The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)

Caleb Johansson Returns

Previously: "The Queen in Her Parlor" 

"Get me a boyfriend, Prescott," says Chelsea Cooper. "I don't care who it is. Just make sure he looks and acts like Seth Javits."

"I'll see what I can do," you say after recovering your voice. "And if I do that, you'll get me close to Andrea?"

"I'll do that anyway, if you need it done. Now, how soon can you get me that new boyfriend?"

"I'll have to think about it," you say, getting up. "Talk to you Thursday, here, same time?" She nods.

And so you leave her. She's already checking her cell again as you're walking to the sliding glass door.

* * * * *

You think about it on the way home. It would be rich irony if you put Kirkham in for Javits; the thought of Chen having to sexually satisfy his friend leaves you salivating. Problem is, that would bring Kirkham into this scheme, and you shudder at the thought of what he might wind up wanting to do with the masks. That leaves either Thomason or Caleb.

You're almost resigned to diverting Thomason away from Andrea when it occurs to you that a swap in for Seth Javits, with Chelsea Cooper as a girlfriend at the other end of it, might be just the thing to smooth things over between you and Caleb. Moreover, it would put your friend in close to Chen, where he might be able to strike at Chen if the opportunity ever arose. More than that, Chen would be leaving himself vulnerable. He's trying to hide himself out as Chelsea, using you to manipulate everyone else, so he wouldn't expect "Seth" to know who he really is. And then he wouldn't be prepared for "Seth" to move against him.

You are in such awe of this idea by the time you get home that you've given yourself an erection.

It flags when Mrs. Chen meets you at the door. "Your grandfather is very sick," she says, blocking you. "Go study someplace."

"Do you need my help?" you blurt out.

"No. Go study someplace. Your father is here." Her jaw is set and her expression firm.

Slowly you go back to the Jeep. They've sent Gary away before, sometimes, when the old man is very ill. Such incidents seem to be becoming more frequent. That gnawing sensation you got the other morning, when they sent you to school early, returns.

* * * * *

You go to the elementary school, and find that fire has died out again. Again, you relight it. God damn it. Six days. How long is this fucking spell going to take? You peer in at the shape that is gradually taking form. The pile has definitely tightened up into a cylindrical figure, and those fissures have lengthened. That worries you greatly, until your eye falls on a blob-like protuberance at the far end. The tableau blinks into focus: It almost looks like a human figure, like a badly damaged mannequin.

Your sphincter squirms.

That's exactly what it looks like. Those fissures halfway up the sides are like arms attached at the shoulders to the main trunk; the fissure up the middle is like the gap between the legs.

Is the spell making another human being?

You pull out your phone and call Caleb. It takes five minutes of increasingly violent threats before you talk him into coming out.

* * * * *

"Congratulations, you're a father," he says as he straightens up from peering at the burning mess.

"You think that's what it is," you gasp.

"Fuck if I know. What's the book say? Where is it? Or does Chen have it?"

"No, he hasn't got it. I do. Except I don't, I put it someplace where he can't get to it. And the book doesn't say anything about it, remember? We have to finish the spell before the page will turn. Jesus, if that thing gets up and starts coming after us like Frankenstein—"

"We'll deserve it, probably. Or you will. Jesus, Will, we were having so much fun, too, until—" He looks you up and down, and sighs deeply.

You don't feel like rehashing ancient history, or you'd bring up the way he started it by shanghaiing Gordon Black. Then you remember that's something you'd like to know about. Your path doesn't cross Will Prescott's during the day, and you've not seen him around casually. "How's my old meat sack doing? I saw you having lunch with him Friday."

Caleb gives you a long, sideways glance, then sits on a desk.

"He's doing okay," he says. "To be totally honest, I'm kind of having a hard time remembering he's not you."

"The fuck? That's Gordon Black in there, how can he be—?" Your guts clench at an awful thought. "You didn't slip him that brain band you made of me, did you?"

"Don't be an idiot, of course I didn't. I just mean— Well, he's real quiet, but he's kind of loosened up. He doesn't sound like you, exactly, stuff is a little off with the way he talks, and Tilley's asked me if he's doing okay. But we got together last weekend, played around on your game console, had a lot of fun with that. He's got a lot more energy than you did, talked me into playing some ball, and naturally he beat the pants off me. Gave me a lot of trash talk, too, but in a fun way. He's been doing some running, too, I think he goes jogging in the mornings now, and I know he's doing weights up in the mezzanine after classes."

