The Queen’s Mask
INT. JASON’S BEDROOM — NIGHT
The breaking of glass jolted JASON GETTY(17) awake. He rolled over his bed and reached for his phone on his nightstand. Once in his hand, it automatically illuminated Jason’s face. 3:45 am. He groaned and flopped onto his back. He should probably check what the noise was. His klutz of a mother would need his help cleaning up the glass. He debated if he should go because, in four hours, Jason had a meeting at school planning out the memorial for Renée Burns. It was an important event that the SA President had to arrange.
INT. MASQUERADE BANQUET (A WEEK BEFORE) — NIGHT
A girl is surrounded by students dressed to the nines in black suits, silver, and purple prom dresses. Each student has a masquerade mask. We can’t see their eyes, but they are all staring at the girl.
She is wearing the gaudiest dress with gold hems and glitter. It looks like she’s wearing the galaxy. A spotlight illuminates her. She is the only one lit up. She is wearing no mask but a helmet with the face of a masquerade mask.
Smoke rose from the eyes of the mask as the girl screamed bloody murder to have the helmet taken off.
The word’s ‘Masquerade Queen. Renée Burns’ can be faintly heard in the distance. Then the crowd claps.
INT. JASON’S BEDROOM — NIGHT
Jason shook the memory from his mind. Focusing back on the memorial. He thought it would be a good idea to hold one so that the school would never forget.
JASON: The girl is dead, and she’s still a pain in the ass.
RENÉE BURNS(17) wasn’t always the easiest to get along with. She didn’t have many friends, and the friends she did have didn’t always like hanging out with her. Either way, the principal came to Jason and asked if he could do something for the students. Jason at first didn’t feel up to it, but it would help get him re-elected for next year. Plus, it wasn’t Jason’s fault that Reneé was weird and different from everyone else. Still, something had to be done.
He slid out of bed and headed down the flight stairs.
INT. KITCHEN/LIVING ROOM — NIGHT
The light was on in the kitchen but also in the living room.
JASON: Mom! You left all the lights on again! You’re going to run our electric bill through the roof.
Jason strolled into the living room only to find the space in disarray. The glass coffee table was shattered, the couch was ripped and thrown over, the pictures of him and his family smashed and thrown across the room, and worst of all as Jason turned around to see on the wall where their TV had once hung, he found the German words ’Verlorene Liebe’ written in blood, bones, and matter.
Jason stared at the gruesome sight, trying to comprehend what it was, what it meant, what it was written in.
JASON(scared): Mom!
Beat.
JASON(hysterical): Mom!
Jason swiftly made his way to the kitchen to find that it was also a mess. Somebody had taken all the knives from the knife block, pulled out all the pots and pans, and ripped out everything from the fridge — milk mixed with condiments and pasta sauce curdled under vegetables and horseradish.
Jason pushed his fingers through his blonde hair. There must have been some mistake. Why would an intruder attack his family, he thought.
He stepped back to the living room and immediately felt a prick underneath his foot. He raised it to find a diamond ring on the floor. It was his mother’s, and it was stained red.
JASON(shakey): Mom?
Then he noticed it, from the corner of his eye, where most things hide — a silhouette of a person charging at him.
He ducked just in the nick of time for the STRANGER to miss him, but he froze when he got a good look at his attacker. The Stranger wore that gaudy dress with gold hems and sparkles that looked like a faint galaxy. It was ripped and tattered. Yet it was the Masquerade helmet that he saw first, which shocked him because it was that same mask that roasted and melted the hair and flesh of Renée Burns.
JASON(terrified): Th-this can’t b-be right. You ca-can’t be here.
He slowly crept backwards.
The Stranger didn’t say anything, but as she got closer and closer. Jason began to sweat like a fountain.
STRANGER(roaring): LISTEN UP, FOLKS! TODAY WE HAVE A SPECIAL WINNER FOR THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PERSON IN THE ROOM!
The Stranger roared like an announcer.
STRANGER: SHE HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE GEM IN OUR CLASS! PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER FOR Renée Burns.
Jason took off running down the hall to the man cave.
INT. HALL — NIGHT
He wasn’t about to let this crazy person kill him. He was too young for that. He had a bright future ahead of him, and he wasn’t going to let the sins of his classmates ruin everything he had worked so hard for.
