"What the hell?"

Al frowned at the hooded young man that stood before him. He eyed the envelope that was so abruptly offered, with nothing but a grin on the masked face of the lad delivering it.

"H-he's been here since right after you left." Susan, the bed and breakfast's new front desk employee, looked nervous. She tucked a navy-colored strand of hair behind her ear. "He hasn't said anything, either. It's kind of... creepy."

The masked man smiled and inched the envelope closer to where Al's hand was clenched into a fist at his side. In response, Al took a step back. "Yer from that other place, aren't ya?" He said, though an answer from the man did not come. And Al hadn't really expected one. He wondered, briefly, if the man even had a face beneath his mask.

Al huffed and offered up a paw. As soon as the exchange was made, the lad disappeared.

Al blinked at the space where he'd been, and Susan dropped her mug of coffee on the desk she sat behind; hot brown liquid quickly moving to devour whatever papers were accessible. Susan made a noise that could only be described as a terrified squeak. "Oh nooo! Oh no, oh no, oh no!" She moved to save as many bits of information as she could. Which, admittedly, wasn't all that much.

"What the ******** just happened? Wh- what did you mean by 'tha-that other place'?" She asked Al, shocked.

During her scramble, he had saw fit to open the crisp, yellowed envelope. He ignored Susan's questions, and instead focused on the envelope's contents. He withdrew the key first, weighing it in his palm for a moment before reaching back in and extracting what he recognized immediately as being some sort of invitation.

Al harrumphed.

"Oh my gosh! A masquerade? That's so! That's so cool!" Susan had hooked around the desk to find a place at Al's shoulder. She read the slanting handwriting quicker than he could, and Al frowned as he finished up the last bit.

"Do you think- do you think maybe, um, if you don't have anyone in mind--" The tips of Susan's ears felt hot, and she knew they'd be a bright red color beneath the thick layers of her hair. "Could I go, as your plus one?"