The Book of Masks (Vol. 5)

Making the Most of Melody's Mask

Previously: "The Professor's New Assistant" 

(Written by imaj)

Your mind drifts back to what Umeko said a few days ago:

'Evil. That's the only word for it, evil. You're my cousin and I care for you. I don't want to see you hurt by this.'

You're starting to wish you had listened to her. When you are in a situation where the best option involves stealing all someone's money, things have gone too far. It's too late to back out now though. Either you stop Blackwell or he stops you.

If this new spell works the way you think it will, and creates that statue creature that you can place masks on, then you'll be able to use it as a decoy. Blackwell will go after the decoy and you'll be able to spot him and go after him instead before he realises his mistake. You're sure Melody wont mind losing a few hundred dollars if it means stopping Blackwell. From her memories you're sure she hates him as much as you do.

That's the plan anyway, it hurts your head thinking about it. It seemed a lot simpler when you were Melody.

You return home and go to bed early, explaining to your mother that you've had a busy week. In fact, you set your alarm for 12:30am and sneak out the house with a wheelbarrow and shovel.

*****

Luckily there is an old disused graveyard in Acheson not too far from your house. It's easy enough to bust the rusted lock on the wrought iron gate. Five hours of back breaking labour later and you moved more than enough graveyard earth to the old elementary school. You make it back to your house in the pre-dawn twilight, replacing the shovel and wheelbarrow before collapsing into you bed. You awake just before lunch to the smell of your mother frying up some bacon.

*****

Melody Weiss usually spends her Saturday afternoons in the campus library at Keyserling. Consequently you feel pretty confident about pulling this ruse off. You arrive at the Keyserling dorms dressed in your thrift store outfit from Friday, walk up to the custodian's office and wait quietly for him to notice you.

He's an older man, maybe in his 50s with a greying beard and chunky glasses. His name tag proclaims him to be Carl. The custodian is engrossed in his newspaper so you cough a little polite cough to catch his attention.

'Howdy there miss,' he drawls. 'Ah didna see ya there. What can I do for you.'

'Hi,' you say nervously. You're finding it increasingly fun playing Melody's personality and fooling people. 'I seem to have lost my keys and can't get into my room.'

'Not a problem Miss. If ah can see some ID''

'Oh drat,' you reply. 'I think I left it inside my room.'

'Well that's a mighty fine problem Miss, because I can't be letting just anybody into these rooms.'

'Please,' you say letting what would be a genuine tear if you were genuinely Melody in this situation well up in your eye. 'You must know I live here. I pass by you every day. My name's Melody Weiss and I live in room 211 on the second floor.'

'Well, how about I take you up there, and if you can show me where your ID is inside we'll get you a spare set of keys?'

Of course, thanks to Melody's memories you know that she keeps her driving license in the top drawer of her bedside cabinet. You walk out the dorms half an hour later with her credit card and the spare set of keys to her room in your pocket. After that, it's easy to make a withdrawal from a nearby ATM and take the fuels back to the elementary school.

*****

You've assembled the spell components onto an abandoned desk in the old elementary school basement. First a complicated sigil had to be drawn, then a mound of the graveyard earth. A lock of your hair will bind the creation to you. Finally you poured the oils and fuels onto the mound. All that remains is to light it.

You stand above the mound, a lit match in your trembling hand.

You cast the match to the mound and for a brief moment a bright purple flare almost blinds you. As your vision returns you see the fire has settled down to a dull, ghostly purple glow. No heat comes from the mound and you pass your hand through the fires and feel nothing.

*****

According to the translation you made with Melody's assistance, the spell recovers several days to work. Each time the fire burns out you must relight it. Only when it fails to catch fire, is the spell complete.

Life passes by.

You visit the elementary school daily to keep track of the spells progress, relighting the mound when you need to. School seems unchanged, but constantly watching the people around you for signs of Blackwell makes you tense. That gets worse on Wednesday when you discover that Cindy Vredenburg isn't in school because her sister died in a car accident the previous evening. Which means Blackwell has succeeded in replacing her.

By contrast, your home life settles down. Your mother finally finishes cleaning up from the break in. Your fathers project is still cancelled but the continued disappearance of his boss has stopped anything else from happening.

Finally, when you go the old elementary school after dinner on Wednesday the flames go out for the last time. One quick dust with the chamois cloth you used for the mask removes the loose surface dirt, revealing a shapeless grey mass of clay.

All it needs now is a mask.

Actually, you have a problem here, because you need the Melody mask for going to Blackwell's house.

There is an alternative. You still have the Umeko mask and the unbound memory strip of your memories. You could bind them together and use that on the clay.

Next: "One Mind, Two Bodies" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 5)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 5)"