Diary of a Mask

Doctors Note:

I found this scrawled in what I can only hope to be in russet paint on the stone walls of the cell in which a young woman was being held, for no other reason than she stopped speaking entirely.  No sound slipped between her ruby lips, no cry escaped when she was sobbing in the corner of her prison, which was only in her mind.  I felt it necessary to write down her message, her only words in over a decade of ineffable pain I may never hope to experience.

Prof. J. Scarab, December 21st 1887

You see right through me, you wear me over your face every single day.  
But I see you...
The one behind the painted wood and glitter and cheap gilding and lace.
I see you...
I see the darting eyes that look so seductive through my filters, but underneath are the dark circles and the tear-streaked cheeks and the freckles that are hidden under a maze of powders and paints.
I see you...
I see the scars on your lips from biting then all night long, the tears from the screams from dreams only demons could create and yet there they are, in your mind.
I see you..
I see the scars you hide under sleeves and gloves, the lies you tell to everyone you say you love because you're scared out of what's left of your mind that they'll leave you because you're a lie, covered in a field of falsehood.
I see you...
I see how you stare out the window, waiting for a hero. Bah.
He's not here for you, he's here for me.
You see...
I am the real you.
You see...
I'm the lie you I have created, the charade you carry around like an invisible shield.
You see...
They all love me, not you.  You've been gone for so long, see, that they don't remember you.  That's why you can't say a damn thing without me, see... cause I am more real than you are.  The Lie is more real than the Truth.
You see...
I am the Mask.  I am you.  You are not me.  

And that is why you fail.