The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)

Stalking a New Body, Part 2

Previously: "Stalking a New Body" 

You're really pleased with the way your plot went off, and can't help congratulating yourself. The only part you didn't anticipate was having to give Bhodi a ride out to the Wilderness, but even that didn't call for a real change in plans. You just had to excuse yourself before making the ambush.

In fact, that's the part that worries you most about this change, and as you jog along in your half-naked state toward a screen of trees, it's what preoccupies you. Evie, you've noticed, is quite level-headed and doesn't panic easily. Bhodi is jumpy like a cat. Are you going to pick up Bhodi's jumpiness while he picks up her cool-headedness?

And that introduces another worrisome thought. Only now does it occur to you that you don't know how much Bhodi is going to remember once he's inside Evie's mask. Your other victims thus far -- Gordon and Dane and Evie herself -- have not been put inside a mask containing a brain band. When Bhodi wakes up, how much will he remember? Will the band have recorded everything that you've been doing inside it, or will it only remember everything up to the minute you got it off of Evie? And if it does record everything, will it have also recorded your thoughts and schemes, so that Bhodi will know what you've been planning? What you're planning now?

Hmm. Evie had a good nerve, but she hadn't got the brains to make up for your own deficiency. You pause on the trail, weighing whether to turn around and call the whole thing off, but quickly decide it's too late for that. You'll just have to bluff your way through on the other side.

You move under the eaves of the forest, and follow the trail about a hundred yards before turning off and striking uphill until you've lost sight of the track below. Even then you scout around until you find a fallen log you can hide behind. There you hunker and drop your gear. From the backpack -- Bhodi's pack, soon to be yours -- you pull out the stuff you'd hurriedly shoved inside it: his clothes, his mask, and the sealant and brush. You work the one into the other, then lie back and put your new face over your old one.

* * * * *

You wake with a jerk, your leg kicking out, and swinging an arm. It's like waking from a nightmare.

Except there is no nightmare to wake from. You've just shocked yourself awake. You spread your hand over your chest and will your heart to stop hammering. You blink and gather your wits and --

Those aren't your legs. They are very long and brown and have bristly black hairs on the shins and calves. The feet are enormous, with toes that look more like stubby fingers. You raise your hand and examine it. It is long and strong and mocha in color, with gleaming nails. Your arm -- Damn, you've got a bicep! A real one! You stretch your arms, and they go out forever! Kind of like yours do, but even farther. Hair falls over your eyes, and you push it back easily, for although its thick, it is soft and floppy instead of stiff like yours.

Now, if you can just get the brain to work --

And it's like you pushed a button.

It starts at the base of your spine and rises, sending pulses ahead, like the sonar pings of a submarine, to strike the top of your skull. It rolls up between your shoulders and up your neck and over your scalp and washes down over your face like a black flood. You cover your face with your hands as it pours over you, then seeps into you like milk seeping into porous bread. After only a few seconds you are sopping with him.

Bhodi Weaver. He fills your head the way water fills a pool. You're soaking in him, like sponge in a bath. You only have to relax and open yourself to him and --

Your heart leaps, and three of your four limbs jerk and spasm. Something grabbed you from behind! You were waiting for Evie, it was driving you nuts because she wasn't talking and you couldn't figure out anything to say and what the hell was she planning on doing by taking you out here and -- !

Oh yeah. Despite the hammering heartbeats of horror, you relax in the sure knowledge that you've got Bhodi in here with you. You close your eyes and put your head back and think of Evie.

Whoa! You snap your eyes open. The front of your shorts tent, and they tent hard and they tent big. Gingerly you peel them up and look.

Oh my God, that sausage makes yours look like cocktail weenie! And it's rampant!

Oh, Christ, no wonder Bhodi jumps three feet in the air every time a girl talks to him! He's living with King Dong, and it bursts out of its cave with a roar any time a girl so much as smiles at him!

You put your arm behind your head and suck hard on your lower lip as you think of Evie, and of Paulina, and of Kaitlyn and Danielle and Samantha and Leslie and Alexandria and Zoe and of bunches of other girls that you -- Bhodi -- don't know but whose faces and bodies he's studied. You could beat yourself to death while thinking of them; you could beat yourself ten times a day if you had the privacy.

You've got the privacy now, and your free hand almost unbidden goes to your cock and wraps around it ... and it's maybe only twenty seconds before it's barking at the sky and hard spasms are running from your heels to the top of your spine. You have to wipe yourself from your shoulder down to the side of your stomach with a bunch of leaves when you're done.

But at least you spent the tension. You peel off the shorts and throw them away -- you don't need them now -- and pull on Bhodi's stuff. He's a conservative dresser, even in the casual wear, so it's boxers and Levis and ankle socks and Converse sneakers from the waist down; a white t-shirt under a long-sleeve black-and-red plaid flannel shirt up above. No jewelry of any kind, not even a watch. You stand up and stretch and check yourself on your iPhone, turning to look at yourself in profile, and ducking your head to look up from under your brows. You especially like the teeth -- white and strong -- and the way they show up in your brown face.

"Teh Body, huh?" you murmur to yourself. Bhodi has no idea what the girls like to call him behind his back, or the way they talk about him.

But you do.

* * * * *

You don't keep it quiet as you tramp back down to the trail, or along the trail. But you do slow up when you see the trail head coming up, and you take off across a field of tall grass and circle around the ranger station so you can spy out the parking lot from the side without being immediately obvious. Evie's car is gone.

That looks like a good start, and it looks like a better start when you check your new phone again and see that there are no new calls or texts. You send one to Caleb, asking him to call you back at Bhodi's number. It's ten minutes before he returns it, though, during which you prowl the perimeter of the lot. "Will?" he says guardedly when you answer.

"Yeah, you know it's me, I told you in the text."

"Where are you? Have you been playing Dane all this time?"

"I've been hiding out," you answer evasively. "But I got a place now -- "

"Because I saw Dane today, and he had a shiner."

Whoa. "No, that wasn't me. But can you come pick me up? I'm up at Suffolk Wilderness."

"The fuck are you doing up there?"

"I was with a girl and she took off. Look, it's complicated. I just need a ride back to town."

"Yeah, okay. But who are you now? The name looks weird on the ID."

"I'll let you see. It's no one we ever heard of before. That makes it perfect for staying out of Chen's way, you know?"

"Whatever." He sounds unhappy as he hangs up.

And he's not especially happy when he sees you and gets the particulars. "How are we supposed to hang out if you're in the sophomore class?" he demands after you're on your way back into town in his car. "Not to mention, how long are you going to do this?"

"Until I've had some fun. Would you believe all the sophomore girls are in love with this guy?" You have the window down, and are tapping the roof of the car in time to a rocking melody only you can hear.

"You're kidding. What's your pick up line? 'Thank you, come again'?" he asks, imitating Apu from The Simpsons.

"Don't be racist, cocksucker. Hey wow, that's right. I'm a minority now. Cool!"

"Jesus."

"Also, you should see the sausage on this guy. You know how Keith's always bragging about his? Well, Bhodi -- "

"Ananananana! I don't want to hear it! In fact, where am I taking you?"

"Home, I guess. Unless -- "

Unless Evie is waiting for you there, to confront you. You should go find Andy. Unless Evie's gone to Andy to tell him that she's really his best friend, Bhodi. You should go find Paulina. Unless Evie's gone to see Paulina because she's one of Paulina's best friends.

Dammit. But you're going to have to run into her sooner or later.

"Unless what, Will?"

* To continue: "Impressions and Auditions" 

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