2:00
While the princess handled her intimate affairs with the lucky seven suitors upstairs, Katelyn and her companions were guided away from the opulent palace gallery and into the subterranean dungeons where the remaining rejected suitors were held captive. With each step that led her deeper into the dim, damp chambers, Katelyn's anxiety mounted as she sensed her opportunity to reclaim the mask slipping through her fingers. She knew she had to devise a plan to return to the throne room and discreetly follow Emma, now concealed behind a mask, to her chambers.
After descending a lengthy flight of stairs, she turned around and saw the wooden doors behind her slam shut with a pair of guards with their threatening weapons. When she faced forward again, one of her masked companions extended a supple green leather whip for her to wield. The moment she made contact with the whip, the unmistakable crack of a whip resounded behind her, causing her to instinctively flinch in her tracks. Surveying her surroundings, Katelyn observed her masked peers striking the perimeter of a cell where a dozen men could be heard crying out and pleading for release. Gazing down at her weapon, she clutched it tightly against her bare chest; grappling with the impulse to follow suit.
"Is this all Emma's doing...?" Katelyn wondered as she saw rows and rows of miserable men behind bars. While she knew that the mask could manifest her inner most desires, the sheer magnitude of her influence over practically an entire gender within the city was astounding.
As she continued to explore the jail, her attention was drawn to a young teenager who appeared to be of similar age, sobbing into his hands. Katelyn approached the cell bars and inquired about his well-being. Startled, the young man quickly retreated to the back wall, apprehensive about the masked lady's intentions.
"Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you," She whispered as she tried to reassure him while keeping her whip behind her back.
The teen blinked a few times before proceeding to slide forward.
"I was not good enough for her..." He said while gasping for air. "She asked me to come..."
"Who asked you to come?" Katelyn asked as she bent down to be at eye-level.
"The goddess in my dreams," he replied while trying to regain his composure. "She asked me to come to the royal palace tonight," he said as her tried to wipe his eyes with his sodden sleeve. "When I woke up, I rushed out of bed and wore my best clothes to see my love... in person."
"I was so excited to see her, the woman of my dreams, in real life on her throne! But..." His voice trailed as he held back the memory when he approached the princess with his offer.
Katelyn peered through her glossy mask and recognized the gentlemen that who she was talking to. She remembered his offering... and the swift rejection that soon followed. That visceral memory of that moment harkened back to the scars from her previous relationship; it still felt tender despite the passage of time months ago. Katelyn extended her hand, gently placing it on his shoulder in an attempt to offer comfort, much like the way she used to console her younger brother.
Meanwhile, the other men confined in the cell noticed her empathetic gesture and began to approach the bars, seeking to get a closer glimpse of her. It slowly dawned on them that she wasn't like the other ladies that patrolled the halls; she seemed different somehow and felt that they could trust her.
Katelyn turned her gaze towards the rest of the men in the cell and asked, "did you guys also have the same dream?" The four silently nodded.
The teenager looked up at her and pleaded, "I... I... want to go home..."
"Me too..." Katelyn turned back to him before continuing, "...but I need to get upstairs somehow."
The four men within the cell huddled together, engaging in a brief conversation before reaching a consensus to assist her in navigating her way back to the upper levels if she could free them. In response, Katelyn promptly rose from her seat and retrieved her phone from her purse, attentively listening as the group recounted the route they had taken from the throne room to the cell.
3:00
Katelyn wandered through the endless maze-like dungeons until she finally stumbled upon a marginally brighter hallway with another wooden door at the other end. After what felt like hours of wandering, she allowed herself a glimmer of cautious optimism, hoping she might have discovered a potential escape route. And as she pulled out her almost depleted phone from her purse and read through the notes, she read back the last line that she typed she left the five men.
Three crowns mark the door up
Katelyn raised her phone's flashlight toward the door and promptly activated it. In no time at all, the beam illuminated a metal insignia adorned with three crowns, reflecting its radiance back to her. With a renewed sense of hope, she swung open the door, unveiling a lengthy, winding staircase that led to another door, emitting light from its periphery. Without hesitation, she ascended the stairs and pushed through the door at the top which revealed a substantially brighter room that briefly overwhelmed her vision. Nevertheless, once her sight adapted, she heaved a sigh of relief and ran through the throne room and promptly ascended another flight of stairs in pursuit of the princess and her suitors.
