It’s been a few days now since I found the secret library behind the suit of armor. I spent a lot of time in there, I had to rush getting my sewing things out and into the main room to avoid suspicion, and I keep the door locked most of the time unless I’m actually working on a project. So far no one has caught on that I’m hiding something, and I plan to keep it that way for the foreseeable future. There’s a lot of interesting stuff in the library, some of it in languages that I can’t read; on the desk there was a much smaller book. When I inspected it I found that the writing inside was handwritten, and nearly illegible, I assumed it was a journal from the last person to see this room. Sometimes I’d sit over it for hours, reading or trying to decipher the horrible handwriting. Other times I’d pick a random book from the shelf and hope it was in a language I could understand. When I wasn’t in the library though, I was with my family. Ironically, I was reading while me and my family sat in the living room and talked about life. Paisley was talking about how she was narrowing down her college hunt, she said she wanted to stay near home. Sophie was talking about wanting to learn tap dance. Mom and I didn’t have much to say, we were the more quiet ones in the family. Then it was dad’s turn.

“So, I was thinking, in just a little while or so we should be more than settled in, right?” He was facing my mom, who nodded. Then he continued.

“I guess I’ll get straight to the point. I want to throw a party here, not like a crazy birthday party mind you.” He looked at Sophie, who suddenly looked really excited. “But more of a get-together for lots of people with lots of food and socialization and what-not. We could invite our neighbors down the way, people from work, kid’s you can invite your friends if they are willing to make the drive up… What do you guys think?” My eyes snapped up as he spoke, I hardly even processed when my mom started asking him all sorts of questions. I was just thinking about my friends, or one friend specifically. My best friend, his name was Duncan, and he could drive, I might be able to convince him to stay with us for a few days if he isn’t busy. Dad had just finished answering moms questions when I zoned back in.

“Well, I suppose it’s fine with me if everyone else agrees.” Mom complied. All three kids also quickly assented.

“Great! That settles it. The only problem now is what kind of party?” He clapped his hands together. Sophie raised her tiny hand in the air.

“We could have a princess party, where everyone gets to come and be royalty at a ball with pretty music and dancing.” She said.

“I was gonna say it could just be something a little more simple than that, like a banquet.” Paisley input.

“Boo! Boring!” Sophie interjected. I looked at the book in my hands, the young woman just received an invitation to a masquerade party, and she was planning out how to blow everyone away.

“Why not both?” I said, interrupting Paisley and Sophie’s short-lived argument. When they looked at me I continued.

“We can each incorporate our own elements into it, Sophie wants a grand ball, you want a simple banquet, we can have a masquerade party.” I paused, thinking for a moment of the proper words to use. “It can be victorian themed, which gives Sophie her ball, and we can have a lot of food tables around for people to pick and choose, with fancy drinks and music, and everyone can just hang out and socialize. Throwing masks into the mix makes it more fun.” I finished. They were quiet for a moment before Sophie raised her hand again.

“I like that, we should do that!” she put her hand back down.

“Yea, I’m game for that.” Paisley shrugged and nodded simultaneously. Then we all looked at our parents. Mom had a grin on her face, like she thought something was funny, but dad looked unsure.

“I don’t know about that guys, we wanna make a good impression, and aren’t masquerades outdated even before we add historic themes into the mix?”

“Nah, trust me, everyone secretly always wanted to go to a masquerade party at some point in their lives. I guarantee it.” I reasoned with him.

“Well, alright, I guess I can ask around but don’t get your hopes up.” He sighed. I nodded once, then turned back to my book. Fully prepared to be told later that there would be no masquerade…

The next day, dad got home from work for the week while we were setting the table for dinner.

“Owen, guess what?” He said as soon as he practically burst in the room. It was my turn to be startled, I jumped. Then looked at him as he started talking again.

