The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)

Face Time

Previously: "Let Mikey Try It" 

Joshua looks over your shoulder as you bend over the book, translating the continuation of the spell. It's a lengthy passage, and because the translator still glitches out occasionally on you, it takes awhile to get the gist out.

What it says gives you the creeps, but it also excites you. It would be creepy and exciting fun just reading about it, but the thought that it is probably real and not just some garbage fantasy gives it the power of a punch to the gut.

According to the spell's continuation and conclusion, the mask now contains the "image" of the person that you laid it on. Now all you have to do is "seal" the mask, and if you (or Joshua; anyone, apparently) puts the mask on, it will transform you into the exact image of the person you copied. (It also includes instructions for how to get the mask off again, after it's been put on.) You and Joshua exchange a long, silent, beady-eyed glance.

Then you both scramble for the mask.

He gets to it first, and hugs it close as he bends over to peer at it. You try to get in so you can look at it too, but you can't get a good angle. All you can see are the streaks of reflected light beading and shimmering in its glossy, blue depths. Joshua's breathing is loud and scratchy as he stares into the mask. Then he says, "Dude, lookit this," and holds the mask out to you. You take it, but he keeps tight hold too, so that you both can bend over it.

You're not sure what you're looking at until Joshua traces it with his fingertip. Some of those lines of light break and shift liquidly as he turns the mask, but others remain in place in the depths, no matter how he shakes the mask. And these lines come together to make a face.

You don't recognize the person, but it is a recognizable face. Large, wide-set eyes, a long nose, a mouth that hangs open a little to show large front teeth. Thick hair cut short. It is girlish, but also a little androgynous, a little tomboyish.

You ask, "Is that—?"

"Yeah. That's Julie," Joshua says. He swallows thickly.

"Dude, was she okay afterward?"

"Huh? Oh yeah! Fine! A little baked, you know, but— She seemed totally normal."

So, you think, this is like the paper that comes out when you scan and print a part of your body. It doesn't snip anything off—you hope!—it just makes a copy.

But unlike a scanned and printed copy, if you put this on—

"Dude, what do you want to do?" Joshua asks. He sounds breathless.

You return to the book and point to the spell.

"It says— Well, if you ... 'seal it'—"

"Yeah, I know!"

"But you can also put other copies into it. We could ... copy other people into it. And, you know, like it says—"

"Yeah."

What it says is that you can keep adding copies of people into it, and it will mix those "images" to create new images. Like, new faces that morph real ones together.

"We could try to—" You gulp. "Put another face in. See what happens."

"Who?" Joshua looks a little green.

"Well ... One of us?"

"Ew! Mixing a girl and a guy?" Joshua cringes. "And then putting that on and wearing it?"

"It's just an experiment. Or, um, when Eileen can turn loose, we can show her, and maybe she could—"

"We could ask her," Joshua agrees after taking a deep breath.

"Or, you know." Your heart is beating in your chest. "We could figure out how to 'seal it up,' and then we could—"

Joshua's eyes are almost bulging from their sockets, and his mouth is curled up into a rictus that shows all of his teeth.

Next: "A Girl Who Never Was" 

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