Behind the Mask

Behind The Mask

Behind The Mask is a story that follows a teenage boy that decides to wear a mask and spill the secrets of everyone in the school.

General Devotion 

"Good Morning students and teachers. I hope you all had a wonderful summer and welcome back to Alabaster High School," said the Principal.

"Good morning and same to you," the teachers and students both responded.

"Let us begin our devotion by starting with the school's prayer, " the Principal commanded. 

"It is a denial of justice not to stretch out a helping hand to the fallen; that is the common right of humanity. They are they who maintain justice, who constantly do what is right." 

"Who's that, and where's it coming from, " the principal said fiercely, with a curious look. 

"Who am I? You all may wonder that you will all know soon, but for now me all justice, for all your truths will come to light. 

"Look, over there on the screen," a boy shouts. 

"What am I talking about? You may wonder. Well, I mean, all your secrets will come to the light, in the next hour I will bring someone's secret to the light, but for now, continue with devotion and welcome back,"  the masked man said. 

"Who was that guy?" Luke asked, walking towards the classroom with Serah.

"No idea, but he scares me," Serah answers. 

"How so?"

"Didn't you hear him, he knows all our secrets?" 

"Could be a prank."

"Hey, Serah and Luke, who was that guy in the mask on the broadcaster?" Josh said, joining the conversation.

"No clue," Serah and Luke both responded.

"Hey guys, look, it's Josh the nerd and his friends," A guy said to his friends while passing Josh.

"Josh?" Serah said, curiously. 

"Serah?" said Josh

"Are you still getting bullied  by those guys?" Serah asked, looking at Josh with an angry face.  

"No hiding it from you, yeah I'm still getting bullied," Josh responds, with a fake laugh.

"You need to tell the dean or the principal, this can't continue," Serah said fiercely. 

"It's alright, I'm used to it by now," Josh responded. 

"It's like I'm not even here, I must be a ghost," Luke mobbed. 

"Let's just go to class guys, " Serah said, with a depressing voice.

Classroom

"Welcome back students. Hope you all had a wonderful summer, and I hope that this term will be different, and you all are prepared to learn," The English teacher Ms. Green said, with a friendly smile. 

"My dear students and teachers, I have come to give you what I promised, to bring the truth to the light. Today's truth is cheating, and I don't mean cheating on tests or anything. No, I mean cheating on the person you're with, the man we call principal, a cheater, that cheats on her wife with one of our teachers, and not just any teacher, the English teacher, Ms. Green, you wouldn't believe it without proof so in a minute a video will be sent to all your phones. That will be all for now." The masked man said. 

A minute passed and a video of the principal and the teacher having intimacy was sent across the whole school. In less than a minute everyone in school was in front of the principal's office making a  commotion. Then on the broadcasting screen, the guy in the mask said.

"Do you still think this is a prank," the Masked man said, then the broadcasting screen turned off. 

" Hey, Luke?" Serah said, with a depressed look on her face.

"Yeah?" Luke answered curiously.

"We need to put a stop to this guy, he knows all our secrets," Serah said, looking at Luke seriously. 

" I wanna stop this guy too, but how do we go about doing that?" 

"Don't look at him as a person, think of him  like a mystery game, and what do you look for in a mystery game?"

"You look for clues," Luke answered. 

"Yes, think back to the classroom. Do you remember  when he said, "My dear students and teachers, right?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't prove anything." 

"Wrong, " he said "my", meaning that he could be a student or even a teacher."

"But how can we know for sure? He's using a voice changer." 

"I know, but how can he know all our secrets? It would have to be someone close that was watching us all summer, but who, and how would they know where we live," Serah said, thinking curiously. 

"The principal's office has all our files," Luke points out. 

"Maybe it's someone in the student council?"

"Or it could be that someone sneaked in and took the files." 

"We need to go to the principal's office," Serah suggested. 

In the Principal's Office 

"Sir?" Serah said, with a serious tone. 

"Is there something I can help both of you with?" The Principal responds

"Can you check to see if the students' files are still there? All this with the  guy in the mask, I can't help but think that a student is behind all of this." Serah responds. 

"Let me check, do you know which student did it?" The principal asked. 

"Not yet, still trying to figure that out," Serah replied.

"How did this happen?" The principal wondered curiously.

“Let me guess, the student's files are gone.”

"But how? I am the only one that has the keys "

"Maybe you did it." Luke implied. 

“Why would I tell my secret to the school?”

"I don't know, maybe you wanted us to know you were having an affair with our English teacher,"  Luke said while laughing. 

"You watch your tone when you're talking to me boy, don't forget I am the principal of this school."  The principal said fiercely. 

"Sorry for overstepping."

“Get back to your classes, I have a board meeting to attend."

“Luke, let's go, I got what I wanted to know,"  said Serah. 

Outside The Principal's Office 

Why are you always on your phone? 

“No reason, so what now?” Luke asked.

“We follow the clues,” Serah answered.

“Hey, what are you guys doing here?” Josh asked curiously, joining the conversation. 

“Just wanted to see if the principal is doing okay. What are you doing here? And where have you been the entire time?” Serah asked.

“At first, I was in the bathroom, and then, I was buying lunch but the line was too long so it took me a while,” Josh answered. 

“Yeah, I know that feeling all too well, when the bathroom calls you must answer, Luke commented. 

“Feels like it's calling me again, so I must go. See you two in class.”

“Wait a second.” Serah commended. 

“What is it? is there something wrong? Said Josh.

“What did you buy for lunch?”

“I bought a hamburger and soda, why do you wanna know?”

“No reason. Just wanted to check if you're eating well.”

“Okay, thanks for looking out for me,” Josh said, then walked off.

