The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)

Underground Work

Previously: "All Is Made Clear" 

"What are you guys talking about?" you cautiously ask.

Joe and Grant and Justin glance at each other. "Making some more of those masks," Joe says quietly. "You need something to do down here, and—"

"What do you want them for?"

His lips disappear, and his gaze goes a little shifty. "Nothing bad. Like, how you and your friend— What's his name? Anyway," he continues when you don't answer. "You were pretending to be each other?" He shrugs. "Just something like that."

"That's how it started," you retort, "and look where I ended."

Joe winces and withdraws, and you think that'll be the end of it, but Grant leans in. "But we saw how you messed up," he says. "We wouldn't."

You're dubious that he's right, but you don't argue. They may be sophomores, but they're not smaller than you, and there's three of them—five, including Andy and Bhodi in the corner.

And could they get into trouble? If they only had masks of each other, they could only swap them around like you and Caleb did. Unless there's some set of bullies on the loose to jump them like Gordon jumped you—

And that was a one-in-a-million fuck up on your part, his part, and Caleb's.

—then they're right there's not much chance of them getting into a fucked-up state like you got.

Besides, doing this favor for these guys might get you in good with them, and given that you've got a half-dozen kids from the sophomore class pissed off at you, and you don't have a home at the moment, then you need all the friends you can get.

Still, you decided to play it a little warily, in case it's a trap.

"I don't guess I could stop you guys from making the masks on your own," you observe as casually as you can manage. "You've got the book, I mean." The three sophomores give each other quick, sidelong glances. "Except you might mess up. If you're going to do this thing anyway, I should do it for you so you don't hurt yourselves."

Joe and Justin look insulted, but Grant breaks out in a wide grin. "That's awesome." He bumps you in a friendly way with his fist. "How long would it take you?"

"Depends on if you guys want to do full role-playing, like— Uh, like I was doing with Bhodi." You feel yourself crimsoning a little at the reference to your just-completed adventure. "I can have three masks ready by tomorrow morning, but you won't be able to have memories or anything in them."

"That's okay," says Joe, and even in the dark you can't miss the dark blush that swells up his neck and throat to swallow his jaw and cheeks. "Just as long as we can, you know, look like each other."

"Come on, man," Grant says, and his hands and feet go in about three different directions. "I wanna play around with the whole—"

"Quiet," Justin growls. He doesn't talk much, you've noticed. He glances over his shoulder at Andy and Bhodi. "We can worry about that later."

"I can do the work," you continue, "but I'm gonna need a sleeping bag or something, you know."

"Lindsay and them will bring one back," says Joe. "We'll stop by tomorrow morning to pick up the masks, tell you what's going on."

"Won't Bhodi be carpooling with you? You want him to know about this?"

They look at each other. "I'll stop by," Justin says.

Before there can be anymore talk, Bhodi stirs in the corner. He and Andy talk quietly for a moment, just the two of them, before Joe and Justin go over to join them. But Grant stays with you, and grabs your hand for a quick, excited squeeze while grinning manically.

Bhodi doesn't talk to you, and he goes outside with Andy, taking his mask with him. Joe comes back over to tell you that your idea worked—he can now "remember" what you did as him today. Lindsay comes back not long after with a sleeping bag, which she hurls at your head; the guys say something about staying with you to make sure you work, but she barks at them like a trail boss and chases them back upstairs. "We'll check on you after school," she says from the top of the stairs. You nod, and say nothing about expecting a visitor in the morning.

You spend the night working, though the dim electric lights are a strain on your eyes. You have enough ingredients to put together three new masks, which you cast, though the odor stinks up the basement. It's another three hours of polishing them, by which time it's deep in the early morning hours. Stiff and cold, you crawl into the sleeping bag for an exhausted slumber.

* * * * *

You're woken the next morning by the banging of the door, and you bolt up with a kind of drowning sensation. "Hey, rise and shine," says Justin, who is standing where Lindsay had stood the night before.

