Hiding behind a Face (The Maskless Trilogy #3)

By K. Weikel

They were hidden behind a mask.
They were hidden behind a name.
And now they're hidden by the Face.
Tables are turning faster and faster.
What was once black and white,
Is now made of shades of gray.

Banshee is the puppet master now.
And who knew one person could embody so much power?

Things are happening faster
Tables are turning quicker
There's a time limit now
And the secrets are piling higher than ever.
Banshee's good at keeping his secrets,
but now it's time to come clean.
Because a secret isn't a secret,
If no one knows you have one.

Everyone has a good side and a bad side.
Did you choose correctly?

- THE BEST SECRETS ARE ALWAYS HIDDEN -

• Language: English
• Publisher: K. Weikel Publishing
• Release date: Feb 3, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310574016

K. Weikel

K. Weikel uses her three-dimensional characters to tell stories of life and adventure and magic."The One-Hundred" won the Wattys Award in 2015 and has reached over two million reads. Weikel has also won the 2017 Writers Awards for Building Monsters. She has written 60 books, including her first manga, "Katharsis". To learn more, visit her website: http://www.kweikel.comSERIES:Underdogs (4)Replay (13)Katharsis (1)The One-Hundred (6 Books, 1 Short Story, 1 Novella)The Haunted Mansion (4)The Blood Room [3 Alternate Endings]TRILOGIES:Dead MenMaskless TrilogyTrapped TrilogyCOMING SOON (1)DUOLOGIES:The Unnamed DuologyStop; GoSTAND-ALONES:WaterloggedThrough the Dimension of NightmaresWhen the Sky EatsCreatures of the BelowNord and the BordSamenessBuilding MonstersDollhouseThe Vampire's CarnivalKrystal's WorldLabyrinthFiguresMatchCagedList X

Book preview

Chapter 1

Black masks fall to the ground, some landing and rolling, others landing with the sounds of bones snapping.

Becca still points the gun at the Leader of the Nation, her eyes wild.

Banshee is the last to drop, landing just before the stage. He stands slowly and takes his plain black mask off, the long scar glowing in the growing night. He smiles and looks around at the terrified mass of people, letting out a soft chuckle at the nervousness crackling in the air. Victory. He can almost taste it.

He spots Eduard just a few feet away, and locks eyes with him. Eduard’s body is rigid, and Banshee’s smile stretches wider.

Attention all citizens, Banshee shouts over the commotion. The people around hush themselves to hear. Everyone put your masks back on.

Eduard and the Maskless start to protest, but Banshee holds his hands up to quiet them. The black masks lift up theirs too, guns of various sizes aimed at the crowd they’ve encircled.

But, Banshee, wouldn’t that—

He turns back around to Becca and interrupts her with a threatening Beccaaa.

But this isn’t what was planned—

Becca, he says softer, more annoyed.

Banshee! They’ll all die!

Becca! Banshee screams.

I won’t be responsible for the death of a city.

Fine, Becca Reed. Banshee turns around to face the crowd. It’s a sacrifice we need to make.

What?

Banshee nods once. The black masks all around the crowd aim their weapons at her and begin to shoot. She takes off into the city hall building, unscathed, except for the wound from a bullet in her right calf. She leans up against the inside of the doors and breathes as the gunshots disappear.

Everyone is going to die, she thinks as she sinks to the floor.

Outside, Banshee stands still, now pointing his gun at the Leaders, watching as some people reluctantly put on their masks.

You will all do as I say, Banshee says over the speakers to his left and right as his words enter the microphone. Or I will kill everyone here and I will kill anyone who gets in my way. Masks. On.

There are protests, but soon every mask is on. Every mask but Eduard’s. Banshee looks at him with a smile, knowing everything is falling into place. It can only go up from here.

Banshee brings a hand up to his ear, pressing down the button on his earpiece so that Victoria can hear him.

Now, he says, his eyes still on Eduard.

Suddenly, sounds of gunshots fill the air and people drop to the ground as if they were dead. Eduard looks around, the street now filled with collapsed bodies. His gaze refocused on Banshee, whose face is filled with a smile that holds a million secrets.

Go help Becca, he says quietly. Before she has the same fate.

Eduard looks at the steps leading up to the city hall building. Banshee nods his head towards the building, telling Eduard to follow where Becca had gone to.

Eduard walks around the stage, his eyes focused on Banshee as he stands over the Leaders who have fallen.

