Mask

I didn’t know how to even begin to explain what I had seen. It was so bizarre that I thought I was hallucinating.

I stood there from my driveway, watching as this deliciously muscular, black clothing clad man was crouched next to a vehicle in the driveway next to mine. He was fairly close to where I was standing, with my hand stuck midway through my mailbox. I watched intensely even though there was a high chance that I would be a witness to something as crazy as theft or worse. Something about the way the man snuck around my neighbor’s vehicle, bobbing and weaving cameras that probably weren’t even there led me to believe that the man was just a giant dork. I continued to watch as he took out his cell phone and snapped a couple of pictures of the inside of the car. The sound of the camera shutter even went off. How could they not turn the sound off beforehand? It was hilarious.

Normally in situations like this, people would call the cops, but the way the dork in all black was going about his business was astonishing to me. I was ready for him or anybody really to say ‘cut!’, but that never came.

The amusement of it all is that he was trying so hard to not be seen, but I watched every last second, casually shifting from one leg to the other when the other got tired. The video game character-like guy tiptoed his way to the side of the house to a window and without hesitation, opened and wedged his way inside of the house.

At this point, I should have left and/or called the cops, but I continued to wait, eager to see the man return, and when he eventually did five minutes later, I was pleasantly surprised.

There on his face was an extremely interesting black mask. It seemed to be two pieces; one covered his nose and mouth whilst the other looked like a pair of glasses. On those glasses were what seemed to be digitalized emoji-like eyes, but I couldn’t be too sure. I wasn’t that close to him. The man was covered from head to toe in the black outfit. He had a vest with a million and a half pockets that rested over whatever skintight piece of fabric he managed to tug over his bulging muscles. The top ensemble also had a hood that helped conceal his anonymous identity. He wore tight but flexible nylon pants that also had a thousand and a half pockets and straps. To finish it off were a pair of desirable black combat boots. The lack of intimidation from the guy had me almost asking him where he got his boots from.

Even though he was in the getup, he looked expensive; almost like there was just a superhero Gucci store that he went to for his clothes. Either way, he looked sexy; he was sexy. Even though I couldn’t see his face, I just knew it was true.

Just as I completed my not-so-discrete look over, the man in question had finally noticed me from my spot in my driveway. We stood there staring at each other for god knows how long. I take that back. I stood there staring back at a digitalized, real-time blinking pair of text emoji eyes. It was impressive, to say the least. After five minutes, the man still had not moved or even attempted to vanish, so I decided to break the silence.

“You know, I considered calling the cops like twice, but decided against it because that was literally the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life,” I said all of this with a straight face. I finally withdrew my arm from the mailbox, my mail loosely hanging from my fingers. My left leg was beginning to get tired, so I crossed it over my right. As I waited for an answer, my mind began running a mile per minute. This guy was either a villain or he was a real life Batman. I was leaning on the villain/ burglar scenario, but from watching him, he didn’t seem like a serious bad guy. I had questions.

“I really don’t know how to convince you that I’m not a thief...but I’m not.” His voice came out kind of funny like it was being modulated.

“So.. do you go around like Batman, but without the cape? You know..instead of being a thief.”

“I guess you could say that.”

“Okay, okay...I dig it.” I paused for a second, really observing his masked face. This dude was such a nerd. The digitalized emoji-styled face on the mask kept blinking at me. Either he made the specialized accessory himself, or it was bought from some extravagant spy store.

“I can’t give or take a punch, but do you need a Nightwing?”

“I actually handed out my last Nightwing application yesterday, but I’ll keep you in mind.” The sarcastic undertones in his voice didn’t phase me. If anything, It made me smirk.

“So...like..are the Avengers real?”

“No.”

“Dammit.”

“Do you have your own personal Jarvis?”

“I have Siri on my phone. That’s about it.”

“Ah, okay, okay.” I trailed off, unconsciously stepping forward to get a better look at his mask. I probably looked like an idiot, but I didn’t care at the time. Once I stepped forward, the smell of vanilla hit my nostrils. It was a nice vanilla scent, laced with lavender and pure man. I unconsciously stepped forward again, the scent drawing me in and taming me.

“Anything else?” There was slight amusement laced in his voice as he spoke. I quickly took a step back towards the safety of my mailbox. It was surprising that he was even still here, but it was probably because he didn’t want me to call the police.

“Do you have at least have an Alfred? Oo, or better yet- do you have a Joker?”

“You are making me rethink my life choices.” He let out an exasperated huff of air, his digital emoji-like eyes frowning, eyebrows and all.

“You’re telling me that you didn’t rethink them when you made the glasses?” I really needed to stop messing with this man, but he was so intriguing. Was he also a Bruce Wayne or a Tony Stark? Does he come from a tragic background? Did he even have a “bat cave”. I needed to know all of this.

“Are you normally like this?”

“Me? No, but when I see handsome men with bulging muscles and a flashy mask on, I can’t help but be curious. Oh, and the fact that you broke into that house.”

“I see.” The mysterious masked hero crossed his arms, still not moving from his spot on the pavement of my driveway. “Didn’t technically break in, but I will show you my ‘bat cave’ if you don’t call the cops.”

