The Book of Masks (Abridged)

Send in the Clone

CALEB ASKS WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO DO WITH THE GOLEM, but you just tell him you'll have to think about it. You do, and the next morning you stop at the clubhouse before going to school.

Your clone, once it's activated, looks with amusement at the clothes you've brought along. "So, I'm to live the first day of the rest of your life for you," it says. "I suppose you're going to ask me to ace your pop quizzes. It would be too much to hope you'd ask me to do something easy like flunk them."

"Just pretend to be me," you tell it as it dresses. "That includes when you're with Caleb."

"Don't tell him who I am?" You shake your head emphatically. "That's brilliant," it grins. "I love it. What are you gonna do?"

"Study up on this new spell. I'm tired of Caleb being a step ahead of me. Yesterday was pretty creepy. You keep him away from here, but bring me something to eat around suppertime."

"You're staying here that late?"

"Probably. I'll talk to you then about tonight and tomorrow."

"We won't have to talk," it points out as it picks up your backpack. "You just have to my face onto you."

* * * * *

The next spell, you discover, requires the same set of materials as the last, including earth from the graveyard. You make a face at that, but at least it only requires forty pounds this time instead of four hundred. The really weird thing is that this spell requires you to put a person in the middle of the sigil. You spend several hours trying out various ways of translating the bad Latin, but it all seems to come back to the same thing: Someone has to lay down in the middle of the sigil and have dirt sprinkled all over them.

This really bothers you. You've mostly avoided experimenting on yourself, and it has all turned out right even for your victims—well, except for Eva and her $500—but you still vaguely intend to make it up to her. This doesn't sound like something you want to try out on yourself, and you have a bad feeling it won't turn out so well for the victim.

You're still mulling over this when you're startled by a scratching at the door. You quickly hide, but then come out when a familiar voice calls. It's your golem.

"So, how'd it go?" you ask as you settle back down. It has thoughtfully brought you a snack to hold you until dinner.

"Awesome," it says with a laugh. "I spent the whole day arguing with Caleb and giving him shit, messing up his plans. He was pretty pissed by the end, especially since I didn't help him out."

"That's brilliant," you say. "Asshole deserves to— Wait, help him out with what?"

"Oh, that reminds me," it says, reaching into his jacket pocket. "I snagged this off him for you. He threatened to punch me out, but I pulled rank on him as the book owner."

It's a mind band he gives you, and the name "JEREMY THADDEUS RICHARDS" float above it. Your jaw drops. "Where did he get this?"

"Off Richards, of course," says the golem. "He used the Eva mask to get close to him and—"

"Wait, how did he get the Eva mask?" You look around wildly.

The golem shrugs. "Apparently he lifted it yesterday when no one was looking. Anyway, that's the plan I didn't help out with. Eva didn't show up for school—Jessica and Marc didn't either—so before last period he snuck into the girls room, changed into her—he had that sweatsuit too—and then joined class for last period, pretending to be all snuffling and crying. Insisted on going off with Jeremy, and got this off him. So, you know, it can go with the Jeremy mask. Gives us—you guys, I mean—a complete Eva and a complete Jeremy to play with."

"You should've stopped him!"

"I argued, but he wouldn't listen. Oh, I got one more thing to show you." From his pocket he pulls a piece of notebook paper and unfolds it. With a grin he holds it up in front of his chest. In huge letters it says, PSYCH! I'M REALLY CALEB!

It takes you a moment to process the confession, then—

"Son of a bitch!" You swing a fist at him. He deflects it with a laugh.

"Oh, calm down. It's your own damn fault for trying to trick me," he gloats. "I knew you were going to try something like that. The golem did a pretty good imitation of you, though. If I hadn't been sure you were up to something, I would've been fooled."

"Where is it?"

"Out in the car, buffing its nails."

"Buffing it's—?"

"I put the Eva mask on it. I guess I should tell it to come in."

"Wait, how did you get into my mask?"

"I insisted on coming out here with it. It kept arguing and arguing, and when I got here it finally confessed to being the golem. That's when I made it switch with me so I could prank you."

"Bastard."

"Yeah, I know. But you'll get me one of these days."

The fake Eva comes in, looking very resentful and ill-treated (though she doesn't remember a thing from the day, except a brief makeout session with Jeremy), and then Caleb asks you to bring him up to speed. You explain what you've got of the new spell, and he checks your work.

"Mm-hmm," he says. "Yeah, it looks like we need an unwilling victim for this. So, who's it gonna be, Eva or Jeremy? They're the ones we can replace if something goes wrong."

You goggle. "You're not serious, are you? We're going to do it?"

"You wanna stop now?"

"Don't we have enough? I mean, we can make copies of ourselves, we can make ourselves up as others, even with their memories—"

"Yeah, but what else could there be? I'm dying to know."

"This is getting really creepy!"

"It got creepy a long time ago, Will."

You sigh heavily. You don't like where this is going, and you don't like that Caleb seems so firmly in the driver's seat. But it seems like the only way to exercise even a little bit of control is to go along and hope to restrain him from the worst.

You just hope that what comes next isn't too bad, and that it's the worst it can possibly get.