The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)

The Junior Partners

Previously: "Explaining Yourself" 

You can't hide your disgust at their presumption. You shouldn't be fucking around with this stuff, they're basically telling you, so we've elected ourselves to be your babysitters.

But you do need a new place to work. And you also need money.

So you lean back in the booth and think about how phrase your acceptance. No one speaks as you ponder their offer.

As you weigh your words, you let your eye dart from one to the next to the last. (They are all three squeezed into the booth opposite you.) Kyler is oddest of the three. He's a big guy, almost football player big, with a darkly tanned face and flat brown hair that hangs over his eyes in front, and over his ears and down the back of his neck. But despite his size and apparent strength, he has an awkward, galumphing walk, and you have the impression he's just naturally big and ungainly. His JV-linebacker physique is also at odds with his squirmy, effeminate mannerisms. He hardly talks, but he can't stop grinning at you, and you have the impression he's fighting down an almost feverish excitement.

Kian Benefield is the preppiest of the three. His hair is fluffy and neatly brushed, and there's not a whisker on his pink and shiny face. His eyes are clear and his gaze direct, and you can't help being reminded of Geoff Mansfield, the smug, AP-level asshole who stole your girlfriend from you at the start of the semester. Like Geoff and his friends, Kian exudes an air of entitled privilege and superiority. He's also the most neatly put together of the three, in a shirt that's buttoned up almost to the collar.

Of the three, Jake Davis comes across as being the most like you and your friends. He is tall and skinny, with red patches on his cheeks and forehead, and he's sloppily dressed in a dark-purple t-shirt under a loose-fitting plaid long-sleeve. But he's also the most truculent and suspicious of the three. He sits very erect with his chin in the air, giving you the evil eye while Kian makes the case for all three of you being friends and working together on the magic.

So you really don't see how this is going to work. At least not long term. In the short term, at least, you can probably get some money and a place to work from them.

"Okay," you say after the awkward has silence between you has stretched out long enough to become agonizing. "You know about this stuff now, and if you wanna play along—"

"We don't want to play along," Jake snaps. "We wanna—"

"I know. What your friend said." You point to Kian. "You wanna supervise me, make sure I don't do anything fucking stupid. But, you know, if that's all you want, then I'm not interested. I mean, I don't need a fucking babysitter, and I don't want one."

You let the moment, and wonder what they'd do if you just got up and left.

"So I don't want a babysitter," you continue, "but I'll take a couple of partners. 'Cos what you say actually does make sense. That thing got away from me. And, well, the reason I tried it out on that girl was because I didn't have anyone else to try it out on."

"Tssshhhh!" Jake reddens. "We're not gonna be your fucking guinea pig, man!"

"I'll be my own guinea pig, if I have to be," you retort. "I'd have tried the fucking thing on myself, except I didn't have anyone to watch my back in case I fucked it up. So I'll be my own guinea pig"—a promise you regret even as you utter it—"if you guys'll be my partners. That's fair."

Jake looks unconvinced, and even the other two look confused.

"But here's the thing," you go on. "Don't bullshit me that you're not going to be into it too. If we're partners, then we're partners, and you gotta put some skin in the game too. And if I'm gonna be running all the risks, if I'm gonna the guinea pig, I'm gonna need something from you!"

"Like what?" Kian asks.

You run a tongue over your lower lip. "Money." The word startles them. "I already put a lot of money into this stuff. So to start, I'll need from each of you as much as I already put in."

"How much?" For the first time, a crack shows in Kian's cool facade as he nibbles at the cuticle of his thumb.

"A hundred each."

That's a sum that would cause you to wince. But these guys look unfazed. They glance at each other, then Kian says, "Okay."

Jake leans forward. "But we do the work at my place," he tells you.

You smile—he's just saved you the trouble of making the same suggestion—and accept.

* * * * *

They need to go home to get the money they've promised you, and you need to fetch the book, so you all split up but arrange to meet at Jake's a little later. You loiter at your place until you're sure that Kian and Kyler must have gotten to Jake's. But when you arrive, you find they're not.

Jake is very stiff when he greets you and leads around the side yard back toward the storage shed. "Here," he gruffly says, and hands over a sheaf of twenties and tens. But though his manner is cool he is at least a little friendlier, for he also offers you a soda from the dorm fridge when you're seated in the makeshift living room.

He looks ill at ease, though, when you lay the book on the coffee table between you. He fingers it very gingerly when he picks it up, and pales when he sees the pentagram embossed on the spine. . "There's nothing in it about summoning demons," you tell him. Well, not yet, anyway, you silently add. "So far it's just like an arts-and-crafts book."

"What kind of things can you make?" he asks.

"I've only made two things so far. I made the mask, and then the 'sealant' for it. What else is in it, I don't know, I haven't got that far." You open the book and demonstrate how the bulk of the pages won't turn loose from each other. "You have to perform a spell before a page unlocks. So I'm going through it step by step." You flip to the third spell. "This is the next one."

"What's it do?"

"I haven't translated it yet. But if it's like the first two spells, it won't tell you what it does. You just have to do it. Then, on the back of the page, after it turns loose, it tells you what it does."

"That's kind of fucked up."

"Pssh! Tell me about it."

You also brought the box of mask-making supplies with you—rescued from the old school—so you start telling him about how to make a mask. In the middle of that, Kyler and Kian finally arrive together. You go over everything again for their benefit.

"So what's the next step in the plan?" Kian asks. Jake still looks uneasy, but Kian looks curious while Kyler leans forward in his seat with an eager grin.

"Try out the next spell, see what it does."

"What about making some more masks?" Kyler asks. It's almost the first thing he's said since you met him.

"We already did that," Jake snaps.

"And it takes a long time," you remind them.

Kyler shrugs. "So we work on making some more of them while we're working on the new stuff?" When Jake mutters something about not wanting to get in any more trouble, Kyler snorts, "We won't. We know how not to."

Kian takes the topic off the table by asking about what the new spell needs. You take out your phone, and the others crowd around as you start translating the spell.

That takes longer than you would like, because it turns out that Kian is taking a Latin class, and he wants to argue with you about some of the translations. Jake takes notes in a spiral binder and looks the items up online. He looks pissed off when he reports that the items, all told, will probably cost north of two hundred dollars. He doesn't look any happier when you point out that, with their investment, you can cover that kind of expense.

You're still figuring out where you're going to buy the stuff when Kian gets a text calling him home, and since Kyler rode with him, the pair of them leave together. That leaves you and the unhappy Jake with each other. He slumps on the sofa with a nervous and distracted air.

You're about to declare that you should go too when he blurts out, "Look, you and me should figure out between us what we're going to do with this stuff."

It's a shocking statement—you figured you and him would be on the opposite sides of every question, and that he'd want to cooperate with his friends to outvote you. So you only blink at him and wait for him to continue.

"Like," he says, "where we're going to keep this book. I don't want you taking it with you. That's the whole point of—" Then he interrupts himself before you can protest. "But, like, I know you don't want to give it to us."

"That's how come this whole thing isn't going to work," you bluntly inform him.

He gives you a dirty look, then leaps to his feet and trudges off to another corner of the storeroom, to rummage.

He returns with a metal box. "Here," he says. "We'll put the book in here, and I'll keep the key. Then you take the box with you. That way you can't get into it unless you're with us, but we can't get to it because you'll have it with you."

You don't like the idea, but it seems like a good compromise for now, so you acquiesce with a shrug. Then Jake says, "And I think we shouldn't make any more masks. Tell Kyler we won't."

Next: "Fail Safes" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 1)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)"