The Passover Experiment

Something felt disconcertingly off that morning to Jezzy as she stared at the dark screen on her phone. The sky was bright and she listened the wind whistling between the snow laden branches and rustling trees for a long time before it finally hit her. Jezzy didn't normally notice outdoor sounds.

"Stupid-!" she hissed, scrambling to snatch her phone from its stand. Her alarm should've screamed her awake. A few sharp taps confirmed that the phone's battery had died, which explained why the alarm hadn't gone off... but not why the rest of the house was so quiet. She and her housemate, Meg would always leave the TV playing in the background, even if neither of them were actually watching it. In fact, Meg was usually up and at her computer blaring soap operas long before Jezzy left her own bed.

Jezzy yanked her gray, fleece robe around herself, popping up a worn collar that'd lost its softness several washes ago. Why was it so cold?!

"Meg!" she called out, hugging herself for warmth as she descended the stairs into the main room.

The couch sitting across from the blank TV was empty, and no one was sitting in the small office space to the side.

"Meg, are you, ah, home?" Jezzy yelled, confusion mounting. The lack of her housemate's presence shouldn't really trouble her. They were both adults, free to come and go as they pleased, but they also both worked from home and preferred delivery to travel. She just hadn't realized how eerie standing alone in an utterly still, silent house could be.

"The power's out," Meg groaned, materializing behind Jezzy like a ghost. "I just tried the light switches."

"Jesus!" Jezzy's body temporarily lost gravity as she leapt away from the woman, clutching her own pounding heart. "Don't sneak!"

"I wasn't," Meg cackled roughly in reply. She was also in an old robe covering her Pjs, and appeared to have also recently rolled out of bed based on the disheveled state of her normal groomed hair and the pillowcase crease marring her face. "I just came out when I heard you yelling," she yawned and held up her phone up, screen forward to display the time. "It looks like my alarm and sleep app stopped working. I didn't think it needed data or wifi to work, but I guess it does since it didn't record anything last night." Meg scowled and rubbed her eyes. "None of the apps on my phone are working right now. Except the calculator."

"Weird!" Jezzy took her phone, peering at the little icons at the top of the screen. "No wifi, no data, and no power? What the heck?" She sighed, handing the phone back. "I guess we can't work today. Have you tried calling in?"

"Not yet." Meg poked dolefully at her computer, as if unable to help herself despite knowing it wouldn't work. "I'll try now though. Maybe we should go into town if the road isn't too bad. See if everyone else is having issues and know what's going on."

"Right," Jezzy agreed and started towards the front door. "I'll check the road. Hopefully a tree didn't fall and take out a power line or something," she called over her shoulder, stepping backwards through the squealing door into the biting, winter cold. A huge, loud blur size of a cat zoomed straight at her face. Squawking, Jezzy nearly slammed the door closed on her own hand as she staggered back against it.

"What's wrong?" Meg's voice yelled from within.

"Just a drone!" Jezzy called back, unsteadily, flicking her hair out of her face.

It hovered before her, whining and buzzing ferociously like an intense, giant dragonfly with a dark gray giftbox trapped between its legs. She was relieved that was all it was, although she hadn't been expecting any deliveries. A small screen blinked at her from the flat face of the drone's face, and Jezzy pressed her shivering thumb to the scanner. The little screen beeped when it received the thumbprint signature for the package, but the drone lingered close enough almost to bump her.

"Well...?" Jezzy said, waiting for the drone to drop off the box. Her hand tightened around the doorknob behind her when she noticed a blinking red light near the camera lens on the drone. Was it... recording her?

There was an abrupt click and a light flashed in her eyes as she flinched away.

"What the hell?!" Jezzy yelped. The drone dropped the gray box at her feet and then landed next to it.

Jezzy's head whipped around, checking the surrounding area for a prankster or weirdo. The house had been built in the outskirts of town, and the closest neighbors were miles away. Jezzy normally preferred isolation, but today she felt the vulnerable side of it. She considered smashing the drone and moved to kick it off the porch when she noticed the address labels stuck to the top of the box.

"Aunt Jill?" Jezzy squatted down to get a closer look. The original shipping label was clearly addressed to her aunt; however, it appeared her aunt had taped the box shut and stuck a yellow label on it and wrote Jezzy's address over it instead.

"Huh..." Jezzy shivered against a particularly bracing wind that easily pierced her thin robe. She hadn't lived in her aunt's house in years, and it mixing up deliveries seemed unlikely.

The parked drone appeared to have turned itself off completely, but Jezzy kept an eye on it as she picked up the box for inspection. There wasn't any sender information. The box itself was mildly heavy, sleek package with strips of plastic tape securing it shut. A large, capitol 'P' the color of blood filled the lid's surface, the print so glossy it seemed wet in the reflected light. It wasn't a clear indication of where the box could've come from, nor what could be in it though. She didn't know of any brands or company logos that matched it anyway.

