A Simple Masquerade Turns Interesting

20260808

Prompt from DailyPrompt.com

“If anyone asks, we met at a book club. Got it?”
Xavier raised an eyebrow and smirked. “One way of putting it…”
“Don’t. Start.” Hanna ordered through gritted teeth. “You’re going to play the forgettable, mild-mannered guy who none of my family will find objectionable or think to ask after later. Got that?”
“Alright, alright…” Xavier grimaced and reproachfully muttered “Have to wonder why you’d call on me for that sorta act…”
“Because I didn’t have a better option, duh. Just smile and nod a lot.”
“Fine. What was the book?”
“What?” Hanna shot him an odd look.
“For this ‘book club’ we met at.” Xavier drawled forbearingly. “Need to get our story straight, right? What book did we bond over?”
“Uhhhh say it was ‘Moby Dick’ and neither of us bothered to read it.”
“Right. Sure.” Xavier uncertainly combed fingers through his hair. “Is this suitably ‘forgettable’? Not normally what I go for…”
“Make the hair mousy brown… bit blonder… shorten it by like three centimetres… put it in an office-ready side part… good. Now, can you make your skin less pale? Bit more… Ok, lastly, brown eyes. Oh, and a stuffy smart casual outfit.”
Hanna looked him up and down, eyes narrowed, then nodded and declared “There. Totally uninteresting.”
“Woo.” Xavier deadpanned.
“Stop complaining, we had a deal!”
Xavier scoffed “Believe me, human, when I start complaining, you’ll know.”
“Tsk. Sure.” Hanna checked her reflection and squared her shoulders. “Ok. Party time.”
“I hope you’re not expecting me to dance. I’m like six centuries out of practice.”
“Pff, nah, it’s not that sort of party. Everyone just stands around and talks.” Hanna paused, then uneasily probed “You can fake small talk, right?”
“One of the many things being able to hear mortal thoughts comes in handy for.”
“Cool, cool.” Hanna took his hand (unnaturally warm, but hopefully not such that anybody would notice), put on a cheery smile, and let them out of the hotel room.
‘Warning you now,’ Xavier’s voice rang in her head, ‘next time you summon me, you’re gonna need a REAL compelling sacrifice.’
She rolled her eyes. Please. From what she could tell, he hadn’t gotten a single summon in generations - possibly those six centuries. He couldn’t afford to be picky. That was the main reason she’d selected him out of all the demons in that tome. Well, and he was weak enough she shouldn’t have to worry too much about him getting ideas.
‘This is still FAR beneath me. I hope there’s at least a decent buffet.’
There would be. No way grandma would ever shut up if there wasn’t.
‘Good, good…’
Hanna kept her smile bright as they walked into the hotel restaurant, and waved at the family members who’d looked up. All of whom waved back with blithe cheer.
Except Mary, who gawped at Xavier and went pale.
Uh… oh dear. Had…? No way. No way her goody-two-shoes drip of a sister could identify demons… right?
‘Well, this just got interesting…’

Prompt was “Start a story with someone saying ‘If anyone asks, we met at a book club. Got it?’ before entering a party.”