don’t want to.”

  Becca takes a shaky breath.

  “Why?” She squeaks.

  “Because you’re wrong. You need help. You can’t do it on your own.”

  “What—”

  He reaches up and pulls at her mask, the knot tied behind her head slipping with each tug. Becca screams and tries to push his black-gloved hands away, but her arms aren’t strong enough.

  “Let go!” She squeals.

  “You’re wrong. You need help.” The man hisses.

  “Banshee!”

  The man in black suddenly lets go of Becca’s mask and slowly turns around. Behind him stands the man in the white mask and dark clothes, the man named Quill.

  Becca’s insides twist and she suddenly wants to throw up.

  “Leave this poor girl alone.”

  “But Leader, she is wrong—”

  “Maybe she is,” Quill says and looks at Becca. Her heart pounds so hard she can barely hear him. “But you don’t know that for sure, now do you, Banshee?”

  The man in black hesitates for a moment, and then responds by shaking his head back and forth like a child.

  “Alright, now leave her alone.”

  Banshee ducks his head as he stands up, and nods quickly before walking briskly down the long hallways of the school.

  Quill takes another step towards Becca and holds his hand out for her to take it. She doesn’t tear her eyes from the man’s mask as he helps her stand up.

  “What’s your name?” Quill asks, pulling his hand back.

  “Becca Reed,” She chokes out. Fear has taken over her and she can’t move. Her body tingles as the blood rushes through it faster than normal from her pumping heart, which feels like it’s about to burst from her chest and onto the floor in front of her. Her stomach feels like it a churning sea, and her brain has turned itself off, making her wordless and blank like a piece of paper.

  “Becca Reed,” He says to himself. “I’ll remember that. If Banshee bothers you again, find me and I’ll take care of him.”

  She nods stiffly and the man walks off.

  Her feet are glued to the floor and she can barely breathe. What if he does? If she tells him, will she get in trouble and then become a part of the Dark clan like how the boy did? Or if he does and she doesn’t tell him like he told her to, would she still be sent there for disobeying him?

  Becca runs her shaky hands through her hair absentmindedly. She closes her eyes and breathes in through her nose and out through her mouth, trying to calm down.