There’s a rumor going round that the king got replaced. The guy we see on TV is too tall. They never show his eyes close up, which is how you can tell when they’re wearing a hyper realistic mask- it sags at the eyes. His voice is wrong, too, a little high pitched and goofy, like an imitation of how he used to sound.

I heard it from one of the palace guards, who sees him all almost every day. Those shuffling little steps he takes that make him look so old and vulnerable? Jim says that once he turns the corner and he’s out of camera range, he starts walking normal, confident, like a much younger man.

So it makes you wonder, if the king isn’t the king, who is he? What happened to the real King Fitz? And what’s so necessary about what the imposter is doing to pull off a fraud like this?

Larry is a buddy of mine who works in the livery at the palace. He said there’s a lot of strange characters coming and going, folks who look human most of the ways, but there’s just something off. Like, they stare at you a little too long when you’re talking. Their eyes twitch back and forth when they talk. And the oddest smell, like the reptile house at the zoo. Larry’s ready to quit, he says he can’t sleep at night.

I can barely sleep, myself. I close my eyes and I see another set of eyes watching me, behind my eyelids, yellow, and when they blink it’s like a third eyelid goes sideways across them. I get up and pace, telling myself it’s all crazy, I’m working too much. I have sketch books filled with eyes, the king, the masks I find online that are so, so really looking.

Haven’t you heard the stories of the Faceless Men? The ones that come in the middle of the night and take you? The ones who could be anyone, but then they take their masks off and it’s all blank, no eyes, nose, or mouth? How do they even breathe? It doesn’t many sense!

Sorry, sorry, I’ll call down. I don’t want to get us thrown out of here. You must have heard all these rumors too. What are we supposed to do? Leave the country? Run to the hills and be shepherds?

Quo Vadis, that’s what we gotta ask ourselves: who benefits from us living in fear, questioning everyone and everything, looking over our shoulders and watching out every step? The ones who want to control us. If we don’t trust each other, if we can’t sleep at night, then we’re afraid and we never stand up for ourselves.

You’re right, it is time for me to see a doctor, get on some medication. I’m so paranoid, and it’s not healthy for me. I can’t live like this anymore.

Hey, there’s something on your cheek there, like a little bit of… oh. It’s your mask. It’s coming off at the ears.

Just do what you gotta do, man, I’m tired of fighting.