True Love's Kiss

by lrhaboggle

Out of concern for her best friend, Sabrina goes looking for the Haunted Mask. Because she doesn't know what she's getting into, she is quickly overpowered. Now it is up to that same best friend, Carly Beth, to come to Sabrina's rescue. What will the Symbol of Love be this time?

"Hey, Carly Beth, you feeling better?" Sabrina asked Carly Beth when they met up the next day at school.

"Yeah, why?" Carly Beth genuinely didn't know what had caused this question from Sabrina.

"Why?" Sabrina echoed. "You went off your rocker last night and I wanted to make sure that you were ok. You just kind of ran off and then you never said anything to me again!" Carly Beth's eyes suddenly widened in remembrance. Ah yes. The Haunted Mask incident. It had been such a traumatic experience for her that she'd forgotten how in the dark Sabrina had been during the entire ordeal...

Towards the end of the night, Carly Beth had gone home with Sabrina to trade candy with her. When she had tried to take off her mask, however, she had been unable to find the line between the mask and her face. In her panic, she'd run out on Sabrina, returning to the shop where she'd purchased the mask. Everything had gone downhill from there and, in retrospect, Carly Beth did realize how insane she must've looked to Sabrina last night who, for all intents and purposes, had had a relatively normal Halloween.

"Oh, yeah, that," the smaller girl laughed nervously. "I'm fine now. I mean, I was fine last night. I think I was just... a little stressed out. You know, school and all. But I'm fine now. I'm good. Honest!" and she gave Sabrina an awkward thumbs up to try and get her point across. It was clear from Sabrina's frown and narrowed eyes that she didn't fall for Carly Beth's lie at all, but because she had no way to call the girl out at the moment, she only gave the girl a slight nod and dropped the issue.

In the days to come, however, Sabrina managed to piece together the story by speaking with Steve and Chuck, Carly Beth's biggest tormentors, and then Noah and Ms. Caldwell, Carly Beth's little brother and mother respectively. She was able to discern that Carly Beth's mask must've been too tight and caused a lack of airflow to her brain that had made her go a bit bonkers. But even though that seemed to be the most logical explanation, a tiny part of Sabrina wasn't so sure. If a tight mask had been the only issue, why was Carly Beth now suddenly so much stronger, braver, calmer and wiser? Why had it seemed like she'd gone through some life-changing experience in the course of three hours? Why did she suddenly seem so much more mature all of a sudden? Clearly, something else had been going on...

Sabrina's investigation finally led her to the shop where Carly Beth had first purchased the mask.

"Hello?" the girl called out as she pushed the door open. Just like she'd expected, the store was half empty. Since Halloween was done, the store was being restocked for Christmas (already). She could also tell that the store was probably closed, but the owner must've forgotten to lock the door. Sabrina proceeded to tiptoe deeper into the store, skirting through nutcrackers and Halloween costumes in attempt to figure out where Carly Beth had found her mask. Sabrina's investigation then led her to a tiny, empty back room.

Sabrina let out a strangled cry of horror the moment she pushed open the door only to find herself face to face with the most hideous and disgusting faces she'd ever seen in her life. It was enough to make her want to vomit. On every shelf that lined the backroom's wall, there were faces. The skin was discolored and misshapen, some of it was rotting straight off of its host face. Eyes were missing and discolored, teeth and tongues were either missing or hanging out of misshapen and twisted mouths that were framed with thick, slimy lips. Pus, blood and mucus oozed out of all of the holes on every face. Eyes that weren't totally missing were either bulging hideously out of their sockets or were some ghastly color.

It was unlike anything Sabrina had ever seen before. Worst of all, though, she was certain that they were all watching her. She genuinely felt as though these masks were alive, and sentient, crazy as it sounded. But she was certain that it was true.

"God, is this really where Carly Beth came?" Sabrina asked herself just to hear some noise that wasn't the eerie drone of the old overhead light. For a girl who was known as the hometown's coward, it was clear that Carly Beth had some kind of nerve to willingly come here alone to buy a mask.

