The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)

The Spiders' Doorman

Previously: "Cindy for the Win" 

Eva Garner looks vexed as she climbs out of the minivan. "Hey!" you call as you step out to greet her. "Have any trouble finding the place?"

"There's a sign and everything, Will," she retorts, and squints at the climate-controlled unit behind you. "I just don't get why we're at a storage complex."

It's a little after four, and she is late showing up—late enough that you were tempted to text find out if anything was wrong. You're glad you didn't; she seems to be in a temper, and she might have blown you off totally if you'd whacked her beehive.

"I thought I told you, Carlos's uncle owns this place." You reach to close the car door for her, but she pre-empts you. "So he gets a free—"

"But it's gotta be a billion degrees in these things! And bugs and dirt and—"

"They use a unit in here, it's climate controlled. Air conditioning and everything. And they keep it clean."

She snorts, then sighs. "So what exactly am I supposed to do for this video of theirs?"

You had warned Carlos at school that Eva didn't much like the idea of making a video, and so she might change her mind about showing up. So he gave you a different story to tell her.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, I got a little confused. They don't actually want to make a video with you for their channel. They only want to talk, and they want to talk about making a video for the cheerleading squad."

Eva stares, and doesn't even move after you've punched in the code for the door and opened it. "Make a video for the squad?" she says.

"Yeah, you know. A promotional thing. Post it online, maybe as part of the school website."

"We already did something like that at the start of the year."

"Well, maybe make another one? Come on, Eva. You're already here, the guys just want to talk. They really want to make a video, and they think that—"

"Alright," she sighs, and marches past you into the building.

"It's the first open unit on the right, down that corridor," you tell her with a gesture. "I'll be with you in a moment. I'm supposed to stay here and watch for, uh, Caleb." For a moment, Eva looks worried, but you smile at her until, with a doubtful glance, she turns and strides off down the corridor.

You're not sure why Carlos asked you to send her on ahead, but you are following his orders as you wait by the door. You shoot Carlos a quick text telling him that she's on her way, then step back outside.

It's been a cool, cloudy day of intermittent rain, but there's a rent in the clouds and sunlight is now warming the parking lot. You shift and twitch on your feet, wondering what is going on inside the complex. It would be a hell of a thing if Eva, her shirt half-torn, came bursting out, screaming that you're a lot of perverts.

You don't have long to worry, though. Your phone dings with a reply from Carlos. Eva gab in car? followed a second later by the clarification: bag. You try the minivan driver's side door, and reply: Car locked. A minute later Carlos comes boiling out of the complex. The minivan squawks as he points a key at it, and he nearly tears the car door off its hinges.

"Jesus," you exclaim. "Everything okay in there?"

"It's fine, Will," Carlos mutters as he paws frantically through Eva's bag. He lifts his face with a relieved sigh as he pulls out a phone in a pink shell. "We just need her phone."

"For what?"

"So we can get Jessica out here." He bends over the phone and thumbs at it. "Oh thank God! I don't need her password to get in." With tongue between his teeth, he taps at the screen. When he's done, he lets out a huge sigh and sags against the side of the car. He looks over at you with eyes drooping with exhaustion. "Now we just gotta see if she'll come out."

"What's so important about getting Jessica out here?"

Carlos starts. "Jesus, whadday think for? So we can get both of them! Together! Jessica's for me, Mike—" He glares past your shoulder at the complex door. "Mike won the fucking toss, and he's getting into Eva's body now. Well, not now, the mask is still copying her, and we gotta seal it. But then we'll get Jessica out here, and—" He bounces on his toes and flushes from the base of his throat to the roots of his hair.

"And then after that," he continues after he's recovered himself, "we can call Cindy, probably." He glints at you. "They're all friends, aren't they? The Garners and Cindy?"

The question gives you a little rise of your own. "I see 'em around together a lot."

"That'll be perfect, then. We can all go hang out together for the rest of the day!"

Suddenly, he lays a hand on your shoulder and jumps, as though trying to leapfrog you. Then he hops away, bouncing as though on an invisible pogo stick. You watch in bemusement as he dances in place for a minute, a dreamy expression on his face, until he's interrupted by a buzz from the phone.

