The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)

F Is for Fake, and for Flinch

"So wait," the naked Keith Tilley says as he gingerly presses at his bare torso with his fingertips. "If I got this straight ... I got Yumi Saito inside me?"

You sigh. "Technically speaking ... yeah, I guess."

You are trying to look everywhere except at Keith, and even when you do look in his direction you try very hard not to look anywhere below his eyebrows.

"Oh man," he gurgles. "So when I jack off tonight—"

"Oh, God!" You feel the vomit rising in the back of your throat. "Will you shut up and get dressed?"

Yes, based on what you witnessed a few minutes ago, he's got the real Yumi Saito magically hidden somewhere inside him, like one of those Russian dolls nested inside another Russian doll. And that's because he's not really Keith Tilley. He's beta-Keith, the fake version of your friend that was made by putting Keith's mask on top of the sleeping Yumi Saito. But he's such a vivid and life-like copy of Keith that it's hard not to think of him as the real deal.

Worse, he's a naked copy of your friend. And worse still is the way he's lustfully touching himself. But worst of all is the discovery that Tilley's penis is everything that he was always boasting about. It is long and thick and it dangles like a rope between his legs.

He smirks at you, and his gaze turns hooded.

"So, uh, the way you was flirtin' with me out in the hallway a little while ago," he says. He jerks his chin at the workout bench, where an identically naked Keith Tilley is still passed out. "He doesn't have to know it if you and me go off and—"

He steps up so close that the musty breath wafting from between his thick, chapped lips brushes your face.

"Yycchhh!" You shove him back, then hurriedly wipe your palm on the front of your sweat pants. "That was just fake flirting, you creep! And I was doing it with the real Keith! You're just—" You feel your lip curl.

"Hey, I gots everything he gots." He grabs his cock and waves it at you.

You respond by fleeing the bay, to join beta-Philip in the hallway. "Can we lock them up in there?" you cry.

"I'll take care of him," beta-Philip sighs, and blocks the naked beta-Keith. They argue as you duck back into the bay and kick Keith's disgusting clothes into the hallway. Eva and Jessica come out to add their voices to the argument, but you pull down the sliding metal door, shutting yourself inside the bay with the unconscious Keith Tilley. Eventually, the voices move off, and fade.
You pass five minutes or so in a distracted state before there's a groan from the bench, and Keith raises up. He winces and squints at you, then looks down at himself. "Hey," he says in a muzzy voice. "I thought I was s'posed to be Yumi by now."

"It's all ready for you." You march over to a crate where the finished mask is sitting atop Yumi's neatly folded clothes. "But Philip— Beta-Philip— Whatever. He said to wait for you to wake up first. Said something about it being less 'disorienting'"—you hang finger quotes in the air—"for you to wake up as yourself before putting on the mask. God, where does someone learn to talk like that?"

Keith grunts and lays back down. You carry the mask and clothes to him, and a gleam comes into his eye as you look down at him. "'D'ja fun lookin' at my"—he pats at his crotch—"while I was asleep?"

"Gah. Your fucking beta already sexually harassed me with his penis, and now you." You drop the clothes onto his chest, but keep the mask. "Lemme put this on you now. If you're gonna do gross things with your genitals, at least do them with Yumi's."

Keith's leer widens, but you quickly hide it by pushing the mask onto his face. It goes through the front of his skull, and your palm touches his nose and jaw.

But it's not his nose and jaw anymore. It's Yumi Saito's. You catch your breath, for the transformation surprised you even as you were expecting it.

Her expression is slack as she lays unconscious. But she's got the same pie-pan cheeks and pursed mouth; the same mica-black hair cut in a short bob.

And she's definitely got the same body.

Temptation is too great, but you yield to it only this far: You pick up her slack hand, and cradle and stroke it in your own. Yumi is such a good friend, you find yourself thinking. So loyal, so true, so passionate. Did I really have to do this to her? Could I really have done this to her?

Then you giggle. Sure I could! She's still be loyal and passionate and true. It'll just be a different friend driving her body!

You lay her arm over her taut stomach, then retreat back to your corner of the workout bay and take out your phone.

* * * * *

"Oh, dude, lookit me!" Yumi groans as she stares at her reflection in the floor-length mirror. She pushes her palms slowly up and then down the sides of her torso and her hips. "I'm smoking!"

