The Book of Masks (Vol. 3)

Sleeper, Awake!

Previously: "Surprises for Kristy Suffolk" 

You're not very interested in this Sawyer Harrison kid—he went to Eastman, and he was friends with Taylor Mitchell, not with anyone you knew. But (and maybe this is Kristy's psychology warning you to be wary of "cliques" developing inside this club of impostors) it seems to you best that you keep close to the Mitchells so they don't go wandering off and doing things that are too independent of Philip and the others.

But it turns out Fairfax knows their plans, and even encouraged them.

"He's working on some masks for us," Scott tells you after school, when you're wedged in Sean's truck between the two brothers, "or else he'd be going with us."

"Why's he interested in your friend?"

"Yeah, why?" echoes Taylor, who is driving. At least you assume it's still Taylor in a mask of Sean, and that Sean is still disguised as Scott.

"Because he's worried about Sawyer the same way we are?" Scott retorts. Taylor snorts. "Well, maybe not," Scott continues. "But Sawyer was playing with a mask along with us—" He catches himself. "Along with you and Scott."

"So you think that mask is still in him?" you ask.

"It makes sense. Fairfax showed us how to get masks off'a people. We're gonna see if it works on Sawyer."

It's a long drive across town, so they also have time to explain how Fairfax is setting it up so that the two brothers can switch faces around when they want.

"Taylor doesn't want to be Scott anymore," Scott explains, "so they're gonna turn Scott into a beta for me. That way I can switch between being him and, uh, you, no problem." He squints down at you. "You sure you're gonna be okay with that?"

"It was my idea," you remind him. You don't want to admit that you hope he'll be a better "you" than you were. "What if you want to be yourself again?" you ask. "Where does your brother go?"

"They're making up a new face for him. They said they can do that—someone totally new. They're gonna put a copy of Taylor's brain in it, and they're gonna make this thing they can put the mask on. So it's going to be just like Taylor, except with a different face, and he can switch between being it and being me. Yeah, your friend Philip's really excited about it. He's going to try getting it a job and stuff, so it'll be like a real person, only it'll be a fake."

Scott's explanation confuses you, but you figure you can ask Fairfax about it later, if you really care to know what's going on.

* * * * *

Neither you nor Kristy have been inside a hospital that you can remember, and you find you don't much like it. The corridors are wide and white and flatly lit by fluorescent panels, and you're thoroughly creeped out when you have to share the elevator with two brawny male nurses and a gurney carrying a shriveled little gray-skinned man. Sawyer's hospital room is similarly antiseptic, despite the gaily-colored curtains that ring the bed, and the massive spray of flowers that lays on the table at its foot.

But the nurses' station wouldn't let your trio into the room without family being present, so it's nearly five o'clock before you can get in there, and Sawyer's sister—a girl named Belinda—is with you. She hugs Scott tightly in the waiting lounge, and murmurs something about missing him. "Yeah," he sighs. "I figured it'd been too long since I was out here to see you and him."

It's an awkward scene up in the room. There are only two chairs. Taylor insists on you taking one of them while he leans in a corner; Scott takes the other one, and pulls it up close to Sawyer's bed. Belinda—after sniffling at Taylor about how sorry she is about the accident his brother was in—drapes herself across Scott's lap and hangs her arms around his neck. You and "Sean" exchange a look behind her back.

So you're not able to check out Sawyer right away, but that's okay. Belinda is full of news. Apparently her parents are close to filing a lawsuit against the company that Sawyer and his friends worked at. "You might get a call from a lawyer," she warns Scott. "I'm sorry."

"What for?"

"Because you told me you were out there at Eastman when it all happened." She glances at her comatose brother, then frowns at Scott. "Why don't you tell us what happened out there?"

"I did." Scott's voice is very tight, and you see Taylor stiffen. "We were just sitting around, and he keeled over."

"Were you guys, like, exposed to chemicals and stuff at your work?"

"Some. Maybe."

"'Cos that's what my parents might sue them over, saying that Sawyer must've been exposed to something toxic." Scott only shrugs at her words. "You might have to testify."

