The Plague Doctor Mask

The Plague Doctor Mask

Hannah A, Class of 2026

Hannah S-D Class of 2025

Elizabeth, seven years old, and her parents were walking down a dark road and they were taking turns making jokes. There was nothing around but the spotlights and the trees.

“Lizzy, I don't trust those trees over there,” her dad said.

“Why not dad?” she replied.

“Because they look shaaady!”

“HAHAHA!!” she laughed.

The family revolves around Elizabeth. They love her very much. They laugh at her jokes no matter how funny they are. They always want the best for her and would keep her safe no matter what they would have to do.

“That was a good one,

Abdalla,” her mom replied.

“Thank you,” he said proudly.

“Ok, my turn. Mommy?” “Yes, Lizzy?”

“Why couldn’t the horse sing a lullaby?”

“I don’t know, why?”

“Because she was a little horse.”

“Hahaha,” her parents laughed. Even if the joke was corny they just wanted her to be very happy. Especially when they knew something was wrong.

“Ok mommy your turn!”

“Um Marie, somethings wrong,” her dad whispered.

“Shh, it’s fine.”

“Ok, um… Lizzy, why are ghosts bad liars?” she asked.

“Hmmmmm, I don't know mommy?” she replied, looking behind her.

Silence. She turned and looked in front of

her and saw her parents lying on the ground.

“Mommy?!?..MOMMY?!!?.. DADDY?!!!?”

After calling out her parent’s names a couple of times, Elizabeth knelt to shake them to see if it was just a joke, but only blood came every time she shook them. Knowing she couldn’t do anything to solve this, she looked up for help, only to see a person in a plague doctor mask. Petrified, she screamed at the top of her lungs, “HELP!!!!!! MY PARENTS ARE DYING!!!!!PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!!!!”

Elizabeth, 14 years old, was awoken by her adoptive parents. “Elizabeth, honey are you ok?” her Dad asked. It was very unlikely for her to wake up screaming like this and he was hoping that her dream wasn’t so bad that she would physically suffer from it.

“Elizabeth, did you have another nightmare?” her mom asked.

“Yea, um. Sorry about that,” she replied, rubbing her head. Looking around, realizing she was in her room, she saw her two wolves looking very sad and saw that it was bright outside.

“No, no, no need to apologize. It's something from your past and it was so scary that you're having these terrible nightmares,” her father said, understanding her pain.

“Since I’m awake I should get ready for school, right?” she asked.

“Um, sure honey.” He was hoping she would want to talk about her dream, but she didn’t want to.

“Ok, but could you please get out of my room so I could get ready?” Elizabeth said with a slight smirk on her face.

After her parents left she got up from her bed, walked over to her large dresser, and picked out a white shirt with the words Agent Smith printed on it. She put it under a black jacket with some straight jeans. She said hello to her wolves, the only things remaining from her original family, took her backpack and went out the door. She walked to her school where she found her best friend Zoe, the one who she tells everything to.

“I had another nightmare.”

“Oh no! Is it the same as the other ones?” She had always been afraid that something would happen in Elizabeth's dreams that would make her heart stop.

“No, actually this one was about the death of my parents.”

“Well, that's different.”

Before Zoe could say anything else, Elizabeth pulled out a plague doctor mask.

“Woah. What?!'’” Zoe looked at the mask and knew this was something more than just a costume from the house.

“Yeah, this mask was on the person who was above, looking down at me when my parents had died.”

“Woah. Kinda sus if I do say so myself.”

“Yes, super sus.” Elizabeth knew exactly what Zoe was thinking. I need to make Liz feel better.

What Zoe didn’t know, and why her empathetic thoughts meant almost nothing, was that Elizabeth had been trained to kill from a young age by her adoptive father Chris Auditore da Firenze. Her adoptive parents run an extremely “legal” organization for assassins and trained her personally after they adopted her. She was trained in every art known to humans but was extremely good at martial arts and knives in general.

After school, when Elizabeth was going home, she felt like someone was

following her so she quickly ran to her parent’s property so that innocent bystanders wouldn’t get involved. Elizabeth saw the person wearing a plague mask. She knew what was happening. After running all the way to her property in the woods she elevated herself into the tree, making sure no ground animals would be hurt by this assassins’ clumsiness. While trying to guide them to an isolated spot, she lost sight of the assassin. Elizabeth was hoping the mask on the person’s face had been a delusion. She fled for home to tell her dad.

“DAD!” She yelled.

“Yes?”

“There are assassins coming for me!”

“WHAT?!”

“Yea, is it still safe to stay here?”

“No. We have to go. Do you remember any piece of the person's clothing that could be useful?”

“Yea they had those scary masks that I see in my dreams,” she said, hoping he would reveal more information about the assassins.

“Well, what happened to the assassin?”

“Um, I don't know.”

“I don't think we should stay here. Just go wait for me outside and I'll bring all the necessary things we need.”

“Ok, but what about mom?” she asked naturally, but was actually trying to be sure the assassin wasn’t mom herself.

“Mom’s not here. Don't worry, your safety is our top priority right now”

“Ok,” she says, being very careful not to reveal that she knows everything.

“Go and wait outside for me, won’t ya Elizabeth?” “Oh, yeah!”

Elizabeth was walking out of the house and was standing there for about five minutes when her dad came out. Then they ran for two hours into the woods.

“Wait right here, I'll bring us some food.”

After three and a half hours her dad had not come back. She assumed he wanted to leave her there and that this was a deliberate trap to make the assassins' jobs easier, so she kept on running. After about 15 minutes she spotted a figure with a weird beak. She stopped to find out more, elevating herself on top of the trees to see if her guess is correct, if this was in fact a plague doctor mask. She jumped from tree to tree extremely quietly and moved closer and closer to the figure though she only ever found a mannequin. Scared, she looked around to find nothing more.

She kept on running, far into the open space, waiting for the assassin to reveal their spot by the angle of their weapon. After arriving in the openness, she spotted a thin thing flying at her and launched herself backward. The knife flew down and hit the ground. She saw that it was a stiletto. Her least favorite, the shape like a thick line that gets bigger at the handle. She threw back in the direction where the assassin would be, assuming from the angle that the target was in an elevated, but not extremely high place. She smelled blood and she guessed she hit the jackpot. Knowing her opponent was not so intelligent, she opened herself up to a position where she would be hit easily. They would fall for it. Elizabeth changed her gloves and dodged another poisoned stiletto. She took it and threw it at the assassin's newly assumed