The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)

What Chance Have You Got Against a Tie and Crest?

Previously: "The Other Girl Who Played with Magic" 

(By Masktrix and Seuzz)

Thursday study hall. You sit at the front of the library and watch your charges. The boarders of the fourth form are sat in groups doing their homework. At least, that’s what they’re supposed to be doing: you’re confident half of them are just surfing the net or talking to their friends on messenger.

Your plan was simple. Early this morning – and with a lot of complaints – your Will golem made it out to St Francis Xavier, where you handed him the Libra for the Shelly golem. Both were under instructions to be ‘tricked’ by any Will or Shelly that turned up. Then you dispatched Vee and Kristen, armed with the masks, to dupe the idiot Westside duo.

The phone goes. Fortunately, it’s the end of study hall. You let the fourth formers file out then step into the corridor to answer it. Vee is waiting for you outside. You slip the phone back into your blazer.

“How’d it go?” you ask.

“It was surprising,” Vee says. “Come on.” She beckons you to follow, across the corridor and into the Jefferson laundry room. You slip inside a dimly lit space where dryers rattle and moist clothes hang above hot steam pipes.

“Well? Do you have the book?” You ask expectantly. Your phone goes again. You pull it out of your pocket and glance at the messages from an unknown number.

THEY KNOW.

“Oh, we have the book,” Vee says, barely able to restrain a smile breaking across her face.

THEY KNOW YOU’RE NOT HER.

“We just found some other things, too.”

Four strong hands grab you from behind, lifting you straight off the ground and pinning your arms as they twist your elbows into a wrestling hold. You don’t have time to react before ritualistic words are crossing Vee’s lips, and her bony fingers are reaching up to rip the mask from your face.

***

It's dark and stifling when you awake, and your back is very sore. You mutter and kick, and find that your feet seem to be tied at the ankles. You cuss, then gasp as a sack is yanked off your head. Your mind spins with nausea.

You're in some kind of storm drain, it looks like. A concrete bunker, anyway, with a slimy floor and some oil drums against the nearby wall. Moonlight shines palely through a grill overhead. A metal ladder leads up and out, and in the far corner something gleams like wet metal. A metal chute?

A hard blow to the rib knocks you almost double. You want to puke.

“Don't do that,” a voice says. It sounds very familiar. “It’s not like he’s going anywhere.”

You suck in a deep, heaving breath and look up sideways. Four shadowy figures loom over you. There's just enough light for you to make out their unfriendly faces. Vee Macklin. Chris Fiore. Todd Baldwin.

And Abi Steiner.

You don’t know what went wrong, but clearly something very bad has happened.

“Will Prescott, I presume,” Vee says. “The third one I’ve met today. But you'd be the original?”

You nod.

“So, you thought you’d steal my life,” Abi says. Her lip curls. “It was a good plan. Just one flaw.”

“That little ginger bitch," Vee says, "is the worst actress in the world.”

As you gape at them, Todd grabs you by the hair and punches you in the jaw. Your head rings.

“I told you to stop that,” Abi says.

"Why are we explaining things to him?" Todd retorts. "He's the one who should be answering questions."

"We've already got the answers, Todd," Vee says. "The book, the masks, the answers. And any answers he doesn't give us we can get out of him another way." She bends over to pinch at your forehead, as though ripping a bandage away. "Slurp," she says. "Everything he knows, we'll know."

You shiver all over.

"So what were we standing around here for?" Chris asks. "If you've got a thing that can copy what he knows—?"

"Because we don't have one," Vee says. "Yet. We have to make it."

"So—"

"Let Vee handle things," Abi tells Chris. She grips him by the chin and turns his face to hers. "You and me, we should—" She takes his lip between her teeth and chews on it.

You glance away, your head in a whirl. It's not hard to guess what's going on. It's a lot harder to guess what's coming next.

Or maybe you just don't want to guess.

"Thanks for everything, Will," Abi says after breaking away from Chris. "You dirty fucking pervert. You tried to steal everything I had. But I forgive you. You’ve given me the greatest present I could imagine. The book. I think we’re all going to find it very useful.” She runs a finger along Chris's jaw.