As she gingerly placed her foot on the first stair, a sudden loud creaking door swung open, prompting her to swiftly conceal herself behind a nearby curtain to evade detection. Katelyn carefully peered an eye out from her curtain and saw something bewildering. She saw three men rushing down the stairs as if they were running for their lives. Two of them were handcuffed to a wooden chair that clattered behind them, while a third man carried what seemed to be a knotted bedsheet dangling from his left arm. However, what truly captured Katelyn's attention was the condition of their bodies - red, scraped, and entirely stripped of clothing. Her gaze lowered and was affixed upon their crimson and bruised appendages flailing as they hurled themselves down the stairs. It slowly dawned on her that these were among the seven suitors selected by the Masked Emma. Clearly something had happened to them, and their clothes, since being led to upper chambers some time earlier; but what...?
When the men were out of sight, Katelyn carefully slid out from behind and continued her ascent up as she heard a series of loud echos from above. Despite the visceral image from the three men from earlier, it didn't sound like pain or torture; but rather sounded like pleasure... from a woman. Nearing the top of the stairs, Katelyn encountered another group of men, notably older than the trio she had encountered earlier, clamoring their way out of the upper chamber. One of the men glanced upward and caught sight of Katelyn in her porcelain mask which caused him an immediate sense of alarm.
"no... no more... please!" The older gentlemen said with a horse throat before getting up off the floor and slouching against the other side of the stairs.
He was then followed by two other middle-aged gentlemen who were equally as bruised and battered and together hobbled down the stairs. Once they had vanished from her view, Katelyn abruptly heard the collective footsteps of a group of individuals approaching, and she witnessed the seven women who had been selected earlier systematically exiting the upper chamber and descending the stairs. She remained motionless as they filed past her, heading in the direction the six men had fled. Their porcelain - covered visages remained poised while the rest of their perspiring bodies left a trail of their misdeeds all over the carpeted floors. While the masked entourage continued their pursuit of the men, Katelyn surreptitiously entered the upper room, only to be met with an unholy mess.
In a room with a single long table, she could clearly see stains from all kinds of mixed juices, claw marks dug into the carpet, broken furniture and tapestries, and several human-sized indents that were imprinted along the walls. And to top it off, the room bore a palpable weight and exuded a distinct musky aroma, further confirming her suspicions that it had been the women, not the men, who had wielded unrestricted control over the unfolding events.
But Katelyn recounted seven total men, not six... where was the last one?
Just as the question crossed her mind, she heard a strained groan coming through a door from across the room. She quickly bolted across the room and carefully pushed the door open to find the person who she was looking for.
There, positioned before an opulent mirror, sat the Masked Princess with her voluminous golden hair cascading around her and her extraordinary, unclothed figure. The masked figure exuded a commanding and regal presence, causing Katelyn to experience a flutter of nervousness in her stomach. Katelyn's gaze trailed along her friend's transformed form and noticed that her friend's nails were dug deeply into her blonde hair. Katelyn then turned her body towards a fractured king-sized bed beside her, where an unconscious man lay wrapped in disheveled, stained sheets, clearly knocked unconscious.
Before Katelyn could turn her attention back to the vanity, she heard the princess speak, "You have arrived..."
She grabbed a hold of her lush green skull and continued, "... too see my plight."
Katelyn treaded carefully. While her mask had been worn by others, she was careful to keep her surrogates under control via the sister mask. But in this instance, there was no way to tell what could happen to her or her friend; especially with her first masking.
The princess took a deep breathe and continued, "I can feel... feel it loosening..."
Katelyn bit on her lip before asking, "Feel what... loosen?"
The Masked Princess gracefully turned around to reveal her full form to Katelyn. Her emerald face now emitted an eerie glow, with veins traversing her forehead, pulsating every few seconds. Katelyn observed in fascination as the princess began to manipulate her pliable skin in an effort to stretch her masked muscles. The rubbery material extended farther and farther behind her until her fingers brushed the edge of the mirror. Katelyn witnessed the rubbery flesh of the mask tug against her friend's strained face before finally releasing, causing a sizable, green mass to lunge back. The forceful recoil of her green skin prompted the princess to emit a groan, her veins vanishing and restoring her visage to its pristine, clear, masked state.
As happy as the Princess was with her brief reconstitution, her eye quickly focused in on a nearby window that exposed the sunlight peeking out through the waters edge.
"It's the summer..." The Princess sighed. "... the sun will come up any minute now."
