This choice: Use the blank mask on Caleb. • Go Back...Chapter #15Too Many Twins by: Seuzz   You silence Dylan with a stony glance as Caleb drops the blank mask onto his own face; and after that you coat its inner surface with the magic mix—including a hank of Caleb's hair—prescribed by the new spell. You light it and let it burn, and then when you dust off the light layer of ash you find that the interior of the mask has turned the color of a golem's skin. "That's not promising," you mutter.
"I still want to be part of this club," Dylan says. He raises the mask to his face.
You block him. "No need for that," you point out, gesturing at the book. A mark has appeared, showing that making the mask has been enough to unseal the page. You turn the page, and between the three of you soon have the instructions translated as "to disguise another as another." "How is that different from what the other masks do?" Caleb wonders aloud.
"I repeat, I want to be part of this club." This time you can't stop Dylan before he has put the mask to his face.
You and Caleb look at each other skeptically, and then there is a second Caleb you can share a skeptical glance with. "So where's Dylan," the new Caleb asks.
"Don't be a smartass," you snap. "Take it off." He cocks an eyebrow and shoots a querying glance at your friend. "What're you looking at him for?"
"Do I have to take it off?" he asks Caleb. The latter nods, and with a shrug the new Caleb tries to comply. But the mask won't come off.
"Quit horsing around," you say. "You know how it works."
"I know how it works, but I don't think golems can work magic," he grumbles.
"You're not a golem."
He shrugs. "If you say so, but I'm pretty sure I am.
That's the start of a long and frustrating conversation, but it ends with the three of you deciding that the new Caleb is in fact a golem, and that Dylan has been completely obscured by the new personality. "No worries," the golem sourly remarks. "I still have that mask of Dylan you made out in my car, if you want him back."
"I know a better way," Caleb says, and leans over to rip the mask off. A minute later, Dylan is blinking up at you, and you have to give him the whole story—he has no memory of what happened after putting on the mask of his cousin.
"Intellectually, it's fascinating," you grumble. "But it doesn't help me."
"That's a matter of opinion," Caleb retorts. "The world would be a better place if there were more of me and fewer of you." You flip him the bird.
* * * * *
As there is no mask to put on his new golem, there is no reason for Dylan to take the golem home, so he leaves without taking it with him. "So, what do we do now," Caleb asks you with a sigh.
You look at the book, and your despair mounts as you examine the book and discover that you are now completely stuck. The page for the next spell is neatly torn across the middle; the top gives a list of ingredients, but the part that tells you how to put them together is completely gone. And though you can glimpse the next spell beneath it, the magic operates to make the words completely illegible: they seem to shift and dance like a TV picture that refuses to come into focus. And with no way to complete the next spell, there is no way to get any further in the book.
"I'm fucked," you say gloomily.
"We can find you a new identity," Caleb points out. "Make you a new mask—"
"And what happens to Will Prescott?"
Caleb bites his lip and shrugs. "I guess he disappears."
It's a grim fate, but there's not much else to be done. "I guess I can stay here until we can make up a new mask."
Caleb shakes his head. "I've got that Dylan mask still. You can put it on and stay at my place."
You grimace, but it would be nicer than the alternative. You clean up the basement as best you can, then lock it up for the night.
* * * * *
The next day is Sunday, and you spend it at Caleb's. Disaster is only narrowly averted when Dylan shows up unannounced. Luckily, Caleb's mom had left to run some errands, so there was no confusion when Dylan—supposedly staying at the house—shows up at the front door; and you're able to dash back into the bathroom and change into the spare Caleb mask before he can catch sight of you. He is still very bitchy when finds two Calebs at home. "What did Aunt Sarah say when she found out she'd given birth to twins?" he asks without bothering to muffle the snark.
"Oh, bite me," Caleb snarls at him. You do a double take, and stifle a grin when you realize Caleb is pretending to be you pretending to be him. "It sucks being made out of rock so I put this on after his mom left."
"Ignore him," you tell Dylan. "He's been acting like an asshole ever since yesterday."
"You're totally gay for each other," Caleb sneers. "I'm gonna get something to drink." He stomps into the kitchen.
Dylan makes a sour face at his back, but then leans in close to you. "I don't blame him, you know," he says in a low voice. "I'd offer to let him stay at my place, but he'd just tell me to go fuck myself."
You blink in surprise at his sympathetic tone, and it occurs to you that maybe Dylan has been such an ass only because you've been being an ass to him. "I'll mention it to him," you say cautiously. "But he gets in these moods."
Dylan shrugs. "Anyway, why does he have to dress up like you? Why not use the mask of that beanpole?"
"We left it back at the elementary school," you say. "It seemed easiest." You try to wave off his look of incredulity. "My mom hasn't been around much today."
"I can take him off your hands," Dylan repeats.
"No, you're right, we should use that mask of Jeremy while he's here," you say. "I'll go pick it up. You and him should try to make nice while I'm gone." Caleb returns, slurping on a Coke, and you tell him you're running back over to the school. "Don't be an asshole while I'm gone," you growl to him.
* * * * *
It's an uneventful trip (except for this one asshole driver who you swear was trying to force you off the road). Dylan has gone in the meantime, and Caleb's mom returns shortly thereafter, but you've changed into Jeremy by that point. And then it's another sleepover.
"You could take Richards' place," Caleb suggests from his bed after the lights are out.
"And what do we do with the real Jeremy?" Silence. "Yeah, you see the problem."
He shifts in his bed. "That new spell. It lets you hide people under other masks and puts them under your control. So, you could disguise Jeremy as someone else."
"And who do we disguise that other person as?"
"Maybe as someone new?" he says. "Like, get an image of someone who isn't in the school, someone we don't have to replace?"
"I could just be that person and leave Jeremy out of it."
"Or, you could replace someone else in the school, like Javits or—"
"I said, I could just pretend to be that other person."
"I know," he sighs. "But it would be nicer to have you close by."
"I love you too, man," you say dryly.
"Dylan would be the one to help out with finding someone new for you," Caleb observes. "Now that you two have stopped fighting." You'd told him about your brief conversation with his cousin.
"I think it should be someone who doesn't live in Saratoga Falls," you say. "Of course, I'd have to figure out how to make up a new identity for myself. You know, Social Security cards and shit like that."
You talk over possibilities. And then Caleb hushes you. "Listen."
There's silence, but then you think you hear it. Rustling from outside. It comes near the window. You sit up and stare. A shadow flashes briefly past the curtain. Then there's another rustling. But that is followed by unbroken silence. "Probably just some asshole cutting across the yard," Caleb sourly concludes.
* * * * *
You drop Caleb off at school the next morning (so you will have some wheels) and then go off to the clubhouse. You look through the book some more, but find nothing that previous examinations had missed. You are soon restless.
And then, about an hour before school is let out, your cell phone rings. It's Caleb. "What's up?" you ask.
He breathes heavily for a moment, and then when he speaks the words come in a rush. "Run," he says. "Run far, run fast, and don't stop running." The line goes dead.
You blink and stare at the phone. What the hell?
You have the book, all the masks and supplies, and his car. You can go to the school and try to find him, or go back to his place. But he sounded serious. Very serious.
Maybe you should go find Dylan.   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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