"Whadya get?" Meg asked, joining Jezzy without her noticing again.

"I don't know, actually," she replied after a second. "Aunt Jill forwarded it to me."

"Well, are you going to open it open it or freeze to death out here?" Meg asked dryly and cast a frown at the powered off drone. "Did the drone die?"

"I don't know." Jezzy stood up with the box. "I think it took a picture of me."

"Ew, weird!" Meg exclaimed, following her into the house.

"Yah," Jezzy agreed dubiously, setting the the box down onto the coffee table, then reached for a letter open to cut the box's tape. "Were you able to call anyone?"

"No, I can't get any calls to go through." Meg plopped down onto the couch next to her. "We can just explain once we get the power is back. There's no way we're driving through those piles of snow--um, what is that?!" Meg interrupted herself as Jezzy lifted the box lid free.

"Mask." Jezzy stared down at the glossy, full-faced Venetian mask nestled in the center of the box's silky black lining. The undecorated face appeared neutral in every way, from its close-lipped expression to its indeterminable sex. The only striking thing about the mask was that the entire thing was the color of deep, red wine. A small envelope with the same capitol "P" embossed into a wax seal sat modestly to the side.

Jezzy lifted the mask from its silk molding first. It felt smooth and cool like glass against her fingertips. She turned it over to find the concave side lined with red silk and what looked like a tiny, round dark spot embedded in lips area.

"What is it?" Meg asked, impatient as Jezzy kept staring at the black piece.

Jezzy handed over the mask. "Maybe that's supposed to be a mic?" She turned back to the box and the envelope inside while Meg examined the mask.

She noticed as soon as she picked up the envelope that top had already been slit open, although the wax seal remained unbroken. Frowning, Jezzy plucked a heavy sheet of cardstock paper out of the off-white envelope. The plain text of the letter looked almost odd in comparison to the lushness of everything else, and Jezzy's hair raised as she started reading.

"What does it say?" Meg interrupted, her voice sounded weirdly muffled.

Jezzy looked up to find herself almost nose to nose with the red mask. "Ugh, jeez Meg! Take it off, you look like a freaking serial killer!"

Meg snorted but placed the mask back in the box. "Well?"

Jezzy shook her head helplessly. "I just started, but listen, it's weird. I'll read it out loud.

"Dear current recipient,

You have been chosen out of a group of randomly selected individuals from all over the would to act in an experimental group for a project called, 'The Passover Experiment.'

Although you may or may not be the first individual to receive this package, you have been provided all of the items needed in order to complete you task: a mask, these directions, and the drone which delivered it.

The tasks listed below are your choices to do as current participant. You must choose one and carry it out by Midnight after the same date that you received the package. Please pay close attention to the details of each task. They may not count if not carried out exactly as described.

Option 1) Put the mask on before Midnight and wear it until dawn.

Option 2) Give the mask to somebody else. To give it to another individual, use your thumbprint signature to turn on the drone and declare that you freely rescind your claim of the mask into the mask's mic and declare the name of the new recipient if they are receiving it in person. You may also identify the new recipient of the mask by attaching a the individual's home address to the box. The drone will deliver it to the new recipient.

Option 3) Do nothing.

Note: The mask cannot be stolen or taken forcefully from the current recipient. A new recipient will NOT be recognized unless the mask has been given freely through the steps in Option 2.

Thank you for participating in the Passover Experiment."

"So..." Meg picked up the mask again. "What happens when you wear it?"

"I don't know." Jezzy turned the note over in her hand and rechecked the empty envelope. "There's nothing else here."

"Does it say what the mask does?" Meg demanded.

"No, I just said-" Jezzy impatiently held up the note. Hadn't Meg been listening at all?

"Who are the Passover people?"

"I don't know."

"But what happens at Midnight-?" Meg pushed, waving the red mask at Jezzy as if she thought the other girl was actually withholding answers from her.

"MEG!" Jezzy exploded. Her nerves were already thoroughly frayed today, but her psyche collapsed under the relentless pressure of questions. "I. Don't. Know! How many times do I have to say it! I just read you all of the information that whoever-they-are gave us! They didn't send anything else. I'm just as confused as you are! I DON'T KNOW!"

Jezzy regretting losing her temper almost as soon as she'd finished shouting. She didn't need to see the cold stillness of Meg's face to feel sick. Whether she was correct or not, losing control felt like a failure to herself.

"Sorry..." Jezzy deflated, sinking back into the couch like the hole she'd stepped in. "I just don't know... This has to be a prank, right?"

"It's fine," Meg said stiffly, not looking at Jezzy as she set the mask back into the box. Jezzy could practically Meg filing the memory straight into her mental records of things she'd never forget. While Meg wasn't the type to actually bring things up in future fights, she had a way of making the other person feel the points stacking against them.

Meg turned to face Jezzy and shrugged. "What do we know then?"