"What are you doing here?!" a sudden voice snarled out from behind Sabrina. She let out a shriek as she jumped around. Standing in the doorway was a lithe and angry figure, eyes like burning coals. His muscled arms were crossed. Sabrina knew at once that it was the storekeeper.

"I-I-I was just looking," Sabrina stuttered, suddenly feeling like a mouse trapped under the gaze and claws of a lion.

"These are not for sale," the shopkeeper replied dangerously.

"I-I-I sir," Sabrina continued to shake as he slowly closed in on her. "I was only looking. I mean, I know Halloween is over, but I didn't come here looking to buy. Just to see..." she trailed off pathetically, suddenly wondering what this man might be willing to do to her...

"You came only to look?" he hissed. "Who told you? How did you find out about this place?"

"From my best friend," Sabrina replied meekly. "Carly Beth..." and then suddenly, the man's eyes went wide.

10 minutes later, although she was still badly shaken, Sabrina found herself back out in the front part of the store, talking with a very interested storekeeper. Although he still refused to explain himself, his trade, his line of work, or the masks in the back and why he was so protective of them, she did manage to learn his name, Colin Fox, and his relationship to Carly Beth.

"She came in here on Halloween day asking for a mask to help her scare her friends," he confirmed Sabrina's suspicions. "And she wanted one of the masks in the back, but I tried to tell her no."

"And yet she bought it anyway," Sabrina finished with a grim nod. She knew how this story had gone, she had lived it!

"And she, like all the others, became a slave to it," Colin sighed with a deep sort of sorrow. "I told her not to, I told her not to, I told her not to. But she did anyway. And then she had to pay the price. A terrible price. It warped her mind. She let it in, and it took over her. Made her evil..."

Although he was speaking in riddles and refused to elaborate, Sabrina was able to take what little Colin did say and put it together well enough to realize that those masks in the back were not ordinary masks. She may not quite have understood what they were, but after being exposed to their presence, she could believe that there was something far more sinister about them than it might've first seemed. She was able to conclude that the masks were, in essence, haunted, and had possessed Carly Beth after she put her own on. And it was then that Sabrina remembered something else from Halloween night. Carly Beth had choked her. Or at least, she had tried to.

When Sabrina had finally called Carly Beth out on her unnaturally brutish and brutal behavior, Carly Beth had gotten so mad that she'd tried to strangle Sabrina right there. But then she stopped before she could do too much damage and tried to rub it off as a joke. Sabrina hadn't been too sure, but unwilling to try asking Carly Beth again, she let the matter drop. She still had faint bruises on her neck from the attack, actually. And now she was coming to realize that the mask might've been what made Carly Beth do it, crazy as that sounded. But from what Sabrina had figured out so far, it actually lined up fairly well. If the masks were evil, haunted, then it made sense that they could cause a wearer to turn just as savage. Carly Beth and her attempt at harming Sabrina seemed to be proof of it.

"That poor girl!" Sabrina sighed for her best friend as she realized how scared and alone Carly Beth must've felt that night. Sabrina subconsciously rubbed her bruised throat, no longer afraid or angry with Carly Beth for what she had done that night. Instead, only pity and worry remained. As far as anyone knew, Carly Beth still had that evil mask. Sabrina didn't like the thought of that, not at all...

Another hour later and Sabrina had left the store, but instead of going to her house, she went to Carly Beth's. The two spent a pleasant few hours together, just chatting, but then there came a moment when Ms. Caldwell called Carly Beth downstairs to help with something.

"I'll be right back," Carly Beth sighed ruefully as she hopped off her bed to head downstairs.

"I'll be right here," Sabrina replied with a little half-smile as she waved a small goodbye to Carly Beth. The instant Carly Beth was gone, however, Sabrina also sprung up from the bed. Instead of trying to follow after her, though, Sabrina began to search every inch of Carly Beth's room in attempt to find that evil, awful mask. She'd already made an excuse to check every other inch of the house, so if the mask was still here, this was where it would be. Sabrina wanted to find it so that she could destroy it, protect and save Carly Beth from it.

