The Mask part 5: The Thief

     It seemed to get darker when they left, and darker still as the last rays of sunlight disappeared. I sat there shivering, watching, until the last of the campfires burned out. Slowly, I started creeping toward the camp. To my surprise, there was no night watch set up. 'Strange,' I thought to myself. 'They always have a guard in the movies.' Despite the oddity, this made searching the camp much easier. Loud snoring and jumbled sentences could be heard as I approached a row of tents. There were two rows of five, and then the boss's tent off by itself. I quietly stuck my head in the first tent. The odor of sweat and mud almost knocked me out. Quickly, I drew back to get a breath of fresh air. When my head stopped spinning, I ventured back in, this time prepared with a full set of lungs. 'Nope, not him.' I concluded, on to the next tent. 'Not him either.'
     Four tents later, I found him. His tent smelled just as bad as the others, but I had grown accustomed to it by then. The man tossed in his sleep, turning his entire face toward me. His nose was bent this way and that. Above it, there was one huge eyebrow that was almost as tangled as his beard. His hair fell about him, like Medusa's snakes. 'Woh, if he did take the mask, I should let him keep it. He is so ugly.' I turned my eyes away from him, and looked for his backpack. Finding it, I started rummaging through it. A dirty shirt, dirty socks, dirty . . . ewe, yuck, I tossed them to the side. Beneath the underwear, I found what I was looking for. It was a small, gray, cloth sack. It edges were frayed and it was still caked with earth. Slowly, I opened it. Through the darkness shone a dim light. As I gazed into the bag, I felt my mind being drawn out of me and into the bag. A senseless mutter from the man quickly snapped my mind back into place. I quickly shut the bag and turned to leave. But as I closed the bag, some of the caked dirt fell and hit the man in the face. He mumbled again and brushed his face with his hand. Everything would have been fine, but I panicked. I was sure he had caught me. As I fumbled around in the darkness to find the door, I stepped on his hand. That woke him up. His yell woke the rest of the camp. I tripped through the door and started running for the woods. At the edge, I could see my two friends waiting. Behind me, tent flaps tore open and angry men stormed out, intent on finding why their dreams had been disturbed. They closed in on the man's tent, before seeing me. There was a shout, and the chase was on.


Here ends part 5 of The Mask. Will our heroes escape the onslaught behind them? Will they be able to destroy the mask before it’s too late? Tune in tomorrow for the exciting and unforeseeable conclusion of our story. Same Mask time, same Mask channel.