The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)

New Partner, New Spell

Previously: "Some Awkward Explanations" 

"In?" You echo Teresa's word with a yelp. "Whaddayu mean you're 'in'?"

"Just what it sounds like," she says. "You're a bunch of perverts who need watching, and I'm going to make sure you get watched."

You almost drive off the road and onto the curb as you and Caleb exchange horrified glances.

"Um," he begins carefully after turning back to her. "If we promised that we'd—"

"Oh, shut up," she snaps. "Whatever you're going to say, I don't believe you. But I'm not going to stop you. You wanna have fun doing this stuff, go ahead. I know why you're doing it, and it's not because you're—" She gives him a withering look. "Gender fluid. But if I tried to stop you," she continues with a shrug, "you'd just get pissed at me and try doing something horrible. So I'm not going to stop you. I'm not gonna tell you what to do, or what you can't do. I'm just going to stop you from being a bunch of fucking morons about it.

"You're taking me home now, right?" she adds after the awkward silence that follows has gotten even more awkward.

* * * * *

Things could have gone a lot better, but they also could have gone a lot worse. You and Caleb agree on that when you talk later that night.

There's not much else you agree on. You are aghast at having this Teresa McNeal girl shove her way into the fun. Never mind that she's going to try to shut things down now that you're finally set up to have a little fun. She herself is clearly going to be no fun to have around.

And as for Keith, you tell Caleb that you want to cut him out of things completely. He's come real close to fucking things up before—like when he got the mask onto Stephanie—but this time it's cost you too much. He needs to be made to hurt.

Caleb, though, takes a much more optimistic view. He agrees with Teresa that you all have been too careless, but he thinks she won't shut things down. After all, she said she doesn't think she can stop you. So all you have to do is keep pushing, and she'll always give in. "But," he says, "she'll push back, and we kind of need that."

As for Keith, Caleb says it would be bad tactics (and very unfriendly) to cut him out. Keith also knows what's going on, he points out, and it's better to have him (as the expression goes) inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in.

So you give in, but you also tell Caleb that he is going to have to be the one working to keep Teresa happy. "I don't even want to look at her!"

* * * * *

The next day is Saturday. Your dad gives you a few late morning chores, and some errands to run, but that's okay, because you still need to buy those supplies you need for the next spell. As there's no hurry getting the things back for your dad, you're able to get everything done in one very long and extended trip, with Caleb along for company. You're feeling no better about having a new partner, and it dismays you when Caleb texts Teresa (he and she exchanged numbers before you parted yesterday) to tell her that you will be performing a new "experiment" if she wants to come supervise. You make no comment, but Caleb must have read your mood though, for after sending the text he says, "Inside the tent pissing out, Will."

It doesn't improve your mood much that you wind up having to pick her up. At least Caleb is along too, and he's the one who talks to her, telling her about the old school basement that you are using for a base. You expect her to yell about that too, telling you that you shouldn't trespass, but she doesn't say anything at all.

Keith is waiting at the school when your trio arrives. He looks on edge, and his eyes roll with discomfort as Caleb opens the door and ushers Teresa inside. "Dude," he murmurs hoarsely at you, but you snarl at him to button it.

You and Keith end up sitting hunched on the conference table while Teresa, looking very prim and serious, sits in an old, dusty office chair whose springs squeal and croak every time she shifts her weight. Caleb stands at the center of your makeshift circle with the book, in the manner of a teacher.

"So, like I told you yesterday," he says, as though speaking solely to Teresa even though he is addressing you all, "the book doesn't tell you what a spell is supposed to do until you actually perform it. Kind of dangerous, I know, but as long as we're careful—" He shrugs. "And I read through this next one pretty carefully, and it doesn't look like something that could blow up in our faces."

He looks at Teresa, as though waiting for comment, but she only waits for him to continue.

"Well," he says lamely, "I guess we can get started."

He looks at you, but you only evenly stare back. He got you all into this predicament—well, Keith did, but Caleb is the one who's trying to make it work—so he can do the rest of the work himself: or so you figure.

The supplies you bought include some small rolls of zinc and copper; some mercury; a couple of pocket mirrors; and a steel-nib pen. You supplied the cutting shears from home.

Caleb starts by cutting out two strips of zinc and mercury, each about five inches long and one inch wide. He lays one of the pocket mirrors (mirrored surface up) atop the open book in the middle of the sigil, and covers it with the strip of copper. He dribbles a drop of mercury onto it, then covers it with the strip of zinc and the second pocket mirror (mirrored surface down) to make a kind of sandwich.

He takes a quick glance around the room, then picks up the steel-nib pen and begins scratching some figures into the back of the mirror. Despite yourself, you get up and crowd over to look, and the others join you. Caleb is copying some runes, supplied by the spell, onto the back of the mirror. You all back away, though, and Caleb himself pauses, when the "sandwich" begins to hiss malevolently.

He presses on, though, and after only a couple of minutes he completes the runes. He chokes a little as that hissing abruptly ceases, then with another wary glance around the company he lifts the mirror. He blinks at the result, then gingerly picks it up between a fingertip and thumb.

Where there were two metal strips, now there is one. It is now a silvery color and (so you find when Caleb passes it around for each of you to study) very thin and flexible, almost as flexible as paper.

"What does it do?" Teresa asks. She's the only one saying anything.

"It's not done yet," Caleb says. "There's some more runes that have to be carved into it.

"Let me see," Teresa says, and barges past Caleb to examine the spell. She pores over it intently, glancing between the book and the metal strip, which she has taken from Caleb. When she's apparently satisfied, she picks up the steel pen and sits down with it and the strip to copy the runes onto it.

It doesn't work, at least not the way you all would have expected. Though it's quite easy to dent the silver strip with the pen, the lines she puts onto it quickly spring back and fade, leaving an unblemished surface. Harder and harder she works at it, pushing the pen so deep into the strip that you expect it to punch a hole in it. After ten frustrating minutes, she has only succeeded in putting one stroke into metal, and that is so faint that you have to hold it up to the light to see it.

"Are you sure you did it right?" she demands of Caleb in a waspish voice.

"I'm pretty sure I did," he replies, just as waspishly. "That ain't natural," he adds as he points to the strip. "Copper and zinc and mercury? They don't go together to make—"

"Alright," she interrupts. "I'll just work on it at home."

"Maybe we should all work on it," Caleb suggests.

Her brow lowers. "What, you all want to come over to my house," she says, "and look over my shoulder?"

"No, what I mean is— We got enough stuff here to make a couple more. We can make another one for each of us, and work on it. Then we can compare notes. Maybe one of us'll figure out how to make it go faster. Or maybe I did mess up the first one, a little bit," he adds.

Teresa looks skeptical, but accedes, which leaves it to you to point out that you've only got one of those steel-nib pens. Caleb shrugs carelessly. "We got enough cash left we can buy a few more," he says.

* * * * *

It's after dinner, and you're up in your room scraping runes into a metal band—one that Caleb made before your quartet broke up for the day—and listening to music on your computer when your phone dings with a text. It's from Teresa, and you can't stop yourself from making a face. She is asking to meet.

Feel like got off wrong foot, she replies when you ask her why. Get know each other.

Next: "Sunday at the Park with Teresa" 

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