The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)

Making a Magical Second Impression

Previously: "How to Create a Convincing Backstory" 

You've made your decision by the time Keith texts you to say that he's leaving Olive Garden. You tell him to meet you at the old elementary school, so you can show him the rest of the stuff you've been making.

"Okay, when we meet up with Sydney," you tell him as you're unlocking the basement door, "we're going to say to her that it's just us playing around with this stuff. Caleb's not into it, he doesn't know anything about it."

"How come's that?" Keith asks. "Why don't we get him into this?"

"Don't be a dumbass. I was pranking him. You told me I'd be in a shitload of trouble with him if he finds out what i was doing."

"So we're cutting him outta this? That's cold, man!"

"This is the way we're doing it." But you pause halfway down the stairs. "You really think we should tell Caleb?"

Keith shrugs. "Makes sense we don't. Anyway, leaving him out leaves more of that skirt for us."

It's dark on the stairway, so Keith can't see the glare you shoot him.

But he's right.

* * * * *

You have church the next morning, and then lunch with your family, so it's nearly two before you're able to meet with Keith and Sydney. You send them to the elementary school, and you get Keith out there first so you can go back over the story that you set up last night. "Yeah, I get it," he snorts. "It's not hard, cocksucker. You were in charge of everything, and I was just your Eye-gor."

Sydney is all smiles when she arrives fifteen minutes later. "So where's Caleb?" she asks as she climbs out of a gleaming SUV.

"Uh, he's not here," you tell her. Your heart hammers in your chest. "You haven't been talking to him, have you?"

"I was texting him this morning. I thought I'd see him here."

You feel yourself paling. "But you didn't tell him you were going to meet up with him here! Did you?"

Sydney gives you a look. "I didn't know we were going to meet here, Will." She glances at Keith. "Are you okay?"

You whip off your hat and wipe your forehead. "No, I'm fine. It's just— Look, Sydney, here's the thing. Caleb doesn't know about any of this."

She rolls her eyes. "Uh huh. Pull the other one, Will, it's got bells on it."

"No, he doesn't! Look, just come down with us—" You turn, and bump hard into Keith. "Oh, uh, Keith knows about it all, though."

"'At's right." Keith waggles his eyebrows at Sydney; surreptitiously, you punch him in the ribs.

Sydney is wearing a gnomic smile as she follows you down into the basement, and she listens with a tolerant amusement as you point to the burning pile of dirt and confess to setting it up and lighting it and looking after it. "And what's it for?" she asks.

"I don't know," you confess. "I've got this book, I found it in a used bookstore. Er, I'd show it to you, except it's under all that dirt."

"But it's not burning," Keith chimes in. You step on his foot.

"The thing is," you explain, "the book, it's weird, it tells you what to do, but it doesn't tell you what it makes. Not until the thing is done."

"Why, is it written in invisible ink or something?"

"No. Look, it's complicated."

"I've got all afternoon." Sydney leans against a bookcase. She's still smiling, but it is starting to show some strain. "So far you haven't told me anything I don't already know."

You take a deep breath.

"Okay, then here's something you don't know about. It's pretty important. Er, don't freak out." It irritates you when she just turns on that same indulgent smile. Maybe I hope you do freak out, you catch yourself thinking. "Keith, lay out there on the table."

"What?"

"Like we did the first time we tried the thing out," you explain to him through grinding teeth.

"Oh. Right. Like the first time when we tried the thing out," he says, and hops onto a dusty table that must have once decorated a conference room. "Yeah, that was pretty freaky," he adds as he lays back on it.

From beneath the table you draw out the mask of Caleb, and show it to Sydney. "This is one of the things I made with the book. The first thing I made with it, actually." She nods. "It's a mask." She nods again. You bite your lip.

"Dude, get on with it," Keith says. You give him a dirty look.

"Okay, if you'll come up here close," you tell Sydney. "And watch—" You stumble back as she steps up close to you. God, she's so gorgeous, you think. "Alright," you stammer. "Um, presto-chango. Except you don't actually have to say—"

The mask slips from your fingers as you turn it over to set on Keith's face. Your friend just has time to flinch as it falls onto him, before his face vanishes and Caleb's appears. He relaxes all over, his eyes go vacant, and his mouth falls open. You hesitate, then shake him lightly. But he's unconscious.

You look up at Sydney. With arms folded she is frowning down at Keith. For the longest moment she says nothing.

Then she says, "It's Caleb."

"It's Keith," you correct her.

"You mean—?"

"It's a disguise. A full-body disguise. When he wakes up—it'll take awhile—he'll look like Caleb and he'll sound like Caleb. He'll even be able to tell you stuff that only Caleb knows. Totally perfect imitation."

Sydney sucks in her upper lip. "And the real Caleb?" You're staggered by how well she's taking it all.

"He's home. Or wherever he is. It doesn't have anything to do with him. It's just a disguise."

Sydney's chin wobbles. Maybe she's nodding—it's hard to tell. "And he doesn't know about this?"

"No. I, uh, copied him without him knowing about it. You have to get the mask onto someone first, for it to copy them. Then— Well, then you have to do some other stuff to seal it up, but then you can wear it. I— We— Keith and me, we, uh, didn't tell him we did it to him. We haven't told him about any of this."

"Why not?" Still she stares down at Keith, and still her tone and expression are amazingly composed.

"We were pranking him. Getting him in trouble while pretending to be him."

She grunts, and a sudden thought comes to you: "Did you see him someplace?" you ask. "Is that why you think that he knows all about this stuff?"

Now she does give you a sidelong look. "When were you out pretending to be him?"

You suck in a deep breath. "At a couple of parties last weekend, last Friday. That's all."

She holds your eye. "That's all?"

"Yeah. Did you see him at any of those parties?"

She doesn't answer right away, and when she does she is staring past you at the burning dirt pile. "Tell me about that stuff over there again. Did you set it up before or after you went around pranking your friend?"

"After." You stiffen. "That was also last weekend. Oh, I was also wearing Caleb's mask when I did that."

Her interest quickens. "Why?"

"I had to get the dirt out of the cemetery. I didn't want to be the one who got in trouble if I got caught."

Again she holds your eye. And then she visibly relaxes.

"I see," she says. "That was pretty clever of you, Will. And, uh, of Keith. Was he pranking Caleb too?"

"Well, he was helping me." You puff out your chest. "I'm the one in charge, though." Fuck Keith if he thinks he's going to impress this girl more than you're going to.

"So why don't you tell Caleb about it all now?" she asks. "I mean, if he is your friend."

"What?"

"Tell Caleb about all this," she repeats. "Isn't he your friend?"

"Well ... Yeah."

"So why don't you share it with him?"

You grimace, and look down at the still-unconscious Keith. He looks just like Caleb, so you flinch.

"It would be hard to," you mutter. "He'd be pissed."

"Because you were pranking him?"

You hang your head. "Worse than that. I stole some money off some guys while pretending to be him."

You expect Sydney to react harshly to that. To your amazement, though, she steps up close and clasps you about the waist.

"Oh," she says, showing deep dimples. "You are a bad boy, aren't you, Will?"

Next: "A Third Masketeer" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 4)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)"