The Book of Masks (Abridged)

Clone Show

"I DUNNO," you say. "I feel bad enough taking $500 off her. Asking her clone to—"

"Let me cum on her face?"

You punch him in the arm. "I feel like we've taken enough advantage of her. I'm going to try this on myself."

Caleb doesn't just groan, he goes off in a corner and sulks. "You wanna come see this?" you call to him an hour later when you've got the mask all prepared, and you've clambered up next to the golem.

"Why should I? I've seen you naked."

You make a face and drop the mask onto one end of the golem-mass.

It's like dropping a large rock into a pond, and the mask disappears without a trace. Despite what he had said, Caleb hurries over to have a look, and scoots up next to you just in time to see the golem suddenly shrink down and acquire a human form.

It's you.

You and Caleb take a step back as the thing opens its eyes. It takes a deep breath, then stretches its arms. It turns its head and rests an alert eye on you. Then it tilts its chin in greeting. "S'up, fellas?" it says.

You swallow and start to stammer, but then fall silent as it hops off the table and approaches, to stare at you openly and curiously. "Huh," it says.

It circles around you, looking you up and down. When it comes back in front of you, it looks you boldly in the eye, then reaches out tentatively and gives your cheek a light pinch. This seems to break the spell it's cast over you.

"The fuck are you doing?" you exclaim. "Who are you?"

"I'm Will Prescott," it says. "You know that. I know you're not a retard because I know everything you know."

A chill runs through you, but you also feel your face turning red. "Look, you're supposed to be my slave—"

"Of course I'm your slave," it retorts, and it isn't the least bit polite about it. "I'm totally your slave and will do whatever the fuck you want me to. But don't be a moron. I'm supposed to be just like you, and I am. Whaddaya want, a zombie going out to take your place at school?"

"He's got a point," says Caleb.

"Fuck yeah," says your clone. He seems to notice Caleb for the first time, and his eyes narrow. He jerks his head at your friend. "You want me to hold him down while you pound all the shit out of this asshole?" he asks you. "It'll take awhile, but I'm game for a round of Pin the Ears Back on the Cocksucker."

Caleb's jaw drops, but you guffaw. "I kinda like this guy," you say.

"Is this what you think of me?" Caleb cries.

"Oh, don't mind me," says your clone. "We're just pissed because you wouldn't help out. Isn't that right, O my master?" His last words to you drip with sarcasm.

This has all happened so fast it's kind of hard to take in. "You'll go to school for me if I ask you to?" you say.

"You don't have to ask," it replies. "You can order me to."

"And you'll do anything I tell you?"

"I'm your slave."

Caleb nudges you in the rib. "Will you suck his cock if he asks you to?"

You jump, and your clone makes a face. "If he orders me," it mutters. Then a glint comes into its eye. "Actually, it might kind of fun. It'd be interesting to see what's it's like to suck ourselves off." It reaches for your zipper, and you slap its hand away hard. "Oh come on," it says. "It's not like you're not curious too."

You pull Caleb aside. "Is there an off switch for this thing?"

"You got me. I didn't finish reading all of the spell."

"Yo, slave boy," you shout over your shoulder. "Any way to turn you off?"

It looks up from some stacked furniture that it's pulling at in a bored kind of way. "If you don't know how I work, how the hell should I?"

"We can't let it break out of here," you tell Caleb.

"So order it to stay here. But I thought you were sending it school for you."

"I think it's broken."

"It's acting just like you."

"Shut up, or I will ask it to hold you down."

There's a crash from behind, and you jump. Desks have toppled over in a great heap, burying the table you'd used to make the golem. It looks up guiltily. "I didn't do it!" it protests.

"No, I'm leaving it here until we figure out what the fuck to do with it!"

* * * * *

Caleb says he'll take the book home and figure out the rest of the spell; you order the golem to remain hidden in the basement. At school the next day, Caleb tells you he thinks he knows how to deactivate it, and asks you to meet him at the clubhouse at five. "Why so late?" you ask.

