A Mask For My Collection - TC Entry

Note: Feel free to read this in the staff podcast!

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"Mommy, I'm gonna go outside and play! It's a wonderful day today!" A little girl said to her mother. Seeing her mother's happy and encouraging nod, she grabbed her harp and ran outside. She sat underneath the big tall oak tree that stood on the outskirts of the village, and began strumming her harp. The village of Pagalia was a small, but friendly village. Everyone knew each other, and everyone was kind to one another. As the little girl strummed her harp, the wind picked up, blowing her music away. She scrambled quickly to chase after it. She got close, until she bumped into what appeared to be a man carrying a heavy load.

"Oh! I'm so sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going and I was trying to grab my music." The girl apologized, collecting the man's...merchandise? Masks, masks everywhere. Very lifelike masks. Very creepy masks. She didn't like it.

"It's quite alright, little one," he smiled widely.

The girl handed him his masks. His fingers touched hers in the process, and she quickly retracted her hand. He looked to be an unnerving person.

"You're Hylian?" she asked, taking notice to his ears.

"Why, yes I am. The Happy Mask Salesman, at your service. You can call me Happy, though."

"What are you doing all the way up here, if I may ask? We're very far from Hyrule."

"I'm a salesman, I travel all over the world."

"Oh, that makes sense...So...you sell masks?"

"Of course. I also collect them, the strange and unusual ones, that is," he grinned, eyes closed.

"How can you tell if a mask is strange and unusual, or different from the others?" she asked.

"Oh, you can feel it. Sometimes you'll come across one that makes the hairs on the back of your little neck stand up, and then you know it's a special one."

"Do you have any special masks with you right now?"

"Yes, in fact- I do!" and as soon as he said this, he pulled a frightening mask from his bag thing. It had spikes and was shaped like a heart. She didn't like looking at it, she felt sick from it.

"I...I can tell its special..."

"Really? Not everybody can, you know. It takes a very observant soul in order to feel it. This one is called Majora's Mask."

"Who is Majora?"

He laughed. He didn't answer, only grinned. Why does he always do that? And who the heck is Majora? She didn't want to know anymore, honestly. If their mask is creepy, they probably are too.

"Well, I should really get back to my music. It was lovely to meet you, Happy!" The girl said. They waved to each other and Happy turned around and went on his way. The girl looked and saw a mask on the ground. "Hey!" she shouted, but he was too far away by this point to hear her. She picked up the mask. It had a Hylian male with brown hair and blue eyes. It looked so real, and it felt as if the boy was staring into her soul. Curious, she put on the mask just to see what would happen.

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The young girl saw a boy identical to the one in the mask. He was frolicking in a field, playing with his friends. He looked so...happy. Around all of this was just a white abyss. This almost felt as if it was some sort of memory. But...who was this? Who was this boy? Where is he now? Puzzled, the girl took off the mask and snapped back into reality. She saw Happy standing before her.

"Ah, I see you have found a mask that I had mistakenly dropped" Happy said, smiling. "Thank you for picking that up" he said, his smile seeming to get more...evil?

"Oh, you're welcome!" The girl said, handing him the mask. Happy looked over by the oak tree.

"So, you play the harp I assume? Do you know any songs?"

"I sure do! Listen to this!" she went over to her instrument and played a mediocre tune to some nursery rhyme or another.

Happy's smile never faltered.

"Beautiful, absolutely magnificent! Would you like to learn another song? It's a magical one!"

The girl felt her mouth twitch upwards. Maybe Happy wasn't such a bad guy after all.

"Really? Teach it to me, please!"

Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, a grand piano appeared out of nowhere, ready to play. She was surprised, needless to say. Where did that come from...?

"This is called the Song of Healing. Whenever in a time of crisis, play this song, and it will end it all. Listen closely now..."

It sounded sad for a Song of Healing.

"Now you try."

She did. She surprisingly nailed it, but it was just a couple of notes.

"Wow, thank you!"

"No, thank you."

Happy turned around. "Well, I should get going for real this time" he said, as he walked away.

He loosened his bag a bit as he got further away, very subtly. For a split second the girl was proud of herself for noticing it. He pulled out the special mask, what was it called? ...Majora's. Majora's Mask. He casually, discretely dropped it. What was he doing? Why was he leaving it there? Turn back and get it, dummy!

"Hey, mister! You dropped your mask!" she said, running over to Happy, mask in hand.

"Oh? How very nice of you to return it to me. Most kids nowadays would take it and run off."

"Yeah, I dunno why they do it."

Happy laughed.

"Say...what do you think about this mask?"

"It's really cool, I suppose!"

"Would you like to have it?"

"R-Really? You mean I can have it?"

"Yes. This one wasn't really selling, and since you were nice enough to return it in the first place, I don't see any reason not to!"

"Wow...thank you! Thanks a lot!"

"Not a problem, child. Not a problem at all."

That grin. That horrible grin. He then proceeded once more to walk away.

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The girl reluctantly put the mask on. This mask felt different...She was in Pagalia still, though. But things felt...off? The sound had stopped. The movement had stopped. Everything felt wrong and she was creeped out.

And she stood there.

For hours.

Hours were days.

For days.

She watched as the town slowly turned to chaos. Fires would break out. Crime appeared to grow. She felt herself doing this but she wasn't sure how. What was happening? What is inside this mask? Where was Happy? There had to be some way to stop this! But how? Suddenly, she ed something.

"Whenever in a time of crisis, play this song, and it will end it all..."

She hastily strummed her harp. A familiar tune began to play, a familiar, sad tune. She recognized it as the Song of Healing. It somehow broke through the bubble of silence.

Everything stopped within the town.

And then everyone seemed to scream. Screams, painful, horrible screams of agony, as if everybody was going through a personal torture. It was so terrible. The girl covered her ears and tears began to stream down her face. She wanted to go home. She wanted to get into her bed, she wanted to be with her family. She never felt so scared and sick in her life.

Houses were in ruin. Burned, ripped apart, chopped down, etc. Crops were ripped out by the roots or dead. Decomposed bodies of animals were scattered about, mainly livestock. Finally, bodies. Bodies of all the dead people and in front of them were masks. Their faces. She wailed and covered her eyes.

"Get this mask off of me! It hurts! It hurtsssss!!" She screamed. She felt her eyes stinging from tears as she tried to rip the mask off of her face, but it wouldn't come off. In the distance, she could hear the Song of Healing begin to play once more. The mask then fell off her face, falling to the ground, bouncing away from her. She fell to her knees, sobbing in excruciating pain as her dried up tears stung her face and her eyes. She saw masks all over the place of human bodies. Her village was crumbled to nothing but ash and ruins. She felt her body beginning to shutdown.

Happy began to pick up the masks nonchalantly, paying no attention to the faceless bodies that littered the streets. In the center of it all was Majora's Mask. After collecting all the human masks he could find, he tucked them away in his bag and picked up Majora's. He grinned at it and walked towards the girl, who was lying on the ground, motionless and dead.

"You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?" Happy said, laughing.

He picked up the mask of the young girl and ired it closely before tucking it away with the rest of the masks.

"I suppose this will be yet another mask for my collection" he said as he walked away from the ruined village, laughing evilly as he did so.

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Hey guys! Gabi here presenting my entry for this months title challenge! Like I said before, feel free to read this in the podcast! I guess this story kinda just shows how evil the Happy Mask Salesman really is, haha.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed!

#Omni

#HauntingTales

#CuratorReview

Cover Art Credit