"Where are you, you little monster?" she growled softly as she scanned every inch of Carly Beth's room. Sabrina felt slightly bad about snooping around Carly Beth's room like this, but if it was what it took to keep Carly Beth safe, then so be it!

After a few minutes of searching, Sabrina found the mask. It was hidden deep under Carly Beth's bed, hidden in a box buried under a bunch of other junk she had hidden down there.

"Ah ha!" Sabrina yanked the box out from under the bed and opened it with a savage triumph. Sure enough, sitting within it, was that awful mask. She continued to leer down at it, silently vowing to get rid of it since it seemed that Carly Beth, herself, could not, but then it suddenly began to move. Its eyes flickered to life, its fat lips began to move, and Sabrina thought she heard it speak within her very mind.

"Sabrina, Sabrina, Sabrina..." it whispered. "Come to me..."

"Wh-what?!" Sabrina rasped in horror, nearly dropping the box in fright.

"Come to me, Sabrina, come!" the Mask repeated hungrily, drool starting to slip down its long, pointed fangs.

"What?" Sabrina repeated, this time more confused than frightened. What did it-? But before Sabrina could even finish asking herself the question, the Mask gave an answer. This time, though, it was nonverbal.

Suddenly, Sabrina saw all of her memories flash before her eyes. She knew it was all the Mask's doing, but she was helpless as she saw ever feeling, fear, hope, dream, insecurity and injury that she had ever received in her entire life flashing in her mind. Slowly, the moments of anger began to outweigh all the rest and Sabrina began to feel extremely and inexplicably mad. She could still tell that it was the Mask's doing, but she was powerless to do more than watch it happen. She felt her muscles tense and her pulse quicken. She could feel her teeth and fists clench while her temperature and temper rose. Angrier and angrier and angrier.

Suddenly, all she wanted to do was scream, and cry, and fight, and kill. She wanted to throw tantrums and punches. She wanted to kick and claw and bite. She wanted to start a riot and make a mess. She wanted to make a scene and grab everyone's attention. She wanted to hurt and break and destroy. All she wanted was destruction and pain. She wanted revenge for all the boys who said she was too tall. She wanted revenge for all the girls who said she wasn't curvy enough. She wanted revenge for all the people who said she looked too old for her age. She wanted revenge for all of the people who still treated her like a little kid. She wanted revenge. She wanted to make her enemies pay. She wanted justice!

Sabrina wasn't even aware of what she was doing until she'd slipped on the mask and actually jumped out of the window of Carly Beth's room. She landed with an amazing amount of ease, but even though a tiny part of her was horrified with what she had just done, a far larger part was only just taking flight. She started to run down the road with a snarl, heedless of anything but the goal she had in mind: payback.

"Alright, Sabrina, I'm back!" Carly Beth called out as she returned to her room. "I'm sorry that took so-" she cut off sharply when she realized that Sabrina was gone. Then she noticed the empty shoebox on her bed and her blood ran cold.

While Sabrina quickly began to savage the town, ignoring the fact that it was broad daylight out, Carly Beth began chasing after her, frantic, heart pounding with terror. She bitterly cursed the mask, first for ruining her life, and now threatening to ruin her best friend's. It terrified her to think that something bad might happen to Sabrina, or that Sabrina might turn into a monster that she really wasn't. It terrified her to imagine Sabrina being hurt, or making some huge mistake she'd regret later. It terrified her to think that Sabrina might've lost all control over who she was, and then never be able to get that control back.

"A symbol of love!" Carly Beth panted as she continued run through the town after Sabrina. "I need a symbol of love!"

Meanwhile, Sabrina had already egged several cars and houses, broken into and robbed several houses, and vandalized and destroyed quite a few pieces of public property. She'd also, thus far, pushed a kid off a bike, punched a kid in the face, flipped off an adult, kicked a man in the groin, insulted a woman, stole another woman's purse, and then threatened to shoot a man in the face. Her sense of inhibition had vanished and all that mattered now was self-satisfaction. She still wasn't done yet, though, aiming to take out some of the school bullies that were constantly harassing her for one dumb reason or another. She knew where they lived, she just wanted to grab a few weapons first...

