The Book of Masks (Abridged)

The Drama Hits the Fan

"WE COULD PROBABLY DO SOMETHING ELSE with these things later," you say, indicating the band and the mask. "We still have some leftovers from making them. Maybe we should prep some blank masks and bands, in case we can't use these with the ... with whatever this new spell is making."

Caleb agrees, and you scissor-paper-rock the division of labor: He'll make a new mind band, and you'll make up and polish a new mask. You part for the evening after getting the basic mask and band made.

* * * * *

The days that follow pass slowly. The fire in the clubhouse burns out sometime Friday night, and you relight it on Saturday morning; you have to relight it again Sunday afternoon and then again on Monday afternoon. Each time, you find that the berm has gotten smaller and more compact and is changing into something that is clay-like in color and texture.

There is some interesting gossip on Monday. You learn that Eva has indeed had a fight with Scott about some money he claims she owes him. But the crap doesn't hit the fan until Tuesday, when word spreads early that she's been in the bathroom bawling her head off. You run into Yumi Saito in the hall before third period and ask her what's up. She's also one of the cheerleaders, and is one the few nice ones who will talk to someone like you.

"Someone stole a bunch of money out of Eva's checking account," she tells you. "She's been accusing Jessica of doing it because, you know, the two of them look so much alike."

The news electrifies you, and you insist on hearing the details, to the point that you follow Yumi to her class and so are late to your own. But from her you learn that someone who looks just like Eva withdrew a bunch of money from her checking account, and even fooled her aunt into thinking it was her. Naturally, everyone in her family thinks that Eva is lying and that she withdrew the money herself. Scott and Mindy aren't helping matters, because they're saying they ran into Eva at the time she supposedly wasn't near the bank, and that she took some money off of him. Her friends are trying to support her and believe her, but ...

"Oh, that is the sweetest thing ever!" Caleb exults when you tell him about it that afternoon when you meet at the clubhouse. "I heard she was doing some drama queen shit, but I didn't know it was because of us!"

You feel kind of sick. "I wasn't really thinking that we stole a bunch of money from her," you say as you unlock the basement door.

"Oh, fuck, what did you think we were doing?"

"I dunno. Borrowing it? We could always pay it back. We've got the mask still, so it'd be easy to make a deposit."

"You want to throw your own money away on that cunt? Shoot me in the fucking face first, okay?"

Inside the basement you find that the aurora has gone out again, but when you refuel it and relight it, it stays out. The two of you exchange excited glances and run for the book.

"Shit, it says we have to polish it," Caleb says after examining and translating the spell. He glances over ruefully at the monstrous slab. "That's gonna take, like, two years!" Luckily, he's way off. The thing you've made, which is now much smaller and very solid, only needs a quick all-over buff with a cloth in order to get loose dust off it.

It takes you a bit of thinking to figure out how to use the thing to unlock the next page of the spell book, but eventually by resting the book on it you get the next page turns. You and Caleb huddle together and read the rest of the spell.

"It's a golem," Caleb mutters at last. (He is better at Latin than you.) He traces his finger under some of the lines and consults the online translator. "We put a mask on it, and it will take the form of that person, and it will be our slave."

"Our slave?"

"Well, your slave, I guess, on account of we used your hair in it." He makes face. "Suddenly, I'm jealous."

You look around. "So what do we put on it? The Jeremy mask?"

"I think it needs to be a mask that has a mind attached, like—"

"Like the Eva mask?"

You look at each other excitedly. "Oh, fuck, she's gonna be your slave, too!" Caleb cries. "You just remember who helped you make her, and who wants a piece of her too!"

You start to snatch up the Eva mask, but then you pause. You have the newly polished mask you made, and the mind band that Caleb made—both of you finished up with them last night. "Hang on," you say.

"What?"

"Oh, I'm just thinking ... What if I didn't want to go to school anymore? What if I wanted to send my slave to school for me?"

Caleb looks intrigued for a moment, and then his face falls. "Oh, you're not going to waste this on a clone of yourself, are you? I don't care if it does do what you order it, I don't want your mouth slurping on my balls, I want hers!"