Jessie stared at the witch's mask that her best friend, Hillary, was holding up. Jessie's eyes grew wide. It was like no other mask she had ever seen. As she stared harder, a shiver ran up her spine.
The mask looked almost like real skin. Jessie could even see tiny wrinkles around the nose, the mouth, and the eyes. And there was a dark mole on one cheek, with tiny hairs sticking out of it.
"It's perfect, isn't it?" Hillary asked.
"It's scary-looking!" Jessie answered.
Jessie and Hillary had been looking through a box of old masks. They had stopped into a used-clothing store, on the way home from school. They were going to a Halloween party the next night.
The girls had waited almost until the last minute to decide on their costumes. They just hadn't come up with anything special enough to suit them. They had thought the used clothing store might have something they could wear.
They had looked at everything. But nothing had seemed quite right. Then the owner, an old man with thin white hair and a long sharp nose, had snapped his fingers.
"I almost forgot," he had said. "I got in a box of old masks the other day." He had flashed a smile that was missing a few teeth.
"I got the masks from a magic shop that closed. They're in the back of the store. You're welcome to look through them if you like.
"Three dollars each, if you're interested," he had added.
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