The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)

Twenty-Five Places to Hide

Previously: "Blasts from the Past" 

No one says anything for a long moment. Then Caleb says, "You're telling me that things started flying around? Like, in of a poltergeist movie?"

Fake-Dane, his eyes wide, nods. "That's exactly what it was like. Like, the table in there?" He half turns to look back into the dining nook, where a rickety table—about as substantial as balsa wood—is leaning against the wall. "It just flew up and banged around and fell over."

"And what did those guys say?"

"They didn't say nothing. They just looked at me, like there was nothing going on, like they didn't even see it."

Caleb gets up and stalks into the kitchen. You hesitate, then trot after. Fake-Dane remains where he is.

The kitchen looks like it's been torn apart by a drunk. Or by demons. The cabinet doors hang open, and most of their contents have been hurled to the floor. The drawers dangle open, and a tray of silverware has been flung over the floor. An overturned carton of milk has burst and drained into a small puddle. You pull open the refrigerator door; everything inside it has been knocked over.

But it looks hardly worse than Dane's bedroom, which is almost as great of a mess.

"Well, you're going to have a job cleaning it up," you tell Fake-Dane when you join him back in the living room.

"Is that all you got to say?"

"What do you want me to say? Whatever's going on, we gotta think about it," you reply.

His eyes bulge. "What's to think about?"

"So what happened after stuff started flying around?" Caleb asks.

"Well, those start talking some more about how magic is dangerous when it gets loose, and that if let anything magical out that I'll need their help getting it put back."

"And you said?"

"I told them I didn't know what they were talking about! I mean, I don't know anything about magic or ghosts or shit. Right?" He giggles nervously. "At least, that's what I told them."

"And then?"

Fake-Dane draws a deep breath. "So then the blonde one asks me if I've ever seen a book, about this big"—he gestures with his hands—"with red covers and gold lettering and on the inside it's got magic spells about how to make magic disguises." His cocks his eye triumphantly at you, as if to say, Toldja you're in deep shit.

"Holy fuck," Caleb mutters.

"I told 'em no," Fake-Dane says. "I don't know if I was real convincing. The guy looked pissed when I told him that."

"Anything else happen?"

He combs his hair with his fingers. "No, they took off after that. But the tall one looked back in at me from the door, and he says, 'We'll talk about it some more tomorrow.'" He looks between you and Caleb. "So what do you think?"

You and Caleb exchange a long glance. Then you say, "I think you need to clean this place up."

"Be serious!"

"I am serious. And it'll keep you busy while we figure something out. Just hang tight," you add as fake-Dane grumbles. "We'll get back to you tonight. Or maybe tomorrow, after those guys come see you again."

He pales. "You think they will?"

"You'll see 'em at school at least." You turn toward the door.

But Caleb has one last instruction for Fake-Dane: "And if you do see them, don't come looking for us. Just wait for us to find you."

* * * * *

As you leave, you worry that those two guys might be lying in wait. They aren't, though, it looks like, for no one tries to stop you or follow you.

It's all very mysterious, for that reason it seems like something you don't want to deal with. That's what you tell Caleb.

"You mean you don't want to figure out how they did that shit back there at Dane's trailer?" he asks. "Hell, don't you want to be someone who can do that kind of shit?"

"What do you mean?"

"We can make masks, Will. We can turn ourselves into other people. Maybe turn ourselves into guys who can do that kind of shit?"

You hesitate, then shake your head. "We can make masks, but what if they got protections. We could do this stuff with Ethan and Michael and Lindsay and them 'cos, you know, they're just a bunch of dumb sophomores. But these guys sound way too serious, way too prepared. You heard Dane, they know about the book. Ten to one," you press on over some objection he's about to raise, "they know how the masks work, maybe they even have a way of figuring out if someone's wearing a mask or isn't. I don't want to get anywhere close to them."

"If they can figure out who's wearing a mask, then we're already fucked, aren't we? Unless you want to start putting things back the way they were."

Again you hesitate, and again you shake your head. Maybe Caleb and the other guys can go back to being themselves, but it's too late for you, your life is too screwed up on account of that swap you did with Gordon Black. "Let's just keep where we are for now," you say. "They won't be looking for us down in the sophomore class."

"They could still spot us in the halls," Caleb points out. "If they got X-ray vision," he adds, sounding only half sarcastic.

* * * * *

Speaking of places to hide in the sophomore class, you've still got to make a decision on a new identity. Although you thought you had settled on one, the news from Fake Dane has blown your calculations apart.

You could still hide out as one of the musicians—which is where you were leaning anyway—but once you're back home you look back over the others candidates in light of today's developments.

You're strongest instinct is to hide, and the best place to hide, it seems to you, is as a girl. Lindsay herself would probably be the best choice—being plain, uninvolved in sports or extra-curricular activities, and self-effacing to the point of self-loathing—but you've already told the others you want to move to a new face.

But none of the girls on Paulina's list comes close to having Lindsay's advantages—they're all too extroverted. Riley Petersen is a bright-eyed girl with a tomboyish streak; Alice Meehan and Kelly O'Brien aren't just tomboyish, they also play on the girls' JV basketball and softball squads, respectively.

Then there's the two rich girls: Amber Hartsel and Madison Crawford, who come to class in ensembles that probably cost more than all the clothes than Lindsay has ever owned in her life put together. Amber lives in the country on a horse farm; Madison is a snooty bitch who is on the swim team and gymnastics teams, and clearly plans on captaining the cheerleader squad when she's a senior. Neither they, nor Courtney Blessing of the softball team nor Miranda Estrada of the soccer team could count as "invisible."

You'd have more choices if you decided to hide out as someone with a penis, though these also run to type. Aaron James, Matthew Adams, and Kieran Matthews are "too cool for school" types with snazzy haircuts and a smooth line with the girls, to which Kieran adds an evangelist's enthusiasm for hemp. Dylan Gilbert is a skinny, lank-haired skateboarder. Cole Kavanaugh is a member of the JV football squad; Jan Taylor is a more thuggish member of the same; Andrew Bean combines the party-hearty cool of a guy like Matthew Adams with the athleticism of a soccer player. There's even a weird choice that Paulina has included, the male equivalent of Riley Petersen: Jared Cochrane, who in Lindsay's opinion is a tall, grinning goofus who would be a natural playmate of Joe and Grant and Justin and the others if he weren't so annoying. But like Riley, he's a social butterfly.

The five juniors that Paulina has included run a gamut all by themselves. Jason Rowe is a football player. Zion Barber is a basketball player and a member of the student council. Owen Hubble plays in the marching band, as does Mackenzie Fuller, but Owen (unlike Mackenzie) and hangs out with lowlifes at the portables. Alexis Lachance is another rich somebody at the center of a social circle in the junior class.

That's all for now.

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