“Ha! So you DO have one!” I quickly fist pumped the air, earning a voice modulated chuckle.

“Take it easy. We’re not going to fly or anything.” Just before I could fake either exasperation, a cell phone rang. Typical, right? The masked pack of muscles fished a phone out of one of the many pockets on his pants and glanced at it before putting it back; probably in a different pocket.

“Our adventure will have to wait, but I will make it up to you. Don’t call the cops.”

“Uh, okay. I mean that’s fi-” He gave me a quick thumbs up before speed walking to an expensive looking car across the street. How I didn’t notice it before? I don’t know. I decided it was finally time to go back inside once the car sped away, returning to my mother who I was visiting for the weekend.

-

To say I hated Mondays was an understatement, but I at least had something interesting to think about while working on the next month’s graphics submissions and evading my sleazy manager. My manager, Gerald, usually made me dread coming to work. He would always make inappropriate comments towards me as if he was trying to slink his way into my pants. I tried to be as nice as I could, politely declining his advances and ignoring his remarks about my long, hard poster rod (I don’t even have a poster rod), but I knew in the back of my head that if he tried to take anything a step further, I would report him in a heartbeat.

For three straight hours I sat muddling over a concept design; moving sections around, sketching out new ideas and debating color palettes. I was supposed to be creating a mascot for the companies new IT program, and before I knew it, I had a chibi version of the masked man I had caught the weekend prior.

After the three hours of working, Gerald sauntered over to my area with a disgusting, oily smirk on his face. He patrolled around to each of my co-workers, whilst pretending to be an efficient and reliable manager. He went around making meaningless comments on people’s designs, slowly working his way around to me. He was being so obvious that he only came out of his office to harass me that I almost rolled my eyes when he came to a halt behind me.

“Doing well I see, Archie. How about you come to my office? I can go over your work..personally.” God, I wanted to punch him where it really hurt.

“No, thank you, sir. I need to finish this in the next 30 minutes.” I kept my eyes trained on my laptop, hoping that he would just go away.

“Oh come on, Archie.” He glopped his sticky hand onto my shoulder and gave it a rough squeeze, almost making me wince. I grabbed onto his hand and attempted to pry it off, but it was too strong.

“Please let go of me.”

“I’m just trying to evaluate your work.” His hand moved towards the back of my neck.

“Let. Go. Of. Me.” I finally turned my head to face him. I knew by now that my other coworkers were listening in, but they wouldn’t do anything.

“Now you listen to me-” Gerald was bold enough to grab my jaw with his other hand, forcing me to look into his evil eyes. I was going to slap him, I honestly was, but just as I began to wind up, Gerald’s hand was ripped away from my shoulder.

“Mr. Varing! What a surprise! I was just discussing the new campaign with Archie here.”

“It didn’t seem like you were just discussing the campaign. My company has zero tolerance for this kind of behavior. Consider this your one and only warning. If I ever see you lay a hand on anyone ever again, you will be fired.”

“Y-yes, sir.” I took a moment to compose myself, straightening out my button up and cardigan. I faced the computer screen and stared blankly. I was thankful that Mr. Varing came in at the right time, but I was also embarrassed. Just when I thought that everything around me had gone back to normal, I felt a presence to my right.

“Are you okay?” Mr. Varing was sat next to me at my desk, speaking to me like I was going to break any second.

“I’m okay. Thank you, sir.” He searched my eyes for a moment, I guess to see if I was lying or not, then trained his attention on my laptop screen. He inched forward in his chair, and that’s when I smelled it; the familiar mixture of vanilla and lavender that had my mind in a swirl of thoughts ever since the weekend.

“This is a nice design. I like the idea of a chibi mascot. I think it will be really popular and bring us a lot of donors. Where did you get the idea?” I hadn’t heard anything he said. All I could focus on was his intoxicating scent. I let my eyes roam his gorgeous face. He had the most beautiful icy blue eyes, a cute but manly nose, and a pair of delicious looking plump lips. His hair looked like it was made of the finest silk and I found myself wanting to lace my hands through it. He was the kind of boss that wasn’t too uptight about his dress code; only wearing a button up and form fitting slacks with a pair of Gucci slide in shoes. The laid back, formal style made him extremely approachable even though he looked expensive. Another waft of his scent had my mind racing. Every tingling bone in my body was telling me that it was the masked man from the previous weekend. “Archie?”

“Yes, I am so sorry. What were you saying?” A small smirk formed on his face and he leaned even closer to me.

“I was asking where you got the idea from.” He took my laptop’s mouse and scrolled through some of the sketches I had made.

“Oh I met- I mean. Someone just inspired the design.” Once again his eyes met mine. I was aching to ask him a few questions.

“You look like you have a question.”

“Sir- If I may.” He raised an eyebrow, not once inching away from his spot. If someone were to walk by, they would think we were having a secret meeting. I smiled and looked around before scooting forward in my chair and whispering. “Break into any houses lately?” Mr. Varing froze in his seat. I could’ve sworn that I saw him break a sweat.

“Mr. Varing, you have a meeting in 15 minutes.” He abruptly stood from his seat, his eyes flickering from me to my screen. I knew for sure that my intuition was right when he mumbled a ‘good work’ before hastily following his assistant out of the room.