A Masquerade Ball with Sparks

“A masquerade ball in the woods? Are you sure this is a good idea?” I asked as Stella and Valeria stared at me before bursting into loud laughter. 

“Willow, this is the best idea we’ve had so far. We won’t even need tickets or money to buy costumes.” Stella declared and she was right. Her mother worked at the theatre and had an entire room full of all the costumes anyone could ever ask for and according to her, sneaking into the event was not going to be difficult since it was all happening outside. 

We found ourselves costumes in a room that must be every little girl’s dream. My outfit was almost entirely black, the mask being the only exception with a golden metallic style. Stella picked out a stylish red pantsuit and color matched her shoes and mask to the fabric. Valeria had found an emerald green dress with a mask of similar color and she looked stunning with her orange hair accentuated. 

We found our way to the entrance of the event and the line of people waiting for tickets must have been the longest line I had ever seen. Our best bet, we thought, was to stay out of sight and find or make a hole in the surrounding fences. Walking through the muddy grass avoiding sticks seemed to be the highlight of the night until something unexpected happened. 

“Wait! Someone is coming.” I whispered as we halted to witness a couple breaking their way out of the party and creating a way for us in. They seemed to be solely focused on each other and on their way to take this party to a more private place. 

“Perfect timing whoever they are.” Valeria stated relieved as we all walked in through the broken fence and pretended like nothing happened.

A woman dressed in sparkles wearing a magician’s black hat and performing tricks was the first thing I noticed as we found our way through the broken fence. She didn’t look like your usual magician and had hair as pale as her face, which was almost completely covered in a dark veil. No one seemed to pay much attention to her and after finishing her latest trick she vanished into the crowd in a blink of an eye. The lights were bright but certain areas of the outside venue were left in gloomy shadows of red and it reminded me of Halloween some years ago when I got scared half to death by a skull screaming from the dark. 

“Come, there’s a puppet show over there!” Stella said before running through the colorful lights leaving the rest of us hoping we would catch her and not have to search for a blonde girl with a red mask for the rest of the night. 

“Wait! We’re coming!” I yelled, knowing she was long out of reach.

The puppets resembled humans in an eerie way, and it made me spend most of the performance staring at the muddy heels I had on. Valeria's body was moving to the rhythm of the music coming from the dancing area. The only one intrigued by the puppets seemed to be Stella who kept her eyes strictly locked in on the action. I turned to look around me to find somewhere one could eat but the only thing I was able to spot was a pink cotton candy stand and my stomach expressed its dissatisfaction. 

“Can we go dance already?” Valeria sounded impatient and bored.

“Sure, let’s just finish this first.” Stella was unwilling to leave and this time I had a better idea. 

“I’d like to find some place to eat. What if we all meet up back at the fountain in the middle when we’re done?” I propose hoping we wouldn’t end up losing each other in the crowds. Everyone seemed to agree, and I headed to the cotton candy stand planning to find more food stands there. 

I saw dresses made out of satin and masks constructed of jewels as well as people dressed in simple outfits. It all seemed a sort of mismatch between worlds. In front of me a woman with a pale blue satin dress and a mask, made out of the most expensive feathers she could find no doubt, was whispering to the magician I remember spotting as we walked in. They seemed to be in the middle of a private conversation, and I wondered why it all felt very suspicious. I shrugged it off as being the training of a police officer getting in the way of having a regular day and decided to follow my stomach instead to the burger stand.

The food had a spicy taste to it, but it didn’t bother me and almost instantly I began to enjoy the music and lights more. After my stomach agreed it was time to move on I decided to finally fulfill my curiosity, and take a closer look at the magician at her work. Walking towards her I saw a crowd of people had gathered to see her newest tricks and I found my spot at the corner of the gathering. Her tricks were centered around using fire to create shapes that answered the questions others were asking and the crowd offered her coins in return. No one knew how she was able to create shapes out of fire but sometimes birds appeared, sometimes guns and sometimes teacups. I wondered if the people asking questions were getting any real answers from her fireworks. At the end of the show, she bowed to the applause and smiled.

Some stayed after the show to talk to her and as she held one woman's hand, I saw a piece of jewelry vanish in a blink of an eye and I turned to look at what was happening. The woman thanked the magician and began to walk away but suddenly halted and started screaming so loud it seemed the entire masquerade stood still. The magician took a stance that resembled a person ready to fight anyone who may come her way. 