It takes several minutes, apparently, before he can talk Jessica around, but eventually he succeeds. "Okay, she's gonna get a ride out here with her brother," he tells you. "Can you stay out here and meet them? Be sure to get rid of Marc, we don't want him around." He turns toward the door, then stops. "Jesus, I'm starving," he mutters. "Can you run over to the 7-11 for us, pick us up a couple of candy bars or something?"

"I don't have any money."

"Well— Hang on." A devilish grin spreads over his face as he returns to the minivan, pulls open the door and roots around inside Eva's bag some more. He's got a billfold when he emerges, and from it he pulls a couple of bills. "Here. It's on Mike!" he says as he holds them out to you.

* * * * *

You're in a bit of a daze as you drive out in search of food. Partly, it seems a mental numbness brought on by a disbelief that any of this is actually happening. Okay, sure, the guys showed you the masks and explained how they worked, and you and Keith had those long talks about how to use them. But that was more like, I dunno, fantasy role-playing, you tell yourself. The world doesn't actually contain magic. Stuff like the guys are talking about is just ... make-believe. You sigh. Almost you could believe that when you get back to the complex, Eva and Mike and Carlos will be sitting around having a good laugh about it all.

Except Eva wouldn't be laughing, would she?

So that's another thing that's making you numb: You don't want to think about the ethics of what you're doing. Stealing someone's life, even if for only a little while. Eva will be having a laugh when you get back. But it won't be Eva. It will be Mike Hollister, wearing her face and body, while something else—yes, some thing else, a thing, one of these "betas" they can make—will be looking like him. There's going to be one that looks like me, too you think with a squirm. There's already a mask that looks like me. I wonder what it'll be like, seeing someone with my face and in my clothes loping around school? You shiver, and mordantly reflect, Better him than me!

And that's when you realize why you're probably doing this, why you would probably be doing this even if it wasn't Cindy Vredenburg you had chosen. You just don't want to be yourself anymore. You want to be someone different. Someone better, if you can get that. But different, anyway.

* * * * *

Eva's maroon minivan is still sitting in isolated splendor when you get back to the complex, and Carlos meets you halfway down the corridor after you text him, to take the bag of snacks from you. "Better go wait out front for Jessica," he says. "And make sure to get rid of Marc."

"How's it going in there?" You nod toward the studio.

"Almost done. We got Mike's beta up and running, and Mike's in Eva's mask. But he's still conked out."

"Is that normal?"

"Yeah. I could wake him up now, but it's best to let the person wake up on their own. You feel like shit if you get woken early. Besides—" He grins wickedly. "He took off his clothes but didn't put on Eva's before he put on the mask. So, he's laying out there with all her bits showing."

You almost swallow your tongue, and start to push past him, but Carlos blocks you. "Later," he gurgles. "When you're Cindy, we can all get naked and give each other make overs." He waggles his eyebrows.

So you're very erect as you hop back toward the exit.

You don't have long to wait before a sedan pulls up and parks next to the minivan. Jessica Garner, with a querulous look on her face, gets out. "Will?" she asks. "What is this place and what is my sister—?"

"Just go on in." You pull open the door for her. "I'm just here to play doorman." She snorts, but brushes past you.

The sedan motor is still running, and a window comes down. Marc beckons to you. "Hey, how long is this gonna take?"

"Awhile. You can go."

"No I can't. Jessica told me to wait for her."

"Well, it's gonna be—" You get an idea. "Maybe you should talk to Eva. I'll try to get her out here." You take out your phone to text Carlos.

Then you pause, and study Marc from under your brows.

He's a soccer player, with a broad chest and powerful legs; handsome features; and he's charismatic and popular. A good spot, you reflect, from which to pursue Fairfax's "school mapping" project. Not that you care, but it would be a good excuse if you told the guys you had changed your mind and wanted to impersonate Marc.

Besides, Keith really did have his heart set on being Cindy.

Next: "Girls Gone Weird" 

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