The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)

Dark Histories

Previously: "Enigmatic Antecedents" 

"This book you're talking about," you say. "Is it about this big—?" You outline a shape in the air with your hands. "With a red cover, like leather, and gold letters?" You cast your mind back, trying to remember the weird book you found in Arnholm's. "And the pages wouldn't open? They were stuck together?"

Jessica in particular is giving you a hard, wide-eyed stare. "Yeah, did Philip show it to you?"

"No, I think it used to belong to me."

Hoarse laughter from the high school students on the other side of the restaurant fills the silence that descends on your table.

"Yeah," you stammer as the girls stare at you. "Um. I found this book at the used bookstore. It was cheap because it was like the pages were glued together or something. Anyway, I brought it in to school to show to show to people, but I ran into Mendoza and some of his friends and they wound up taking it off me. I know that Mendoza had it, or he's the one that wound up with it, 'cos I tried getting it back from him and he told me he sold it to someone. He didn't tell me who."

Jessica and Eva look at each other, and skepticism shows on their faces. "Did you, uh, do anything with it?" Eva asks.

"No. I was kind of freaked out because the first page in it said something about giving it blood. But it was talking about how to make disguises and—"

You trail off, for the girls are exchanging another look, and this time the skepticism has vanished from their faces.

Jessica lets out a breath as she leans back in her booth. "Why didn't you tell us this before, Will?"

"Hey, all this stuff is new to me! I just found out this morning that you guys aren't, um—" Yeah, it's been a day that has just been packed. "It was just now, when you started talking about a book being the thing you were using, that I made a connection. The book I bought, I thought it was just, like, some crazy joke. I haven't even really thought about it much since Mendoza took it off me." That's a little bit of a lie, but near enough the truth that it doesn't bother you.

Carlos asks you to tell him from the top all about your history with the book, but you can do little more than repeat what you told him: You got it from the used bookstore, lost it to Mendoza, and then Mendoza apparently sold it to him. "I spent about ten minutes looking at it, that's all," you tell him.

"Who would sell that kind of a book to a used bookstore?" Eva wonders aloud.

"Someone who didn't know it was legit," Jessica replies. She glances at you. "Like Will."

"Well, somebody was playing around with it before then."

"Right," Jessica says. "I hope Philip can tell us who it was." You feel her eyes straying toward you through the rest of the meal, and you can tell that Carlos is thinking about how to tell Philip what you told him.

* * * * *

You have your cell phone turned off until after church the next day, so it's not until twelve-ten that you find the text from Lucy Vredenburg asking if you can get together with the group . And because you're having lunch with your aunt and uncle, it's not until one-thirty that you're able to drive out to Carlos's studio. The others—this time including Chelsea Cooper—are already there. They look very sober, but there's nothing in their manner to suggest they're angry at you.

"Take a seat, Will," Lucy says. She speaks in the same cool, business-like manner as Maria Vasquez. "I suppose we should catch you up with everything. The long and the short of it is that we now know where our magical grimoire came from and how it came to us."

"Carlos told you about, um—?"

"Your brief ownership of it? Yes. But we've got a pretty good idea of how it got to you, too. There's a professor out at the university who used to own it. When did you find the Libra in the bookstore?"

"The what?"

"The book. De Libra Personae, as near as I can tell, is the correct translation of the title."

"Oh. Um. A couple of weeks ago? Somewhere in the middle of September? Maybe?"

Lucy thinks a moment, then nods. "The dates line up. It's around that time that I think Professor Blackwell noticed that the Libra was missing."

The story that Philip relates is gruesome, and made more gruesome by the fact that it so closely resembles the story that he and his friends are acting out. Early in September, Lucy Vredenburg was abducted by university professor named Blackwell and apparently replaced with a beta—a beta whom the professor occasionally impersonated in the same way that your friends are impersonating members of the cheerleading squad. Only days after making the replacement, however, it seems that the professor lost the Libra—and then you picked it up in the bookstore.

There are many mysteries that he cannot answer, though, even with the memories inside Lucy's mask. Where is the real Lucy Vredenburg? What was the professor trying to do? And did he make any more betas?

It's the latter that worries Keith the most. "What if our parents are betas too?" he squeals. "Oh my God!" He tugs and worries at the long sheets of platinum hair he has stolen from Cindy. "What if everyone in that house is a beta, or a fake? What if my mom is this professor? I'm not going back there!"

"I saw nothing to indicate that the professor infiltrated the household further than Lucy," Lucy declares.

"You didn't see what he did before he replaced Lucy! And if he made any more masks—!" Keith gasps hard and grabs Lucy by the arm. "Oh, fuck! He could be duplicating everyone at the university! Or at Westside! Fuck, anyone—!"

"He can't make any more masks, Will," the faux-Lucy says, prying her faux-self free of her faux-sister's clutching hands. "You have to have the Libra in order to make masks and betas."

"But if he copied down the recipes—!"

"It wouldn't work. Each spell comes with a sigil that has to be used to complete the spell. If you don't have the book you don't have the sigil, and then you can't complete the spell."

"Maybe he made up thousands of masks and betas before he gave it away!"

"Calm the fuck down, dude," Jessica tells him. To Lucy: "What are we going to do? Just ignore this guy?"

"I don't think we can," Lucy says. "He's been impersonating Lucy off and on since losing the mask, as recently as last Thursday." Keith utters a shrill Eep! "He will expect Lucy's beta to return at some point," Lucy continues as she pulls at her lower lip, "and when he resumes her identity he will gain access to the memories we have since put into her mask, including the memories of this conversation."

"Can't we just make Lucy disappear?" Keith asks.

Lucy gives her a look. "That would be pretty awful for her and her family, wouldn't it? No, we're going to have to do something about this professor. He has a beta of himself that he sometimes sends out, the way we have betas of ourselves out there. If we could get into that mask of himself, learn about him, then we would be better informed as to whether we should approach him in a spirit of cooperation or of antagonism."

"And how do we do that?" Eva drawls.

"We break into his house and search it," Lucy says after a moment's thought. "We can do that sometime this week while he is teaching.

* * * * *

A lengthy discussion follows as to how to manage the break-in. It is decided that a group of you will go in—three or four of your six; more than that, Philip fears, would be an unmanageable mob—and that you cannot go in under your own faces nor in the guise of your own impersonations. Instead, the raiding party will use masks of select classmates—burly males from the football or wrestling squad, likely.

And with that settled, work begins. Philip's immediate job is to purchase additional supplies, and he asks you to accompany him.

"Don't take this the wrong way, Will," he says after you're buckled into Lucy's SUV. "You're a full-fledged member of the club, as far as we're concerned. But you can sit this one out if you want."

The offer surprises you, and insults you a little too. "Why's that?"

"Because you really haven't taken the plunge. I have the impression you don't want to. What I mean," he continues, talking over your protests, "is that it's like you're doing everything you can to avoid participating. You didn't want to put on a mask when we offered to get you one, and you gave the Libra away almost as soon as it crossed your palms."

You mumble something about being freaked out by it.

"Exactly. You don't seem enthused, so if you want to sit things out, we'll understand."

You fold your arms and bite your tongue. For the rest of the trip, you and Philip only talk about the items on his shopping list.

There's a stink in the hallway when you get back to the storage complex, and you assume Jessica is trying to get away from it when she asks you to accompany her outside. But she's got something else on her mind.

"Dude," she says, "Keith is really freaking out about going home as Cindy. Would you be up to swapping out places with him? You be Cindy and maybe he can be you?"

* To join the raid: "Face Facts" 
* To sit things out: "How to Sideline Yourself" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 2)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)"