Carly Beth managed to find Sabrina at last, cutting her off right as she was in the middle of beating up one of her most hated tormentors. She was beautiful, but that beauty only ran skin-deep, because behind that lovely face was a heartless monster, a girl who took a sick pleasure out of telling Sabrina she was too skinny and probably anorexic. Sabrina had been very sensitive to the issue of eating disorders, not because she suffered from one personally as this girl tried to insist, but because she found it very rude and insensitive to hurl such terms around so carelessly. Not every thin girl was anorexic. To claim so was insulting to all parties involved.

But it wasn't just that. The girl also said that Sabrina likely used her mature looks to try and seduce guys to sleep with her, never mind that all of them were only about 12 or 13 years old! And naturally, because Sabrina was rather curve-less, that was another area where Sabrina was harassed. She was never called ugly, because she wasn't, but there were plenty of other terms that this girl came up with. It was a never-ending battle with that girl, always finding some way to insult Sabrina's looks. It really wore on Sabrina, but she had always tried to take the high road. Until now. With her inhibitions gone, she thought only of revenge and justice.

"Sabrina! Stop!" Carly Beth thundered as she watched Sabrina continued to punch the girl until her entire face was bathed in crimson. Sabrina's head shot up and she snarled viciously at Carly Beth, but Carly Beth was unafraid. Instead, she only began to approach Sabrina calmly and quietly, reaching out to her best friend with a soft, gentle and compassionate voice.

"Hey there, hey now, shhhh, shhh," she crooned soft nothings at Sabrina and, at first, it seemed to work. But then Carly Beth got too close, and the girl that Sabrina had been punching panicked. With a sob, she tried to pull away from Sabrina. The sudden movement undid all of Carly Beth's work and Sabrina went savage again. That was when Carly Beth went physical as well, grabbing Sabrina hard by the shoulders and yanking her off of the other girl. Carly Beth succeeded in getting Sabrina to stop attacking the other girl, but it quickly backfired because Sabrina only twisted around and started attacking her as well.

Sabrina let out an unholy scream as she began to claw, kick and punch at Carly Beth, screaming that she'd just messed everything up.

"HOW COULD YOU?!" she roared. "HOW COULD YOU RUIN EVERYTHING?! I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS!"

"We are!" Carly Beth begged, trying her best to cover her face and shield herself from Sabrina's wrath. It didn't work very well.

"THEN WHY DID YOU HELP HER? WHY DID YOU SAVE HER?!" Sabrina took the time to toss her head towards the bloody, retreating girl.

"Because, Sabrina, this is not who you are," Carly Beth managed to keep a gentle voice despite how much pain she was in because of Sabrina. But even though Sabrina continued to beat her aggressive, Carly Beth remained calm, trying to talk Sabrina down and wake her up.

"This is not you!" she pleaded softly. "This is not what you are or what you are about. You are so much better than this!" and she kept murmuring to Sabrina even though Sabrina refused to give an inch.

At last, however, Sabrina switched over to trying to choke Carly Beth.

"How does it feel, eh?" she hissed, voice unbearably raspy and low. "Taste of your own medicine!"

"Sabrina," Carly Beth replied as she felt herself growing weaker and weaker. "I'm sorry..." then she reached up and gently rested an open palm on Sabrina's cheek. Sabrina's grip around Carly Beth's neck loosened. Carly Beth smiled weakly. She managed to force herself up until she was leaning on her elbows, propped up a few inches off the ground. She pulled herself up just a little bit further and managed to press a kiss to Sabrina's cheek. At the same time, Sabrina felt something loosen around her own neck.

That evening, Sabrina was sobbing into Carly Beth's arms, apologizing profusely for everything that she had done. The Haunted Mask was now locked safely away back in its little box, once again hidden from the world.

"I'm sorry!" Sabrina sobbed. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you! I never meant to hurt you! Or anyone else either!" she wrapped her arms tighter around Carly Beth, but this time, she was squeezing Carly Beth's torso and not her neck.

