A Woman's Mask Is Never Done

Story Sent in by Kristen:

It had been close to two months that I had been dating John. We had gone on six or seven dates in that time, and they had become more frequent. He liked me, I liked him. No reason to think that things wouldn't continue to go well.

One night, after we were out to dinner together, he led me to his car with a promise to show me something. He opened his car's back door and pulled out a mid-sized cardboard box.

He opened it up and pulled out a rubber mask of a scary-looking old man. He put it on and said, "Are you interested?"

There was nothing left in the box. I asked, "Interested in what?"

Then I had the fright of my life. Behind me, very close, someone said, "Is she interested?"

I turned around to see two women, both notably shorter than I was, wearing similar rubber masks, complete with old faces and fake wispy hair. They had clearly been waiting there for us to come by. I looked back at John, but he was hurrying away from me, down the sidewalk, still in his mask.

"He'll be right back," one of the short masked people said, "He's gathering the others."

I still thought this was some elaborate joke John was pulling, but then one of the masked shorties said to the other, "She'll fight."

The other one replied, "Doesn't matter. There's like, six of us."

At that point, I asked what was going on. After a moment of silence, one of them replied that I should shut my mouth. That was enough for me and I hurried away. They followed me close for a few blocks but slowed down and eventually stopped once I made it to a main street with lots of light.

When I made it home I called John and asked him what that stunt was all about. He wrote back to say he would explain it all to me if I met him for another date in the near future.

Taking his word for it, I met with him one final time, for lunch. He was pleasant enough but every time I asked him about that weird night, he'd clam up, be evasive, or change the subject entirely. He clearly wasn't going to tell me anything about it, and by that point I didn't care anymore as long as he stayed away from me.