"Then I'll just tell 'em what happened."

Belinda frowns and sighs. "Well, it sounds like it's gonna be a mess. 'Cos if my parents sue Salopek, Salopek's gonna put you on the stand. They're gonna say that you guys were up to something out at the school, and that that's how come—" She breaks off, and sniffles again.

The name "Salopek," meanwhile, has given you a start. "Who's Salopek?" you ask, as though you don't know.

For only the second time that day, Belinda looks at you. "Where Sawyer and Scott worked. And Taylor," she adds, glancing at "Sean."

You nod, but a cold spot—like congealing ice—forms in your chest. Salopek is where your dad works.

* * * * *

There's more talk after that, but most of it is mere chatter. (Belinda doesn't like the looks of the lawyer that her parents have been talking to; he looks like a hungry weasel, she says.) After fifteen minutes or so, long after you have lost patience, Scott pushes her to her feet and suggests they take a little walk downstairs to the break room to get a snack or some coffee. Belinda looks at you and Taylor and says she's not sure if she can leave "you guys" behind, but Scott takes her hand, and she relents with a smile that leaves you feeling nauseated. Scott, as he exits the room, gives his brother a meaningful look.

"We'll give 'em to the count of thirty," Taylor says. He flexes his fingers and murmurs under his breath.

"Do we still want to check?"

"Why not?"

"Well, if there's gonna be a lawsuit—"

"Best reason to try fixing whatever's wrong with him," Taylor retorts. "Who wants a lawsuit?"

You're not sure it will work that way, but you shut your mouth. After a lingering pause, Taylor edges up to Sawyer's bed, and leans over his friend.

Sawyer Harrison is a scrawny, undernourished-looking thing, probably on account of being stuck in a hospital bed with only an IV drip to keep him going. He doesn't look sick, though, only asleep. Taylor frowns into his face, then lays a hand across his brow. He gives you a quick, fearful look, licks his lips, then looks back down at Sawyer and starts talking under his breath. I've got to get someone to teach me how to do that, you think.

Taylor pulls at Sawyer's forehead. And, somehow, he pulls a mask out of his friend's face.

The room seems to sway, and your stomach drops. Taylor pales, and looks at you with wide eyes.

"Do we try waking him up?" you croak.

"Let's just see if he wakes up naturally." He hastily shoves the mask into the backpack he brought up with him, and the two of you sit back down, to stare expectantly at the patient.

He's still asleep when Belinda and Scott return, but they've only been back a minute when there's a faint groan from the bed, and Sawyer's eyes flutter open. Belinda is chattering at Scott, though, so it's up to you to get her attention by standing up and waving your hands at her. She gives you a dirty look, but turns toward the bed when you point and gape at it.

"Belinda?" Sawyer groans.

His sister's jaw drops.

* * * * *

There's a lot of quiet chaos after that. Doctors and nurses bustle in, and you and Scott and Taylor are hustled out. Belinda joins you all downstairs twenty minutes later, but only long enough to thank you for coming out. "They don't know what happened," she gasps through the Kleenex she holds to her streaming nose and eyes. "Mom and Dad are on the way out. They'll wanna see you." She bursts out crying. "They think maybe it was your voice, Scott! Or maybe yours, Taylor! That he heard you and because you're his friends and you were with him—" She sobs. "Maybe he heard you and decided it was time to wake up!"

So you have to wait for the Harrisons to show up. And during that time your trio has to confront a new problem: How much to tell Sawyer about the masks.

"I never even liked him," Taylor grumbles. "He was Scott's friend. I always thought he was a little shit. Fairfax and them won't like him either." But his brother thinks you'll have no choice but to bring him into the "club."

They argue this way for a few minutes, neither one of them sounding convinced of their own reasons or of each other's. They end up looking at you. "What am I? The tiebreaker?" you protest.

They look at each other, and shrug.

* To continue: "Secondary Thoughts of a Secondary Character" 

*
"Table of Contents (Vol. 3)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 3)"