The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)

A Chance to Change Partners

Previously: "A Conversation with Caleb" 

Keith has driven over to your house, of course, and you climb into it with him. Better than walking, for though the rain has stopped, it has turned even colder.

"So, yeah, me and Caleb got into a fight," you say as he reverses out of the driveway and into the street. "What makes this shit any of your business?"

In seeming answer, something plops onto the seat between the two of you. To your astonishment, it's a mask.

"Jesus, Will," a voice says behind you. You whirl to find that Caleb has materialized in the back seat. Apparently, he had been hiding there. He gestures at the mask. "I can't believe it. You and Chelsea Cooper. And you weren't going to tell your friends?"

"What the fuck--" you start, but Caleb interrupts.

"Don't try denying anything, man. Me and Keith know everything you know, up through yesterday afternoon. Including the stuff with Kelsey and Karl. Wow." He crosses his arms as you glare at him. "So are you going to share her with us? I mean you're gonna make a mask of her, right?"

"Son of a bitch!" You twist in your seat to throw a punch at him.

"Hey hey hey!" Keith yells as you try hurling yourself into the backseat. The car swerves, throwing you against Keith. He curses both you and Caleb out, and slams on the brakes, pitching you back hard against the dashboard.

"Calm down, Will!" Caleb shouts.

"Or at least take it out of the car," Keith yells.

You throw the door open and stagger onto the sidewalk. "Yeah, come on, you piece of shit!" you yell at Caleb. "Get out here so I can kick your fucking ass!"

Caleb stares at you, his face taut and pale, through the window. "Calm down!" he repeats, his voice muffled. "Let's just talk!"

You swing at the window, but pull your punch at the last moment, so that you only bang your knuckles sharply against the glass. "You wanna talk, come out here!"

"We're gonna have the cops here in a minute!" Keith shouts.

You swerve and pace in a tight circle, muttering curses and glaring at Caleb. He rolls down the window, but pulls back when you lunge at him again. "You wanna hit me?" he says. "Fine. But let's do it somewhere we won't get arrested!"

You want to tell him to go fuck himself, but a small voice in your head finally makes itself heard, and you decide to at least let them have their say. After that ...

"The old elementary school," you tell them. "You remember where it is?" Caleb thinks a moment, then nods. "Meet me over there."

You whirl and strike off down the street, hands in pockets, striding furiously along. A few moments later, Keith's car crawls up beside you, then passes, picking up speed. You lurch down an alleyway and start sprinting hard, so you can beat them there.

You don't make it, and, red-faced and breathless, you have to stagger the last few dozen yards across the grounds to the car, where your erstwhile friends are waiting. They eye you warily.

"Okay, I'm gonna give you five minutes until I catch my breath, and then I'm gonna beat the shit out of you," you tell them.

Caleb and Keith exchange nervous glances. Then Caleb starts to talk.

"Okay, it was a shitty, shitty thing to do to you, and I'm sorry. Really fucking sorry. I didn't know anything was going to happen like what happened. But since you've figured out that fucking book and what it does--"

"No, you confess it all first, cocksucker," you snarl. "I want you to tell me to my face what you did to me!"

He flushes and hangs his head. Then with a sigh, he begins.

"Okay, I used the book to make a copy of you. I figured you were the safest person to try it on because ... well, you already knew about the book, and I thought you still might come in as my partner at some point. I really shouldn't have done it without telling you what I was doing, but I figured if you didn't know, it wouldn't hurt you."

You snort. "Yeah. Go on."

"But you know the-- Oh, fine." He makes a face. "I did myself up as you and tried to get a mask of Gordon. But Chelsea tripped onto me, and Gordon woke up too fast. They cornered me, and--" He hunches his shoulders. "Gordon beat it all out of me, and they wound up taking the book from me." He glowers. "And then I guess they got all into it, and Gordon--" He suppresses a smile. "Well, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy, right?"

"So how come you dressed up as me when you went after Gordon? Why not do it as yourself, you chickenshit!"