“You were absolutely right, kiddo. I was having a conversation with Hanson, my boss, this afternoon. I brought up the whole get together party thing, and then told him your ideas and he loved it! He told me that he ‘knows plenty of people who would love to attend a masquerade’ including himself. He said if I can make that happen he would be happy to come, along with his family. So, unless there are any objections, may I suggest we start planning a masquerade ball?” He spouted, hardly stopping for breath. That was a lot of new information. I looked at everyone else, who seemed to be on board. I smiled, this was gonna be cool.

We spent the next several days setting up and getting everything ready. We finally had a date in mind, and everything was going according to plan. I sat on the loveseat in my library, I felt ready to text Duncan.

-Text Conversation 1:30 p.m.-

Owen: Hey man, what’s up?

Duncan: aaaAAAAH!

Owen: ?

Duncan: You!

Duncan: I haven’t heard from you in a like a week!

Owen: Sorry, things have been chaotic here.

Duncan: Like thats some excuse, I don’t know if I can forgive you…

Duncan: Leaving me in the dust like that… Awful…

I rolled my eyes, and grinned to myself. He was always so over dramatic, but I really appreciated it sometimes.

Owen: I missed you too, Dunk.

Duncan:

Owen: I was actually gonna ask if you were doing anything on the 20th next month?

Duncan: I’m never doing anything my guy. Why?

Owen: Parents are throwing a masquerade party here

Owen: I wanted to know if you’d be able to come and like stay over for the weekend or something.

Duncan: Absolutely oh my god.

Duncan: How many people get to tell their friends that they went to a masquerade party at a castle?

Owen: Of course that’s your motivation. Lol

Duncan: hahaha, nah I’m just messing with you.

Duncan: but in all seriousness. I will see if I can sneak away from work for a few days. Luckily you told me now instead of like, the day before… cough…

Owen: THAT WAS ONE TIME

Owen: also, the theme is victorian, so try to make it a little old timey, I don’t think anyone will notice if its not accurate.

Duncan: Good to know, thanks for the intel. I gotta go, boss is coming back. Bye man!

Owen: Bye! Text me later.

I stared at my phone a moment longer, still smiling to myself. I missed Duncan, he was someone who really helped me feel comfortable being me, and I was lucky enough to be able to help return the favor. I sighed, and left the library to sit at my desk that I set up in the fashion studio after closing the wall. I stared at my sketches in front of me, trying to decide what I was going to wear at the party. I threw one design into the trash can into the corner, and quietly celebrated not-missing. Then turned back to the drawings. One sketch was military inspired, one was basic victorian inspired, and one was something that kind of reminded me of mardi-gra. I heard a knock on the door, and went to unlock it.

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“Who is it?” I asked as I got closer.

“Little old lady!” a young voice responded, I smiled.

“Little old lady who?”

“Oh! I didn’t know you could yodel!” I opened the door.

“I thought I said no little girls, Sophie-Rose” I teased.

“C’mon, please? You spend so much time in here! Besides, I need help with my outfit and I don’t know who else to go to.” She pleaded. I smiled and opened the door wider.

“Come on then. Help me figure out what to wear too and I’ll help you.” I went over and sat back at my desk. Sophie followed and climbed onto my lap. I held the papers up for her.

“Tell me what you like the most out of these drawings.” She pointed toward the military one.

“I like the hat, and the arm dangly things.” Then she pointed at the victorian look, “I like the colors in this one.” and then she pointed to the weird one “I reeeallly like the frilly stuff in this one.”

“Alright, I’ll try to put something together.” I set her off of my lap, and she explored the room. I quickly sketched a new design based on what she liked from the originals, and I think I finally got something I liked.

“Hey, you need to give it a name!” I looked up, to find her standing in front of the armor.

“Oh? What were you thinking?” I asked.

“Angelica!” She shouted. I laughed for a little bit, I didn’t originally think of the armor being so feminine as the name Angelica, but I could see it.

“Alright, her name is Angelica then. Now come look at this sketch.” Sophie ran back over, and I handed her the paper.

“Yes! That’s so cool!” She wiggled in place for a moment.

“Alright! Now, let’s figure out something for you. Do you have any old dresses that you don’t wear anymore?” She nodded, and tugged on my hand to follow her to her room. I locked the door before we made our way there, as usual. When we were in her closet she pointed to a whole section of hanging dresses.

“I don’t wear any of those anymore. Unless I have to.” She commented, as I began to look through them. I pulled out a purplish-red dress, it had no volume, it was basically like a thick nightgown with long sleeves.

“That one’s boring, I only wore it once and even then I didn’t like it.” I nodded in agreement, but held onto it. It could easily be repurposed. I pulled out a few more dresses that stuck out to me, and listened to her complaints about them as I did so. Until I came across a pale beige dress, with small embroidered flowers on the skirt. It’s sleeves were a little ugly but that was really the only problem with it. Upon closer inspection, I saw many of the flowers had a very similar color to the red dress. I held it up to Sophie, eyebrow raised.

“That one reminds me of a dusty couch.” Was all she said. I laughed.

“Do you still have your petticoat?”

“Uh huh.” She said.

“I think I can make this a really pretty princess dress for you.” I finally spoke my thoughts.

“Do it!” She jumped, and then her and I went back downstairs to take a few quick measurements before I started my sketch.

By the time the 19th rolled around, we had everything prepared. Paisley went out and got her own off-white dress with three of her friends who all made their way up together, I added some white lace to her mask as per her request. Mom and dad wore matching outfits, but dads mask had a long obnoxious nose, and moms had a large feather darting off the side. The modifications on Sophie’s dress made her look like a true princess. There was purple-red fabric draped along the sides and back of the dress, and there were button-like decorations on the torso, and over the top of it all was the same reddish dress, cropped down drastically to form a shrug jacket. There were also realistic red roses lined along her waist, and framing her mask like a crown. She loved her new outfit, and couldn’t wait to wear it the next day. I myself was just finishing adding some roses and flowers to my own hat (Sophie requested I match her in some way, so I included my own set of flowers). I pinned the last flower down, and turned it over to observe from the front. I heard my phone ring, picking it up without checking who it was I answered.

“Owen L. Lancaster.” I said as I moved to place the hat on the mannequin wearing the rest of my outfit. A loud screaming noise greeted me on the other line.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH- hey it’s me come open the door.” Came the other voice.

My first reaction was to drop my phone, but thankfully I restrained myself. My second reaction was to sprint out of the room, up the stairs, to the door as fast as I can. When I got there I slammed open the front door and grabbed my best friend in an embrace. He started screaming again as he hugged me back, thankfully much more quietly, and I even joined him this time. When we pulled back I saw his phone in his hand and remembered to hang up on mine. He was wearing his pyjamas, he was the kind of guy who wears comfortable clothes for a long drive. He has brown hair, shaved in the back and sides but longer and styled at the top. His voice got deeper in the past month, that or I haven’t gotten used to hearing him in person after only texting for a month. It was so good to see him.

“Hey, come on in. There’s a lot we gotta talk about.” I said as I started walking back in. “It’s so good to see you though. I missed you so much, it feels like longer than about a month.” He smiled and returned the sentiment.

“Let’s drop that bag off in my room, then I’ll show you around.” The two of us went around the house at a slow pace till eventually it was dark out and there was one place left that I had to show him. We ran into Paisley and her friends when we were on our way to the basement.

“Ladies…” Duncan said quietly, and let them pass. A couple snickered at him but he didn’t seem to mind. Alice, who was following the girls, changed direction and went with us. When we got to the room I fumbled with my key for a moment before I remembered I left the door unlocked on accident. I opened the door, and ushered him inside.

“This is what you ‘really had to show me’?” He started as he walked in the room. I locked the door behind us. “No offense bro, but compared to the rest of the house this ain’t that big of a deal.” I smiled, knowing what was about to happen.

