Chapter #74Yo, Bro! by: Seuzz   "No, I can do it myself," you tell the fake Professor Blackwell. "But are you going to leave it up to me? I don't just mean the choice. I mean the tactics. Because Lucy doesn't know any middle-school kids, and I'll have to do a little shifting to get to one."
"Jamie says you're the expert."
"And I'd have to work with Eric."
"No problem."
"It might be a couple days. I'll have to scout out possibilities. Anything else?" You start to rise.
"Hang on," he says, so you sit again. "You have your pick, and you can make it a boy or a girl, suit your taste." His smile disgusts you. "But we need a certain type. A kid who'd be plausible as an adept to a magician."
Rules out Robert, you think with a relieved sigh.
"Yeah, gotta be a kid who can be into black magic, willing to do nasty stuff to his friends."
"Do I have to do nasty things to them?"
"No worse than you've already done to your own friends." Again, the ugly smile.
"You sure it can't be a high school kid," you ask, thinking of Braydon Delp. "Because I already know someone--"
"No, has to be middle school." He blinks, for he seems to have startled himself. "Yes," he says. "Middle school. We can camouflage it as a job doing yard work."
"Might be hard to arrange travel," you point out. "Middle school kids can't drive themselves."
"Then that'll winnow down the possibilities." He glances at the clock. "I think I have class now."
"You do," you say, and stand up again. "A class I'm in. I'll see you there. Ask me to stay after if you think of anything else."
You shudder as you leave his office.
* * * * *
"Hey guys, I gotta close up early," Eric calls into the annex, where his best "customers" are spread out.
"What's the deal, Eric," Hugh calls back. "You're never open anymore. How do you expect to sell anything?"
"Got an errand I have to run," Eric shrugs. "Can't help it."
"We could watch the shop for you," Christian offers.
"Gonna be a couple of hours," Eric says. "You can't close up for me."
"How about you hire one of us," Christian offers. "Then we could close up for you."
"Dude, I can barely meet my own living expenses. Don't make enough to carry anyone else." Christian says something that's inaudible under the sound of papers being gathered up. "Make it up to you," Eric says. "I'll open early tomorrow and treat you to lunch."
"If I wanted ptomaine poisoning I'd eat at the school," Christian yells back.
You shift around one of the bookcases so you'll be out of sight when they exit. Lucy Vredenburg looks grotesquely out of place inside King Kong Komics. It's bad enough that you keep catching your own little brother scoping you out.
He's here with his older brother--the golem of yourself--browsing through the comics. Fake-Prescott had kicked a little when you'd called, but cheered up when you gave him the excuse to come out to the shop while bringing Robert. "Eric says you won a drawing for a hundred dollars worth of free comics."
"Again?" he'd exclaimed. "Except I didn't get anything the last time he called me out there for winning something." That was when Eric captured Joe, who had been under your mask at the time.
"Never mind. Just come out and bring Robert. Tell him he can have half of what you won."
"Do I have to?" he'd whined. "If I'm going to get a hundred dollars worth of loot I want it for myself."
"Then you just won a two hundred dollar drawing. Be out here by five."
Eric had grumbled a little over your generosity, until you'd pulled ten twenties from Lucy's purse and pressed them on him. So now it's just the four of you--yourself, Eric, Will, and Robert--in the shop.
Robert looks up as the others exit, and nudges Will. "We haven't picked out our winnings," the latter calls.
"Lemme see what you got," Eric replies as he locks the door. Then he picks up the "disabler" tube and shambles over. You turn your back and close your eyes tight. "Okay, clear," Eric calls back.
Comics tumble from Will's and Robert's nerveless hands, and they slowly collapse to the floor. Much nicer than having to grab your brother, you think. "Think Fane would give me one of those doohickeys," you ask Eric as he sets the disabler on a shelf. "Makes it a lot easier to get people."
"I can ask. But you better hurry."
You take a blank mask from your purse and put it to Robert's face. While it's inside him, you drag him into the back of Eric's shop. Quickly you pull off his socks and shoes and pants and shirt. You leave the underwear on, temporarily. No reason to get an eyeful of your brother's junk before you have to.
Eric has gotten your own double disrobed as well, and you pull the mask off the golem. "Do I get to watch you change," Eric asks with a hopeful leer.
"Didn't I leave enough toys at your place?" you ask.
"Cindy's sweet, but she's getting a little stale," