The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)

Enigmatic Antecedents

Previously: "A Change of Mind" 

They all think it's a grand idea: Giving you another personality to help you combat Seth for the affections of Cindy. Philip suggests copying the brain of Steve Patterson, the number two man on the basketball squad: "If anyone can stand up to Seth, it's Steve." Keith proposes that you "fight fire with fire" by using Seth's own personality.

But Mike and Carlos suggest the name that you ultimately choose: Marc Garner, the brother of Jessica and Eva. "It'd be super easy for us to score a copy of his brain for you, Will," giggles the one dressed out as Eva. (You've lost track of which one is which.) "He sleeps in the bedroom next to ours."

"And I think he'd suit you," says Jessica. She looks you up and down with a critical but admiring eye. "He's pretty casual about things, but guys know better than to fuck with him."

You're about to retort something about how he's got more upper-body strength than you, too, but Eva knocks you sideways when she says, "Just don't flirt with us anymore. It'd be super-squicky if you did, knowing that you've got our dear brother's psychology up there with you." Yikes.

"It's settled, then," Maria says. "I'll have a memory strip for you tomorrow," she tells the pseudo-Garner girls. "Keith, I suggest you not break up with Seth until we've rigged Will out with it."

"I already broke up with him!"

Jessica titters. "Keith, you've broken up with him twenty-nine times since you started going out with him. So you'll make up with him again and break up a thirtieth time." Cindy folds her arms and returns her a haughty shake of the head.

"Okay, so much for that," Maria says. "Let's see what we've got here." She turns to the thing that you drove out here in the bed of your truck.

It had been real trick getting it out of the Vredenburg's house. The parents were home when you and Maria arrived, and the only way to smuggle it out was wrapped in a blanket with some clothesline wound about so it wouldn't come uncovered. You grunted and strained with one end of it, while Cindy and Maria struggled with the other; Mr. Vredenburg offered to help, but you only let him hold the door open as you carried it out. As for what it was, Keith thought really fast and told him Cindy's dad was an "art project" that Seth had left behind that she was throwing out on account of she was mad at him.

It—what the others had discovered under a mask of Lucy Vredenburg—is a whitish thing about the size and shape of a person, for it has stumps where legs and arms might go, and the potato-shaped lump at one end is sort of like a head. Philip had called it a "beta", a thing like a mannequin, on which one can hang a mask, turning it into a docile copy of the person who had been copied into the mask. "We've got one of our own in the other storage bay," he says. "I have no idea where this one came from, or how it got under a mask of Lucy."

"We don't know where the mask of Lucy came from, either," Jessica says. She looks up at Cindy. "Keith?"

"What?"

"Is there anything you want to confess?"

Cindy gasps. "Are you accusing me of—?"

"All the masks are accounted for," Maria says. "And it takes a lot of effort to make a beta. You know that, Carlos. None of us are guilty of this." A silence falls briefly over the group before Maria resumes. "So I guess I should get into that mask of Lucy. It's the only place we can look for answers."

"That'll take all night!" Jessica exclaims.

Eva laughs. "That's why we're having a slumber party!"

"I'm thinking I should spend the night with you, Keith," Maria tells Cindy. "Lucy is, uh, your sister, and she should spend at least some nights at home. Doesn't she?"

"Fifty-fifty," Cindy says with a shrug. "Mom and Dad are wondering where she is, seeing as her SUV is in the driveway."

"Why haven't they texted her?" Maria takes out a cell phone. "I took it with me in case they did."

Cindy makes a face. "They wouldn't ask her where she is. Ignorance is bliss. Didn't she get any other texts?"

"Oh yeah, lots. But I ignored them. I wouldn't know how to sext back. So I'll get changed in the other bay," he adds as a couple of girls (and yourself) choke a little, "and put Maria's mask onto our beta. That way she doesn't disappear." She exits the studio. A few seconds later there's the rattle from outside of a sheet-metal door being lifted.

Her exit leaves the rest of you at a bit of a loss. "I guess the slumber party's off?" Eva says.

"It was never on, sis," Jessica grunts. "You wanna head over to Kelsey's?"