“Wonder if he's going to be okay? Belly pain is the worst to have,” Luke said.

“He's going to be okay because he doesn't have belly pain, he lied,” Setah points out.

“What makes you say that?”

"He said he was in the lunch line."

“Yeah, but that doesn't mean he's lying.”

“It's class time, not lunchtime, and today is Tuesday, which means water day, and besides, he said the line was long when everyone was at the principal's office.” 

“If you know he was lying he didn't say anything?”

“Didn't want him to think I was on to him, but the real question is, is he the guy behind the mask, are is he covering up for him.” 

A video was sent to everyone's phone, with the guy in the mask saying, in the next ten minutes everyone in this school secrets will be sent to your phones, then the message ended.

“We need to find Josh and stop him”

“Do you think it's him?”

“I don't wanna believe it, but that message was sent right after Luke left. Coincidence, it's too sudden, I need to find him,” Serah said and ran searching for Josh.”

Hallway

“Has anyone seen Josh?” Serah shuts..

“No, I haven't seen him.” A girl replied. 

“Has anyone seen Josh?” Serah asked again.

“I saw him on top of the roof.” The next girl responded. 

Serah rushes to the roof

On the Roof

“Why are you here Serah?” Josh asked.

“I know you're the guy behind the mask.”

“What gave me away?”

“Your lies didn't add up, you said you were in the lunch line and the line was long but it wasn't lunchtime at the time so it couldn't be a line there, and you said you bought a hamburger and a soda, but it's Tuesday, which means today's water day.” 

“So that's how you know. No wonder you are the brightest in our class.”

“Why are you doing all of this?”

“You have no idea what it's like being bullied all the time. I told Mrs Green and all she said was to go to the Dean. I went to the Dean. He said he can't do anything if he doesn't see the bullying, and you know I even went to the Principal. You know what he said, he said I should fight my own battles, so when I found out the secrets of everyone in school, I did exactly what he said to do,” Josh said, with anger.

“What did he say?” Who is he, Josh?” Serah asked curiously.

Suddenly, a video was sent to everyone's phone saying, your ten minutes are up as promised, here are all your secrets. Then the message ended and all the phones got the message of everyone's secrets. Serah got a video with Josh saying, who do you love in your school? Well, there is this girl. Her name is Serah. She's beautiful and smart and I love her with all of my heart. Then the video ended. 

“ Is this some kind of game for you?” Serah asked with tears in her eyes.

“This was not part of the plan, he didn't say he was going to send mine.”

“Where does the principal live?”

“How am I supposed to know?”

“It's not you, is it? you just do what he says, which means, you are the one who posts his videos of him in the mask, but the videos are not live they're pre-recorded which means, you just get the time when to post them, you don't know the person behind the mask, do you?” Serah implies. 

“I don't know him he just said to do what he says or my secret will be out, but he posted it anyways.”

“What was the last thing he said to do?” 

“To come here.” 

“Why would he want you here?”

Then a message was sent to everyone's phone saying, I did all I wanted to do, now as I promised if you which to see me, come on top of the roof.

“We're too late, he's making you take the blame for all of it.”

“But I didn't do it.” 

“I know, but no one will believe you.”

“Look, there he is, he's the guy in the mask,” A girl with a group of angry students behind her.

“I didn't do anything, I swear.” 

“No one believes you, get him guys.” the girl said.

A bunch of guys started beating Josh from left to right. Serah tried to stop them but they wouldn't stop.

“Stop, that's enough. Do you want to kill him, I know you want justice but this is not the way,” Luke said stopping the fight.

“What the hell is going on here? The principal said to make an appearance.

“He's the one behind the mask. “

“Josh, come with me!” The principal commanded fiercely.

“Wait just a moment,” Serah shouted.

“What is it now, Serah?”  said the Principal.

“Josh didn't do it, and I know who did.”

“Who is it then?” asked Luke. 

“Where were you?”

“I was,”

“Looking for Josh right,” Serah said.

“Yes, but I couldn't find him.”

“That's a lie. You know where he was the entire time because you told him to come back here when I said I needed to find Josh and ran off to look for him. You didn't follow me. You need all this just so I would believe that Josh did it when the person who did it was right in front of me the entire time. No wonder you're always on your phone. You use it to text Josh telling him what to do while blackmailing him with his secret, and that thing you said about justice just now when you stopped the fight, you said that exact word in devotion when you made your first appearance.”

“Well, I guess no point hiding it now you found me out, congrats, but it's far too late, I already sent all your secrets, it was me all of it, I stole the keys and took the files of every student here and put back the keys and then for the whole summer I watched every one of you, you were right from the start Serah, you are so smart,” said Luke. 

“But why, why do all of this?”  Josh asked,

“Because you all deserved it, I watched you were bullied and no one did a thing about it, the kids here treated you like crap, so when I found out their secrets I was so excited,” said Luke.

“Why didn't you share my secret,” said Serah.

“Because it was so obvious that you were in love with Josh,” said Luke.

“Come with me, Luke and Josh,” said the principal.

“OK, cheater,” said Luke.

The principal expelled Luke and suspended Josh 

Outside School

“Hey, Sarah.”

“Hey,”

“I won't be at school for a while.” 

“Yeah, I thought so.”

“For what it's worth, I wanted to tell you.”

“Tell me what?”

“How I felt.”

“OK, tell me now.” 

“But you already know how I feel.”

“I don't care, I wanna hear you say it now.”

“I love you Serah, I wanted to tell you but I didn't know how to so I,”

Serah kisses Josh on his lips.

“What was that for?”

“I'm saying I love you Josh, now shut up and kiss me back.” 

“Okay.”