The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)

Stuck on Each Other

Previously: "Naturally Natalie" 

You're gobsmacked by Natalie's offer, but at the same time it leaves you feeling rather cold. You were hurt by the way Lisa dumped you for Geoff Mansfield, and it still stings, but now it feels more like a blow to your ego than to your heart. If you did bust them apart, what would it get you? If given the chance, would you really want to get back together with Lisa? Particularly as you'd much rather spend your time with Natalie? You'd have only one reason to accept Natalie's offer: to get revenge on them.

But busting up Gillian and Braydon would (or should) lead to something much more positive: a renewal of the friendship between Gillian and Natalie. And Gillian really does need to be freed from Braydon's influence.

So ...

"Whoa! Oka, that's a really, um, generous offer," you tell Will, "but I've got a better idea." You slip your arm through his. "How about we both get to work on getting Gilly out from under Braydon's spell?"

Will jumps and yelps.

"I know you don't like Braydon," you continue, and you snuggle up closer to him. "And I also know you were, um, trying to push me at Gilly, to get me in between them—"

"No!" Will squeals. "I wasn't, swear to—!"

"You don't have to pretend, Natalie. I know what you were thinking, and it's alright." You giggle. "I'd do the same thing if I was you. Trust me." You giggle again and glance up into Will's face. It's burning red.

* * * * *

You talk about it on the way back to the community center, and you also talk about your days at school and at home the night before. The upshot is that, even after you are back in the basement, you decide to stay in each other's masks. Neither of you is having much trouble fooling the other's friends and family, and it would also make it easier to tackle Braydon and Gillian. From inside Natalie's mask, you know how to talk to Gillian and maybe undermine him subtly from that side. But Natalie would have a double advantage if operating from under your mask, for she could use her own familiarity with Gillian to make "you" more attractive to her.

The only thing that bothers you (as your talk continues while translating the next spell in the book) is what happens if Natalie actually succeeds in prying Gillian away from Braydon. "What if this works?" you ask Will. "What if Gilly actually decides she'd rather go out with, um, you?"

But Natalie's having none of it: "We'll worry about it then," he briskly tells you.

The fourth spell in the book turns out to be nearly the easiest so far, and uses ingredients you already have at hand. You do have to set some stuff on fire over a sigil, and almost you are tempted to just use the sigil in the book (you've had no accidents so far) but do take the time to copy it into Natalie's sketchbook as well. Natalie herself wants to do the honors this time, but you snatch the sketchbook away with the lofty observation that "It's my sketchbook!" before dissolving into titters. And copying the sigil is the longest part of the process.

The result when you're finished is a bowl filled with a grayish, slimy slurry. It won't stick to anything—the bowl or your finger or the surface of the table when you spill a little onto it—so again you're fearful that you've messed something up, because it's supposed to be a paste, used to glue one of the metal strips into a mask. There's nothing to do but test it, so Natalie stretches out on a table, and you grasp her forehead in one hand, mutter the prescribed incantation thrice, and pull. There's a little jolt, and a mask comes away in your hand. When you look down, Natalie has her own face again, though she's still wearing your clothes.

She asleep, and she doesn't wake when you use the same trick to pull the metal band from her forehead. And she is still asleep when you finish applying the glue to the band and have set it into the mask, where it sticks firmly. Now, when you lift the mask to examine it, not only does it have a ghostly impression of your face floating inside its outer surface, it has your name floating in ghostly blue letters above the inner surface. Without waiting for her to wake, you drop the mask back onto her face. It vanishes into her, like a splash of water vanishing into parched sand, and she's got your face again.

You're bent over the book, studying the next spell with some disquiet, when you hear a grunt from the table, and look over to see Will sitting up with a grimace. He squints at you. "Everything go okay?"

"Went fine. Stuff stuck to the mask and thing like, well, glue. Can you tell any difference?"

He blinks a couple of times, and sucks on a tooth. "No," he finally admits. "I couldn't even tell you'd done anything."

