The Book of Masks (Abridged)

A Game and a Garner

YOU SPEND THE NEXT HOUR hashing out ideas for getting close to one of the Garner girls. You're not happy with the ultimate plan—there are several ways it could go wrong—but it's the best you come up with.

So the next morning—a Monday—you find Jeremy at his locker and apologize for the crap that happened at the school over the weekend. You've caught him in a good mood, and he is surprisingly gracious. You're relieved and happy when he accepts your suggestion to hang out that evening and shoot some hoops. A fist bump with Caleb back at your locker is all you need to tell him that you've set up the distraction.

* * * * *

Your time with Jeremy is a bit awkward. You've nothing about your current lives really to talk about, so you spend it mostly talking about your days together in middle school and before. Conversation is strained, and you're too conscious of the fact that he is holding back in his one-on-one play with you, but neither of you gets pissed at the other. Still, it's a relief when your cell phone buzzes, and you're able to tell him that you have to break things off. You're less pleased to see that he's just as relieved.

You rush over to the old elementary school to wait for Caleb, and are a little pissed when it's Jeremy who gets out of Caleb's car when it pulls in. "Jesus, will you get out of that thing? What if someone sees you?"

"Of course someone saw me in it," he chortles. "That was the point, wasn't it?"

"Well, let's get out of sight."

You go down into the basement, and Caleb unwraps the object he was carrying in his jacket: it's the second mask, which (thanks to the new spell) also has a memory band soldered into it. "Did you get her?" you ask.

"Take a look."

You hold the mask up to the light and peer into it. Yes, there's a reflection, and it looks like a Garner girl. The hair is long ... "Eva, huh." You turn the mask over, and see her name glittering on the inside of the mask, where the band has been attached to the brow.

"Yeah." Caleb flexes his long, strong arms. "Turns out she's got a thing for Richards."

"Ick. Did you try it out?"

"Nah, I thought I'd let you do the honors."

"Fine. Just don't expect me to suddenly develop a thing for him or for you."

He gives you a look as he pulls the grimoire out from under a desk and opens it. He sets the mask onto the page with the spell that made the glue you used to attach the mind-band to the mask; when he lifts it, the page flutters and he turns it.

Meanwhile, you take off your shirt—you will want to see her naked—and shoes and lie on the dusty floor. Caleb hands you the mask, and with a thrill of anticipation you drop it onto your face.

Something like warm sunlight flows over and envelops you. You feel yourself sinking.

And then someone walks into your head.

You feel a very strong presence with you, next to you, then inside you. Oh God, you gasp. It's like a million tentacles have exploded inside your brain, wrapping themselves around every tendril of your mind. They are squeezing, grasping, pulling at you. Your mind seems to be wheeling in dozens of different directions all at once.

Then everything feels very still.

You open your eyes. The room is dark and dusty, but you know exactly where you are. You give a little gasp that is actually a laugh. You sit up and smile at Jeremy, who is standing goggle-eyed over you.

"Hey there," you murmur in a soft, throaty voice.

"Will?" he asks uncertainly. "Are you in there?"

"Mmm-hmm." You smile up at him mischievously. "Better than that, I'll let you in here if you ask me nice." You rub at your crotch. "Or maybe we should pick up where we left off." You grasp the front of his track pants and tug them down. His erect cock pops out of the front of his boxers. You lean in to lick it with your tongue.

"Oh, Jesus!" He scrambles back, colliding with desks and falling back into a tangle of old school furniture.

You clap your hands and howl with laughter as you stand up. "That's what you get, asshole, for trying to prank me! You were just supposed to get close to her, maybe flirt with her, not—" Eva's memories come of Jeremy's lips, his tongue, his probing fingers, the bites on her neck. "You wanted me to wake up with her memories, and gross me out, huh? Well, I got you back, you fucker, didn't I?'

He grins. "Yeah, okay, touché and well-played. So you, uh, you do have her memories?"

You give an Eva-like squeak and squirm girlishly. "Pretty sure I do." You cup one of the huge breasts that now dangles off your much shorter torso. "Wanna suck on my boobies? Well, you can't." You look away with a sniff and turn a cold shoulder on him. "You're not really Jeremy, you're just a pervert trying to get into my panties."

He stands up and slowly approaches, ogling dow you. You ignore him, though, your attention having been caught by the mirror. In it, you admire the small face and the slender throat, and again cup and squeeze a large breast with its spreading pink flower. As Caleb circles behind you, you pull down on your pants and underwear, turning this way and running slim hands along your hips and thighs, and to pluck at the bush between your leg.

Caleb bends over—a tall order, since you now barely come up past his elbow—and kisses you deeply on the neck; without taking your eyes from the mirror, you reach up and brush your fingers through his hair.

"I'll swap masks with you afterward and do it again," he murmurs, "if you let me fuck you first."