Dark light flooded the room in a chilling veil. The towering, trembling candles made the shadows circle wickedly around the church.

Aaah the dead. We give them the most respect they’ll ever get when they least need it. Funny the way the world works. He leaned against the wall with as much care as he could muster. About as much as a hunk of dead meat.

Pointless words needed by no one. You can say things at a funeral that’ll get you laughed out of school and all the way home. Mum was crying crystal drops onto the waxed wood. His dad, held her tightly in his arms, rocking back and forth slowly on his heels. It was touching. Reminded him of when they used to hold him like that. His younger sister was tugging anxiously at her mum’s black skirt, repeatedly asking, “When’s Oscar going to be here mum?” with large open eyes. He smiled at that. Touching… was probably the right word to use. If only she knew I was never coming.

Her mum tried to smile between sniffles, laying one hand on the coffin. “He’s already here.”

It has always struck me as strange how much respect the dead receive, often far more than they ever get in their lifetime, so I created this to try to give a voice to something unexpected but strangely fitting. I chose the title “The Masquerade” because it resembles the way that Oscar feels about death and how he is being treated after life, not because it is a masquerade, which it most definitely is not.

I created this after a discussion about the necessities of funerals and why we have them, and decided to respond to this in a very unexpected way, so as to shock people and help them understand what we are actually doing in life, for the dead. In many ways funerals are far more for the living rather than the dead, and this piece shows the reflection on both sides.

I hope you understand the point I’m trying to make, and that it may help you to view the world in a different way.