"How's his schoolwork?"

"He's all caught up, got caught up while he was suspended. He's asked for my help on the calculus, but— Face it Will, you weren't taking a lot of challenging courses anyway." Caleb digs under his pits and looks embarrassed. "Except for him being a lot quieter than you usually are, he's passing himself off pretty good."

"But he doesn't know anything about me! Are you coaching him?"

"Not anymore, not much. Like I said, he's just quiet. Oh, and he hates Ioeger and Lamont, but that's not a surprise, right? Black was always going out of his way to kick their asses."

This news ought to please you, for it means that, once you're able to reclaim your life, it should be easy to slip back into it with minimal disruption. But at the same time it deeply alarms you. Is it really possible that your personality is so flimsy, so vanilla, so bland, so interchangeable with everyone else's, that Gordon Black of all people could fake his way through as you?

"Has he said anything about Chelsea and what's going on there? With, uh, Gordon Black quitting the squad and all that?"

"No, not a word. Jenny and Yumi and Lin have been buzzing about it, naturally, and I've caught him listening really intently to them when they're talking, but he hasn't said anything." He shrugs. "I figure it's a sore point with him, so I haven't raised the subject. After what he did to Lynch, I figure he's pretty dangerous when provoked."

Silence settles in the room. Even the fire is noiseless.

"Probably I don't want to know," Caleb says in a tone tinged with acid. "But what are you getting up to these days?"

"You're right, you don't want to know," you say with a wince. "Except maybe one thing. Seth Javits is going to break up with Cindy, start going out with Chelsea."

Caleb lurches off the table. "Whoa! Is that official? And how do you know?"

"Where do you think Gary Chen is these days?"

His brow crinkles. "You told me you were going to swap him in for Chelsea. You telling me he's in Javits?"

"No, he's in Chelsea. I told you that, and—"

"But how did you manage it," he asks. "I've still got her mask at my place."

"You've got—?" Your jaw drops. "You fucker, you've had her mask all this time?" His head bobs up and down. "I was going nuts, I thought you left it in Gardinhire's car."

"You think I'm an idiot? That day, when he and Chen showed up, I smuggled it out, I've got it at my place." He reddens, then shrugs. "Been popping in and out of it, you know— But how did you—?"

"I made a new one, then Chen and I went up to the school and ambushed Chelsea. She's inside Dane's mask now—"

Caleb guffaws hard.

"Yeah, it's hilarious, but Chen is inside Chelsea's mask, and he's going crazy or something. I thought I was being smart, like I was sidelining him, but he turned it against me." Briefly, you describe how Chen is threatening to stay as Chelsea, leaving you stuck with Chen's shit life, unless you work for him. "So now I'm stuck as Chen, and I've got him as a boss."

Caleb can't help grinning. "Serves you right, I'd say. I'm glad I'm out of it." He turns to go.

"You sure you wanna be out of it? I got an offer for you."

Your question doesn't stop him. "Not interested," he says over his shoulder.

"Just listen to it."

"Not interested. Chen's got you well and truly fucked."

"How'd you like to be fucking Chelsea Cooper? I mean, how'd you like to fuck her, be her boyfriend?"

That stops him, and he turns.

"That's how I know about Seth breaking up with Cindy. It hasn't happened and it's not going to happen, not until I set someone up as a fake Javits. Then that lucky asshole gets to become Chelsea Cooper's new boyfriend. With all the rights and privileges that go with the job."

Caleb stares back at you for a very long time. "Chen's not going to put out, not for a fake boyfriend."

"But he has to," you say. "See, the fake boyfriend can't know that Chelsea's also a fake. Only I know that Chelsea isn't Chelsea. Chen wants it that way, keeps him safe from all the shit I have to pull for him. But if 'Seth'—" You put the name in air quotes. "If 'Seth' doesn't know Chelsea's a fake, then she has to act like the real Chelsea with him. And that means pussy and more pussy."

You grin around the question: "Still not interested?"

Next: "One Fire Lights, Another Goes Out" 

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