The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)

Dealing with a Chenbot

Previously: "Shanghaied!" 

You'll call Caleb. But Caleb is at Seth Javits's number. You have to get his number off the internet, because Javits is one person who once upon a time you'd be even less likely to call up than Gary Chen.

"What do you need my phone for?" Keith asks. "And what was this accident you had?"

"Butterscotch, she said she was eighteen, and I don't remember what I got for number ten."

"Did you have a stroke or something? What the fuck are you talking about butterscotch for?"

"I was giving you answers. They're not the answers to the questions you were asking, but they're the only answers you're gonna get."

The line has rung three times by now, and only now do you remember that it'll be Tilley's number that shows up on the other end. Javits hates Keith, and beats on him at least once a week. Why the hell would Tilley be calling me? he'll be thinking, even if it's with Caleb's brain.

But the line picks up anyway. "Yeaahh?" comes a hoarse drawl: skeptical, hostile, dripping with malice.

"Hey man, you'll never guess who this is, but it's me, Will. You haven't heard my voice in awhile, right, but remember what we were talking about last night, that girl you went on a date with and she was so awesome and you couldn't wait to tell me about her?"

Dead silence. And in that silence a single voice speaks nearby: "The fuck does he want?"

Chen's voice.

"Yeah, I know you're dying to know what's going on," you say into the phone.

Keith says, "Sure as fuck I wanna know what's going on." You flip him off.

"So if you wanna know," you continue, "we should get together, just the two of us—"

"Where are you?" Seth demands.

"I'm with Keith. Obviously."

"When was the last time we talked," he asks.

"I told you, yesterday, little after midnight, after your date—"

Keith interrupts in a choked voice: "Who the fuck do you know who had a date after midnight?" He leans in close to listen at the phone; you elbow him away.

"And before that, out at the portables. We were making jokes about Patterson's sphincter."

Another pause, except for Seth speaking to someone else: "Shut up. Okay," he says when he comes back on. "Shake your friend and meet me at the Mickey Ds on Borman."

"I can't, he's giving me a lift, and I also don't have a shirt. Or shoes."

"The fuck? Alright. Can you meet me at Hochstetter Park?"

"I'd rather meet you at the school."

"Not the portables again."

"No, the other school, the one where we were working on that project." You avoid looking at Tilley.

"That place has bad memories."

"Come on, it's important. And just you, okay?"

"Right," he says in a way you don't like.

Tilley is practically in your lap by this point. "Who was that?" he pants as you close the line.

"It wasn't a girl, so back off."

"You were talking about a date. Could be a girl, could be hot lesbian action," he says. "Come on, tell me, I'll just check the phone log later if you don't."

"I wasn't talking to the guy who's number it was." What an idiotic thing to say, you tell yourself even as you say it. "Just take me back over to the, um, elementary school. You know, the one where we—" You break off before you compromise yourself by mentioning the basement.

"Where we what?" he asks. "Pssh," he says when you don't answer, and puts the car back in drive. "Everyone's so mean to me lately."

"Have I been mean to you lately?" you ask, suddenly feeling guilty.

"Well, no, not till just now. Have you decided what movie we're going to see?"

"What? Is that—? I mean, uh, no. You can pick."

"I told you you could pick 'cos I didn't care. Are you gonna get dressed or anything? You know, they keep those auditoriums pretty fucking chilly these days."

"That's why I need to go over to that school, that's where my things are."

"Yeah, what happened?"

"None of your business, it's embarrassing."

"Everyone's being mean to me lately," he says again in a sulky tone. "Yesterday it was Caleb lighting into me for no good reason."

"Just tell him to fuck off and see what happens. You can let me off here," you say as he turns onto the street where the old school sits.

"Am I waiting for you or fucking off?"

"Neither, you're gonna go get something to eat, then call me at my number or go by my place. If I act like I have no idea what you're talking about, that I was home all this time, it's because I wanna forget this whole fucking thing happened, and that means pretending that everything between twenty minutes ago and twenty minutes from now got lost in a cosmic computer crash."

"Well, someone suffered some kind of crash," he grumbles as you clamber out of the car. He sits idling the motor, until you show him both middle fingers, then drives off.

