Chapter #14Confessions of a Stooge by: Seuzz   "I can stay out as long as I need to," you reply. You want answers too.
They take you to a small house in one of the dowdier subdivisions in town, a few miles from the campus of Keyserling College. They tell you to wait in the truck while they go inside; Frank returns a minute later with some gym shorts and a t-shirt so you can make it to the front door without humiliating yourself further. Inside, you find Joe sitting on the sofa in a small living room. He's cradling his arm in his lap. Frank points at the floor, ordering you to sit, while he crouches in front of Joe and gently examines his arm. "It's broken," he says, and steps from the room. He returns with a long, flexible fabric bandage, which he uses to bind Joe's arm to his torso.
As they work, you study them. Frank is the taller of the two, with dark, thick hair brushed over in loose bangs. He moves brusquely and confidently, and gives the impression of being very strong. Joe is shorter, but more muscular. He is blonde, and his hair is much shaggier, drooping low over his eyebrows and curling off the back of his neck and under his ears. Both are dressed in sleeveless t-shirts and athletic shorts, and wear sneakers.
They murmur to each other in low, indistinct voices, and your attention turns to the house. Through one wide doorway you see the foyer and front door, and the entrance to a hallway; the foyer also opens out into another room that is hidden. Through another doorway you see a dining room table and a door that probably leads to the garage. The living room is sparsely furnished with a TV, an empty bookshelf, the sofa, a coffee table, and an end table with a lamp.
When he's finished with Joe, Frank turns a penetrating stare on you. "Tonight was a real clusterfuck," he says. "But you're our first really solid lead in this case. Be honest with us, if you want to make us happy."
"Can I see your IDs?" you ask in a voice that only slightly trembles.
"Would our driver's licenses work for you?" Joe asks. He's laying back with his head against the wall, eyes closed.
"We caught you running around naked at the house of a highly respected university professor," Frank says. "You're not really in a position to bargain."
"I'd still like to see some IDs."
"IDs can be faked," Joe says quietly as Frank's expression hardens. "So can driver's licenses. I myself am possessed of two fake IDs, against the misfortune that a bouncer confiscates one. Look, if it was just a wild party--"
"It wasn't a party!" you snap. Given what happened at Blackwell's, you can probably tell these guys, whoever they are, about it without bringing the masks and stuff into it. "Me and a friend, Sean Mitchell--" Might as well use the name that goes with the face. "We had business out there. Something happened, I don't know what. It was like-- I dunno. Professor Blackwell, he let us inside, and suddenly I just fainted. When I woke up, I was down inside that basement. Sean had broken through the window, and he sent me out to find a way back in, so I could get him and-- There was this girl down there, too."
"She didn't travel out there with you?" Frank asks. You shake your head. "Did you see her there before you had that fainting fit?"
"No. First I saw her was in the basement."
"Naked?" Joe asks.
"Yeah."
"Describe her."
"Joe," Frank says in a weary tone. "So you went out through the window. Then?"
"I ran into you guys."
Frank sighs. "Your name is Will Prescott, and you go to Westside? Okay, what business did you have with the professor? University business? Did he call you? Do you know him?"
"No." Okay, now it's going to get a little tricky. You might as well use the story Caleb had invented. "A friend of ours, he, uh, his father has this old book. Like, an old Latin book?" Your heart skips when Joe raises his head and fastens a bright look on you. "Anyway, we were investigating it. You know, because it might be valuable. This other friend of ours--"
"These guys, do they have names?" Frank asks.
"Well, it was Carson Ioeger who contacted Professor Blackwell, asking if he knew anything about it."
"Why Blackwell?"
"I don't know. Maybe because he's a professor of archaeology? He said he talked to a couple of professors about it."
"Any other professors know anything about it?"
"I don't know. Blackwell was the only name he gave us."
"What's the name of this book?" Joe asks.
Now your heart really does hammer inside your chest. Ah, but what can these guys know? "Something Latin-like. Liber. Liber Person."
