The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)

A Yumi Trap

Previously: "Crushing It as Cindy" 

It seems safest to go with Yumi. Cindy isn't especially friendly with Andrea; she and Kelsey have never gotten along; Kendra is an outright enemy; and you figure you shouldn't push an identity onto Keith that he hasn't picked for himself. That leaves Yumi, who is both a cheerleader and a fanatical supporter of Cindy.

I'll tell Philip you picked Yumi and start setting it up to get her out here. OMG we're going to have so much fun!

And as soon as you hit "send," something goes sploosh down below at the thought of you and Keith, hanging out together in Cindy's and Yumi's bodies.

* * * * *

You were just going to go out to meet him, but the moment Keith's car pulls up, you get a wicked idea. You wait until he'd gotten out, then push the door open and step outside. Keith freezes, a wary look on his face as you glance around the complex in almost every direction except his.

"Hey, have you seen Seth around?" you ask in a peevish tone. Briefly, you give Keith a direct look, then glance away with a wince. When he doesn't answer, you cluck your tongue and pull out your phone. "Are you here to help with our video thing?" you ask as you scroll your thumb over the screen. "They're waiting for you inside if you are."

"Yeah," he mumbles, "I'm here for—" He trails off as you bend your head over your phone with a frown.

But he starts to edge past you, you block him by shooting out your arm.

"Hey," you murmur at him. "I asked if you'd seen my boyfriend around, 'cos if you haven't—" You hike up the front of your shirt to expose your bra. "I'll let you kiss my tits." From under your brows, you grin wickedly at him.

Keith stares, then jumps nearly two feet into the air and backwards. You guffaw at him.

"Whaddaya think, dude?" you chortle as he gasps and flounders. "Think I could pass for Cindy?"

"Wuh-wuh—! Wuh—! Fuuuuhhck!" Keith bends double and clutches his stomach.

"Come on." You pull the door open. "Yumi's on her way, and Mike and Carlos are gonna bust their new hymens if you don't get in there and help them set up for her."

"I'm gonna fucking kill you, man," he mutters as he follows you in.

You quickly block him again, and push him with your body up against the wall. "Don't be dick about it, man," you breathe softly over his face. "If you kill me, we can't have fun. You wanna have fun with me, don't you, Keith? I know you jerk off to me almost every night. At least," you sigh, "that's what your friends tell me you do."

"Oh God," he groans, and his face turns very red as his eyes clench shut. You're close enough that you can feel the thing straining at the zipper in its desire to touch you.

You pop him on the forehead with your palm. "So snap out of it! I have to wait here for Yumi and you have to get down to the studio. After that we can talk about who you want revenge on. Me or Seth!"

He hobbles off down the corridor toward the studio, waddling with outspread legs like he's trying to walk while straddling a sawhorse. You smirk at his retreating back.

* * * * *

"Oh my God!" you croon at Keith's body donor as she climbs out of the cute little Nissan Sentra that she drives around town. "Did you have any trouble finding the place or getting in?"

"It has a big sign and everything, Cindy," Yumi says. "But this is the place?" She grimaces at the complex.

"I know, it shouldn't make sense." You tap in the code to the climate-controlled complex, and pull open the door. "And the way they all explained it, Seth was like, Unh—!"

"But what's going on? What's the idea?"

"They want to make some videos with us," you explain as you usher her inside. "You know, showcasing us individually or in small groups. Then we can post them online—"

"You mean like to TikTok?"

"Something like that."

"But I can do that already. We already have, Cindy."

"Not like this. These guys are, like, pros. The videos they were showing me and Eva and Jessica, the angles and edits and effects—"

"Eh."

You catch her by the elbow—you're being in character, you suppose, or you'd never have wasted time like this—and say, "And we're not telling Chelsea what we're doing. Not until we've posted them. Posted lots of them." You smirk.

Yumi's eyes widen. Then her mouth widens into a grin. "Oh."

"Uh huh. I don't know if it'll do any good," you say as you resume your march down the hallway. Yumi has to trot to catch up. "But it'll make me feel like I'm finally winning for once." You tuck back a stray lock of hair.

"So who all is in on it?"

