The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)

Keith Finally Does It

Previously: "Who Will? Chelsea Will!" 

You don't want to get stuck in a three-cornered fight, and you also don't want to side with Keith against Caleb. So even though you'd kind of like to continue playing around with what you've got, you agree to Caleb's proposal.

"I'll have to see if I can swing getting the stuff myself," he says after you tell him your decision. "I don't wanna have to ask Tilley for help. He's being grabby enough as it is. But I told you, this is, like, my gas money." You agree to give him a ride home from school tomorrow.

* * * * *

Keith jerks his chin in greeting as you come into second period class the next morning.

"So, I'm gonna go out and pick me up some new threads this af'ernoon," he drawls as you settle into the desk in front of him. "Wanna come with?"

You give him a steady look. "New threads for who?"

"For me," he replies, but rolls his tongue around puckishly in his cheek.

"Me and Caleb decided we're going to do something else."

"Well, you and Johansson can do whatever you want. Me, I'm—"

"I thought we were all in this together."

He reddens.

"Well, you and Johansson can do whatever you want," he repeats. "And if you, uh, wanna share what you pick up, I'll share what I pick up." He tilts his chin.

"Look," you say, "we can't just each go off and do our own thing—"

"Why not?"

"Are you gonna buy enough 'threads' for all of us?"

He shrugs. "We can share."

"But what if we all want to go out together?"

He shrugs again. "Well, then, I guess—"

You catch Andy Tackett, in the next row, listening to you.

"We'll talk about it later," you tell Keith, and turn around. "Caleb'll probably have something to say to you about it too."

"Yeah, well, Johansson can—"

But at that moment Mr. Hawks rises to begin class.

* * * * *

You don't say anything to Caleb when you see him in English, and nothing much gets said at lunch either, except that Caleb asks Keith if he wants to tag along with you and him when you go out to get the supplies for the "next spell." Keith only shrugs and says he's got "other plans" for after school. You bite your tongue.

But as you're walking with Caleb out to your truck, you say, "Keith told me he's going shopping."

"Yeah, for what, a new face?" There's the briefest hiccup between you, as though the world has stuttered a few frames. "I need to come up with a different set of insults," Caleb mutters.

"Well, he is kind of shopping for a new face," you reply. "He's going for some 'new threads'. For the 'new face' he's got."

You expect Caleb to blow up, but he doesn't say anything. His silence in fact is rather thoughtful, and when you start the truck he says, "Hang on."

"Yeah?"

"Let's just wait for Keith to come out."

"You want me to help you kill him?"

Caleb gives you a look, then climbs out of the truck.

"No," he says you and he thread your way through the traffic that is grumbling through the lot. "Fact is, I was thinking about using some of my money to pick up a few, uh 'threads' too." He looks at you sidelong. "Cheap t-shirts and workout shorts, stuff like that. If we have enough money left over," he adds.

"Really?" He has shocked you.

"Yeah. I mean, I did a little online looking last night, to see what it would cost to get what we need, and I don't think it'll take all the money I've got. If we have enough left over, we could pick up some really cheap things at a second-hand store, or at Good Will."

He pulls to a stop between two cars, and hefts his bag into his arms. He unzips it, and pulls a mask halfway out to show you. "I even brought this along," he says. "One of us can put it on in a changing room, and the others can bring him things to try on. Even if we don't wind up getting anything, we can at least get some ideas. And it'll be fun," he adds with a slightly embarrassed smirk.

"So you want to get Keith, take him with us?"

"I figure we should." He squints and looks around the lot. "So where the fuck did he park?"

* * * * *

You find Keith's car and text him to come meet you, but he replies that he's going to be "busy" up at school for a little while. After talking it over, you and Caleb decide to kill a little time by making a run back to the old basement to fetch the other two masks you made: that way you and Keith can also test out your masks in a changing room. You collect the masks, but something seems "off" as you search for them, though it's not until you're back in your truck that you realize what it is. "What's wrong?" Caleb calls as you leap from the cab and race back to the basement. He follows, asking what you're doing, but not until you've gone through every obvious hiding place in the basement do you look up and answer him.

