The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)

Who Goes There?

Previously: "An Inside View" 

You decide that no news from Gordon is good news, and to let things ride for now.

As for his dad, his behavior tonight worries you enough that you slide the chest of drawers over to block the door. You don't like the feeling of fear that you've got; and you don't like the message it would send if he tries to get in during the night and finds that you're scared enough to blockade the door. But you figure that's better than waking up at two in the morning with a vicious, SWAT-style raid on your person.

On account of that worry, it takes you awhile to fall asleep. Also, you'd taken out the grimoire and started studying the next spell, and that's got you worried too.

* * * * *

The alarm wakes you early the next morning, and instead of cursing it you quickly get out of bed. You've not been keeping to Gordon's regular schedule, you realize now, of running in the mornings. You move the dresser back into place, slip on your workout clothes, and steal quietly from the house. During the drive up to Westside -- Gordon uses the track there for his running, and the changing rooms for showering -- you try to plan out the day.

Gordon's Sunday schedule almost always involves meeting Patterson and Lynch in the loft for an afternoon of drinking, cussing, and horseplay. That won't start until one o'clock, which is about the time that Will Prescott would be released from his own Sunday obligations of church and lunch. You could skip the day with Gordon's friends, but you'd rather keep things normal, at least until you can talk to Gordon.

But Caleb hasn't got Sunday plans, so after a jog that is much longer, much harder and a lot more satisfying than you're used to taking, you shower in the gym and call him to see if you can meet.

* * * * *

"Why can't we meet in the fuck room?" Caleb says, and he sounds whinier than usual, probably because you're meeting in the basement at the old Acheson elementary school instead.

"Because I don't want anyone to bust in us up there," you tell him. "You don't want it either. If Patterson or Lynch catch us up there," you continue as he frowns, "I'd have to fold you up and shove you in the refrigerator. It's one of those dorm-sized refrigerators, too, so I'd have to break some of your bones to get you in."

"You couldn't do that," he sneers.

"No?" You stand up and haul him to his feet. "You wanna find out if I could?"

He tries to maintain the sneer, but he also pales, so you drop him. "You heard from Gordon since yesterday? I mean, after we split up? "

"Do you really have his brain and stuff in there with you?"

"Sure. Memories and everything."

"Because it seems like you're overcompensating."

You relax and let Gordon come to the fore. To your surprise, he doesn't seem to have much to say. "What are you expecting, Johansson? You expecting me to fuck you up just for shits and giggles?"

"Yes."

"Okay." You grab him again, duck, and pitch him over your shoulder.

"Hey! Cut it out, Will! What are you doing?" He struggles.

"Looking for a cupboard I can lock you in. You can talk through the door until the air runs out."

"Stop it!"

"Then keep your fucking lip to yourself. Who do you wanna hang out with this morning, me or Gordon?"

"Neither of you, I'm starting to think."

"Well too fucking bad." You turn around, and Caleb yelps as his head hits a bookshelf. "I wanna talk to you, you and Gordon both, and I don't think he's gonna be around for me to talk to until tonight, so until then it's you, me, and fake Gordon." You drop him back on the desk where he'd been sitting. His red-faced glare pisses you off, and you slam the table with your palms. "I said who do you want to talk to? Because if you're gonna talk to Gordon, you're gonna do the talking with your mouth on one of the room and the rest of your face on the other!"

Caleb folds up, shielding himself with his hands and blinking behind them. "Jesus, Will," he says in a small voice. "When I said you were overcompensating, I meant -- "

You rein in Gordon. "I'm just showing you I can do it," you say, and clap him on the shoulder. The friendly blow almost knocks him off the desk. "Oh, sorry. Anyway, it's just an act. Except when Gordon's doing it."

The fear doesn't leave Caleb's face, not fully. "So what's it like having him in there with you?"

