"Steve Rasnic Tem - Tricks And Treats" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tem Steve Rasnic)

So that ever after that she could smile, no matter how she felt inside.

MASKS OF ME

Ronald went to the door and was surprised to see a little boy standing there
wearing a mask that looked just like Ronald's own face.

"Where'd you get that mask of me?" Ronald asked, but the little boy just turned
and ran away. Ronald went out on the front porch and yelled as loudly as he
could, "WHERE'D YOU GET THAT MASK OF ME?" But the little boy just kept on
running, and never looked back.

Ronald jumped off the porch and ran after the little boy. Behind him, he could
hear his mother and father calling after him in panic, but Ronald kept running,
just knowing that he had to catch that little boy and find out about the mask of
his own face.

"I WON'T HURT YOU! I JUST WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THAT MASK OF ME!" he called, but
the little boy just kept getting further and further away, like he had leopard
legs or something. Leopard legs and Ronald's own face.

He chased that little boy with the mask of himself up Fredericks Lane and down
Lincoln Avenue. He spun into Jangle Road so fast he almost fell down. The wind
was blowing hard and the trees were moving like they were getting ready to dance
and the whole thing made Ronald feel like he was flying, soaring after that
little boy wearing his mask of Ronald.

"...where'd you get that mask of me..." Ronald tried to say but the wind caught
his words and blew them away so hard he could hardly hear them himself.

"...where'd you...where'd you..." the wind spat back at him.

Then finally the little boy turned onto Halloween Street and Ronald felt pretty
good about that because he knew Halloween Street was a dead end. But he wasn't
ready for all the kids trick or treating there, hundreds of them of all sizes,
and all of them wearing these masks with Ronald's own face.

"Where'd you get those masks of me?" Ronald cried out in confusion.

"Where'd you get that mask of me?" they all chorused back in panic and fatigue.

"...where'd you...where'd you..." the wind gently crooned.

And then there was nothing else to say. All the children with Ronald's face sat
down on Halloween Street and said nothing. Ronald wondered if maybe they were
all waiting for the real Ronald to stand up, for the real Ronald to make it
perfectly clear exactly who was who.

So the real Ronald stood up and tried to take his face off, just to show all the
others that it wasn't a mask. And all the other real Ronalds stood up and tried