The Book of Masks (Vol. 3)

Sharing Your Secrets

Previously: "How to Scare a Girl for Fun and Profit" 

WILLIAM MARTIN PRESCOTT. That's the name that floats above the inner surface of the mask that you show Katy. It seemed the best choice. There was no way you were going to freak her out by showing her the mask of Coach Schell, and the mask of almost any other person would freak her out almost as much.

But if you showed her that you were experimenting on yourself ... Well, you might look like a reckless dumbass, but that's better than looking like a creep and a perv.

So you show her the mask, and compare each part of it to the corresponding spell while explaining how you crafted it. How the first spell made the mask itself. The second spell made the stuff that sealed it after you copied yourself into it. How the third spell let you make the metal band now affixed to the interior of the mask. How the fourth spell made the glue that holds them together. "So, this like a complete back up copy of me," you conclude.

Her attitude grows noticeably cooler as you go. "Whatever you say, Will." She sounds aggravated. "It's a pretty impressive piece of work, I'll give you that—"

"You wanna see me make another one?"

"Another copy of yourself?" She looks around with a tired expression.

"Another mask. Another thing like this, but blank." You brandish the mask at her. "I can get started on it at least, show you I'm not bullshitting you."

You're bullshitting me, her expression says, but at least she follows you back down into the basement.

I'm going to show you, you swear to yourself as you start rummaging for supplies. No way am I going to let you go back to Stephanie and let you tell her I'm some kind of spastic weirdo! Angrily you yank open drawers and slam them shut as you pull out the ingredients to make a mask.

"Will, I have to go," Katy says as you start mixing ingredients.

"Can you just—?"

You catch yourself in time, and take a deep breath.

"Katy, can you give me just five minutes?" you plead. "Please. That's all I want. Five minutes, so you can see I'm telling you the truth."

"I don't think you're lying to me," she says. "I mean, I'm sure you made that thing like you said—"

"No, I just have to show you that it is magic. There's one little part of it that will show you. Please?"

Katy visibly cringes. But then she wilts and settles back with a grimace against one of the tables. You give her a reproachful look, then return to your work.

"Yeah, it makes a horrible stink," you admit after you've finished mixing the ingredients. You forgot to open any windows or turn on any fans, and Katy withdraws to the stairs with her hands over her nose. "Now watch this," you say as you pour the bubbling liquid over the convex mirror, where it hardens. "See how it made this shell?"

"Yes," Katy says. "That's very clever."

"Come pick it up. Come pick it up!" You can't help snapping as Katy hangs back. She gives you a dirty look, but creeps up to stare down at the mirror. "It's cool, it won't burn you. Just pick it up, hold it, and look at it."

She gives you another look, then gingerly plucks the shell off the mask.

"Now, you saw what I did, right?" you tell her. You take a step back and hold your hands in the air. "No tricks. It was just this stuff I mixed all together, and all I did was pour it over that mirror. I didn't—"

With a sharp gasp Katy flings the shell from her hand. She grabs at the edge of the table.

"It's okay, Katy!" you assure her. "It's alright! It's just the magic! That's what I wanted you to see!"

"See what?" she asks. She seems to be having a hard time catching her breath.

"Just pick it up. You'll see."

She creeps over to where she flung the thing. She bends to stare at it for a long moment. It is with evidently vast reluctance that she picks it up.

It's a mask—an oval with brow, nose, chin, lips, and eyes. Slowly she turns it over and around in her hands, holding it like it's a dead rat she's trying not to touch.

"See?" you tell her. "It's a mask. It was just this plain thing when you picked it up. But then it changed into a mask. Like the one I showed you."

"It's the wrong color," she says.

"I told you, you have to polish it. Takes me about an hour to do, but—"

"How did you do that?" she demands. "How did you make it change shape?"

"It's magic! I don't know how it works. The book just says how to make it, and that's how you make it!"

"And you made the other one like this?"

You nod. "It scared me too when it did that, the way it kind of jumps in your hand."

Katy is breathing heavily, and she sinks onto a table. She's got a firmer grip on the mask now.

"And if you polished it," she says, "and if you ... put it on someone ...?"

"It would copy them," you finish for her.

Still she looks skeptical. "And what then?"

That was the part you didn't get to, that you hung back from explaining. It's like a back up copy of me, is what you told her. You draw a deep breath.

"It's like a disguise, I guess." You can't prove that to her without breaking out Coach Schell's mask. "The book says that if you copy someone and seal the mask and put it on, it will make you look like them."

Katy's eyes get very wide. But still she looks disbelieving.

"And you tried it?" she asks.

"Well, not with my mask." A thought occurs to you. "I can't disguise myself as myself. I don't think."

"So what happened when you—?"

"I made the thing and I copied myself. And I haven't done anything else with it. I don't have anyone else I could try it with."

Only after you've uttered the words do you realize what you've inadvertently said. Katy looks up at you.

"I want to share this with someone, Katy," you tell her. "I mean, I've got friends I could share it with. But they're more into science and stuff. But you and your friends, you at least looked a little bit interested in magic. You have that voodoo stuff. So I thought— And I liked being with you, Katy," you hurriedly add, lest she think you were just looking for a kind of magical-science lab partner. "I really liked being with you. I thought maybe with this, by sharing this ... stuff ... with you—"

She drops the mask and runs for the stairs. Your heart sinks as she gallops up them.

* * * * *

Stupid stupid stupid, you yell at yourself. What were you thinking, showing this stuff to her? Now she thinks you're a weirdo and she'll probably blow things up for you by telling people what you're doing. What if the cops get involved? Or the government?

Oh, hell, what if your dad gets involved?

You make yourself miserable with these reflections for a good long time, and it's some minutes before you realize that you haven't heard Katy's car start up and drive away. You're on the point of going up to look when the door opens and she comes back in.

She is very white in the face. She stops in the middle of the stairs, and neither of you speaks for a good long time.

"Let me see that mask again," she finally asks you.

"Which one? The new one or—?"

"Both.

Your feet are very heavy as you carry them over to her. She takes them and weighs them in her hands.

"So you haven't figured out if they work," she says.

"Someone would have to try one on. Um," you add after a moment's silence. "That's not why I wanted to— I'm not looking for a guinea pig or anything!" your blurt out.

A wince flashes across Katy's face. "Well, can I take this one with me?" she asks, and hefts the one you just made.

"What for? It's not done yet, you know."

"What do you still have to do to finish it?"

"Polish it."

"And that'll take you how long?"

"About an hour."

"And then you can use it to make—" She swallows. "Disguises?"

"No, there's more stuff you have to do. That'd take me the rest of the night."

She thinks, then nods. "I could find you a guinea pig," she says in a voice that shakes.

Next: "How Trust Is Repaid" 

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