The Dance of the Dead

Covering his face and scar had become almost second nature to Emil, as had inserting the coloured lens. He prepared himself to leave and saw that it had begun raining.

“I hope it lets up by evening,” he said to himself and searched for his umbrella. He left the apartment after feeding the cats and went to the faculty. He was rather early so in spite of the weather, or perhaps due to it, he decided to take a somewhat longer route, that took him through more of the old part of the city. On the way he saw that the stalls and the ornamentation were fully completed for the festival. There were torches placed in a line along each side of the road, each decorated with mistletoe. The main road leading to the public square was paved by olive branches, that led to the middle, where the large fire pit now contained a large amount of wood for the bonfire. The wood was covered by a huge plastic sheet to keep the wood from getting wet. As Emil saw it he chuckled to himself.

“As mad as people are in this city, I’m sure they would just pour petrol over the wood if they couldn’t get the fire started.” He went on among the empty stalls, decorated with branches and flowers towards the faculty. He shivered at the thought of Eon coming closer to revealing the location of the man that he would have to kill.

“Even if he is a more evil or delusional person than Iwo must’ve been, I just can’t come to terms with this. Even beside the moral side of it, how could I even pull it off if I decided to do it? I can’t just use another trap. What if I get caught?” Emil’s mind was darkened by the clouds of those dark thoughts. He thought about simply running away and leaving all that had happened behind, but was surprised to realize that he could hardly muster the enthusiasm to simply consider the possibility, let alone actually act on it.

“Is there even a point in trying anything? I can’t even leave since I am under Eon’s control.” At the faculty he discussed the details of the plan they made for the festival with Kasia and Tobias. He decided that he would tell Kasia his whole story that day. After returning home he quickly prepared the food for the cats and the fox, since he would have little time if he wanted to be back early enough to prepare for the festival and go to Kasia’s house before Tobias would get there. He practically ran through the park and into the forest. The rain had already ceased, yet the clouds still blocked out the Sun. He jumped over the stream and hurried towards the fox den. Upon arriving he merely checked if the meat was gone from the hole where he had left it and replaced it with what he had brought. Without a second look he ran back towards home, only slowing down after exiting the forest to not draw attention, even though there were not many people walking around as the preparations for the festival took place. Back home he began second guessing his choice to use the mask from the glade during the festival.
“I wouldn’t worry at all if it wasn’t for that mouse,” he mumbled to himself and began preparing to leave. His outfit ended up being very similar to the one he wore while surveying the streets the past week. His plan was to arrive at Kasia’s place an hour early, so he left and thought if it was really all right for him to tell her everything. He arrived at her place before managing to reach a conclusion. He rang the doorbell and waited for a minute.

“Who is it?”
“It’s me Emil.” Upon hearing him she quickly opened the door. She wore a too long grey hooded sweatshirt and sweatpants. Her hair was up in a bun. Her appearance surprised Emil, who had only ever seen her in black tight fitting clothes.

“Yes I have comfortable clothes as well. What’s up? Oh and nice mask.”
“Well, I want to tell you some things. Is that okay with you?”
“I understand. Come inside.” She gestured to the couch and brought him a glass of water.
“Thanks, but I don’t really need that any longer.” This time he told her the full story up to the incident with Amelia and the vodyanoy, leaving out only Estera’s name.

“After that they dragged him down into the middle of the lake, where he sunk into the mud.”
“Oh wow, that’s probably the worst fate that could have befallen someone like him. How long will he stay there? Will he just continue living there?”
“I don’t know but I think it’s completely possible that he could be there basically for eternity.”
“I feel kinda bad for him, but on the other hand he must’ve done something really bad to warrant that punishment.”
“I don’t know exactly, but yes, it must’ve been an unspeakable crime. My real problem begins now though.”
“What is it? Don’t tell me you’ve got new orders from the cat?” Emil silently nodded. “What is it this time? From your reaction I can see that it is even worse than before.”
“He wants me to … I must,” Emil felt the words getting stuck in his throat and refuse to move forward.
“Kill someone?” Kasia asked quietly.

“Yes,” her replied with a whisper.

“I’m so sorry Emil,” she said and gave him a hug. After that they sat in silence for a while and later Emil told her about the mysterious mouse masked person. The end of his story was interrupted by the ringing of the door bell.
“Must be Tobias. Man you’re both way too early.” She went and let him inside.

“Whoa Emil, didn’t expect you to be more than a minute early.”
“Hi Tobi.”

“You guys just keep yourselves occupied. I need a few minutes to prepare,” she said peeking around the corner.

“Check this out dude,” Tobias said and pulled out the mask from his trench coat. It was a skeleton mask that covered the entire face.

“You really went all out with this.”
“Sure did, now let’s see your mask.”
“Here it is,” Emil said and showed his mask of the old man with red cheeks.

“That’s weird, but also super cool. You have a totally different style. As they bantered on Kasia retunred, fully prepared for the festival. She wore a dark cloak and a horned demon mask.

“Oh my god, that’s terrifying,” said Tobias and donned his own mask. Emil followed suit.

