THE MASKED VENDETTA

Staring long enough in the mirror, she began her soliloquy. She was brave enough to do it in front of every performer backstage, she also wanted her target to hear her. She was wearing her mask, the Giaguaro mask. Only one of the ten legendary masks of Ferenta designed by the Congola, Hugh Lorre.

The Detalette Arena was a place where the rich met the poor on common ground. In a strange place like Ferenta, slavery was still prominent, this was odd because it was the 21^st century. And people were still being mistreated and enslaved but did Ferenta choose to hide and seclude itself from the outside world.

Her soliloquy went like this, “ Fair is the moon on a summer night, where everything is aligned with nature’s wish. Where we sit in the mist, and not miss but watch everything amidst, Amidst the even sky of the first night in many years, the clear open sky with the twilight of the night. We do not watch it in contempt, but we appreciate and celebrate, because what’s before our eyes is nothing to watch in a haste.”

Everyone who was present backstage applauded her, the Giaguaro had reached its target, she now had the attention of the il Leone. The reason that she wanted his attention was that she wanted to look him in the eyes through the little hole on the Il Leone mask. She wanted to see the man who murdered her mother 18 years ago, when she was only 6 years old.

To climb to the top, to be the il Leone, you needed a lot of skill, not only in acting but also you needed to be cunning enough to overcome the societal norms of Ferenta, and of Detalette Arena as well. And she made the climb, lowborn and orphaned, no one could have survived what she went through. She worked as a slave, serving for most of her life from one master to another, scrapping floors, working on their farms, begging for food and getting crumbs. And did all she can to please her masters, other times to an extreme extent, sometimes to a hellish extent. Until one kinder and softer master bought and took her in as his own, who taught her how to fight and be strong, but he too had his perversions. One day the master had too much to drink, and he forced himself on her again, but that day she could not take it anymore, she had the strength to fight him, and she knew it, as she lay on the bed with him on top of her, she took a knife of his pocket and stabbed him in the eyes, then 17 more times on his body to finish him off. The master ended up getting killed by an angry girl, who only sought vengeance for her mother, and this particular master was the biggest step to her pursuit. With him having no one to succeed him, she was the closest thing to kin that he had, and she seized the opportunity, she covered up the murder and no one noticed.

Her title now allowed her to be an actor in the Detalette Arena. All slave masters were eligible to take part in the Detalette Arena; only them. She first became the Udo Fresil, then the Yulande, then Bresdi il Loue, and then on to the remaining of the 10 masks of Ferenta she climbed. And now she was on the ninth, the Giaguaro. Ferenta was indeed a strange place and its leadership relied on a game of masks played in the greatest and only theatre of Ferenta; The Detalette Arena.

The game was easy, on the 9^th of Tuila( December) every year, the same play was performed amongst the people of Ferenta, the very same people who slavered and punished, the people who tortured and butchered and those who were affected by these actions. They all gathered in one room, watched the same play every year, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, very sketchy as the first leader of Ferenta vaguely remembered it from the outside world. No one really remembers how it came to be that this be the system of government. None the less, the play symbolised the significance of how Ferenta was built, the King of Scotland is betrayed by his own, and suffers a tragic death. Many important people die in the play, and the first il Leone( Hugh Lorre) wanted to be led by no one, and so his people followed his command, that every year a leader must fight for their life, he came up with this because he knew he was the strongest and most intelligent at that time and so he built a theatre where the people offered their lives for the role of Leadership. And he invented the masks himself, so as to know see who betrayed before they died, and the mask that remained last onstage was the new il Leone, Congola of Ferenta, the remaining masks shall be auditioned throughout the year by the masters, the judge still being death.

The girl finally worked her way up, auditioning throughout the year, fighting as good as she can, killing as much as she could. She was now facing her foe; she was close to eliminating him, she was close to avenging her mother. “That was a very good poem,” said il Leone. No one ever recited a poem like this before, he knew that. And this fluency and articulation meant that this actor knew her stuff. She was glad that he came forward and recognised her, this would later give him fright onstage.

After staring too long at each other, they were called onstage, all the actors. The play was about to start, the games were just beginning. They stepped on the main stage and begun the play of Macbeth(with its few changes)

It went on the play. Most actors died onstage, the remaining took a break and went backstage while the slaves were clearing the bodies. It was customary that the bodies be hanged outside the Detalette Arena for a few days. The Giaguaro, saw her mother rot for six days.

Giaguaro, il Leone, and Tantra Nymera were remaining, seven were dead. It was going to be a sword fight. But everyone was nervous, very nervous. All of them were very good. So, they decided to unmask themselves, seeing as the three of them had a high chance of dying, they wanted to see the face of the person who could kill in these remaining moments. This was not only against the rules, but it would prove to be a very stupid idea.

Tantra Nymera unmasked himself first. And after a very long stare, il Leone followed, and then it was Giaguaro. il Leone could not believe what was before his eyes, who was in front of him. He walked towards her, grabbed her by both chins – this alarmed her a little – and kissed her on the forehead, it was her daughter, he thought she was dead. He told her this and also told her that he never meant for this to go this way. She knew that it was indeed her father by the colour of his eyes and by the alignment if his lips, they were similar to hers.

Giaguaro never met her father, and she resented him for abandoning her and her mother when she was 4. And this exhorted her even more to kill him. For il Leone was fond of his daughter, never wanted to leave, but he also did not want to remain a slave for the rest of his life, and she was too young to take with on this quest, she could have been a casualty, but she was a casualty now more than ever.

They hugged for a long time the two, a true and meaningful hug of father and daughter. But the daughter had other ideas, she took out a dagger from her waist and stabbed him on the stomach, and then she let go of him, grabbed him by the shoulder and sticked the dagger deep into his chest. While he gasped for air, Tantra Nymera pulled out his sword and put it into Giaguaro’s back and through her chest.

Both father and daughter now lay on the wooden floor with their blood spilling between the holes. Everyone was clapping though; the stage curtains were open. Apparently, this backstage theatre was planned all along, but the actors were never told. Everyone saw what had just transpired. Tantra Nymera was now the new il Leone and Congola of Ferenta. They all broke the rules, but this was disregarded. What happened was what Ferenta was all about, deceit and trickery being the sacrifice of power.