"Meh. We hit The Warehouse last night, I'd just as soon stay in. Unless you want to go back out there."

"Marc'll be at Kelsey's. He never gets tired, and he never misses a chance to get stoned."

There's a little more desultory talk about possible party plans, which segues into talk about how they will score you this "memory strip" of Marc Garner, which segues into a semi-enthusiastic account of what you'll find after you've married his mind with yours: He's a high-functioning stoner, basically and he's getting blowjobs from Hannah Westrick, at least you'll his memories of those, and just remember that Marc is still basically eight years old only he knows how to fake being eighteen.

And while they're telling you this, Lucy Vredenburg comes in.

Every cell in your body goes on high alert. That hair, those boobs, that scent, that wobble in her hips that says, I'm luscious, I'm fertile, and I love a good fuck. You feel like you could sink your fingers into her up to the knuckles.

"Would it be weird if I spent Saturday night at home?" she asks Cindy.

"Yes. But just tell mom and dad you had a fight with one of your girlfriends and you need a night to cool off."

"Has she used that excuse before?"

"I dunno. But she's always bitching to me about her fights with her girlfriends."

Lucy nods. "Let's adjourn then."

"Jeez," Cindy mutters as she leads her reincarnated sister out of the bay. "Just don't use words like 'adjourn', okay? Stick to 'Bite me', 'Fuck you', 'Hey shit for brains get out of the goddamn road if you're not gonna use it' ... " Her voice trails off down the hallway.

That leaves you alone with the Garners. After an awkward minute, Jessica suggests you hang out with them until your curfew, if you've got nothing else to do.

* * * * *

You all wind up at Carl's Jr., which is nearby and unlikely to be frequented by people you'll run into. In fact, there is a cluster of high school students at a table in the corner, but none of you recognize them, so it's likely they go to Eastman. You do catch them scoping out the Garners of course. And after you're seated with your food—

"Jeez, Will, did you catch those two girls totally checking you out?" Eva giggles.

"She's too diplomatic to mention the one guy who was ogling you," Jessica adds with a smirk.

"No! Shut up. They were all checking you out."

"Well, dur!" Eva plunges a straw into her diet drink. "But you need to get used to it too. Once you get Marc's brain mixed up in yours, you'll get even more attention."

"Why, I'm not gonna look like him!"

"No, but you'll carry yourself more like him," Jessica says. "Girls notice that kind of thing, that kind of confidence. You hunch over too much, Will, and you walk like a scarecrow on a pogo stick."

"I do not!"

"You'll see. You get any texts from any girls about Friday night?" She grins and nibbles on a French fry.

You hang your head. When you checked your phone after church, it nearly exploded with text messages from girls you barely knew or never heard of. You've been trying not to think about them or what you're going to do about them.

So you change the subject. "What do you think the deal is with Lucy? What's going on there?"

Their faces tighten, but neither one says anything. You have the impression they're very troubled by the discovery, and are at a loss.

"We'll know more tomorrow, after Philip can fill us in," Jessica says.

"Someone clearly owned the thing before us," Eva says. "They're the ones who did it."

"What thing?" you ask.

Jessica grimaces. "The thing that lets you make these masks."

"It's a book," Eva says, and ignores the glare that Jessica has shot her. "Got all kinds of spells and stuff in it. So it stands to reason that whoever owned the book before is the one that made that beta."

"Who was that?" you ask.

"Beats me," Jessica says.

"You told us you bought it off George Mendoza," Eva retorts.

"Yeah, but he didn't make that beta. You think he would'a sold me the thing if he knew what he could do with it? Fuck!"

They both nod and continue to talk. But you're lost in memories and concerns of your own.

George Mendoza was one of the bullies who took that weird-ass book off you, the one that you found at Arnholm's Used Books. He was also the one who told you that he sold it. And that book had promised something about showing how to make magical disguises, like the ones that Carlos and Mike are currently wearing.

It's been in the back of your mind all this time, that there was a connection between these guys and that book you found. But this now confirms it.

Do you tell them you used to own that book?

Next: "Dark Histories" 

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