The Book of Masks (Vol. 3)

Getting Real with Charles Whitney

Previously: "A Meeting of Minds" 

It's a short fight. Your truck doors are wrenched open, and you and Roxanne are dragged out. Roxanne looses a single, short shriek before being muffled. You're slammed against the side of your truck, and one of the twins flicks out a knife and pricks the skin next to your eyeball with its tip. "Tell your girlfriend to put a sock in it," he growls, "or your optometrist is gonna be giving half-price on all your follow up visits."

One of the other guys laughs, but the one with the knife glares feverishly at you.

"Who are you?" you gasp.

"I think you know, you fucking faggot!" he snarls. He tickles your eyebrow with the knife.

"It wasn't him," his twin says.

"We got the wrong people?" asks one of the other guys.

"No, we got the right ones," says the one with the knife. He nods at Roxanne. "She's with 'em!"

Roxanne twists her head free. "Charles, you fuck! I was trying to text you, tell you that—!" She bites her lip, and looks between the twins. "That there's a guy out there who looks like you."

"Yeah, no shit!" snorts the one with the knife. "How come you think we came out to find you?"

* * * * *

You and Roxanne are bustled back down the street to Dylan's apartment. Charles Whitney keeps his knife out even after the shouting has stopped. That and the white, feverish snarl on his face are enough to keep you on edge.

It takes awhile for explanations to get sorted out, because Whitney and his friends (and his twin) want answers to certain questions, but you and Caleb and Dylan don't quite know how to answer them until you've got answers of your own. But when it's all sorted out:

The fake Charles Whitney, after leaving Dylan's, had gone back to Whitney's place, just as you and Caleb had anticipated. He found Whitney there, but after a lot of shouting and accusations—and even a short but bruising fight—the two settled down to an edgy, wary talk. The fake, of course, thought that he was the real Charles Patrick Whitney, but he couldn't explain himself, and neither could he explain where he came from, except that he'd woken up inside a ratty little apartment down by the university, with a guy demanding sex from him. (Lots of black looks at Dylan.) Meanwhile, two of Whitney's friends—the ones with him now—had shown up, and were able to vouch that the real Charles had left the party the previous night with them, and so was accepted (even by the golem) as the real one. The quartet then decided to find Dylan in order to get some answers, and have been camped out, watching the apartment, since earlier this evening, working up the nerve to bust in. It was your and Roxanne's bad luck to drive off alone, giving them a chance to grab you.

It's hard to have any sympathy for a guy who pulled a knife on you. Especially because he reminds you so much of Geoff Mansfield. He has raven-dark hair; black, flashing eyes; and dresses in the same expensive-looking clothes.

And as for your side of the story ...

* * * * *

"Fuck!" Charles Whitney (the real one) roars. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! You fuck!" He trembles all over as he studies the two masks he is holding: the mask of himself, and the mask of Eva.

"Easy, there," his friend Ethan Gilkey says, and lays a restraining hand on his arm.

"It wasn't you he was fucking and fucking up!" Froth shows on Whitney's lips, and his eyes bulge at Dylan. "I should—!"

"Hey, I said I was sorry!" Dylan retorts. "And it wasn't like I was hurting you. I gave you a good time last night, and if I wanted to keep having a good time with you—"

He is only able to rattle on this way because Whitney is choking on his own fury.

"—you didn't have to know. Blame it on these two clownholes," he says, nodding at you and Caleb. "They fucked up the spell for the thing."

Ah yes, the golem. It is naked now—a lumpy and vaguely phallic column standing in the corner. You got it to strip down to its boxers before you pulled the mask off, exposing it for what it really is.

So Whitney and his friends now know all about the golem, the masks, and the book that you and your friends used to make them. It didn't take as long with them as it did with Roxanne, probably because they had already met a doppelganger.

Whitney is shaking hard as he hands the masks to Ethan. But instead of rushing Dylan, he squats on his haunches and buries his face in his hands. Then he puts his head between his knees. Ethan pats him on the back. But there's a sharp look on his face when raises it back up to speak. "So what are you gonna do with these things?" he demands.