“You, you stole my jewelry! That was my grandmothers! Where is it?” The woman yelled and it sounded like a continuation of her screaming with some added vocabulary. I didn’t think anyone could have made the situation sound more dramatic than her. 

“I did not steal from you.” The magician replied with a calm and certain voice but the woman in front of her was not convinced of the lie. She began to aim for her pockets to search for the sharp cornered wristband, when the magician pulled out a gun and pointed it towards her. This time her scream was glass breaking loud and I felt my ears ring with the steady note she voiced. The crowd began to pull away from the scene as I ran towards the two women as fast as I could, but I was too late. My ears rang with the sound a moment later. An explosion instead of a gunshot. What is happening? Where is the explosion? As my ears rang my vision spot the magician running with a black bag and she was surprisingly fast with heels and a long black dress. She dropped something to the ground, but I had no time to focus on it. My energy was running out and I fell to the ground as the alarmed voices of others played in the background. I tried to avoid the running feet around me as I gathered strength to stand up and see what was happening. The explosion seemed to have happened around the area where Valeria went to dance, and the worry hit me like a stone. I decided I had to get up and see where everyone was and if I could help someone, my feet felt like spaghetti, but I stood on them anyway. I saw through the smoke that I was closer to the fountain than I thought, and I spotted Stella sitting there alone frozen and not moving. I walked towards her as fast as I could and hoped she had seen Valeria somewhere. 

“Stella! Stella, are you hurt? Have you seen Valeria?” I asked her as she turned her head towards my voice and seemed to look past me. 

“I- I… Can’t see anything.” Stella uttered and I was shocked. She couldn’t move anywhere because she didn’t see where she was going. I had to try to be calm, I had to try to help.

“It’s okay Stella, it’s going to be okay, just stay here. I’ll be back I promise.” I tried to sound as convincing and calming as I could and decided I was going to find Valeria and bring her here before trying to leave with both of them. 

“Valeria! Valeriaa!” I kept screaming her name through the smoke and felt like I could relate to how Stella must be feeling without her vision. 

I stumbled on something as I moved and soon my vision informed me it wasn’t something but a someone, more specificly Valeria laying on the ground unconscious. I felt a sinking inside as I saw her body there so lifeless in front of me, but there was no time, no time to wonder or worry. I had to get her to safety. I gathered myself, picked her slack body onto my arms and began to carry her towards the fountain. Stella was waiting there, still at the exact same position she was in when I left. 

“Stella, I’m here, I’m back and I found Valeria. We need to get to the exit, okay? Can you move towards my voice?” I asked her in a soothing tone and hoped that she would be able to move since could not to carry more than one person at a time. 

“I… I think I can.” She replied with a shaky voice that sounded a bit more confident than before.

“Here grab my arm and follow where I’m going, we’ll get out of here.” I could feel her grip me tighter as I began to walk and everywhere around us was filled with smoke and people running. I walked forward the entire time hoping the enterance was where most people were moving toward.

“Will I ever see again?” Stella asked after a while and my heart sank. I had no idea if she would, but I decided it was best to tell her something that would calm her. 

“You’ll be just fine, the doctors are going to help us all.” I voiced my sincere hopes for everyone and prayed they would become reality soon. 

Finally, through the smoke I began to see the entrance of the masquerade and the relief was tangible. Walking through to the paramedics I let myself fall right to their arms with Stella and Valeria as my body finally allowed me to feel the lack of energy I denied before. 

I woke up at the hospital with Stella staring at me and felt relieved she was able to see again. I looked around and saw no one else in the room and the fear hit me. 

“Where is Valeria?” I asked as my first thought was something horrible must have happened to her. 

“Oh, don’t worry she is fine, she is getting some coffee. I’m so glad you’re finally awake.” Stella confessed and I sensed relief in her voice. Valeria came back and almost cried of joy when she saw me looking back at her with a smile.

“Thank god you’re awake, you saved our lives!” She greeted me with her smile, and I felt better than I had in a long time. 

“Did you find out what happened at the masquerade? Did you hear about the magician?” I was curious about the mysterious events and couldn’t help but ask. 

“Haha, ahh yes, you truly are back with us. Everyone has heard of the magician, she is the one behind all of it, but no one knows where she is. The police are still looking for her.” Stella began to explain what the newspapers had been busy pressing the past few days and we all listened, but no one really knew where the magician had disappeared and who she really was. We decided to abandon the investigating for the time being and promised not to leave each other alone at parties again and vowed to be careful around magicians.