The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)

The Real Danger

Previously: "Mental Kudzu" 

Chapter by rugal b.

With some hesitance you send the text telling Sydney that you're ready to talk to her about what you're going to do. She sends one of her back, excitedly (there's a lot of exclamation points at least) telling you that she'll be there as soon as possible. You steel yourself. You don't want to do what you plan on doing but feel that you have to do it. You've allowed your paranoid thoughts to snowball and you can't stop thinking that there's a darkness to Sydney. Warning bells that should've gone off when she even introduced you to all of this Baphomet stuff.

Or when she asked you to help her kill her stepfather. Not find evidence of his wrongdoing or get a confession out of him and turn him over to the police. She wants to commit murder and wants you to help her commit it. She wants you to do it with only her word to go off of and then she wants to create a new version of this Baphomet cult for... what? Well for no good. You don't create cults dedicated to the worship of devils and demons with the intent of giving everyone a puppy. You sacrifice the puppy to goat-headed demon lords for power or revenge or whatever.

That's why, despite any misgivings, you're convinced that you need to use Sydney in this new spell. Because what if you tell her you don't want to go along with her? Would she turn on you and would you then find yourself victim to this spell? But she knows how to sweet talk you. She's a femme fatale of the highest order and she may just reel you back in to her world doing what she wants you to.

But not if you deal with her first. You've even got a story cooked up as you take out Caleb's mask. Because, though she's a girl, she's in much better shape than you. She's more agile for a start and is probably even stronger. If you just shoved a mask onto her face she'd probably have the means of slipping out of your grasp. Then you'd really be in trouble. But you've got a plan and it seems like a fairly good one. You're thinking about it when you hear a knock on the door. You open it and jump a bit when you see Sydney.

"You seem nervous," she says with amusement as you lead her down the stairs. Once you're at the bottom she wastes no time. "So are you ready to help me with the Brotherhood?" she asks.

"Well about that, I still haven't made a decision," you admit. "But I'll definitely help you with your stepfa--with Nicholas," you say in a bit of self-correction. "In fact I've got an idea for that."

"What's this for?" she asks when you present her with a blank mask.

"Well, we'll need to use one on him so after we've used the spell," you motion over to where the book, open to the spell's page, lays on the ground, "he'll be able to come back under your control."

"Do we really need to bring him back?" Sydney asks in a flat manner that gives you chills.

"There'd be trouble if he just disappeared, yeah," you respond. "Besides, you know, he'd have to listen to everything you say; do what you tell him to do."

"Like jump in front of a train," she adds. "So we get him out here..."

"Right, but that's the second part. The first part involves you putting on that mask," you tell her.

"Will, why would I need to put on a mask?"

Now it's time for the explanation you've been rehearsing up until the moment she'd arrived. You can only hope she buys it. "Well Nicholas is a dangerous guy right? I mean he'd... he'd kill but is he physically dangerous?"

"He keeps himself in shape," Sydney says.

"Okay but even someone like that wouldn't be able to do anything three-on-one," you explain. "I was thinking that we use Caleb's mask to help us out. You can put it on, when we put your mask on the--"

"The pedisequos?" she asks. "Why? Couldn't we just put Caleb's mask on it?"

"It's because," you take a deep breath both to give what you're about to say the emotional legitimacy needed but also to reaffirm yourself about what you're going to do. "It's because I want to protect you. If something goes wrong -- he suspects something or we're not quick enough with the mask or whatever -- Nicholas will probably target you right? But if he does something, grabs you, or whatever..."

"It'd be the pedisequos while I'm safely hidden away."

"Right. It's an insurance policy. I mean we might not need it but," you pause, "look, I'm doing this for you Sydney. I just want to do the right thing and I've thought long and hard about this and what the right way to do it would be."

"I'm not doubting that, Will, but it seems so... complicated," she states.

"I know but it's the only thing I could think of to make sure that you're out of his grasp, at least long enough for us to think of something else, if everything goes south." With only a small amount of hesitation you pull Sydney in close to you. "I'm just looking out for you. You trust me right?"

Sydney regards you for a moment. Then she gives you a smile and a nod. "Yeah, of course. You've already promised to do so much for me so I'll show you a little faith in return," she states.

She backs up a bit and you watch as, taking a deep breath, she closes her eyes and raises the mask to her face.

* * * * *

"You know what's going on right?" you ask in a soft voice as you finish putting on the last bit of clothing.

The boy, reedy and jumpy, fidgets nervously as he adjusts his baseball cap. "That I'm you and you're me and that I've got you, uh, her, underneath me right?" he asks.

"Something like that. You know that you have to do whatever I tell you right?"

His expression dampens at that. "Yeah, I guess I do," he says with less enthusiasm though he perks up again. "Maybe you can ask me to--"

But you hold up a hand and tell him to be quiet. "No. Maybe later you and her can... but no, not now. I've got important stuff I've got to do. In fact I'd rather do it alone so go home or do whatever and I'll see you tomorrow," you order him.

He lingers for a moment before finally leaving and with a sight you get to work on making up a new mask and band. You've still got some of your hair, your real hair, on the table next to you. It's a good thing too because after reading the new spell and getting into this new mask you'd tried snipping off a little bit only to find that the hair, unlike your real hair, had disappeared within a few minutes and deduced that it must be something with how the masks work. Maybe the hair isn't technically real and, separated from everything, the illusion breaks down?

You'll have to study it further because for now you've got more pressing issues. Issues like the sickness you feel deep in the pit of your stomach and the vertigo feeling that's swirling around your head and not just because of the massive change in physical makeup you've experienced since putting on the mask.

Rather it's the mental aspect and what you learned from it that's making you sick. Because Sydney hadn't been lying to you at all. She hadn't been playing you or using you as a tool. She had put the mind strip onto her stepfather and put it on herself. She had learned about every terrible thing he'd done or been involved with, including the murder (and there's no doubt about it, it was murder) of her father. The real danger had never been Sydney, it had always been her stepfather.

She was so excited when she learned about the book and what it could do. So grateful for the help you'd offered to her. She really wanted that Brotherhood of Baphomet but was serious about wanting to run it together and was willing to take things slow, ease you into the idea of it. She was giddy at the chance to get revenge for her father.

But it's all for naught. Sydney won't be able to experience the satisfaction of dealing with her father's killer. She'll never be able to plunge deeper into the world of the mystical and the occult that fascinates her -- and fascinated her father -- so much. She'll never be able to share it with the scrawny, twitchy but cute boy who she really liked.

Sydney McGlynn will never experience anything again and it's all your fault. Your own twitchiness, your own disbelief that a girl like her could be genuinely into someone like you, your own paranoia got the better of you. You'd tricked her, played on her trust, to get that mask on her. Then you'd dragged her on top of the book, piled the dirt on her and lit the pile. You'd turned Sydney from a vibrant and colorful girl into a cold, alabaster statue.

A pedisequos cast in her own image. The same pedisequos that the mask of yourself that you'd made after the fact rests on.

You killed Sydney McGlynn. Yet it's Sydney's hands that create and buff the mask and carve the sigils into the metal strip. It's Sydney's hair that falls in your face as you lean over the book and double check the next spell. It's Sydney's thoughts and emotions that influence and guide you.

If only for a night Sydney McGlynn lives on through you and it's through you that she'll obtain restitution from Nicholas Lawhorn.

Next: "A Girl's Final Act" 

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