The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)

The Fumble

Previously: "The Sequel to Cindy's Story" 

"If you want to give the book back to me," you tell Cindy, "or sell it back to me—"

"What?" Cindy rears back like you've just slapped her.

You blink. "Well, you look freaked out by all this."

"Yeah!" she exclaims. "Aren't you?"

"Uh, yeah. But I'm just saying, if you wanna get rid of the book, I'm, uh, willing to—"

You trail off. Cindy is staring at you in horror.

It takes her awhile to find whatever words she is struggling for, and even then she can't quite lay her tongue on them. "Why do you want to—? I mean, what are you—? Are you trying to—? What?"

You feel yourself blushing.

"I'm not trying to take anything away from you, Cindy," you assure her. "You just— Well, you're acting like you want to get rid of this stuff. Because it freaks you out. And I'm just telling you that if you want to, uh, get rid of it, that I'll—"

"What would you do with it?" she squeals, and snatches the mask to her chest.

"Nothing, I guess." You spread your hands in a wide shrug.

There's an awkward silence between you as the color returns to Cindy's face in a hard, ugly flush. You play with your fingers and wait for Cindy to yell some more at you.

"Well, look," she finally says, and leans across the table to hiss at you. "I don't like playing around with this stuff. It scares me! But I'm not going to let anyone else play with it either!"

"So what are you going to do?"

She squirms in her chair, and looks everywhere but at you.

"I don't know," she says. Then, impulsively, she snatches up her bag and stuffs the mask and the book into it. "I'm going for a drive," she says. "You can wait here. Or do whatever you want. I'll text you later." She bustles out with a loud sigh.

You hunch at the table and rub your eyes. What a cock up, you think.

* * * * *

You're still at the Cave an hour later, nursing a cold mug of coffee and languidly surfing the internet on your phone, when Cindy texts to ask where you are. Still at cave, you reply. She asks you to meet her in the parking lot in ten minutes.

"I thought about what you said," she says from behind the wheel of her still-running car when you make the meet-up. "I'm not giving you the book. And I'm definitely not giving you that mask. But—" She bites on her lip and makes a face. "I don't like having it and doing the stuff at my house. So, okay, you can keep hold of it. Just don't do anything without me along!"

"Are we going to go do something with it now?" you ask.

"No. I've got something else to do. And I'm not in the mood. Maybe next weekend, though. The rest of the stuff is in the back seat," she adds. "In those plastic sacks. All of it." She taps impatiently at the steering wheel and looks away.

So with a sigh you open the door to the back seat and pull out four plastic sacks that clank and knock against each other. The book, you notice, is in one of them, along with the mask. "Remember," Cindy warns you again, "don't do anything without me!"

You step back out of her way as with a frown she wheels the car around and bounces back out onto the street.

But you being you, naturally you manage to do something with the mask despite Cindy's very clear instructions.

* * * * *

It all happened because Jenny talked to Yumi Saito. Yumi is another cheerleader, and a friend of both girls, and though Yumi isn't one of your friends, particularly, she is at least friendly-ish to you. Still, it was a surprise when she texted to ask what you were doing, and invited you to meet her at the Sonic Drive-In for some takeout.

"Jenny tells me you've started hanging out with Cindy," she explains with a mischievous smile after she's settled into your truck with you. She beat you out there and is already sipping on a drink while you wait for your own order to be brought out. "What's the deal?"

"Extracurricular project?"

"Oh?" Yumi's eyebrows go up. "Jenny said it was on account of some prank Carson is pulling on Seth." You must have flinched, for she says, "That's it, isn't it?"

"No!"

"Are you calling Jenny a liar?"

The accusation leaves you reeling. "Because," Yumi continues, "it sounds to me like you're setting yourself up for a real shit storm. You do not want to get mixed up with Carson and James and their fuckery."

"It's not like that!"

Yumi plays with her straw. "You would tell me, wouldn't you, Will? As a friend who cares about you and doesn't want to see the front of your skull caved in?"

"I'm not—! What did Jenny tell you?"

Yumi's version of the story is, technically, factually, correct, but she and Jenny have managed to put the worst possible spin on it. Carson (Yumi tells you) was planning to use an old book to get Seth into trouble, but Cindy got to it first. "It sounds to me like you're still trying to use that book to get Seth into trouble." Yumi fixes you with a very hard and sharp look, and sucks her limeade down until the straw squeaks and burps.

You flush. "Can't Cindy be interested in the book? It's old and kind of ... funny. And she wanted to talk to me 'cos I'm the one who—"

"What's so interesting about it?"

"It's a, uh, a book of— about— magic," you stammer, and redden.

Yumi's eyebrows go up. "You mean like tricks with playing cards? Pulling rabbits out of—?"

"No! Well, um, more old-fashioned than that. It's more like"—you squirm under Yumi's skeptical stare—"like ... old occult stuff?"

Her eyebrows go even higher. "You mean like witchcraft?"

"Well—"

"Is that what Carson told you to tell her? Because I don't see—"

"Carson didn't tell me anything!"

"—I don't see Cindy being into that kind of stuff. Will." Her expression lowers into a soft glare. "I'm trying to help you here."

"Okay, it's got like arts and crafts stuff in it. I think that's what's got her interested. Arts and crafts projects."

"Like what?"

You sigh. Then—and knowing even at that moment it was a mistake—you pull the mask from the bag that Cindy wrapped it in, for you haven't moved the stuff out of your truck yet. "Like this. Pretty, isn't it?" you add with some sarcasm. Then you cry "Hey!" as Yumi yanks it from you.

"Oh, is this that thing?" she says as she turns it around in her hands. "Jenny was telling me about it. Cindy made it? Jenny said—?"

"Yeah, give it here, it's fragile." You reach for it.

But you're too late. Yumi has pushed the mask onto her face.

And you get to go through the same thing that Cindy got to go through with Jenny, as Yumi topples over unconscious into your lap.

* * * * *

At least Cindy's story cautioned you what to expect, so you don't freak out, not even when the carhop trots out with a bag of food for you. You pay for it and munch down your hamburger in silence while Yumi sprawls on the truck bench next to you. You at least have the wit to keep track of the time. It's about ten minutes before, with an anticipatory soft glow, the mask reappears on Yumi's face.

She's a little ticked at you after she wakes, even after you make up a bullshit story about how she must have "cut off the flow of oxygen" by putting the mask too close to her face.

"You just watch yourself, Will," she tells you as springs out of your truck. "You don't want Seth catching you with Cindy. And if you're fucking around with Cindy 'cos Carson put you up to it, you are all of you going to wish your mothers never met your fathers!" She slams the door shut.

And yet, somehow, the mishap has left you in a philosophical mood, and when you get home you figure that you might as well be hung for stealing a sheep as stealing a lamb, and out in your garage you set up a makeshift work table and set about executing the next spell in the book. Cindy warned you that the first spell made an awful stink, but even though it uses the same ingredients that the first spell used (and which she provided to you), you don't set off any bad odors. The result is a bowl filled with a thin slurry, and when you lift the bowl from the book—the spell requires that the bowl be set on the wheel-like sigil that takes up the bottom half of the page—the page underneath comes loose. Like the previous spell, the front of the page only contains instructions, but the reverse tells you that this paste, if applied to the interior of a mask, will seal it up, allowing it to be worn.

You study the mask before doing anything else. It still contains a face, but it isn't Jenny's face anymore. Nor is it Yumi's. If anything, to the extent you can make it out, it looks like something in between.

Next: "The Price of Progress" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 1)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)"