“You two are not looking too bad yourselves. I’m impressed that you’ve both got masks of such high quality even if they are in completely different styles. Now let’s depart for tonight’s adventure.” The three cheered and went outside. They could see a bunch of other masked people making their way to the public square. They made their way to the old part of the city, where the main road was marked by the burning torches. The road was also far more crowded than the other parts of the city so far. The area around and within the public square were densely populated by the stall selling various things from food to decorations and amulets. The trio stopped at a stall that sold beverages and each bought a spritzer served in a plastic cup. Emil prepared for the awful taste that he had to keep hidden. According to the traditions they only slightly lifted their masks above their mouths when drinking and moved onward. The road was paved with olive branches and the torches, lamps and even buildings were decorated with mistletoe and flowers. They stopped at another stall, where they each bought a couple of flowers. Taking turns each one gave a flower to the other two and stuck it on their clothes. They went on to the middle of the public square where preparations for lighting the bonfire took place. With the plastic sheet gone a hefty pile of wood was revealed, neatly stacked and in the middle stood a lone fir tree, rising above the rest with its needles still green. As the wood was finally set alight music began playing. It was performed by a chamber orchestra, that was situated at the edge of the square. At first Emil was simply enjoying the music, but it suddenly hit him.

“It’s the same music as we play on the glade,” he said to himself and stared in bewilderment. That reminded him of what Eon had said. He began looking around at the people. There weren’t many, but every once in a while there was a mask that looked like the ones that they used in Veles’ glade. They kept standing around the bonfire and listened to the orchestra, but Emil was experiencing an increasing feeling of anxiety. He didn’t know whether
“The mouse is here somewhere.”

“What’s that?” Kasia asked and leaned closer.

“I might have to leave, if that mouse mask shows up,” he said silently. Kasia only nodded and moved back. After the fire burned for a while longer and people simply gazed at it as if in a trance, the music began to change. The transition led into a waltz. Everyone simply faced the person nearest to them and began dancing. Emil danced with Kasia, starting slow and progressed into turns, spins and whisks. Every pair only remained together for a minute as they changed dancing partners at random. Everyone wore clothes and a mask that completely concealed their identity, as everyone was the same during the Dance of the Dead. The orchestra alternated between playing the English waltz, polka and the Viennese waltz. After many dances, Emil was spun away from his current partner into the hands of the next, who immediately started leading the dance. Emil had no time to even react and simply let himself be led by his new partner. After being spun back into the arms of this dancer he finally had a chance to recover. His mind went utterly blank after he saw the mouse mask facing him, only centimetres from his own mask. He was so out of it that he wasn’t able to react at all. He just allowed the peculiar dancer to lead him onwards. When time came to change partners Emil was spun into the crowd.

When he regained his orientation he saw his last partner disappearing into the crowd. A new person attempted to dance with him, but Emil avoided the attempt and squeezed through the crowd. He could just barely catch a glimpse of the cloaked figure as he made his way forwards. After getting through the thickest crowd he committed to a full sprint.
“No not again,” he thought as the stranger disappeared behind a corner. He dive around the corner, but there was no one there. As he was trying to decide on his course of action, he was suddenly grabbed from behind and restrained. He began resisting, but wasn’t able to break free.

“Stop moving,” said the voice behind him. He realized that it was a familiar voice, but couldn’t immediately place it.

“Wait I …”
“So it is you, Emil. I did have a hunch, but it’s good to be sure.”
“Estera?”
“Yes. By the way have you also been skulking around in abandoned houses lately?”
“I think I followed you into one.”
“I see. Would you mind telling me what you’re doing?”

“Would you mind releasing me?”
“Oh right there you go,” she answered and let him go. Emil stretched his arms, which made his elbows pop. He told her about his current tasks that he had to do for Eon.

“So at first I thought that you might be the one I was looking for.”
“Interesting. From this description I can safely say that our goals align.”
“Wait you are also after this guy?” Estera sighed deeply.

“I guess since it has come to this I might as well tell you about myself. Let’s sit down over there,” she said and pointed to a bench. “You know me as Estera and you know that I died at some point. To make a long story a bit shorter, that wasn’t always my name. Years ago I was called Agata. I was a lonely high school senior. Once, when I was returning home late, a handsome guy approached me. I was flustered, since I had never received any attention like that before. We went out a couple of days later. I still don’t know how he did it, but after we had a drink together I woke up chained at his place. Ah if I was only awake when he dragged me there. I’m wasting all this time looking for it. Anyway, I woke up lying on the ground and chained. I won’t bore you with the rest, but what followed was a long night and I had the opportunity to see if I’m beautiful on the inside as well.” After that she fell silent and looked down.
“I’m so sorry for what happened to you. I can help you, I’ll have the location of the guy soon.”
“Wait, are you serious?”
“Yes, any day now.”
“I see. In that case I will need to make some preparations. Let’s exchange phone numbers. Call me when as soon as you find out anything.”

After that they parted, Estera going her own way and Emil returned to the festival. The people were now scattered, doing whatever they wanted. It took him a while but in the end he was able to find Tobias and Kasia.
“Where did you disappear to?” Tobias asked him.
“I just needed a little time to catch my breath.” They spent the rest of the festival together, visiting various stalls and bought matching magnets.

The church bells began ringing as the clock struck midnight. Apart from the powerful chime the public square became deathly silent. Not a single person spoke and everybody stood still. After the twelfth ring everyone dropped to one knee and faced the ground. At that point they removed their masks and after the bells stopped chiming they silently stood up and started dispersing, facing the ground the whole time. Within minutes the square was completely empty and the final embers of the bonfire were extinguished. As the people moved away from the square the dense crowd diluted over the branching streets. There were only a couple of people scattered around by the time Emil arrived back at his apartment.