The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)

A Reunion of Fakes

Previously: "Magic on the Loose?" 

"Then those'll be our guys," you tell Michael, and nudge him into following you back out to rejoin the others. "Even if it's nothing— Well, I'd like to keep an eye on Gordon. The real one."

"Gonna be interesting," he mutters back.

* * * * *

It doesn't take long for most of the kids—and you can hardly keep from thinking of them as kids, so awkward and puppy-like are they as they clamber over each other to share photos they've found on their cell phones—to make some decisions. Grant, for instance, is gleefully covetous of Chelsea Cooper, and is only anxious that his other friends pick bodies that will complement her. Bhodi and Paulina are also pretty quick to choose Marc Garner and his girlfriend, Hannah Westrick, which makes sense given that Bhodi knows Marc through the soccer program. For much the same kind of reason, Justin decides to take the body and identity of Laurent Delacroix, the captain of the wrestling team. But the rest—Andy and Joe ad Evie—want to wait until their friends are moved and can offer better suggestions before deciding themselves.

One reason they're quick to decide is that you subtly push them along, and you also push them out the door as quickly as you can without making it look suspicious. Caleb, of course, can guess what you're doing.

"You're gonna invite those guys out here and try making the switch tonight, aren't you?" he says after the others are gone.

"No," you reply. "We'll try it tomorrow."

"Then why are you hustling us all out?"

"Because I gotta do some thinking about how we want to do this."

"So let's order pizza or something, and we'll—"

"No, you need to go off with the other guys, Michael. You need to keep close to Lindsay, keep her from accidentally saying something."

Caleb gives you a very narrow look. "Alright, Dane," he retorts. "Just don't burn out a ball bearing or something while you're plotting and planning. You don't got that many to spare."

"Fuck you. I'll talk to you later." You push him out the trailer door and shut it in his face.

* * * * *

You were not in fact lying when you told Caleb that you plan to wait until tomorrow to move on the Durras brothers. But you want to make another move of your own first.

You start by trudging back to Dane's bedroom. It's a mess, and not just on account of the filthy clothes and crusted-over plates and books and papers that are stacked on every surface. There's masks everywhere.

Grayish-white masks, polished blue masks, and masks halfway from one state to another. They are stacked on the desk and scattered on the floor, and two of them are even propped up on a bookshelf, staring at you. There's a car buffer in the corner, still plugged in, with a half-finished mask abandoned next to the pad.

And there's metal bands scattered by the handful around as well, shining with an oily light. Most of them, though, are at the bottom of a moldy cardboard box propped against the closet door, mixed in with two fresh-looking, grayish-white masks.

It makes you shiver to look at it. A factory for doppelgangers is what it is, you think. The Danester, behind his glazed and friendly grin, has used his bedroom as an armory to make ... things ... that will enable you to conquer the high school by duplicating and controlling the student body.

Well, it was Caleb's doing, actually. These are the masks and things that you made at the Donna. They were almost all of them raw and unfinished when you moved into Dane's trailer, and you left them behind when you ran off to be Lindsay Cho. But Caleb came out here—

You have to concentrate to penetrate the hazy memories.

Friday night. Yeah, last Friday night, when you (as Lindsay) were at that party where Andy turned himself into Andrew. The others were going to need more masks, so Caleb and "Dane" finished up enough for your sophomore colleagues.

And then robo-Dane got bored over the weekend and on his own initiative (maybe because he has your brain now) starting polishing up some more. He even got robo-Caleb to come out and help and they got some more runework carved into some of those metal bands while they—

It gives you a queer turn as you think back to that weekend, for you're wearing Dane's mask and can remember it all now.

As they gossiped and speculated about what their originals were getting up to, and chortled and snickered at the thought of you and Caleb, in the bodies of Lindsay and Michael, humping each other into screaming orgasms.

You shake your head free of the filthy jokes they told and concentrate at the work at hand. Robo-Dane didn't keep close track of the numbers, so you don't know how many items got made. So you pull it all together—and move a lot of the mess out of the bedroom, to dump in with the mess in the kitchen—and when you've done the tally you find that you've got three brain bands and six masks ready to be used.