"I've got some stuff to do first."

"So I'll meet you earlier and help out."

He shakes his head. "I don't want to waste your time. But you could help by doing my math homework for me." You reluctantly agree.

Later, at your house you get a snack and watch a little TV, and are about to go upstairs to get started when it hits you: Why do your homework (and Caleb's) when you've got a clone who can do it for you? It'll be another hour before Caleb shows up, but you hurry over to the clubhouse anyway.

You're surprised to see the lock off the door when you arrive, and your heart starts to thump hard. Suppose the maintenance man finally found your clubhouse. Worse, suppose he found it and inside was a guy who looks like you and answers to your name? You're almost shitting yourself as you push open the door.

As you creep in, you hear a groan and a gasp, and you peek around the corner. There you see the last thing you'd expect: Eva Garner kneeling in front of a naked and ecstatic duplicate of yourself and sucking on its cock.

You yelp, and both figures nearly ricochet off the ceiling. "Eva!" you gasp. "What--? How--?" And then you notice: she's wearing the same pink sweatsuit that you wore when you pretended to be her at the bank.

It all becomes clear in a flash. "Caleb!" you shout at her. "You're sucking me off?!" You don't know whether to be horrified or delighted at this unexpected perversity in your friend.

"I'm not sucking off anybody!" your double roars.

You do a double take, your head swinging wildly between your twin and Eva. "Caleb? Which one are you?"

"I'm here," says the guy who looks like you.

"Then who—?" You point to Eva.

"That's the golem. I put the Eva mask on it."

"But how—?"

"I came over to test the spell out," he says. "The mask is removable. It turns back into a pile of clay or whatever, and then you can put a different mask on it. I got the, uh, 'Will Prescott' mask off it, and then I thought, what the hell, I'll put the Eva mask on it, just to see. And then I thought—"

"You thought you'd pretend to be me and order my golem to suck you off. Jesus!"

"Do you blame me?"

"Give me that!" You jump at him.

"You should both just, like, chill," says the Eva clone, and you both wheel on her in surprise. "It's not like I didn't know it wasn't you. But I was also, like, whatever. There's nothing else to do down here."

You gape. "Do you remember being me? Like, yesterday and today?"

She shakes her head. "I only remember what is, like, in those things." She points to the mask. "But I also know what I am and I could guess what you guys wanted to do with me. So, like, sure, I guess I'll suck your friend's cock if he asks."

"Sweet," your twin exclaims.

"She won't if I tell her not to!" you remind him.

The Eva clone sticks her chin out. "By the way, are you gonna give Eva her money back? Because if you're not, you could use some of it to get me some decent clothes." She regards the sweatsuit distastefully.

"What business is that of—?" you start, and then catch yourself. "How do you know about that? Eva didn't know it was us!"

The clone rolls her eyes. "It's, like, in the mask, you dorkface. Everything you do is, like, recorded in here or something. I dunno." Like the clone yesterday, she starts to wander around the basement in a distracted manner.

You look at Caleb, and he nods. "And if you put the mask back on the person you copied," he says, "it will record all the memories and stuff that happened since you last made it." He points to his face, which is yours. "I think we can also update it with the memories of what you've been doing since you made it. Like, if I took it off and put it on you, it would copy all your memories, including the ones you have of what you did today."

"Like punching you in the balls?"

"When did you--? Oh, ha ha. Sure. But also," he adds, "it will give you the memories that mask absorbed while I was being it. Or—"

"Wait wait wait!" You hold up a hand and try to think things through.

"You mean," you say when you're done, "I could put that mask onto the golem over there and send it out to do stuff. Then when it got back, I could put the mask onto my own face, and I would get the memories of what it did?"

"That's what I was trying to say."

You give a low whistle of appreciation. "You know what this means?"

Caleb nods. "You can send the golem out to be you while you're doing something else, and afterward you can pick up all the stuff that you missed."