"I dunno. It's like -- " You shift from foot to foot as you try to find the words. Then you find the words in your feet. "It's like standing on one foot and then the other." You lean on your right foot. "Like, I can be myself, but I can still remember what Gordon remembers?" You waggle your upraised left foot, then drop and lean on it while raising your right foot. "And then I shift over to be Gordon, but can still remember what I know, who I am." You shift from foot to foot, rapidly. "Gordon. Will. Gordon. Will. Gordon. Will. Except not that fast, you know?"

"You do still feel like you're yourself, don't you?" he asks.

"Oh, sure. Even when I was yelling at you a minute ago. Except -- " You grimace. "When I'm doing Gordon, I've got his instincts too, I think, because I did kind of want to slap you really hard."

Caleb swallows.

"Anyway, you should get a chance to try it out. But you didn't tell me, did you hear from Gordon after yesterday?"

"No. I didn't call him, he didn't call me. I don't know what he did." He shivers. "You sure you want to know what he got up to?"

"Why not? What could he do? He's better prepared to pretend to be me than he was a couple of days ago."

"I guess." Caleb turns thoughtful, then a little smile creeps onto his face. "It would be kind of funny watching him pretend to be you. I mean, doing your personality the way you were doing Gordon's."

Frankly, you wonder if Gordon's got it in him to be that kind of actor, even with the mask's help. "Well, that's something to see. But I've got to go up to the school before I can see him, probably, so you two should definitely get together to talk about the next spell. I copied out the ingredients last night. I think I got the translations right, but I hope I fucked them up somewhere." From the gym bag you extract a folded piece of paper and hand it to him.

Caleb's brow furrows as he reads it, and he whistles softly. "These are some pretty hardcore chemicals. Real flammable stuff," he says.

"Yeah, I figured that out after some Googling. But check out the last one." You flick the back of the paper with your finger.

Caleb's eyes pop. "Dirt from a cemetery?"

"Yeah. What do you think of that?"

"I think I don't want to get into necromancy!"

You lean back against a desk. "Except the book hasn't said anything about necromancy yet, it's only been about making masks and -- "

"I think the operative word is 'yet', Will," says Caleb. "Doesn't every self-respecting grimoire get into necromancy eventually?"

"Since when are you an expert on grimoires?"

"So what does the book say to do with this dirt?"

"You're supposed to set it on fire, using those chemicals."

His jaw drops. "Now it's getting into rocket science! I mean, literally! Real literally, not that fake 'literally' that people mean when they say 'literally'. This stuff is like booster rocket fuel." His eyes narrow. "How old is this book supposed to be?"

"It hasn't got a copyright date on it," you remind him.

"Well, we'd blow something halfway to the moon if we set that stuff on fire."

"So you don't want to try it out?"

He shakes his head violently. "It's way too dangerous, Will."

"You've been really down on this stuff lately. You were all into it until -- Well, until we got Gordon mixed up in it."

"Oh, you noticed that, huh? Yeah, I'll plead guilty. I don't want him raising an army of undead shapeshifter things."

You actually feel wounded on Gordon's behalf. "He's not that bad. Trust me, I've seen the other side of -- I mean, you know what his home life is like."

And Caleb laughs, though bitterly. "Yeah, how is the home life?"

"That's something else I wanna talk to Gordon about, so mention that to him when you see him."

"I don't want to see him."

"And I bet you're not gonna have much of a choice. Betcha on Monday you're gonna have him for Walberg, if nothing else. Anyway, if you don't want him going crazy on your ass or mine, you better start being nice to him, treat him like a friend. If you really want nightmares, try to picture him taking the book up to the school and showing it to Patterson and Lynch."

"Oh, God!"

"That's right." You only intend to agree with Caleb that such would be a Very Bad Thing indeed, but he continues to look stricken, and then you feel stricken too.

For what is to stop him from doing exactly that?

"Uh, Will?" Caleb asks after a ghastly silence. "You say you've got Gordon in there with you. Would he do that?"

It's a tricky question. You've already discovered how hard it can be to consult Gordon's opinion on something or someone when it's not a question of following his instincts. But after a long hesitation, you think you can hazard this much of a guess:

Next: "Settling In" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 2)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)"