"Eva and Jessica. They're the ones that called me out here to talk about it. I need to call Lin—"

Up ahead, just a few doors away, Keith pokes his head out of the studio. His eyes pop when he sees you and Yumi, and he quickly vanishes.

"Was that Keith Tilley?" Yumi asks in a low voice.

"Tch, I dunno. Just one of the guys, far as I'm concerned. There's two of them, and he's one of them. Philip Fairfax is—"

"Did you say something about Seth being here?"

"He was. I had to get rid of him, he was being a pest."

You're at the studio door now, and you turn to find Yumi hanging back a few steps. But at a look from you, she comes forward and steps into the studio.

Eva and Jessica are manning the camera and lights, setting them up to face Maria, who is frowning with obvious puzzlement into the screen of her phone from behind the desk. "I can't figure out," she says in a distracted tone, "if it's the makeup or the lights." Then she glances up, and does a double-take at you and Yumi.

You can sense Yumi tensing beside you, obviously surprised to find one of Chelsea's best friends here. You don't give her time to wonder, though. "Keith, Philip?" you say, and tuck your arm into Yumi's to hold it in a tight embrace. A blank-faced Philip Fairfax steps from a corner to seize her by the other arm. And Keith—

The dope.

—wavers and sways in front of her with popping eyes and a panting mouth. He's got a mask in his hands, and you can just tell he's going to fumble and drop it.

But for once in his life, Keith fails to be a complete numbnuts, and as Yumi starts to pull hard at your grip, he leaps forward and smashes the mask into her face. Only then does he trip and fall backwards onto his ass. Yumi too goes limp, and you have to scramble with beta-Philip to keep her from dropping. "Will you fucking help us here, man?" you grunt at Keith, and he scrambles up and over to help cushion her fallon to the concrete floor.

"For such a short thing," you huff as you glare down at her, "she sure weighs a fucking ton."

"It's muscle mass," beta-Philip says. "Muscle density is such that—"

"Can you shut your fucking beta up?" you call out to Maria, who is still staring at your company with her mouth hanging open. "I don't wanna hear about fucking 'muscle mass' or whatever the fuck! And you guys," you snarl at Eva and Jessica, "were fucking useful."

"Bite me," Eva retorts. "We did our part already, you and Keith can take care of the rest." She goes back to tapping at her phone, which is connected to the camera with a wire.

"Fine, come on," you sigh. "You take her arms and you can take her wrists," you say to Keith and beta-Philip.

"And what'll you do?" Keith puffs as he picks up Yumi by the ankles and tries to shift her.

"Supervise. We're taking her next door."

In short, shuffling steps the boys push and pull Yumi into the corridor and around the corner into the next bay over, where two masks and some supplies are waiting. "Okay, if I remember this right—" You glance over at beta-Philip for confirmation. "Keith needs to get undressed and put on his mask to put his latest memories into it. While that's happening, we undress Yumi—"

"I wanna watch," Keith exclaims. "You undressing Yumi, I mean"

"You'll have plenty of time for that back at her place. When you're in her place."

"But—"

"Keith," you warn him. "Do you want me to get the real guys in here?"

He hangs his head, and drops onto the workout bench to remove his shoes.

"And while he's doing that—" You return your attention to beta-Philip. "We ... do something to Yumi's mask?"

"I can take care of that, er, Will," he says.

"Thanks. But I'll watch, because I want to see how it all works." Now that you're on the other side of your own transformation, you feel much less wobbly and distracted, better able to concentrate on the magic and on the procedures.

So, while Keith, naked, lays in a daze on the workout bench with a mask inside him, you and beta-Philip strip Yumi of her things: shoes and socks, sleeveless blouse and bra, flannel shorts and panties, leaving her pale and exposed and quivering under the unflattering lights of the bay. So her color is off, but her form is still wonderful. She's a compact girl, with short, strong legs under a wide, bowl-like set of hips; a squat but curvy torso balanced at the top with big, globe-like jugs; toned arms; and a small face that even unconscious is set in an expression of determination and defiance. A real fireplug-firecracker of a girl.

And in a few minutes that's going to be Keith Tilley's face and body? You shake your head. Somehow it seems even less believable than your own transformation into the sexy Cindy Vredenburg.

Next: "F Is for Fake, and for Flinch" 

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