"I just lost control! I was just so angry! I can't even explain it! It was just too much. All at once, everything! Everything bad! And I just wanted so desperately to make it right and it was within my power and a voice in me just kept on saying that I could do it, and that I should do it, and- and-"

"Hey, hey, shhhh, shhhh, it's ok, it's ok," Carly Beth replied, gently hugging Sabrina in return, rocking her steadily back and forth. Although Carly Beth was still shaken, and sore, from earlier, she was not too injured. She was mostly concerned for Sabrina, relieved to know that she was back once again, but pained to know that she had been taken away at all in the first place.

"But I hurt you!" Sabrina continued to weep.

"No, the Mask hurt me," Carly Beth replied firmly, rubbing Sabrina's back. There was still a lot of cleaning up they had to do but, for right now, Carly Beth was focused solely on helping Sabrina first. The way she saw it, if anyone wanted Sabrina to pay for her mistakes, she needed to be well enough to in the first place. Additionally, Carly Beth still loved Sabrina deeply, and did not like to see her cry. Besides, what Carly Beth had said was true. Although Sabrina had done all of those terrible, violent and cruel things, it was not of her own volition. The Mask had warped her mind and persuaded her to do harm. So Sabrina really could not be totally blamed.

"There, there," Carly Beth continued to coo. "It's ok, it's alright, we're alright, we're all alright, and I am right here, and I forgive you..."

In time, Sabrina managed to calm down enough to talk to Carly Beth directly about what had happened. It was during that conversation that Carly Beth explained the full story of what happened to her on Halloween. She explained all about what the Mask was and what it could do.

"That's why you felt so mad," Carly Beth explained. "It's what the Mask does. And I should know..." she added bitterly.

"Then why don't you get rid of it?" Sabrina sniffled.

"I literally can't," Carly Beth's bitter smile got even bigger. "Every time I try, it just winds up back in my room again. That's why I just keep it locked up under my bed," she and Sabrina both cast a wary eye downward.

"I'm so sorry," the taller girl repeated.

"Don't be," the smaller replied with an affectionate smile, bitterness turning into love.

"But I-" Sabrina tried again.

"Did nothing. The Mask did everything," Carly Beth finished for her, and Sabrina gave her a hopeless and thankful smile. Two seconds later, the two were embracing again, Sabrina wrapping her long arms gratefully around her little friend. Carly Beth snuggled into Sabrina's body, but held her very protectively. Now it was her turn to be the strong one.

"But how did you save me?" Sabrina asked while they were hugging.

"A symbol of love," Carly Beth replied, then she explained. "There is one thing that can defeat a Haunted Mask, and that is a symbol of love. The masks are literal manifestations of grief, anger, hatred, hurt and revenge. If one presents them and their host with a symbol of love, that negates all of those negative emotions and pacifies them. For me, my symbol was the sculpture of me that my mom made. As weird as it was, and as much as we joked about it, she made it because she loves me," Carly Beth trailed off with a fond smile as she thought about her mom.

"And my symbol of true love?" Sabrina asked, though she really didn't need to hear it confirmed out loud.

Right as she asked, she remembered. The kiss. Carly Beth's kiss. Her forgiveness and compassion, even while Sabrina was trying to kill her. Her understanding and support for Sabrina, even while Sabrina was not herself. That kiss had, quite literally, been true love's kiss. And it had been enough to free Sabrina from the monster lurking inside of her. That was her symbol of true love. Carly Beth was Sabrina's symbol of love.

"Thank you," the taller girl whispered again in a whimper as she tightened her arms around Carly Beth.

"Any time," the smaller girl replied with a smile as she tightened her arms around Sabrina. The two stayed in that embrace for quite a while more.

AN: Ok, Knight-Bishop, here's the "Sabrina tries on the mask fic". Platonic or romantic, take your pick. I just really like their friendship and wish it had been explored more. Besides, in the Panic Park series, Sabrina does honestly free Carly Beth from the Mask with a kiss, so this is basically an AU role-reversal of that scene (though this takes place in Carly Beth's hometown and NOT Panic Park).