You and Caleb and Dylan exchange glances. Roxanne, who has been camped out on the futon with her arms and legs tightly crossed, rolls her eyes.

"We— We weren't planning on doing anything with them," you stammer. "I mean, we made the, uh—" You nod at the golem. "And we sold it to Dylan here 'cos we needed money to keep goin. But we're just, you know, figuring this shit out. Going through the book."

"Like a science project?" asks Whitney's other friend, Zachary Holzer. He laughs. "Fuckin'-A, man, that's funny."

"Okay, but what are you doing with these things now?" Ethan asks. He's not nearly as amused as his friend.

"Well, we're not doing anything with that!" Dylan lobs a thumb at the golem. "Frigging thing is busted."

Whitney comes alive. "Well, you're not keeping this!" He leaps up and wrenches the masks from Ethan. He shuffles them, then tosses one to Dylan like it's hot, and hugs the other to his chest. He flushes.

The moment seems to tremble. You have a horrible sense of anticipation, but an anticipation of what?

The answer comes when Whitney lunges for the book, which has been balancing on the edge of Dylan's dining room table. "And you're not keeping this either!" He sweeps that knife—it's five inches long, at least, and folds up into a sturdy wooden handle—around the room, and backs toward the door.

"What are you doing?" Ethan asks him.

"Whaddaya think I'm doing?" Whitney whinnies. "You want these fuckers making more of these things? You want them coming after us? We know too much, man!" He reaches the door. "Well, are you coming?" he shrieks.

You're too paralyzed to say or do anything, and Caleb and Dylan seem thunderstruck as well. Ethan and Zachary give both you and their friend some wary looks, then back toward the door too. Whitney fumbles the door open, and backs through it.

"You got any more magic shit we should know about?" he shouts at you, but doesn't wait for an answer. The other two run after as he spins and sprints away.

It's left to Roxanne to caption the picture of you, Caleb, and Dylan standing dumbly in Dylan's living room as the door swings open on the dark night outside. "Well, you guys sure made a real clusterfuck of it," she says.

* * * * *

There's not much else to say, except to agree with Roxanne. You ask her to tell you what more she knows about Charles and his friends, but she declares herself "beyond done" with you guys, and storms out. You and Caleb take off too. It's getting late, and you've got school in the morning.

You toss in your bed for what feels like hours. The shock of losing the book is so hot and fresh that it hardly even registers. You had it, and now you don't, but (weirdly) you have more than half an expectation that you'll have it again when you get up in the morning. Like, Whitney and his friends couldn't simply take it from you, right?

Except that is what they did.

And what will they do with it? That's the question they asked you, and it didn't sound like they wanted to do "science project" type stuff with it. But what else could they do with it?

Well, they could do what Dylan tried doing to Whitney, only to other people. Including you and your friends.

What did Charles say as he ran off? We know too much! Well, you and Caleb and Dylan also know too much.

And unlike you and your friends, Charles pulled a knife out, and it looked like he was capable of using it.

So that's why it takes you longer than usual to get to sleep.

* * * * *

You're moving slow the next morning, and your mom fusses that you're going to be late for school. One reason you're slow is that you're getting texts from Caleb. He too passed a sleepless night, and he wants to know what you're planning to do to get the book back. You've not given it any real thought, and it turns out that neither has he. What abt talking t that girl sm more? he suggests.

You reply that you don't think she's interested in talking to you anymore.

But the next text that comes in—it pops up on your drive out to school—is from Roxanne. She wants to know if you'd be up for meeting with her. To your surprise, she answers your question when with now.

Is she skipping? You're on your way to school, and meeting her would mean skipping at least your first couple of classes. Of course you want to meet with her. But why the urgency to meet now? Why can't it be this afternoon?

So you are wary. She goes to the Mutant school with Charles. What if this girl has to meet you outside of school during school hours because that's when the real Roxanne will be in class?

Next: "The Long Wait" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 3)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 3)"