The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)

Went With the Wind

Previously: "The Mystery Box" 

It sounds like a cool invite, and definitely a flattering one. Sean might be a football player and a wrestler, but he's friendly and easy going.

But what will his friends be like? What will he be like when surrounded by a bunch of loud, muscly jocks? Some of them, like Roy Nelson and Dominic Gleason, hazed and bullied you during your freshman and sophomore years.

So: "I think I got some other plans," you tell him.

His brow furrows. "What other plans? You just told me you don't have any other plans."

"Well, not yet," you stammer. "But I haven't heard from my friends Caleb or Keith. Typically we do stuff together on Fridays, and— Well, I don't think you'd wanna hang out with them."

Sean's eyes narrow, and his gaze cools. Then he shrugs.

"Sure, man," he says, and claps you on the shoulder. "But don't ever say I never asked you to hang out," he adds with a sly grin.

Almost you change your mind. But then you think of Dominic and Roy and Dalton Douglas and Lester "The Molester" Pozniak and ...

* * * * *

But it gnaws on you after you leave work, and to make it go away—to erase the shameful feeling that you ditched Sean simply out of fear—you call Caleb and Keith and try to set something up with them. That way, you'll be able to tell yourself that you couldn't do something with Sean because you really did have plans with your own friends. Keith suggests going to see a movie—a new horror picture has just opened—but neither you nor Caleb have the money for a Friday night, full-fare trip to the movies, so you get together at Keith's place to stream a movie instead. Keith, who you share a "Film as Literature" class with, is full of news about a project he's working on with a couple of guys.

"Yeah, so, it's just as well we didn't go see the show tonight," he says after you're all sprawled on the sofas in his living room. (His father has moved to the bedroom, to watch something on his laptop, so you guys can have the TV for yourselves.) "'Cos me and the rest of the guys it turns out are gonna go see it tomorrow." He punches Caleb in the shoulder. "You and Will up for a matinee, at least?"

"Probably not," Caleb says as he rubs his arm.

"Which guys?" you ask Keith.

"Mike and Carlos and them."

You think a moment. "Hollister and Montoya? What are you seeing a movie with them for?"

"Dude!" Keith looks wounded. "I told you all about that and them!"

"Well, remind me."

"Don't remind him, Tilley," Caleb says, "he'll just forget it again. Pull up the show and start it."

Well, Keith has to try to talk and use the remote at the same time, and he's such a dork that he messes up both, so that later, while he's taking a bathroom break and you and Caleb are raiding the kitchen for some more snacks, you ask him to explain what Keith's "YouTube" project is.

"How hard was it to understand?" Caleb retorts while pawing through the refrigerator. "Oh, wait, it was him trying to explain and you trying to understand. No wonder you're confused. But Mike and Carlos have this YouTube channel—"

"I thought it was Keith who has it."

"No, that was him being a boastful little shit. It's their channel, and they talk about movies on it."

"They get a lot of clicks?"

"Clicks or chicks?"

You grin. "Either."

"Chicks? What do you think? Clicks, I dunno, I've never been to it. But Keith is helping them out with it."

"They're not putting him on camera, are they?" Keith has dull eyes, a monobrow, and a face that tends to break out in zits.

"I dunno. Maybe they're going for a Three Stooges vibe, and they need a third idiot." Caleb finally settles on a Coke, and hands you one too.

* * * * *

You're intrigued enough by Keith's story that you think seriously about going to the show with him and the others. But when the next morning comes you've changed your mind. You've got that mask to finish, for one thing, so after doing some light chores around the house, you settle in to stream a movie while you continue to polish the mask. You do hear from Keith late that afternoon, though. He wants to know about the old elementary school basement.

The question makes your heart go sideways in your chest. "Why do you want to know about it?" you ask.

"Well, I was just telling Mike and the rest of the crew about it—"

Oh, it's a "crew" now, is it, and you're part of it? you think. Keith is the dopiest of the trio of you and him and Caleb, and it's odd and a little humiliating to think of him having other friends to do stuff with when you don't.