Jezzy pressed her index fingers to her temples as if she could massage out this weird nightmare. "Well, it looks like Aunt Jill chose the second option..."

"How do you know that?" Meg said in surprise.

"It was sent to her first," Jezzy pointing at the shipping labels. "The letter was already open, so she must have read it and chose option two and decided to send it to me for some reason."

"Call her," Meg suggested, but recallrf her mistake as soon as she said it.

"My phone is dead and the power is still out." Jezzy cringed. "There's... no way that the outage could be related, right?"

Meg shook her head. "That's... that was probably all the weather's handiwork, but this is giving me really bad vibes."

Jezzy jumped up, hands fluttering as she paced back and forth. "If this is real, and not some weird prank- who could carry out something like this?"

"The government?" Meg's face pinched, and she laughed hysterically as she hugged her legs to her chest. "Terrorists?"

"The Passover Experiment," Jezzy hissed, dragging her fingers through her own hair. "Why does that sound so familiar?"

"It's biblical," Meg answered distractedly. "The 'Passover' prefers to a destroying angel god sent to convince a pharaoh to free Moses and the slaves. The slaves were supposed to mark their homes with lamb blood so that the destroying angel would..." All blood drained from Meg's face as if in a race to her feet. "...pass over them."

"What?" Jezzy demanded, less familiar with old religious stories, but felt just as unsettled by the possibilities this summary brought to mind. "Did everyone else die?!"

"Not all of them," Meg replied faintly.

The splash of the mask's vivid color resting against the black silk within the box suddenly held a whole new sinister quality to it. Jezzy didn't like the way the empty eye holes of the mask seemed to watch her in anticipation.

Jezzy leaned hard into the back frame of the couch. "This could be from someone really nasty. Some disturbed person or fanatic that wants to s-scare a bunch of people," she suggested stuttering where she was unable to say exactly the word she'd actually thought.

"Best case scenario, the masks do nothing at all," Meg replied. "And it really is from a group of scientists studying the psychology behind peoples' choices, but..." Meg rocked a little in her seat. "What if something serious is going on?"

What if. Few words caused more stress than these two. Jezzy had no way of knowing where the mask had truly come from, whether to trust the letter, or what to do with it except to be increasingly disturbed by the "what ifs" knotting up her insides.

What if the mask protected its wear from something bad or dangerous like the lambs blood in the biblical story?

What if the mask was the danger?

What if it was harmless and nothing would happened?

What if they did nothing with it, and something bad did come?

Without any way of looking up information to confirm or weed out any ideas, population control conspiracies suddenly no longer felt entirely out of question. Especially when one was trapped in a steadily cooling house in the middle of a rough winter.

Jezzy anxiously picked at her cuticles. She could not keep her hands or her heart still. "It would be weird to wear the mask, right? Without actually knowing where it came from or why, using it would be stupid, right?"

"Except your Aunt forwarded it to you," Meg pointed out. "She wouldn't do that if she'd thought it was dangerous, right?"

"Right," Jezzy agreed, shaking herself. "But why wouldn't she keep it for herself?"

"To protect you?" Meg suggested.

Jezzy grimaced. Protection at the cost of her aunt's own safety? "So I should use it?"

"Maybe, but what about me?" Meg said darkly.

"You?" Jezzy blinked at her,

"There's only one mask," Meg explained quietly. "I didn't get one. What about me?

"My aunt sent it to me-" Jezzy started.

"This isn't fair!" Meg snapped.

Jezzy lowered herself on the couch's arm, considering Meg with a confounded expression. What if whoever wasn't wearing the mask actually... died? Did Jezzy have to choose between them? Meg couldn't steal the mask, but would she have tried?

"Then... I'll go with option three," Jezzy said finally. "Neither of us will wear it."

Meg scoffed, "If you're not going to use it-"

"We're going crazy over something we know nothing about!" Jezzy cut her off, putting the lid back over the box. "We cant both wear it, so not using it it the only way to be fair. So I'll just leave the box outside. We just need to focus on staying warm in the storm."

Meg's face clouded, but she nodded, unable to push Jezzy further. " I guess we'll see if anything really happens. Later."

The power didn't return, but Jezzy had a watch and she stared it's face as the hands ticked closer and closer to the 12:00 position. At 11:58 pm, she couldn't take the what ifs anymore and tiptoed through the dark house to the front door. She needed to know.

The snow soaked right through her socked feet, but the large comforter blanket helped block out the winter night was still as Jezzy crouched on the front porch, dusting the fresh snow off of the gray box's lid. Piles of pure white snow reflected the moonlight, and the deep red of the mask shown in stark contrast as Jezzy lifted it from the box. Should she feel guilty for possibly condemning them both? Should she have given the mask to Meg?

She pressed the silk lining of the mask to her face just as both hands of the watched lined up at the 12th hour and waited for dawn.