The Book of Masks (Vol. 5)

Explosions That Fizzle

Previously: "A Date That Wasn't" 

"This is a really bad idea," Caleb says for about the tenth time since you started. Keith too seems worried, because he keeps glancing up and down the country highway with an anxious look, and is so preoccupied that he drops an armful of sandbags into your hands before you are even ready for them.

It's Sunday afternoon, and your quartet is back out at the Larsen's "barn," offloading the previous night's work. You and Caleb and Keith filled twenty twenty-pound sandbags with dirt out at the Masonic cemetery on Farm Road, and then filled an extra two bags just in case. It was creepy work, in the cold and damp night under a moon that drifted in and out of scudding clouds, and the mood wasn't improved by the constant moaning from Keith about how you all could be dressed up and at a "dance club" instead of messing around with "fucking black magic."

It's not black magic, Caleb retorted, to which Keith asked, Then how come we have to do this when it's dark? Caleb had flashed you a look of deep aggravation and left it to you to remind Keith that you wouldn't want anyone seeing you tearing the sod off of graves and shoveling out the dirt from off of coffins, as they surely would if you did it at ten in the morning instead of ten at night. Shouldn't be doing it anyway, Keith muttered in reply. 'S'fucking black magic.

It was Caleb's turn to be mulish this afternoon when you got together at the old school (this time with Teresa) to decide what to do with the stuff. Last night you said that you'd figure out later where to perform the spell; this morning, Caleb glared murder when you said that the Larsens' place would be the best spot for it.

We'll blow it up! he shouted; Better their place than this old school, was your retort, to which you added, Besides, I'm still pissed that one tried groping me the other night. Caleb had grumbled, and is grumbling still, but finally gave in because you had the dirt, and he had no better suggestions for where to put it.

"Okay, now comes the fun part," Caleb says after you've finished pouring out the bags inside the old barn. You had to bury the grimoire itself—open to the spell—under the pile because there seemed no other way to get the dirt "into" the sigil. That fact has put you on edge, and Caleb too, probably, because it means you only have the notes Caleb took to guide you.

"It wasn't fun manhandling all that fucking dirt?" Keith mutters, but Caleb shuts him up with a glare as he asks you to get the book out of the cab of your truck.

But Teresa already has it. Her face is pale as she hands it to you, and her gaze is unwinking. You wonder if she's having serious second thoughts about shelling out the money for the chemicals you bought at the army surplus store—she wasn't at the school when the decision was made to perform the spell at the Larsens', even though it was originally her idea.

"Jesus," Caleb mutters as he bends over his notes, underlining each ingredient with his fingertip as he confirms that you've bought everything that's necessary. He squints off down the road, then orders you and Keith to start carrying the various packages and bottles inside.

"Okay, this stuff isn't going to blow up if we jiggle it hard," Caleb says after you've got it all lined up next to the berm of dirt. (Despite the reassurance—or probably because of it—Keith turns a ghastly shade of green.) "But there's no reason to take chances. Keith, how about you and Teresa go sit out in the truck while me and Will take care of this. In fact, how about you start up the truck so we can make a fast getaway if we have to?"

"It's my truck," you protest. "How about I wait outside while you and Keith—"

"Bruh, don't be such a chickenshit," Keith says as he backs out of the barn, pulling Teresa along with him. But it's the hard look from Caleb that causes you to wilt into compliance.

Briefly, still guided by his notes, he directs you to pour out the liquids and shake out the powders over the berm, and to mash and mix them into it. As you work, he talks.

"So I wanted you working in here with me," he says, "for a couple of reasons. First, you're less likely to be a fuck-up with this than Keith is. Second, I wanted to ask you again about this place. How come Teresa was so sure we could do it out here without being caught?"

You tense. "Like she told you yesterday, one of the guys told her no one ever comes out here."

"Uh huh. Is that what she told you?"

"It's what she told us."

"Well, she told me that she got one of those metal doohickeys onto one of the guys from Friday night, and that's how she knows."

