"From the moment of birth my destiny was to be alone."

The light in the cell was too bright and the smell of cleaning solution burned what little nasal lining that he possessed. Within hours of the death of his classmate, Erik Ramsey had been arrested and imprisoned. Though, he conceded, it was better than outside. Beyond the gates of the jail, he knew what awaited him.

The media with their cameras, questions, and expressions of horror. He could only be thankful no cameras had been present during his arrest...and only pray that there would be none in the future.

His entire life he had tried to avoid people, tried to accept his differences. It was they who would not let him. Those people outside with the stares, whispers, laughter.

If they had not taken the mask, it would have been alright. If only they had been content with their curiosity...if only they had not seen...

Undoubtedly she would hear of it now. She would know that lay beneath his mask. She would laugh, as they had laughed.

"Christine," he whispered her name, and closed his eyes, thinking of her sweet voice. The smile that would never be for him, the eyes that could only pity and hate, nothing more. Love had it's price, and today Erik had paid in full.

"Erik Ramsey?"

He didn't respond to the voice outside the cell. Let them come...if only he were a few years older...then the state would end what he could not. If he had been eighteen instead of seventeen, if only this were not California, but Texas.

"Your mother has come to see you," the voice said again.

For a moment he considered telling them that he was not accepting visitors, no matter who it might be. There was nothing anyone could say to comfort him, and there never had been – but the coldness of the cell was getting to him. He was used to being alone, but not like this. Never at the mercy of strangers, although for most of his life he had expected to find himself right here – trapped like an animal.

"I'm coming," he finally said, getting to his feet.

The guard did not look at him as he unlocked the door, and Erik did not look at anyone during the brief walk to the visiting room.

The expression on his mother's face when she saw him led before her in chains was almost comical, but Erik knew it was not the sight of him helpless that made her pale.

They had taken his mask, and he was left with nothing to cover his face. Unless he wished to destroy the only pillow in his cell and place the slip over his head, then unmasked he would remain.

"Oh God, Erik," Madison Ramsey breathed. "What have you done?"

He stared at her. "You think I intentionally killed someone, Mother?"

"The news is saying-"

"You watch the news?" he asked sullenly. "I'm surprised you remember how to work a television, or that we have one."

Madison glanced nervously at her watch. "I don't have very long. They didn't want to let me in."

"You're my mother and I am a minor. They can't keep you away from me."

She bit her lip. "Ethan is outside in the car. He didn't want me to come."

He lifted his shoulder, refusing to be hurt. It didn't come as a surprise that her visit would not be one of concern, but rather, her making excuses for why she would not be here in the future. He knew then that this would be the last time she visited him in this place. "Will you at least bring me a mask?"

For a moment the hard gaze of his alcoholic mother softened, and she nodded once. "Did they...are you...hurt...?"

"No."

"Good...that's good..."

He waited for her to say something else, but there was only a vacant stare behind her eyes. He could tell she had been drinking, although her speech was not slurred and she was sitting perfectly straight. Impulsively he raised his hand to the glass, feeling an edge of terror at the unknown. In his mother he could not find comfort, but the idea of her, of the knowledge of what she should have represented.

And he did not flinch or even move when Madison stood and turned away from her son's desperate plea for comfort.

"I will have someone bring you a mask, Erik," she said softly.

And then she was gone.

- - - - -

"What did you see, Miss Sorelli?" Detective Navin Kohn asked gently.

She shuddered, and her mother squeezed her shoulders. "Go on, girl. Tell him what you told me."

"The...the boys at school...," she whispered, heedless of the tears that slipped down her cheeks. "They pretended to be his friend. They invited him to a party..."

"Him? You mean Erik Ramsey?"

Kate nodded. "I wasn't supposed to be there. I was staying at a friend's house...and she wanted to go." She looked up at her mother. "I'm so sorry, Mama. I..."

"Shhh...it's okay. Just tell the detective what you saw," Mrs. Sorelli said, knowing she could not punish her daughter for the night's events. It was enough that Kate had seen someone die, and God knows it was enough that her daughter was otherwise alright.

"They gave him a beer...they laughed when he said he couldn't drink because of the mask. They asked him why he didn't take it off..."

"And what did Erik say?"

"He said...well...that he was too handsome and didn't want to make them jealous," Kate said, remembering how she had giggled at his remark, even knowing it was probably a lie. Erik always said things like that to people who asked about the mask. He had never let anyone touch him in the three months of high school that she had known him, and that line had been crossed ten fold in one fateful evening. "The boys on the football team wouldn't let up. They kept asking him about it...then one of them...one of them took it away."

She pressed her hands over her mouth, remembering that gruesome sight. Those eyes, sunken in, the skull visible across the top and to the side. His nose...well...there had been no nose! Worst of all was the mouth which did not seem to have lips, only teeth. It had not made her scream as the other girls. The look in his eyes as he stood in the middle of that room should have been enough to silence any sound at all.

Phillip Chaney had stood there holding the mask in one hand, a beer in the other, and had not said anything either.

"What happened then?"

"Erik hit Phillip and knocked him down...and then another boy...I can't remember who...hit Erik from behind. Phillip climbed on top of him and started punching his face." Kate closed her eyes, "Erik grabbed something on the floor and hit Phillip with it. Only...it sank into his neck..."

"A busted beer bottle," Detective Kohn murmured.

"It sounds to me as if this boy did nothing wrong," Mrs. Sorelli said.

Detective Kohn's mouth tightened. It sounded the same to him, but his partner had called a few minutes ago and said that another version of the events was being spread around, and they did not cast Erik Ramsey in a favorable light. Navin Kohn was certain that nothing ever would. "Is there anything else, Miss Sorelli?"

She stared at him dully. Could she tell him how Erik's eyes had met hers before he had fled from the room? How he'd stared down at Phillip in horror, with Phillip's blood soaking his shirt, covering his face...

Should she tell him that as he had turned away from the sight that he had laughed...

Laughed?

God yes, he had laughed over Phillip's dead body.

Then said, in a voice that froze the night, "Call the police. I've finally killed someone."