"That last blank mask," you tell Caleb. "It's not here."

Caleb glances around, looking puzzled. "It's gotta be here," he says. "In fact I remember putting it—" He points at a cabinet, whose shelves are now bare, and his frown deepens.

"You know what I think?" you say. "I think Keith snuck it home with him yesterday. You told him he could have it to do 'whatever' with."

Caleb turns a little pale, but only says, "Well, we'll ask him when we see him."

"And you know what I else I think? I think he took it to school. What did he say in his text? That he had stuff to do after school? Since when does Tilley stay after to do stuff at school?"

Caleb cusses and runs for the truck. You race after him.

* * * * *

Not until you're almost back at the school does Keith reply to the texts Caleb is shooting him. "He says in the E wing bathroom," Caleb announces as you swing violently into the school parking lot. "And we can come 'help him' if we want."

"Shit. Does he say who he's got?"

"Nope. Jesus, that dipshit is gonna—" Caleb braces himself against the console as you brake to a hard stop right up against the school. The parking lot is almost empty now, but there's still a score or so cars, and the sound of voices carries from the athletic fields as you and Caleb sprint for the doors.

The hallways are empty, and the clatter of your feet echoes as you run for the E wing restrooms. Keith didn't specify which restroom he is in, so you and Caleb are struck dumb when you burst into the boys' restroom and find it empty. You stare at each other, and Caleb has pulled out his phone to thumb in another text when you punch him in the chest and mutter "Girls' restroom." You burst out into the halls just in time to see Keith come out of the other restroom.

And he's not quiet about it. "Quit it!" he yells. "Let go!" His face is a ghastly, sickly white, and his eyes roll in panic.

He is struggling against someone who is trying to drag him back into the restroom; bent double, with his arms outstretched, he looks like he's swimming against a strong tide. A moment later, as Keith struggles out a few more steps, his captor comes into view.

She's a small girl, skinny and pale, with dark hair that falls from a neat, center part to frame her narrow face. She's dressed in jeans and a peach-colored blouse. But her most distinctive feature is the pair of dark, horn-rimmed glasses perched on her face. She is bracing her feet against the slick floor, trying to stop Keith from fleeing by keeping tight hold of his shirt.

"You come back here!" she is hollering. "What did you do to her? You fucking—! Whadidju do?"

Keith's eyes pop when he sees you and Caleb. "Guys! Help me!" he yelps.

But you are paralyzed. Even after you take in the blue-white mask that Keith is clutching, your brain still refuses to do the math.

Caleb is quicker. He leaps past the girl, squeezing into the restroom. She shrieks at him as he passes, then turns a white face on you. "Hey! You! Help me out here! This guy assaulted—! It's assault! A girl in there! Get a teacher!"

"Get her off me, Will!" Keith cries.

And still you are paralyzed, even after the girl starts yelling for help at the top of her lungs.

Until a pair of hands reaches behind her and grabs her by the face. She goes limp and lets go of Keith, who catapults across the hall to bang into the wall.

"What the hell is going on out here?" a voice yells, and a burly teacher comes charging down the hall toward you.

* * * * *

Well, Caleb with some quick thinking manages to save you all from Mr. Muniz by pretending it was you and him and Keith who were screaming at each other, but Mr. Muniz insists that you all leave. Caleb hustles you and Keith outside, but stops at the corner of the quad, where he hauls off and punches Keith in the side of the head. "You stay here, you dumb motherfucker," he snarls. "And you keep an eye on him," he tells you. "I gotta go back inside and get something." Keith sniffs and whines at you, until you shut him up with a glare.

It's some minutes before Caleb comes back out, and he is white as a sheet.

"They found the two girls in the restroom," he says. "They're okay, but we're in deep shit."

"They know what we did?" Keith asks, hollowly.

"No. But that girl who was hanging onto you is gonna pop a gasket when she looks in a mirror."

He opens his bag to show you that the mask he was carrying inside it is gone.

Next: "A Girl with Two Faces" 

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