"Yeah, sounds like it's going to be fun," Chris says. "Oh, and Prescott," he adds, "not that I didn't enjoy yesterday—" He turns back to Abi. "But there's nothing like the real thing." They kiss again.

"You guys go on up," Abi tells the others when they break off. "I'll meet you back inside." She pats Chris on the butt. "I've got a few things I want to say to Will. In private."

"You gonna be okay?" Todd asks.

"You tied him up good, didn't you? Then yeah, I'll be okay." She watches as her friends ascend the ladder, their shoes ringing on the metal bars. The grate clinks and rattles, and the moonlight dims as one by one they loft themselves out. Abi waits, watching, until the grate clangs back into place. Then she turns to gloat down at you.

“Did you like being me, Will?” she asks. “Did you touch yourself? Tell me. Tell me how much you loved being me.”

She’s a lunatic. You look up at her, as you chafe against your bonds. She smirks at you.

But somehow it’s not the smirk of someone who is used to smirking.

And that’s when you realize the truth.

“How long do you think it’ll take them, Kristen, to figure out you’re not really Abi?”

Her eyes widen. Then she laughs.

“But I am Abi, Will. I am Abigail Fucking Steiner. And I deserve to be her more than you ever did.” She holds your eye.

"Why?"

“Because Abi Steiner was a bitch!" She catches herself, then leans over to growl in your face. "She treated me like shit. Humiliated me. Belittled me. You know that. You did it too, when you had the chance." Her lip curves in an ugly way, and for a moment you're frightened that she'll kick you in the ribs.

"What happened?" you ask through lips that are suddenly very dry. "How did you figure out that—?"

"That you weren't really Abi? It didn't take much. You tried so hard getting the masks away from Todd, like you were scared to leave them with him, like you knew something about them already. And I started wondering after you told me and Vee to go out and get that book. Maybe I was just being paranoid about people being in disguise. But it turned out I was right.

"And then when I met up with your Hermione wannabe, it was just so obvious that something was up. She played everything so dramatic, so unreal. 'Oh my God, Will, it would be soooo dangerous if any of these things fell into the wrong hands. There's people running around pretending to be us, we have to be soooo careful'."

She snorts. You wince. In retrospect it seems obvious. The Shelly golem is only as good as the real Shelly, and the original couldn’t manage to be Coach Acuna for even five minutes.

"So I called Vee and met up with her. Told her what I was thinking. Together it didn't take us much trouble to wrestle Shelly to the ground and pull a mask off ... whatever that weird, lumpy, rock thing is." She eyes you. "Then we went out to see 'Will Prescott'. That's when we found Abi."

"And what did you tell her?"

"Nothing! We slapped the mask back onto her and sat on her. Argued about what to do. I was getting your memories pretty good by then, good enough I could see what we could do. We had a blank mask, and we had Abi, so—" She hugs herself and smiles.

"And Vee went along with it?"

"Sure. Abi's not much nicer to her than she is to me. We figured out we could take turns being her. We did rock-paper-scissors, and I got first turn.

"But this is just the beginning," she groans. "After we figure everything out, after we've figured out that book and everything that you know, well— There's four of us to have fun, and a whole school to have fun in. So many people to be, here at St. X or someplace else. Maybe Vee will find someone else to be and will let me be Abi permanently. I'll be rich and beautiful. I'll have everything I want and I'll know how to get more."

She shivers as she rubs the sides of her body. "I really can't blame you, Will, wanting to be Abi. I mean, Jesus, here I am doing the same thing you were." She lapses into a shuddering sigh.

You dive at the opening. "Yeah. So, if we're all basically on the same level, how come you gotta leave me like this? Why can't I join your club? Make it five instead of four?"

"Don't be stupid," she snaps. "You think any of us would trust you after—? Besides," she interrupts herself. "We already know what we're going to do with you."

"Yeah?" A lump forms in your throat.

"Yeah. I guess you will be part of the club. Sort of."

The lump swells.

"Like, if I'm going to be Abi, who's going to be me? I mean, Kristen Wright-Wallace can't just disappear."

"That's true," you admit. "So, if you want me to pretend to be you—"

"Exactly!" she says. "And as soon as we figure out what kind of enchantment you put on Abi, to make her forget who she is, we'll put the same thing on you, and turn you into me!"

Next: "Vee Is for Visit" 

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