They wore masks.
Beneath smiles, feigned strength and revelry lurked dangerous lies, lustful thoughts and deceit. Beneath a veneer of success lie victims of addictions, suicidal thoughts, marital problems and sexual abuse.
He was disillusioned. He worked the most violent Ward in the city as a cop. His wife jilted him for another lover. He was tired of wearing his good-guy mask. Perhaps it’s time to leave this dung heap called earth for good, he thought. And planned his suicide carefully.
Hiding behind a mask of addiction, he took a job five hours away from his wife and kids. “This is what you wanted to see.” Her voice was silky as she clicked on the lights before slowly opening the lid of the trunk.
She hid her secret habit from her parents, a habit she’d been clinging to for years. It all started when she typed “N-A-K-E-D M-E-N” into the search engine one day and up popped a whole new world. At the time, she was less than 9 years old.
Some wear their masks proudly — at first. Then the conflicting emotions begin wearing them down. Like the young Navy SEAL who cannot escape his own self-destructive violent behavior or the man involved in a successful family business and the tangled web of dysfunction. Or the teens whose masks fixed tightly in the wake of a parent’s death only deliver confusion.
Seven stories, nine people “unmasked.” How will the “real people” cope when their true selves are outed?
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