The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)

Project Genesis

Previously: "Study Date of Doom" 

You run back to the front door and yank it open. Jack, who was waiting on the front stoop, leaps back with a soft yelp. "Okay, I'm ready for your help."

"That was fast."

"I don't know when my mom's going to be back." Your heart is going a mile a minute as you return to the living room.

The plan is to make it look like an authentic body swap, which means that although Genesis is going to wake up in Blake's body, she's got to wake up where he was sitting. And that means—

"God!" Jack exclaims as he tries lifting Genesis by her armpits. "It's like she's cemented to the patio!" You fuss with her feet, but that doesn't help Jack any. He strains and grunts and turns very red as he wrestles with a hundred-and-something pounds of Genesis Lee. She's not fat exactly, but she is flabby all over, and as a dead weight she is almost impossible to lift.

You end by gently tipping her from the chair and dragging her by her arms into the house, and it takes both of you, one each to a side, to loft her onto the sofa next to the unconscious Blake. By the time you're done, the blood is pounding in your face so hard it feels like your mask might pop off.

"Okay, here's the fun part for you," you tell Jack as you kneel to start peeling Genesis's clothes off her. "I'll take Genesis, you take Blake."

You feel rather than see Jack glowering at you, but you don't regret the jibe. In fact, it's something of a relief. Besides being saddled with Jack's sexuality while playing him, you also had to wrestle with his own very secret crushes.

Like the fact that he crushes on Blake almost as hard as Genesis does.

Was that one of the reasons you went for the Blake-Genesis swap? Were you going with his gut instinct? Or were you going with an instinct that originated with an organ further down?

Well, never mind. That's Fake-Jack's problem now. Your problem is the way Genesis and Blake fall over and flop atop each other as you tug their clothes off, and you watch fearfully for any reappearance of any masks.

And indeed, the mask falls out of Genesis while you're still struggling to get Blake's clothes onto her. You stop Jack, who is helping, with a hand on his shoulder.

"Okay, I figure we've got about five or ten minutes before she comes round again," you murmur to him. "So, slight change of plans now. You seal up her mask and his with the pedisequos paste, then come find me in the downstairs bathroom. I'll be out of Sydney's things by then, and you put her mask onto Blake and give him Sydney's clothes."

His brow furrows. "And what do I do with Genesis's mask?"

"Put it on me in the bathroom. Then wake me up so I can finish changing into Genesis."

Jack gives a low whistle. "That is a change of plan."

"I know. But I figure it's a better way of managing her."

"How come?"

"Yours is not to reason why," you retort as Blake's mask materializes. You catch it as it slips off his face. "Yours is to do whatever the fuck I say."

* * * * *

"Genesis? Sweetie?" The voice comes out of nowhere, as though in a dream. "You need to wake up now." You feel yourself shaken.

"Just five more minutes. Please?" you groan. But you're shaken again. Stupid school day, you think. You lever your eyes open and pout up at—

You gasp. It's not your dad shaking you awake, it's Jack! He's bent over you with a faint smile—almost a smirk—on his face.

All at once you realize you're cold all over, and you're cold all over because you're naked. And you're not in you're bed and you're not even in your bedroom, you're in—

Memories snap into place with a noise like thunder, and an almost physical recoil rattles your bones. The jar gives you a sudden, blinding migraine. It rapidly fades, but leaves a nauseating headache behind.

"Oh, Jesus, I feel like shit," you groan as you sit up. You cover your face with your hands and grind the heels into your eyes. Your mouth is parched.

But there's no time to feel sorry for yourself. You feel your neck pop as you look up at Fake-Jack. "So what's going on?"

"No time for anything to happen," he replies. "I put the mask on you and shook you awake like you asked. I haven't even been out to—" He picks a mask up off the bathroom vanity and shows it to you.

Sydney's mask.

A sudden terror envelops you. I can't do this! you think. I don't know how to do this, I'll fuck it up!

You knew more or less exactly what to do and how to do it just a little while ago. But that was when you were wearing Sydney's mask, back when you were—

You swallow hard.

Back when you were being Sydney and had her confidence and smarts to guide you.