"—and it would be the perfect place for us to do a sketch for the channel."

"Why's that?"

"Why's what?"

"Why would it be the perfect place to do a sketch?"

"Dude! Jesus, I just told you! We got out of that movie, and it was all creepy and haunted-housey, and that old basement would be the perfect place to film a bit for the channel! Weren't you listening?"

"Okay, so what do you want me to do about it?"

"Do you still have a key to the place?" he shouts.

Yes, you do, but all your gear for these magical experiments is down there, so there's no way you're going to lend Keith and his "crew" the key. "Uh, maybe," you tell him, "but I'm pretty sure they'll have changed the lock. It's been almost a year since I've been out there."

"Well, can we come by and pick up the key anyway?"

"Lemme look for it." You hop off your bed and make lots of rummaging-around noises. "It's not where I put it," you tell Keith. "I'll have to look for it some more."

"Well, call me back when you find it, because the guys are all excited about—"

"You know, it would be really dangerous going out there. You'd probably get caught."

"Pfft. We didn't get caught last year."

"We were hardly there, and we were sneaking in and out at night—"

"We wouldn't get caught," Keith assures you again.

You tell him you'll look some more and call him back.

* * * * *

You give some thought to moving the stuff from the basement, so that you can lend Keith and his "crew" the key, but you quickly dismiss the idea. You don't want to have to clean it out just for them. You need it, and what if they decide to make it a kind of hangout for themselves? So after an hour or so you text Keith back to tell him that you found the key and went out to the school to test it, and the padlock has been changed. That sux, he texts back later that night. You go back to polishing the mask.

The next morning you have church, and then your dad takes you all out to lunch, so that it's nearly two before you get back home. You figure you can finish polishing the mask by tonight if you really put your back into it, and you've been giving some thought about what to do with it. You do know that you want to glue that second metal band into it so you can test the combination out on someone, to see if it copies them in one swoop. So after changing clothes, you drive over to the old elementary school to pick up the stuff you'll need for it.

The first clue that something is wrong comes when you see that your padlock is off the basement door. With a plunging heart you push it open and creep inside. The place has been completely rearranged and, even worse, all your stuff is gone, including the bags of dirt you filched from the cemetery! You break out in a hard sweat as you tear through the shelves and cabinets, and with a groan discover that the mask you made of yourself has also been stolen.

Of course, your first thought is that the maintenance staff got inside. But then you remember Keith's phone call yesterday. With a thumping heart you call him as you race back home.

"Hey, I was just out at the old school in my neighborhood," you blurt out the moment he picks up, "and the basement—"

"Oh yeah," Keith interrupts. "We got in." He sounds very smug.

"You what?"

"Yeah. Mike got him some bolt cutters, and him and Carlos and Philip went over there this morning to check it out. But— Dude, did you cut the lock off yourself?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, they said when they got over there, the lock was already off, so they went right in."

"I didn't cut it off!"

"Well, somebody did. Anyway, they told me they looked around, but—"

"Weren't you with them?"

"I had to work! Sunday's our busy morning. But—"

"Did they take anything out?"

"Out of where? The basement?"

"Where the fuck do you think I'm talking about?"

"I 'unno. They didn't tell me they did."

"Did they move stuff around?"

"Why don't you call and ask 'em? I told you, I wasn't there."

You get Carlos Montoya's number from Keith, but his phone goes to voicemail when you call, so you text him, asking him to call you back. While you wait, you sit in your room trying to sort things through. Why would Carlos and his friends take your stuff? Worse, what will happen if they try out that mask? You'll have to tell them about the book and the magic.

You look around for the mask you were polishing, and nearly shit yourself when you can't find it.

Worse, when you tear open the bottom drawer in your chest of drawers, you discover that the book is gone too.

Next: "Sus and Fuss" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 2)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)"