The Book of Masks (Vol. 3)

It's a Boyfriend-Girlfriend Thing

Previously: "The Experiments" 

"I haven't told any of my friends about this stuff," you tell Katy. "But if you want to tell your friends ..."

You let the thought hang. Katy's eyes widen. Then they fall.

"Do you want to tell your friends?" she asks. "Because—"

"Not really. It was something I wanted to share it with you. And that was hard enough. It'd be a lot harder telling my friend Caleb or Keith." Again, you let the thought hang before extending it. "I wonder how hard it would be to tell Stephanie."

And just like that (you can tell), you've convinced Katy not to tell any of her friends about the masks.

You feel a little guilty about manipulating Katy this way. But you really doubt Stephanie would like this stuff. And if Katy thought about it, she'd probably realize that too. Better that she realize it now that later, which she might have accidentally let something slip.

"So, what do you want to do about this girl Hannah?" you ask Katy.

She hangs her head for a long time without answering. Eventually, she shrugs.

"Would it really be worth doing anything?" she asks. "I mean, without Stephanie and the rest of them—"

"It doesn't mean that you can't do something. That we can't."

"Using the things, you mean?" Her expression is anxious.

"Sure. And itt would be real magic, too, not the fake voodoo that you guys were—"

"But then we couldn't tell Stephanie and them what we did!"

You shrug. "Do they have to know? Or they could do their own thing to her, and you and me could do our own?"

"I just don't know," Katy says after another long pause.

It's not really your business, so you wouldn't kick if Katy decided against using the masks to prank this Hannah girl.

"Here," you tell her as you pull your backpack onto the table. "I brought the, uh, one of Stephanie." You pull the mask out, and Katy rears back. "I tested it out while you were gone. Just long enough," you assure her as she stares, "to see if it worked on me."

"Did it?" Katy asks in a faint voice.

"Sure. I mean, like I said, I wasn't in it real long, but, um—" You feel yourself reddening under the very pale expression that is washing over Katy's face. "I thought we should test it out every which way. And I got Stephanie's memories. I don't know why it didn't work with you."

Katy stares at the mask, which you are still proffering, without taking it. "So what am I supposed to do with it?"

You suggest that she take it home and try it out again, but she protests: "I don't wanna get caught wearing it!" she exclaims.

"So wear it to bed," you suggest. "You don't share a room with anyone, do you?"

"Well, no. But—"

"I'm just saying, maybe should give it another chance, give it a longer time. Sleep in it overnight. If that doesn't work then—"

"Why would it work then?"

"I don't know! I'm just saying!" You stare at each other.

Then you start to put the mask away. "It's just an idea I had for—"

But Katy's hand shoots out and she grabs you by the wrist. She is breathing heavily, and her gaze is haggard. "I could get caught," she murmurs.

"Yes," you have to agree.

Katy groans, but drags your hand with the mask to her. "I can't believe I'm doing this," she moans as she takes the mask from you.

* * * * *

You get a text from Katy the next morning, asking to meet you in the parking lot before school. She sounds frantic. You shower, dress, and eat in a rush, then fly out to Westside.

You don't remember what Katy drives, but that's okay, for she spots you. "Will!" she shouts, and runs up to you with a shining face. She doesn't look upset, only excited. Super-excited. Splitting-the-seams-of-her-clothes excited.

"Oh my God, Will!" she gasps as she tumbles up against you. "It worked!"

"What worked?"

"The mask! The—!" She gulps. "You gave it to me to wear, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Well it worked! I woke up this morning—! Early! And I was all thinking, 'Shoot, I gotta get up and go for a run'. And I was, like, where's my stuff, and, this isn't my room. And then it just hit me." She has to gulp down a couple of lungfuls of air. "It was like I was Stephanie, and I was thinking like her! 'Cos, you know," she races on in a voice that just gets faster and higher in pitch, "Stephanie goes running every morning, and I think I knew that, but this was like I was thinking that I had to go running because I—"

You grab her by the shoulders to keep her from running away with herself.

