Daniel panted as he saw the mask gleam in the moonlight. His hands were on his knees, so exhausted was he after his long trek to the graveyard, but still he could not tear his eyes from the thing. Lying inside the open grave it looked rather innocuous, harmless in fact, but Daniel knew the truth of it.
As his hand grasped the shovel he had brought, Daniel thought back to the fateful day he had found this silver mask, looking just as innocuous as it did right now. The day his life changed forever.
****
It was a beautiful day and Daniel was quite excited to be out and about. He had gotten a day off from his job as a gas station attendant after a long time, so he had his heart set on simply sitting out in the beautiful park next to his apartment building and doing as little as possible.
It was at this moment that he noticed, from the corner of his eye, a silver gleam. It was a gleam that would soon become terrifyingly familiar to him, but in that moment it simply sparked Daniel’s curiosity.
He looked around and saw that the gleam was coming from the bushes next to the bench he was sitting on. Upon inspecting the bushes he found that the gleam from a mask made of pure silver. In spite of the fact that the mask had been in the dirt, it was completely spotless.
Daniel was intrigued by the curious thing but he did not think much of it. He decided to take it home with him. It was a pretty thing after all, and if nothing else he could sell it to get some extra cash.
When he finished his day in the sun, Daniel headed home, sparing no more than a passing thought to the mask that was in his jacket pocket. It was when he got home that he noticed that something was not entirely right.
He hung his jacket and placed the mask on his mantelpiece, after which he got to work preparing his dinner. He ate his dinner while watching a movie and read a book after he was done, enjoying the peace and quiet. When the clock struck eleven Daniel decided that it was time for a nightcap and then a good night’s sleep.
Daniel sipped his nightcap, glad that he had been able to enjoy a peaceful day off. However, something wouldn’t stop bothering him. Throughout the standard evening routing he had engaged in upon returning home, Daniel had felt like someone was whispering in his ear. These were odd whispers, there was something strangely ethereal about them. He had been ignoring it for a while, thinking that it was just the wind when he looked around and was unable to find a source, but now the whispering was getting louder and Daniel simply couldn’t take it anymore.
He got up once again, determined to find the source of the noise. He looked high and low, but all he could determine was that it was coming from somewhere near his mantelpiece. After moving the mantelpiece around, Daniel stood there scratching his head when he was struck by a sudden, chilling realization.
These whispers that were getting louder by the second, whispers that seemed almost inhuman and otherworldly, were coming from the mouth piece of the silver mask.
