Fiends

    He nodded. He felt as if his heart might crash out through his ribcage. ‘You don’t have to.’

    ‘I do. Better that you see it now, than…’ Ligeia quit without finishing. She raised her hand to the headband across her brow. Hooked it with her fingertips. Peeled it back. The mask slid up her face.

    More than her mask was coming off.

    Her hair, too.

    Oh God!

    Her arm dropped to her side, mask and wig clutched in her fist.

    Allan gaped at her.

    She stared at him. She caught her lower lip between her teeth. After a few moments, she said, ‘At least I’m not Godzilla.’

    She let the mask and wig fall. Reaching up with both hands, she unpinned her hair. She shook her head, ran her fingers through the flowing red tresses. Her green eyes shimmered with tears.

    ‘Maureen?’

    ‘Don’t hate me,’ she said in the voice he knew so well, a voice so different from the breathy tones of Ligeia. ‘Please.’

    ‘How could I hate you? But I don’t… Why? Why the mask? What’s going on?’

    ‘I just got tired of the buddy treatment, Allan.’ A tear fell from the corner of each eye. They made silver trails down her cheeks. ‘Day in, day out. You never… I’m not your buddy. I never wanted to be your buddy. So maybe it made me a little crazy and…’

    ‘A lot crazy. Something might’ve happened to you, wandering around at night like this.’

    She sniffed and rubbed away the tears. ‘I just wanted you to notice me.’

    ‘God, Maureen.’

    ‘I wanted to show you that I’m a woman.’

    His throat tightened. ‘I always knew you were a woman. But it never entered my mind that you might want to… get involved with me. You never said anything. You never gave me any reason to suspect it.’

    ‘I know. I know. I wanted to. I just couldn’t. But then… I guess it was seeing Phantom of the Opera a few weeks ago that gave me the idea. I thought, what if he doesn’t realize it’s me? What if I’m a stranger he meets in the night? A mysterious, seductive masked woman. The way you’re into spooky stuff, I figured it might work.’

    ‘It sure worked, all right.’

    ‘Too well, I guess. Back in the alley, I just couldn’t… let it go any further. It wouldn’t have been right. It wasn’t me you wanted. It was Ligeia. Not plain old ordinary me.’

    ‘She was… the most exciting woman I ever… She was fantastic.’

    ‘I guess you must be awfully disappointed.’

    ‘I don’t know. I suppose so. It was the mystery, you know? It was the unknown and being afraid of who she was, what she might look like under the mask. Now that it’s you…’

    ‘It was always me.’

    ‘Yeah, but…’

    ‘It was. It is. I am Ligeia.’ Crouching, she picked up the mask and wig. She put them on and took hold of Allan’s hand.

    ‘I don’t think that’ll work.’

    ‘Won’t it?’ she asked, her voice low and breathy.

    ‘I know it’s you.’

    ‘Do you?’

    ‘Of course.’

    ‘You know nothing.’

    Allan felt a chill crawl up his spine.

    She led him along the sidewalk. ‘Maureen is a spineless, pitiful creature of the light. I despise her.’

    ‘Hey, come on. You don’t have to do this.’

    ‘I belong to the night.’

    ‘Cut it out, okay? I’m glad you’re Maureen.’

    ‘I’m not Maureen. Call me again by that vile name at your peril.’

    ‘Oh, for godsake.’

    She pulled him into the darkness of an alley. She pushed him against a brick wall.

    ‘This is ridiculous,’ he muttered, his voice trembling. ‘Let’s get out of here.’

    She lifted his hands to her breasts. He felt them, warm and firm through the slick fabric. She rubbed his palms against her stiff nipples.

    ‘You’re making me nervous. I wish you’d stop this. We’re gonna have to look each other in the face, Monday morning.’

    ‘You won’t be looking me in the face. I’m Ligeia.’

    ‘Come on, we both know you’re not.’

    She released his wrists. ‘Lift my mask,’ she whispered.

    His heart kicked. ‘What for?’

    ‘You’ll see.’

    ‘I don’t need to see. I know who you are.’

    ‘Then why are you afraid to lift the mask?’

    ‘You already took it off.’

    ‘That was in the light. I am a woman of the darkness.’

    He tried to laugh. ‘You’re pretty good at this. But I think we oughta get going.’

    ‘I showed you Maureen. I didn’t allow you to see Ligeia. The true face of Ligeia shuns the light. But you may look upon it now, if you have the courage.’

    ‘I’m not afraid.’

    ‘Then lift the mask.’

    He stared at the fabric draping her face, tried to see her eyes and mouth behind the black slots. ‘I know it’s you,’ he murmured. But he thought, What if it’s not?

    Ridiculous. Crazy.

    But he couldn’t force himself to lift the mask.

    ‘Who am I?’ she asked, her breath stirring the cloth.

    ‘Ligeia.’

    ‘Yessss.’ She pulled him forward against her.

    They embraced, they kissed, they squirmed breathless as they caressed and explored each other. She winced once when Allan touched the scrape behind her shoulder. He whispered, ‘I’m sorry’ into the warm pit of her mouth. Then he was on his back on the alley pavement. Maureen straddling him, bare to the waist. As he squeezed her breasts, she sank down and impaled herself.

    Afterward, she lay on top of him and kissed him through the mouth slot of her mask.

    He sighed. He’d known Maureen for three years. Three years wasted, he thought. So much missed.

    ‘I must leave you now,’ she whispered.

    ‘No. I’ll walk you home. Or we could go to my apartment.’

    ‘Not tonight, my darling.’ She pushed herself up, and Allan sighed with a feeling of loss as he slid out of her. Standing, she raised the top of her dress and arranged the shoulder straps. ‘Farewell.’ She turned away.

    ‘Hey! Don’t leave!’

    She ran from the alley.

    Allan knocked on the door of Maureen’s classroom ten minutes before the start of first period Monday morning.

    ‘Come in.’

    He entered. She pushed back her chair and stood up, smiling. She wore a sleeveless, yellow sundress. She looked radiant. The sight of her made Allan’s heart race. How could he have known her so long and never realized how beautiful she was?

    Her bright green eyes watched him as he approached her desk. ‘Good morning, Ligeia,’ he said.