You nearly drop the jug of rocket propellant that you're sloshing out over the dirt, and look up quickly at Caleb. His expression is shrewd and piercing.

"When did she tell you that?" you ask.

"When we were picking this shit up. You and Keith were hanging out up front, like you were scared the place was going to blow up if you got too close to the shelves."

You fume silently to yourself as you finishing pouring out the jug. Here I am trying to keep Teresa's secrets, and she goes and blabs them.

"And she didn't tell you about that?" Caleb says.

"Okay, fine," you sigh as you pick up the next item, a box that looks like it might contain detergent if it weren't for all the warnings plastered over the box. "I knew about it. She told me Friday night. She got a mask of Micah, too. We, uh, experimented with them on Saturday morning. It's how come I was busy and couldn't get together with you 'n Keith."

Caleb is silent a moment. Then he asks, "So how come the secrecy?"

"'Cos it was weird and embarrassing, okay? We did another one of those 'face mix' things, with Micah's face and mine."

"What's weird and embarrassing about that?"

"Because she's the one who put it on," you reply in a very small voice. You dodge Caleb's face and concentrate on your work.

"Well, if it was embarrassing," Caleb says after a hot and awkward silence, "then I'll have to take your word."

"So how would you have felt," you holler, "if she copied your face and then put it on?"

"It would have been my idea," he calmly replies. "Or, at least, I would have given her permission. Look, I don't want to get into it, Will, it does sound like it was, um, weird for you." You flush hard. "I just want to know if we're all keeping secrets from each other."

"Well, we're not!"

"Technically, you were—"

"Fuck you!"

"But not that kind of secret," he says, and raises a placating hand. "That kind of secret, something embarrassing, okay. Tee-bee-aitch, I don't want to hear about yesterday, not the details, now that you tell me a little. I just don't want it so that we're keeping secrets like—" He glances back out the door toward your truck. "Like that Teresa—or any of us—are using these things or making things without telling the others about it. Like I thought Teresa was doing."

"Well, she told you what we did!"

"She told me what she did. She didn't tell me what you and her did with it. She didn't even tell me you were mixed up in it."

"'Cos it was embarrassing!"

His lips twitch into the teensiest smile, and you are tempted to bash him across the face with the nearby shovel.

Instead, in a shaky but level voice you say, "She got the things, her and me played around with them, we would have told you and Keith about them except it was kind of weird, so we didn't say anything."

"Just so long as we're clear about everything," Caleb says.

"Uh huh. You got anything secret, or weird and embarrassing, to tell me, cocksucker?"

"No. And now we're all done. Except for—"

* * * * *

The last thing he does is pull a small pair of scissors from his pocket, and snips off a bit of your hair almost before you're ready for it. (You come within a whisker of knocking the scissors from his hand when he lunges at you.) He pushes it into the pile of dirt, then starts unwinding a length of detonation cord. He pushes one end of this into the dirt pile, and sends you out to the truck with orders to "burn rubber" as soon as he's jumped into the bed. You only have to watch fretfully—peering past Keith and Teresa, on the passenger side—for a minute before Caleb comes flying from the barn. The motor is already revving, and the moment he vaults into the back of the truck, you tear off down the country road and don't stop for half a mile.

For ten minutes, you and your friend wait and watch anxiously for any sign of an explosion back the way you came.

Finally, a quarter hour after Caleb lit the fuse, you drive cautiously back out to investigate. Inside the barn you find the berm of dirt quietly burning away, enveloped in a wavering sheet of purple flame. Caleb puts his hand out, and then into it, and declares (to his own astonishment) that it is giving off no heat.

According to the spell, there is then nothing to do but wait until the flames flicker out.

But they never do. After keeping a vigil for an hour, your quartet returns to town, with plans to check on the spell again in the morning.

That night you wait for a text from Teresa, confessing that she told Caleb about making copies of Micah and his cousin. It never comes.

Next: "Adrift and Seasick" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 5)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 5)"