But you only need one brain band for the plan you've come up with.

* * * * *

It takes you awhile before you can talk to him, because you have to text a couple of Dane's friends before you track down a number to call him at, and then he's not there. It's after eight before your cell rings, and you're able to talk to the guy who these days is looking like Gordon Black. A very stoned and party-addled Gordon Black, by the sound of it.

"Dude!" he cries, and his deep voice wells over with delight. "We finally connect! You've been ghosting me!"

"Yeah, sorry about that, man." Your heart is beating hard, because you've no idea if he's with anyone, and what he might say in front of them. "Where are you?"

"Back home. Yeah, I been crashing with Maize Tsosie since—" He giggles. "Oh, fuck me, man, we got so much to catch up on!"

"Well, how about you come over and we can talk?"

"No, you come over here! Maize is here, and we can get Justin and Adrian and make a big party of it!"

"I just wanna talk to you. Alone. About what happened, with us."

"Shit, they all know, man, they're cool with it!"

Your heart goes sideways in your chest. They know? Dane told them about the body swap?

But you should kick yourself for being surprised. Of course he told them.

"Don't you wanna come see your old place?" you ask.

"Oh! Okay," he exclaims after a moment's thought. "Yeah, that'd be— Hey Maize! Pack it up, we're takin' it over to my old place! You know, where I lived back when I was—"

"No, no! Just you, man! I wanna talk to you! Like a brother, just you and me."

"Oh." Gordon giggles. "Sure, okay. Um. I'm gonna need a ride."

"I can come pick you up. Where are you?"

He tells you he's at Shep Tsosie's, and where that is. You tell him you'll be along as soon as you can. "Oh, wow!" he exclaims. "This is gonna be a trip!"

* * * * *

Shep Tsosie lives way south of town, south even of Acheson, in a shack down close to the river. He and Gordon are standing out front in the deep dusk of the evening when you pull up. By the looks of it, they're passing a doobie back and forth as they wait.

"Whoa, man," Gordon says as he leans over to put his head in through the passenger-side window to chat at you. "Come on in! We got some people comin' over, and they—"

"Get in, man," you urge. "This is important, I wanna talk to you."

Gordon laughs asthmatically, and glances back over his shoulder at Shep, who shrugs. (It's otherwise impossible to read his expression in the dark.) "Yeah, okay," Gordon says. He opens the car door and heaves himself inside. "You know, maybe I should drive, 'cos it's really—"

You put the pedal to the metal and peel out. Gordon guffaws with delight.

On the way back to town you ask him about Joe and Frank Durras, and if they came out to see him at Maize's. Naw, he tells you, he's just hung out with 'em at school, talked to them. Joe was a lot of fun, he says, and they were real interested in what he had to tell them about— He nudges you. That thing that happened with us.

He of course wants to know what you've been up to, and how come you've ghosted him. "You're not mad," he asks, "'cos I got you kicked off the squad, are you?"

"No, that's fine," you assure him. "I didn't even want to be on it."

"Oh!" He chortles. "Is that how come you, uh, did the thing with me?"

"Yeah. You looked like you were having fun."

"Oh, I'm having fun now," he says. "I'm gettin'— Well, um, I got you busted up with Chelsea." His tone turns a little fearful. "Sorry about that too."

"It's alright. You been scoring any pussy?"

"Oh, you know it!" He slaps his palm on a meaty knee. "Hooooo-man!"

"What were you doing out at Shep Tsosie's place?"

"I'm livin' there. Oh, fuck!" He covers his face with his hands and hunches over. "I fucked that up for you too!"

"What?"

"Yer dad. He kicked me outta the house."

"He what?"

"Yeah. I'm so sorry!" He snuffles. "I fucked up everything for you, man! Your house, your girl, your spot on the squad—"

"It's alright."

"I just— I just don't know how to be you!"

"You wanna switch back?"

"What?" He sounds surprised.

"Switch back. You and me. You can be Dane again. I'll be me again."

"Are you serious? But I fucked everything up for you!"

"I can fix it. It's no big deal."

Next: "Dane, Gelded" 

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