He pushes open the doors. Becca sits on the opposite side of the room, pressing on a bloody spot on her calf. Her head snaps up and her eyes focus on Eduard. Something flashes in her eyes and she scrambles up, favoring her left leg. She hold a gun up to Eduard with a shaky hand.

Don’t move or I’ll shoot! she cries, emotions confusing her tone.

You wouldn’t shoot me, Eduard says, but something in her eyes tells him she would.

Something has changed in her, in a big way.

Chapter 2

Becca’s gun is pointed at Eduard’s chest, her mind racing at the thought of a bullet penetrating it. Could she really shoot him? On purpose?

Yes, she tells herself. There’s no other way. It’s got to happen.

She readjusts her hands on the gun and takes a deep breath in, her finger steady as it hovers over the trigger.

Becca.

She can hear Eduard. She knows that’s his voice. She knows he’s standing right before him, maskless and afraid. But what he had done to her… What Banshee had told her…

No. Becca forces the word from her throat, her diaphragm tightening as it slips past her vocal chords.

Becca, what happened? she hears him say. I read your letter. Just put the gun down. We can talk about this. Please.

There is no talking left to say, Becca growls like a wolf about to attack its prey. You were too late in finding me, and I’m already gone, Eduard.

Becca’s breathing is heavy as she stares at him angrily past the top of the wicked metal gun. The weapon that has caused so many deaths over the centuries, a few of which on Becca’s own hands.

Becca, please, Eduard pleads, making Becca’s heard heart falter a moment. I thought you were dead.

If you cared, you wouldn’t have, Becca says acidly, each word flicking off the edge of her tongue. You would have never given up on me. You would have never let that thought stay inside you. You would have found me.

But Becca, Eduard protests, taking a step forward.

Stay where you are! Becca says with a piercing cry. She feels tears leap into her eyes suddenly, and wills them away with all her being. She can’t be weak. Never be weak. Weakness will end in death, even if it’s at her own hands. She can’t fail.

Eduard puts his hands up in surrender, but keeps walking towards her. Becca takes a step back, suddenly unsure if she should shoot him or not. Her heart is cold and iced over, icicles piercing into her and making her bleed from the inside out, but her brain, something in the very back of it, something strange tells her she can’t do it. Something tells her that she cared about this boy at one time, that she can’t do what she’s told to do, she can’t shoot him.

She staggers back again, horror filling her veins. Whether it’s toward herself or the boy walking toward her with a caring look in his eye that did something so terrible to her only a few months ago, she doesn’t know.

He’s only about a foot away when she lifts up the gun, grunting in frustration at her cowardness, and shoots the glass dome above them. Glass shards start to fall down like daggers as Becca turns to hobble-run and Eduard looks up and then covers his head, running away from the danger rather than following her.

She goes into a long hallway, aware of where she’s headed, hoping he doesn’t see her and where she’s going. The last thing she needs is to be in the same room as that boy. That dreaded boy… But still something pulls at her brain, as if something in her life had been a lie, as if she had been told something so many times it had become the truth.

The door opens easily and she steps inside. She sees the words she had had Twitch write on the wall. She couldn’t write it herself. Eduard would have known it was her writing. Because of the notes. The notes… it seems like she wrote them so long ago… Like she was a completely different person.

Because she was.

Good morning, Becca, she had heard. She moved slightly, a pain in her chest making her wince and lay still, her breathing heavy and her energy suddenly drained. It hurt so badly.

How are you feeling?

She turned her head slightly, the pain throbbing through her chest and up into her head. Banshee stood with his mask off, just to the left side of her body. She tried to speak, but only a gasp of pain escaped from her throat.

Shh, Banshee said softly. You need your strength.

Becca could feel adrenaline start to pump through her system, the pain in her chest starting to ebb away, but she knew it will be back. Feeling had started to come back into her limbs, and she realized she was strapped down at the wrists and ankles. She pulled at them, starting to feel the fear that Banshee had always struck into her up until that point.

Stop struggling, Becca Reed, Banshee said with a small smirk. Here, I brought you something.

He held out his hand. In it was Becca’s old mask, burned and melted.

A little reminder from your old life.

I… Becca’s throat was suddenly on fire as she tried to talk, tried to scream.

Don’t talk yet, Banshee continued to talk. You aren’t strong enough. You were shot.

B… Still nothing came out of her mouth.

Shh, shh, he said, coming closer. I’m not going to hurt you.

He reached out toward her with something else in his hand. A pen and paper. He set them beside Becca and unstrapped her. She