"You sure are," you agree. You are standing behind her, looking into the mirror over the top of her head. (Yumi is about half a head shorter than you.)

She bites down hard on her lower lip, and her eyes roll back as her head wobbles atop her neck. "F'ck 'ee!" she mumbles.

You lay your hands on her shoulders and sniff the top of her hair. Yumi's intense arousal is turning you on.

"God! I bet she—! Gets herself off—! Every night!" she gurgles. Then she jumps, banging you in the nose with the crown of her head. "Jesus," she says as she holds her hand out, and her expressions turns a little frightened. "I'm sloppy wet down there!"

"I'm not surprised."

Yumi suddenly seems aware that you're holding her by the shoulders, with your nose only inches from the back of her head. She wheels and stares up at you with a look of shock on her face. You stare steadily back, unsure of her reaction.

Then her eyes lower, and her lips, which are parted, quiver a little. You bend to kiss them.

And just as they touch, voices sound in the hall. You freeze, and at a rattle of the metal door, you step back and look quickly around. But Yumi continues to stare at you with shocked eyes.

It's Eva and Jessica. They're already grinning, but their eyes pop when they see the naked Yumi. "Oh my God!" "Whoa!" "Dude, what are you getting up to in here?" "Can we play too?" They openly leer at you and her.

"He's just waking up," you tell them. "Still getting used to the new him. Her"

"Nice!" They circle her, and she sways a little under their stares, and shoots pleading glances at you. "You know, tomorrow," Eva burbles, "their's gonna be a cheerleading practice, and we're gonna get to be in a roomful of naked girls like her and us."

"You too, Cindy!" Jessica winks at you.

"Sure. So what are we doing tonight?" You have the sudden urge to get away from them.

"Make a short pyramid?" Eva suggests. Jessica adds, "And take turns looking up each other's skirts?"

"What's Fairfax say?"

"I dunno." At mention of his name, the air seems to leak from Jessica. "I guess we could all go back and find out. We just wanted to check up on you guys, make sure everything was okay." She flashes a wicked grin. "Make sure you weren't doing anything gross in here without us!"

"I'll help Keith get dressed," you stammer. "Be with you in a minute."

"Keith doesn't need your help, man."

"Do you have Yumi's memories?" you ask her. "Remember anything about her?" Yumi shakes her head. "He, uh, might have trouble with the clothes."

"We didn't have trouble with ours, Will." Eva sneers. "We know what you want!"

Reluctantly, you follow them out, glancing back at Yumi. She follows your gaze with a haunted gaze of her own.

In the studio, beta-Keith is nowhere to be seen, and you guess he's been sent away, but Maria and beta-Philip are in quiet conference. They break it up though as you and the Garner girls troop in.

"So it appears I won't be able to lure Chelsea out here tonight," Maria says. Her manner and demeanor are uncharacteristically dry and direct, and there's a penetrating gleam of intelligence—also uncharacteristic—in her eyes. "Tomorrow night will be the earliest we can effect her replacement, and I've already texted Josiah to let him know. In the meantime, I suggest we all lay low, avoiding friends and family, and returning home only when it is so late we can all go directly to bed, to minimize the chances of making mistakes or arousing suspicion. In the night, if past phenomenon can be trusted, we will acquire our impersonations' memories and characteristic personality traits." She says this with such sober dispassion that you almost shiver.

"Except for you, Will." Maria turns to you. "Are you truly certain that you already have full possession of all of Cindy's, uh, psychological states?"

You blink at him, translating. "Oh. Uh, pretty sure I do. You can ask me anything you want."

"I wouldn't know the answers. What about Keith?"

"He says he doesn't." Even as you speak, you hear a noise behind you, and Yumi, looking much more shy and even a little frightened, slides into the studio. Her expression is wary and watchful.

"Well, I suppose it doesn't matter if you stay or go," Maria continues. "Though I thought we would begin by discussing how we intend to proceed in our studies." She lifts her eyebrows slightly.

You feel the pressure to stay, and maybe you should, though you really don't want to. But if you don't stay, you probably would have to go find Seth, who has been texting you, and you really don't want to do that. Maybe you should just go home.

But what you want to do—except it would surely set off of gossip among the others—is go off someplace with Yumi.

Next: "The Run for Home" 

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