Being SA President isn’t easy. On top of that, there was no way this could have been Renée because she transferred out of town to a mental hospital, a three-hour car ride, and Jason couldn’t imagine how long it would take by foot if she had broken out.
INT. SCHOOL ENTRANCE (A WEEK BEFORE) — NIGHT
Jason is standing in front of the student body, watching the paramedics strap Renée in. She fights against the restraints. The helmet still on her head.
Renée notices Jason, and she stops fighting. She stared deep into Jason’s eyes. He can see the burnt flesh and her damaged eyes. Strands of flesh connect the top of Renée’s brow to the bottom part of her eye socket.
Her eyes start to smile, ripping the strands.
INT. HALL — NIGHT
Jason remembered seeing her strapped in tight. He wanted to make sure she was still alive after the incident. It was his duty as SA President.
Jason started overturning picture shelves and small bookcases to stop her. Yet like some eight-legged freak, she crawled and climbed over everything with ease.
Jason leapt down the stairs to the man cave door and slipped inside.
INT. MAN CAVE — NIGHT
Once inside, he locked the door and leaned against it.
The man-cave looked untouched. The sliding door wasn’t broken, and the cabinets were fine, but he noticed something red on the floor.
A knife appeared in his left pec, and in a flash, it was gone. Jason fell to the floor bleeding.
The Stranger had stabbed into the wooden door and straight through his back.
Jason’s father complained about the door being old and hollow. He had planned to fix it but had an extended business trip out of town and didn’t have the time.
Jason tried to pick himself up from the floor but slipped in something slick. It smelt of iron.
He looked up to see a trail of blood leading to the fireplace where his mother had been stuffed and decapitated to fit in. Her innards spilled into the floor.
JASON: Mo-
Jason puked.
He looked around the room for his father’s gun. He found the cabinet and unlocked it to see the Glock was untouched.
The door to the man-cave smashed open off its hinges, and the Stranger stepped through.
Jason aimed the Glock at her and pulled the trigger with no questions.
Nothing happened.
The Stranger started to smile from underneath the mask, and strangely enough, Jason knew she was smiling.
JASON(pleading): I don’t know who you are, but this joke has gone on long enough.
Jason pleaded, looking around the room for another way out. He noticed the fire iron to his right. The Stranger moved closer, but he threw the Glock at her just as she was moving. She swatted it away with ease.
Jason picked up the fire iron and charged at her.
The first swing missed.
The second one smashed into the glass cabinet in the room.
The Stranger moved back, giving a clear path back to the door.
Jason took his chance and ran, but instead of bolting towards the door, he took a left to the sliding door that led to the backyard. He slid the door open and ran up the outside stairs. He could feel the Stranger behind him.
INT. BACKYARD — NIGHT
Once outside, he started to dart across the lawn. If he could jump over the fence, he could go to the neighbours to call for help.
But the moment he touched the grass, a bear trap sprung, clamping right into his leg. He fell forward into a pile of spikes hidden in the grass. A switch was then flipped, and two floodlights illuminated him.
STRANGER: That’s right, folks! Here. Is. Her. Prize.
The Stranger strolled past Jason and then stood in front of him.
Jason looked up with mouth wide open, screaming, but no sound came out. Only tears streaked his face. The Stranger bent down and slapped him.
STRANGER: Stop crying. You’re the star. Where is all that bravery you had during the Banquet?
Jason started shaking his head vigorously.
JASON(unsteadily): You can’t be Renée. You can’t.
STRANGER: And why is that?
JASON: Because, because Renée is in a coma.
The Stranger stopped smiling and took a step back.
STRANGER: How would you know that?
JASON(confessing): Because…because Michael’s brother worked at the psych ward, and we asked him to make sure she wouldn’t say anything. He snap chatted us a couple of pictures of him with Renée with the caption coma.
The Stranger walked up to him and released the bear trap.
In one last attempt, Jason thrust his hands at her throat but was easily thrown off.
STRANGER: Well, let me tell you how Michael did it. It started with one punch. Like so.
The Stranger threw the first punch.
Jason fell to his back.
The hidden spikes in the grass jabbed into his back.
Jason was about to scream out but was interrupted by another punch.
And another.
And another.
The last thing he saw was the Queen’s Mask.