* * * * *

Fifteen minutes later, Seth Javits drives up. You had no idea what direction he'd be coming from, or where he'd park, so you are huddling ineffectively by a corner of the building when his white truck pulls onto the little patch of ground where you've been parking. You're horrified to see that he's brought Chen—the one who imprisoned you—with him.

"Hsst! Hsssstt!" Seth either ignores or can't hear the noise you're making as he gets out and swaggers over to the basement. At least Chen remains in the truck cab. "Hey!" Finally, you loose a whistle.

Javits and Chen both swing their heads at the noise. Javits just stares; you can't make out Chen's expression from inside the truck cab, but he doesn't move.

Caleb hunches slightly as he edges toward you. "The fuck are you—?"

"That's not me in there!" you hiss at him, pointing to his truck. "This is me and that's a fake!"

"How the fuck did—?" He looks between you and Chen, realizing that he's caught between you, and that Chen has spotted you as well. He gazes at you piercingly. "Gordon?" he asks in a low voice.

"No! It's me, you dumbass! Will! That spell we were working on, it finished up and I accidentally made a Chenbot! It took my clothes, locked me in the basement, and ran off straight to you!"

"A Chenbot?" Seth exclaims. "What he fuck is a—? Hey!" He calls back to his truck. "Come out and help me deal with this—"

"Jesus Fuck, Caleb!" you yell, jumping and trying to run backwards as Chen explodes from the truck and races toward you, his face contorted with rage. "The fucking thing's gonna kill me!"

He seems to sense the same murderous intention in Chen, for he grabs your would-be assailant about the torso as he flies past. Chen struggles, and tries kicking at you.

"Stop that," Caleb yells, and Chen abruptly stops, though he still glares haggardly at you.

"Hold him while I get the mask off him!" you yell.

"No one's taking any masks off anyone," Caleb yells back. "Or I'm gonna take 'em off both of you! Will, whichever one of you is Will, just hold tight!"

Chen instantly wriggles from his arms and charges at you. "Stop!" Caleb yells.

And Chen, his hands only inches from your face, crashes to a halt. His lips peel back and his mouth froths.

You can only stare back while cinching your sphincter shut.

"I don't know which one of you is which," says Caleb as he comes up, looking between you. "But—" He frowns at Chen. "The fuck is your problem?"

"My problem is this asshole!" Chen roars. "You too, shitbag! Make up your goddamned mind what you want me to do!"

* * * * *

"Why the fuck wasn't it obeying me?" you wail.

"'Cos it knows which of us has the brains," Caleb snickers. "You should've waited for me."

You're in the basement, and the clothes and mask are off the thing and laying on a desk. Before disassembling it you'd tried a few tests, all with the same results: Chen would follow Caleb's orders with a kind of literal-minded precision while replying to yours with obscenities.

"I own the book," you mutter. "I mixed up the ingredients."

"I mixed up the ingredients," says Caleb, still in Javits's mask.

"I dug up most of the dirt, set the fire, looked after it. And it fucking turned on me. Now I know how my dad felt after making me. I even made the sigil!"

"There's one thing you didn't contribute," says Caleb, who has been poring over the spell. "Hair. We used mine."

"You think that made a difference?"

"Could be. You know how hair and fingernail clippings and shit like that is supposed to be, like, magical or something."

"Fuck! That means I can't use it as a Chenbot!"

"With all due respect, Will, that was not your brightest idea. You should have used Chelsea's mask. Oh, man! Hey, this means I get to tell you all over again what we did last night!"

"No it doesn't! Is that what you were talking about when you were with it? Never mind, I've got things I have to do. Things I wanted my Chenbot to do for me."

"You could always tell me what they are, and I could order him to do them."

"No, I better do them myself." You look at Chen's mask. Now that you're out of it, you don't want to get back into it again.

"What do you have to do?"

"Stuff with his grandfather," you lie.

"You mean that sick old man you were telling me about?" Caleb says. "Dammit, Will, you're not thinking of using him in the next spell, are you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I was glancing at the next spell," he says. "It calls for using a body. Like, a sacrifice, I think."

Next: "When a Body Needs a Body" 

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