But now you're—

You lower your chin to take in your new body. It's white and flabby and soft all over. The boobs are huge, which is a plus, and you've never objected to big thighs and hips. More to hold onto, you used to snicker when you and Keith and Caleb compared notes on your turn-ons. But it's not the body of a girl with the drive, ambition, and determination to put herself ahead and take charge of things.

No, Genesis Lee is more of a follower. You feel yourself shrinking up with fear.

But maybe you've still got the backwash of Sydney's mind and personality, because— Use that fear, an inner voice urges you. Use it. Hide behind it. Make it part of the disguise. You can do it, Will. Believe in yourself.

Some little strength fills you, but it's with a tremble that you grab the edge of the vanity and pull your feet under you.

"Okay," you gasp at Fake-Jake, "I'll finish up in here, come join you as soon as I can. You go put the other masks onto Genesis and Blake. Sydney—" You clench your fists and mouth a quick kind of prayer to whatever demons you are planning to invoke. "Sydney should know what to do. But send her in here anyway."

Fake-Jack nods. He scoops up Sydney's things and shuts the bathroom door behind you as he leaves.

You don't have a lot of time to finish the change, but you eye yourself in the mirror as you pull on panties and bra, dark jeans and white blouse and dress boots. Genesis Lee is big and busty and layered over with sediments of baby fat, and she's almost fish-belly pale save for her calves and arms, which are peach colored. Her boobs are great, floppy things with huge brown tips, and she's got a bush like a jungle. You wince with self-reproach at being so out of shape.

But it's exciting, too. Sydney had a far sexier body, but you felt terrible guilt while inhabiting it. You feel no such guilt at inhabiting Genesis's body, and a quickening excitement dispels the last of the foggy headache as you dress.

You're pushing back your great mane of dark, curly hair and unfolding the black-rimmed glasses when the door opens and Sydney puts her head in. She seems shorter than you remember her being, which is strange, because as Jack you were taller than you are now.

"Hey, are you almost ready?" she asks. Her smile is very sly, and her eyes twinkle.

"Just about." You slip on the glasses, shake your hair out a little, and squeeze out a smile at your reflection. Your eyes almost disappear as your chubby cheeks roll up to meet your brow. "You know what to do?"

"I've got a gut feeling. But you know, Will, you didn't exactly monologue the plan out loud to yourself while you were hatching it."

You dart her a quick look, and feel a stab of spitefulness. She thinks she's so smart, so much better than the rest of us. You quickly smother the thought.

"You body-swapped Genesis and Blake," you explain to her. "You were trying to body-swap Blake and Jack, but he suddenly took off so you had to use Genesis instead."

"Yeah, I got that much. And that's what I tell you and Blake?"

"Right. And your boyfriend? Will? That's another body-swap. He's actually your old boyfriend from Kansas."

Sydney gives a low whistle. Your cock your head, weighing how far to push it.

"And don't admit anything," you tell her, "but try role-playing it like you're another body-swap, you're some girl from Kansas who stole Sydney's body."

"Oh my God," she replies. "I am so kinky. But why am I doing this?"

"Because you're trying to invoke a demon." (This was the part of the invented backstory that's troubled you the most.) "You need a kind of coven—"

"A Brotherhood?" she asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Sure. You need a brotherhood to invoke the demon, but the danger is that the people in the brotherhood will have their souls snatched from them by the demon. But he can't snatch their souls if they're in other people's bodies, so you're body-swapping them. After you invoke the demon and get what you want, you'll swap them all back."

You smile at Sydney, but she only stares at you. "That's the dumbest idea," she says.

Your face falls. "Hey, if you can come up with a better one—!"

"I hope you weren't using my brain when you came up with it, Will, because if you were—"

"Well, try coming up with your own, then!" You clench your fists so you won't scratch her in her smug face. "If you really don't like what I came up, when we ask, just give Blake and me the old 'that's for me to know and you to find out' routine."

"Hmph. Well." Sydney leans past you to give herself a once over in the mirror. She tucks a lock of hair behind her ear, and for a moment you really do hate her. "I don't want to rush you, Will, but whatever your plan is, you better hop to it. Blake'll be waking up any moment now."

Next: "Playing the Victim" 

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