"Libra Personae?" Joe says in a very fluent accent.
You swallow. "That sounds right."
"Well, it doesn't sound right when you say it." Joe smiles, though his face is still pale. "Say it again. Say, 'I'm telling you what I know about the Libra Personae."
"Yeah."
"Say it. Humor me. I'm telling you what--"
You sigh. "I'm telling you what I know about the Libra Personae." You're surprised at the way the hard words slide over your tongue. "Anyway, we went out to Blackwell's to ask about this book, because Caleb--"
"Who's Caleb?" Frank asks.
"My other friend. It's his book."
"I thought it was his father's book."
"His dad ran off years ago." You blink; Frank's eyebrow goes up fractionally. "Okay, yeah, the book belongs to Caleb," you hurriedly say. "He wanted to know more about it."
"So he could sell it?" Joe asks.
"No, because it's full of magic spells and things." You briefly choke. "He wanted to know more about it," you faintly add.
Your oddball confession doesn't seem to have fazed them. "Has Caleb done anything with those magic spells," Frank asks in a very matter of fact tone.
"Yeah, he's used them to make a couple of masks." The room begins to spin.
"And he told you and Sean all about these masks?" Frank's voice comes faintly through the roar in your ears.
"Yeah." The room blurs.
"So why did he want to see Blackwell?"
You take a deep breath, and the room steadies. "To find out more about the book."
"And what happened when you saw Blackwell?"
You feel much calmer, now that the subject has returned to Blackwell and the evening's events. "Like I said, he let us in, and then I fainted, and then I was in that basement, and then I broke out."
"Did you see anything weird in the house?" Frank asks. "Twins, or people who shouldn't be there?"
"No. Just Blackwell."
"How did you get to the house?" Joe asks.
"In Sean's truck."
"There wasn't any truck when we got there," Frank says.
"Yeah, I noticed that."
Frank and Joe look at each other, and then Joe leans forward, wincing as he does so. "Will," he asks gently. "That is your real name, isn't it?" You nod. "Will, you said you can stay out as long as you need to. Is that because there is someone at your house who looks and acts just like you?"
"Yes," you say, and pitch to the side in a dead faint.
* * * * *
Your head is full of cotton when you wake, and you sit up to find yourself on the sofa. You glance back, to see Joe and Frank at the dining room table. They rise and return to the living room. You rear back from them.
Frank stands in the middle of the room, hands on his hips. His expression is grim, but not angry. Joe sits on the sofa's arm and reaches for you. You flinch, but he only caresses the back of your head. "Will," he starts.
"Yeah, um, all that stuff I was saying earlier," you say in a wild tone. "It was all, like, you know, a practical joke? Because you guys were--"
"If it was a joke it wasn't funny," Frank says. "And it wasn't a joke, was it?"
"You don't have to worry, Will," Joe says. He continues to stroke your hair. "You can even start telling lies again, if you want. It was a mean thing we did to you, but you're better off for being honest. You're in a bad place, but you'd be in a worse one if you hadn't run into us."
You just swallow, and look at them fearfully.
"While you were out, we made some phone calls," Frank says. "We called your house. Talked to a kid named Will Prescott. From him we got phone numbers for Caleb Johansson, Sean Mitchell, and Carson Ioeger. We called them."
"And what happened?"
"We talked briefly to Caleb Johansson, Sean Mitchell, and Carson Ioeger."
Two of those make sense. "But Sean! He's--"
"He's at home. Says he's been home all evening."
You look wildly between them. "I wasn't lying when--!"
"Of course you weren't," Joe says. "If you were honest about the Libra and the masks and having a double at home, you'd certainly be honest about who was in the basement with you and how you got there. Does Sean have a double of himself?"
You stare. Caleb is in Sean's mask. But the real Sean ... "I don't know," you have to admit.
"Well, let's call him out here. Find out what's going on," Frank says.
You ask if you can use the bathroom first, and they point to a door down the hall. Inside, you splash cold water over your face. As you raise your head, you see the window.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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