“Actually,” I stopped talking, and walked over to the armor that he was looking at. “This is what I really had to show you.” I said smugly, and stepped on Angelica’s foot. I stepped back as I waited the few seconds it took to start moving, Duncan turned, about to say something, when he was cut off by the now familiar grinding sound. His head whipped back to the wall as the hidden room revealed itself. Once the door opened, I casually walked inside the small library, and lit all the candles. Alice sat at my feet beside me, and I turned back around to find Duncan still standing outside the door.

“Dude… What?” He asked, wide eyed, and mouth agape.

“This is what I wanted to talk to you about.” I said as I sat on the loveseat. He finally walked in, looked around, and sat beside me.

“Okay…” he paused. “Start from the beginning.” and I did. I explained my first day here; followed by the second, when the basement was making noises at Paisley and I; I told him about the early morning after, with the glowy dusty orb that led me here; then the armor, and accidentally finding this place while I tried to fix it. I also told him that nothing else weird has happened since then.

“I am feeling inclined to not believe any of what you just said but…” he gestured around him. “I see no reason not to though. After all of this…”

“I feel the same, honestly. And I’m the one who dealt with all of it.”

“Man…” Duncan leaded forward, “Its insane.” he put his hands on his forehead.

“Not as insane as the last guy who was here.” I got up and went over to the desk. I grabbed the journal from where I left it and brought it back over to Duncan. “Listen to this.” I flipped to one of the random pages I had bookmarked and began to read.

“‘They tell me that I am crazy and at this point even I believe this to be true. But there is no denying that in some of my so-called delusions there is a truth far greater than reality would have you believe.’ There’s more after that but I can’t make it out, this guy’s handwriting is horrible.”

“Let me see.” Duncan held out his hand. I passed the book over to him. He stared at it intently for a moment, brow furrowed.

“It says: My only hope is that someone, someday, might see the truth as well.” He translated.

“How did you even read that? I couldn’t make out hardly any of it.” I wondered.

“I helped grade elementary english papers man. But hold on think about that for a second.” He changed the topic.

“What?” I asked, unsure where this was going.

“Dude like, what if that thing you saw had something to do with this? What if it wanted you to find this?” He was starting to get excited.

“I mean, that would make sense I guess…” I suddenly felt much more curious about what this guy was talking about. “But why me?”

“I dunno man. Maybe you seem familiar to it somehow, that’s how it goes in the stories…” He trailed off. We sat quietly for a moment.

“Do… you wanna help me figure it out?” I asked after a few beats of silence.

“Abso-freaking-lutely.” He had a fire in his eyes. Duncan loved anything supernatural and mysterious, so this was right up his alley.

“Okay, if you want you can take that with you. You figured out what it said after like five seconds where it probably would take me five hours.” I exaggerated.

“Great! I’ll let you know what I find. Better yet, if I have the time I will translate the whole thing on the computer and send you the file.” He was already making plans. “You can be the field guy, and I’ll be the guy at the computer telling you where to go and what to do it’ll be sick.”

“It’s not like a buddy-cop show but alright.” I snorted, and checked the time. “Dinner will be soon, we should get out of here before someone comes to check on us.” We got up, I ushered Duncan and Alice out the door and pressed the button from that side before stepping through. We hung out in the fashion studio for a while, I showed him my outfit for tomorrow, until surely enough there was loud knocking on my the door. Opening it revealed Sophie hand still in the air, then suddenly she raised both hands high

“Duncan!” She ran in and into the arms of my best friend, who picked her up and swung her around.

“Hey little one! It’s been a while huh?” He grinned at her, as he set her onto his hip. They always got along nicely, it was nice to see. Sophie nodded then looked to me.

“Momma said it’s time for dinner.” She began to wiggle her way out of Duncan’s grasp, who gently set her down. She then ran out of the room, her little feet making tapping noises as she went. We exchanged looks before we made our way out of the room, locking the door as we went. On our way to dinner I requested that he keep quiet about our… Investigation. He swore to secrecy, and with that, we spent the rest of our night acting as much like normal teenagers as we could.