"Well, that's good." You turn back to the book. "You know, it's going to be more convenient this way, putting these things on and taking the off. Having to do it only once instead twice."

"And I guess if we copy someone— Well, you'd only have to put it on them once instead of twice, if you've got the thing already glued into the mask."

You look up. "Who would we be copying? We've already copied each other."

"Oh," he stammers. "I was just talking generally. What's that say?" He points to the page you uncovered.

"The next spell. It's going to be a tricky one. The ingredients ..."

"We gonna need to buy some new stuff?"

"Uh huh. Some of it sounds kind of dangerous. Also—" You can't help lowering your voice. "It's starting to get a little creepy." You point to one of the listed items. "We'd need some dirt from a graveyard!"

* * * * *

Will looks over the list and concurs with your translation, but he seems distracted, and suggests ending the session early. "We're not going to get any work done on this tonight," he points out. "And if we're gonna have to go out to a graveyard, let's save it for the weekend." He grins satirically at you. "Make it a real date!"

Instead of driving you home, he drops you off at the Starbucks on Orlando Street so that you can get a ride from there. That way you won't get in trouble with her dad for being out with "Will Prescott." You told her you'd get an Uber, but instead you text Alyssa Randal, as you've been ignoring the texts she's been group-sending, asking for advice about crow-barring one of the new-to-town and very handsy basketball players off one of her cheerleaders. As you wait, you buy a coffee, noting that one of the baristas is someone that you—yourself—knew at school last year, when he was a senior. But Natalie doesn't know Justin Carr, so you ignore him.

Alyssa is happy to pick you up, though she is a little querulous, and wants to know why you need to be picked up and why you were ignoring her texts. You tell her you were hanging out with a guy that your dad doesn't want you seeing.

"You're not back with Karter!" she exclaims. "No, wait." She snaps her fingers. "It's that Westside guy, isn't it?"

"Yes. And he's nothing like Adam!"

"Well, thank God for small favors. How serious are you about him?"

"Um—"

"Because if it's serious enough you're hiding it from your dad—"

"My dad's just got the wrong idea about him!"

"And what idea is that? What'd you say?" she asks when you mumble the reply.

"I said, I think he thinks Will's another Adam Karter."

"Hmph. I think I wanna meet this guy. Is it serious enough I need to meet him?"

"You don't need to do anything, Alyssa!"

She turns to give you such a long stare that you feel obliged to put a hand on the wheel so she won't steer up onto a sidewalk.

"Well, at least," she says, "tell me how you met him, and a little bit about him, so that I don't start thinking he's Adam Karter two-point-oh."

So you tell her how you bumped into him at King Kong Komics one day, and wound up hanging out with him a little with Gillian, and how it's just kind of grown from there.

As for what he's like ... Well, it embarrasses you to try to describe Natalie's impression of you. And do you want to put words in her mouth, even though at the moment you are talking with her mouth? You might accidentally go too far and give Alyssa too strong an impression, if she hasn't got too strong an impression already.

So you straddle by pulling the sketchbook from your purse, and showing her the sketches and notes that Natalie made with her own hand. Alyssa studies them while stopped at a light. She says nothing, except to point to where Natalie wrote "should be wilder." "You just be careful what you wish for," Alyssa primly cautions you. "Remember Karter."

* * * * *

The evening at home is commonplace and boring, and so is the next day at school. You're loitering outside Eastman, waiting for Will to pick you up, when you get a text from him: Omg u wont belfef it This gnomic text is quickly followed by a phone call.

"I got a copy of Braydon inside a mask!" he tells you in a voice strangled with excitement. "You know what this means?" he continues when you answer him with a shocked silence. "We can pretend to be him! Use it against him! Pretend to be him with Gillian and screw him up with her!"

In a flash, even through your shock, you see the possibilities. But you also, immediately, intuit the dangers of going too far. Someone will have to wear that mask, if you're going to use it, and you're not sure you'd trust Natalie inside it. In fact, maybe you shouldn't use it at all.

Next: "The Gentleman and the Warlock" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 4)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)"