She turned towards her wrapped up lover and continued. "And I had just found my Prince Charming..."
She shifted her hands to twirl her golden hair between her fingers while asking Katelyn, "do you think he will remember me?"
Katelyn further bit into her lip, almost drawing blood, "why wouldn't he?"
The Masked Princess paused for a second before standing up and turning back towards Katelyn.
"Because he's... only seen me like this..." She smiled and striked a pose that left Katelyn gobsmacked. A wave of new emotions wafted through the air and into Katelyn as she gawked at her friend's form; was she lusting after the princess?
"See? You like me too! If only I can be this forever..." The princess said before spreading herself atop her bed; in an even more exposed view for Katelyn.
Katelyn felt the weight of her purse on her shoulders as she juggled the thought of a permanently masked Emma. She could easily grant her friend's wish by giving the princess the sister mask and locking her friend into Wonderland; forever.
But on the other hand... deep down Katelyn also wanted to feel the mask's power for herself. The mask's power was addicting, as she could clearly see from interrogating her friend, and after going through hell and back she didn't come all this way to be some bitch's permanent second in command. She was the alpha and omega goddess and the only way to reclaim that was to don it herself.
Katelyn soon snapped out of her hesitation and sat on the edge of the bed before reaching up and grabbing the edge of her own porcelain mask.
"Don't be afraid," she calmly said as she lifted its sticky interior off of her own face. "I took my mask off; do you still remember me?"
And before she let the princess respond, she pointed towards the wrapped gentlemen and continued, "And if he really likes you, mark tonight as the start of your very own fairytale; not the end."
The princess folded her hands against her chest and stared into Katelyn's eyes before feeling the mask's powers slowly fade with the continued rising of the sun. After a minute, she propped herself vertically and pouted for a second before turning to Katelyn and resigned to her fate, "fine."
"But... in case I don't see you again," she said before grabbing Katelyn's hands. "God eftermiddag, god kvall och god natt" [Good afternoon, good evening, and good night]
And with that, the Masked Princess leaned over and planted her soft roussy-colored lips against Katelyn and began to dig her tongue into her friend's mouth. The two shared a passionate French kiss that took Katelyn by surprise. While it wasn't the first time she was kissed by a girl, this was certainly the most intense and euphoric coupling that she had ever felt; at least when she was unmasked. And just as Katelyn was about to savor the feeling, the princess leaned back and gave her peer a cheeky wink.
"Nobody said I couldn't have a prince and a princess tonight~" She giggled to herself before reaching into the crease at the back of her mask and tugging at the inset.
The princess continued to pull with more intent until she started to feel the seam open up and the edges of her face begin to dislodge from her beautiful face. The mask's firmly entrenched membrane continued to unfurl from her skin, releasing tendrils that cascaded through her blonde hair, gradually solidifying into a mundane wooden hue. A sparkling shimmer of light enveloped the soon-to-be commoner, facilitating her transformation from her regal form back to the teenager Katelyn had encountered hours ago. And in no time flat, the mask came off with a thundering boom and left Emma knocked out on the bed with the wooden facade cradled in her hands.
Katelyn watched her friend's tired body flop onto the bed and awaken the wrapped man on the other side of the bed. The gentlemen rubbed his eyes and froze as he saw two naked girls in a bedroom in the royal palace.
"Can you take us home?" Katelyn asked as she began to look for any clothes.
The curly haired gentlemen nodded back and looked at blonde girl that laid beside him. His eyes trailed along her body and stopped when he saw the wooden mask in her hands.
Katelyn looked back over at the bed and quickly marched back towards the bed and swiftly snatch the mask from her friend's grasp and went straight into her purse.
"No time, let's go!" She scoffed at him which prompted him to join Katelyn in finding some clothes before getting back to Katelyn's hotel.
4:00
Katelyn crept back into her hotel room and carefully closed the door behind her. After Liam, Emma's apparent lover, helped carry her back to Katelyn's hotel, he notified the staff to call Emma a taxi back home... not before writing down her name to reach out to her later.
As for Katelyn, she finally got her mask back all safe and secure inside her purse. After such a long night, she was way too tired to even want to mask up. Moreover, the sun had already risen, indicating she'd have to retreat to her hotel room, where her brother was also staying. Since she didn't want to risk waking him for her antics she opted to collapse on her separate bed and fall fast asleep. In a few hours, her family would continue their trek through Europe and she would get another chance to be with her reunited mask... or will she?
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