"Christ, I was up until two working on the shit for you guys," you retort, and rub your eyes deeply. If your brain had feet, they'd be sliding around under you, like a dog running on a parquet floor.

"At least you don't have to go to school today." He clomps down the stairs. "Lucky bastard. You got that one guy, the basketball guy, covering for you, and Bhodi's back to being himself—"

"Yeah, and what's going to happen to Evie?"

"I dunno. That's Lindsay's job to figure out. Is this them?" He stops at the table where the new masks are piled.

"Yeah." You yawn deeply. "All ready. Except ... "

"Except what?"

You grind the heels of your hands into your eyeballs. You don't want any fuck ups. "Well, you have to put your faces into them. And then you have to seal them."

"How do we do that?"

You look around, but the sealant is nowhere to be seen. When packing up supplies, Lindsay must have kept it back along with the two masks they all seized.

You sigh. "You guys took all our shit, right? Including a Tupperware container?"

"I guess."

"Don't guess," you snap. "It'll be with the masks, so maybe you should bring it all here so I can—"

"No, I remember what you're talking about," he quickly says.

"Huh. Well if you do, it's that stuff I'm talking about. You have to paint it all up across the inside of the masks. Or else you'll mess up the images if you start swapping them around."

Justin picks up a mask. His long, heavy-lidded face scrunches up thoughtfully. "Okay. Put our faces into them, seal them up, swap them around. Is that all?"

"Yeah, I guess. Basically. Except when you put them on—" You yawn again. "When you put your faces in, you'll knock you out for ten minutes or something. And when you put them on after you seal them up, you'll knock yourselves out again. Same thing when you take them off."

"How do you take them off?"

"You got some paper?" Justin has to retrieve a notebook from outside, and when he's back you write down the magic words and teach him how to say them while grabbing onto his face. "Now that's all." Your stomach growls. "Hey, do you think you could go get me some food or something?"

"Joe's gonna drop you off some on his way to school. Breakfast and lunch, so don't eat it all at once."

"Bhodi'll be with him, right? Shouldn't you get out of here before they get here?"

"I'm fine, they won't be along until a little before eight. It's six-thirty now," he adds when you blink at him.

Oh, Jesus."Then go away so I can get a little more sleep."

"Don't you have to finish that thing for Lindsay?"

"She won't be by until late this afternoon." You crawl into the sleeping bag and turn your back on him. "Good-bye."

You can feel him grinning at you, but you ignore him, and a couple of minutes later you hear his feet going up the steps and the door closing. The lock claps shut with a thunk.

* * * * *

Joe stops by with a sack of food from McDonalds. After he leaves, you lay in a dim state between consciousness and unconsciousness for a couple of hours before rousing yourself to finish that brain band.

As you work, you naturally ponder what will be coming next. The brain band you're working will have to go onto Dane's mom so you can find out what the hell is going on with him. After that you're going to have to figure out a way to get Dane back. It might be as simple a matter as making a phone call, but if you have to do anything more than that—

Your mind freezes and goes blank when you try to contemplate the sequel to getting a copy of Mrs. Matthias's brain.

You also wonder about Caleb. He doesn't know what all has been happening. He'd yell at you hard if he knew, but he's your only real friend in this mess. Maybe you should tell Lindsay (when she shows up) that you want him out here, that you'll need his help.

You pause, considering your options. You dig inside the pack of supplies and pull out the two brain bands you and Caleb made the other afternoon, before it all went to shit. You slip them into your pocket. Just in case.

And maybe you should prepare for other eventualities. You've got a couple of hours before Lindsay shows up. Plenty of time to make a new mask. With that and one of your three brain bands, you could grab her, copy her, lock her in the basement, and impersonate her long enough to collect the mask stuff and ...

... And then what? Take off for new places and let Evie's friends deal their own problems by themselves?

* To continue: "The Mind of Marianne Matthias" 

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