"It was so freaky," she says, and repeats it a couple of times. "And then it got really freaky 'cos I forgot those words you told me last night for how to get it off. I was about to text you and ask you to give them to me again— Actually, I was about to go for a run for real 'cos I was so scared of getting caught by my mom, but then, pop! Bang! They came back to me."

"Well, that's good," you agree.

Her breath comes in deep gulps as she tries to catch it. "So I wonder why it worked for you so quick. You said it did, right?" She shoots you a suspicious glance.

"Yes. Maybe it's 'cos I'm the one who made the mask."

"But I'm the one who put it on Stephanie!"

You shrug. "So let's make a new mask. You can make it from scratch—I'll supervise—and you can put it on someone. See if it works for you then."

Katy's eyes get very wide. Then she flushes. Her teeth show, and a tiger-ish expression distends her face.

"And I know exactly who to use it on!"

* * * * *

You're not able to talk to her about it then and there. Nor can you talk about it at lunch, for you take it in a quartet with her, Caleb, and Meghan. Neither you nor Katy talk much. For your part, you're too distracted by what she said in the parking lot before classes, and you're also distracted by Caleb and Meghan, who seem to be getting along great. She laughs at all his dry jokes, and with calm diffidence he accepts her invitation to hang out at Catherine Muskov's house after school.

"You're handling Meghan pretty calmly," you observe to him as you trudge back into the school afterward.

"There's no reason to lose your shit just because a girl's interested in you," he replies with cool understatement.

You glance back over your shoulder. "That's good. 'Cos here comes Meghan again," you lie.

Caleb spins so hard that his backpack flies off and bursts open when it hits the ground. You leave him, chuckling to yourself, as with a burning face he crouches to pack his shit up again.

* * * * *

You've got your own after-school plans, and they take you back out to the elementary school basement. Katy joins you, and you guide her through the crafting of a mask and a brain band. You insist that she do all the work herself, including making up new batches of sealant and glue (though you still have plenty on hand), and you send her home with a copy of the runes so she can finish carving them into the metal strip that she made. You return home as well, carrying the book with you.

Up in your room you race through your homework carelessly and with no heed for accuracy or even basic technique. You take frequent breaks, both to answer texts from Katy, talking about your plans for tomorrow, and to glance over the next spell in the book. It doesn't take long go figure out that it uses the same ingredients as the last spell—the one that made the lackey—but with some slight changes.

One of the changes pleases you: It calls for only a tenth as much dirt as the last spell.

But one of them alarms you: It also calls for a "human body."

At least, that's how the translator renders it, and "humana corpus" on its face doesn't seem to admit of much ambiguity. You try translating some similar English terms, and decide (tentatively, for the book's Latin can be so bizarre) that it means a live person and not a corpse.

Which in one way is a blessing, but in another way is quite a curse.

You're pretty sure that Katy is not going to want to go along with human experimentation. You're not even sure that you can stomach it. Even with the ethical quandaries, who would you use?

Unfortunately, there is an easy and plausible answer to that.

* * * * *

"We use it on Hannah!" Katy hissed at you that morning in the parking lot. "We use it on Hannah and we—!"

Yes, Katy had definitely gotten into Stephanie's mask if she recognizes the depths of rage that her friend has for her romantic rival. And it's like some of Stephanie got stuck inside Katy's head. For where before Katy had just acted like she was going along with the crowd in attacking Hannah, now it sounds like it's personal.

So that's who the new mask is for. She wants to get it onto Hannah, and then she is going to use it to impersonate Hannah and trick her boyfriend, Marc Garner, into breaking up with her. She wants your help.

You're going to give it to her. But are you going to use it also to help yourself?

* To use Hannah Westrick in the next spell: "What Happened to Hannah" 
* To ignore that spell for now: "Hacking Hannah Westrick" 

*
"Table of Contents (Vol. 3)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 3)"