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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/kriegstadt on 2023-07-02 03:37:56+00:00.
I guess that not all of you know what an Ashen Mask is, and, to be honest, I don't really know either. I have heard about Ashen Masks for several years in various parts of the internet, mostly in the context of expanding ones consciousness and making contact with other plains of reality. However, no two sources I have consulted seem to agree on what exactly an "Ashen Mask" is supposed to be, apart from the fact that it is, well...a mask. Some people claim that these masks were manufactured by aliens in order to allow humankind to get to the next level of evolution. Others think that they are the last remnants of a hyper-advanced civilization of the dark ages, maybe of Atlantis or the kingdoms of lost Lemuria. But whatever they may be, one thing was clear: Great things would happen to the people who put on an Ashen Mask. Because of this, Ashen Masks were something of a holy grail in the community of new-agey internet weirdos where I used to hang out. However, gullible as I was at that time, I never bought into this particular story. After all, you do not get anything into your system by putting on a mask, and therefore it seemed highly unlikely that anything would happen by doing so. And indeed, none of my friends who had ever personally put on a supposed "Ashen Mask" reported any unusual happenings. Therefore I concluded that the story of the "Ashen Masks" was either cooked up by an enterprising charlatan, or just an urban legend.
One day I was browsing the dark web, trying to find a reliable source of opium, when I came across a site selling "Ashen Masks". As I mentioned, I did not believe in the powers of the masks, but they looked creepy and were not very expensive, so I ordered one on a whim. I thought that maybe I could use it to prank my friends or something.
The thing arrived surprisingly quickly for a dark web purchase. It was packaged in a heavy box of black wood and, in spite of myself, I was somewhat creeped out when I saw it for the first time. The thing looked like a metal human face, similar to the famous Roman mask of the Teutoburg forest, except that this one had a red button on his forehead. However, when I picked it up, it felt as if it was covered in a layer of ashes of very fine sand. Under the mask, there was a was a note which read: TO SEE REALITY AS IT IS, PUT ON MASK AND PRESS BUTTON.
I smirked, put on the mask, and, with a slight shiver of anticipation, pressed the button. I don't really know what I expected to happen. Certainly not awesome revelations about the nature of the universe, thats for sure. I thought maybe colored glass would slide down in front of the masks eye-holes, or that the button would make some kind of silly sound.
Instead, nothing happened. I mean absolutely nothing. What I saw after pressing the button was exactly what I had seen before: My desk with the open box and my computer on it, my chair, my bookshelf and a part of my bed in the corner of my vision. I turned my head and looked out of the window, seeing exactly what I was used to seeing: my front lawn, the street, and the neighbors house.
"Well" I said, feeling somewhat silly "I guess I do see reality as it is. I did already see it before I had this mask, but never mind." I put the mask back into the box, and tried to think of a good place to store it, when suddenly my knees felt weak and I had to sit down.
I realize that what the next part of my experience has some characteristics of a bad trip, but I swear that I was totally sober on that day. I have done a fair amount of drugs in my time, including some that can have long-lasting effects, but I have never had to deal with something like this before or since. Nor do I think that my pressing the button released some kind of hallucinogenic into the mask, for I have neither smelled or tasted anything, nor felt an injection into my forehead. In any case, if you want to brush my report off as a druggies fantasy, you probably will do so, no matter what I say.
So anyways, here is what happened:
I was sitting down, trying to understand where this sudden weakness was coming from, when I realized that the proportions of my surroundings were subtly off. I felt that the things in my room had suddenly grown by several inches, despite the fact that my feet still touched the floor. Seeking something to fix my eyes to, I looked up to the bookshelf above my desk...and almost fell off my chair. The bookshelf seemed not only to have changed its size, but also its position on the wall and, strangest thing of all, its contents. For example, I knew that the Greek Necronomicon was up there, but my edition was a small, paperback print with a little octopus on the spine. Now, however, it seemed to have transformed into a large, musty-looking tome with leather binding. Besides this, there were a large number of similar volumes, some of them with titles in alphabets that I had never seem. "De Vermis Mysteriis" I read aloud "Unaussprechliche Kulte. The Revelations of Gla-Khey. Thomus Ulthar. The Unauthorized Biography of Chris Hans...".
At this point I realized that things had gotten seriously out of hand. I turned to the window in the hope of seeing my front lawn, the street, and the neighbors house. I saw the front lawn, the street, and a large, burly demon with a bulls head. The demon roared, raised a coarse battleaxe and charged towards my house. I tried to stand up and run, but someone seemed to have removed the floor, and I tumbled down into a seemingly bottomless darkness.
I do not remember the impact on the ground, perhaps because I lost my consciousness. My next memory is slowly standing up. At first my head was spinning and something like ashes or dust seemed to have gotten stuck in my eyes, so that I could not see anything. But then I managed to wipe it off and look at the landscape around me.
My first impression was that of vast dunes of the ash-like substance being blown about by a strong wind. The sky beyond seemed to also be filled with clouds of ashes or smoke, for it was pale and the light that filtered down from it seemed eerie and directionless. I hardly had time to recover from the shock of this discovery, when a growling sound from behind caused me to spin around. In the gloom behind me, I saw two creatures, very much like the demon that had chased me earlier, except that these specimens were considerably smaller and more goat-like than bull-like in aspect. Fortunately, they were engaged in a fierce struggle with each other and paid no attention to me. Nevertheless, I decided to walk in the other direction as fast as I dared, casting furtive glances over my shoulder from time to time, to see if I was pursued. When I looked back from the ridge of the next high dune, I could make out one of the creatures feasting on the corpse of the other.