"Because if something went wrong--and I didn't think it would!--I wanted to be safe. I mean, even if they came after you, you wouldn't know what they were talking about, and they wouldn't be able to squeeze it out of you."

"No, Gordon just would've broken some of my bones." Your choler is rising again. "And then on top of it, yesterday--"

"Look, I didn't know what was going on with you!" he protests. "I didn't even know if it was you, the real you, and not someone in a mask! And you wouldn't tell me anything--"

"So why didn't you tell me what was going on, instead of knocking me cold and copying my face all over again? That's what you did yesterday, right?" He doesn't answer, but he doesn't have to. A movement by Keith draws your eye toward him, and you flush harder. "And you told Keith about it all?"

"I had to have someone I could trust!" he says. "Look, I told you, I didn't even know if it was you! I didn't know what else was in that book! I heard about Gordon dragging you into the school restroom, and I figured he must've wanted to talk about the book. But you told me he didn't say anything about it, so I thought maybe he'd done something to you, like turned you into some kind of zombie slave or something!"

You ball up a fist, but you have to admit that what he says makes sense. In fact, given what you know now about the masks ... You'd probably do the same thing to someone, if you had doubts about who they were. "Alright, I'm still really pissed at you, but I won't ... kill you."

"Thanks for small favors," he says, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Anyway, you're now all up to speed. And the point to all this is--" He ducks his head and peers at you meaningfully. "You've got this perfect in with Chelsea. I mean, it looks to me like she totally trusts you."

"And what do you want me to do with that trust?" you warily ask, as though he hadn't already told you.

He raises an exasperated eyebrow. "Come on, use your imagination. Get a mask of her, dude. Get that one she made of herself."

"And who gets to play Chelsea while the others take turns fucking her?"

He rolls his eyes.

"We make one of those statue things," he says. "Or--" He turns shifty. "There's that new spell. I was-- Not to rub salt in the wound, but I spent most of last night inside your mask, thinking about all the stuff you've figured out."

You swallow. He stares at you evenly. But you want him to say it. Out loud.

Which he finally does, quietly. "We replace her. We make masks of ourselves, spread that new gunk inside it, put her in one, and she disappears into a new life. Then we take turns keeping her life warm. Being Chelsea Cooper."

You freeze at the words, at the idea.

You, not friends or partners with Chelsea Cooper. You being Chelsea Cooper. Being the queen bee, the head cheerleader, the prancing blonde show pony who tells boys to stop fucking ogling her or her boyfriend will make them sorry. You, with her boobs and pussy to play with whenever you want.

But Caleb's not done. "Think about it," he says, as though that's not exactly what you're doing. "That gives us control of Gordon too, gives us what we-- okay, what I was going for, originally."

"You want to be Gordon while one of us is Chelsea, while you're fucking us?"

He winces. "At least we'd have him on a leash, the way Chelsea has him on a leash now. We could get him to change, to stop his bullying. Use him to stop Patterson and Lynch and the Molester and all the rest. We'd make everyone's life at the school better. And we'd be nicer while we were pretending to be her."

"I thought you wanted to bang her."

"Well, that too." He shrugs. "But during the school day, we'd have to live her life." He leans forward and clenches his fist in excitement. "And we'd be partners, the three of us. Which is a hell of a lot more natural than what you've got going with Chelsea."

You look at the ground, shielding your eyes, as though thinking it over.

"I'll have to think about it more, see if it's practical," you reply. Then you look up. "Or did you make plans for me while you were--" You point to the car, where the mask of you still sits.

Caleb turns red. "I was using it to figure out what you knew, and to make some notes for myself. About the book," he hastily adds.

"Well, hand the goddamn thing over," you say. "You don't need it now."

His expression darkens, but he trudges over to the car to fetch it.

"What do you think?" you ask Keith.

"Dude," he groans. "Cut me some slack. I only found out about this shit this morning. Fuck," he adds. "It's like I don't know you guys anymore."

Next: "Half-Truths and Fake Friends" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 4)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)"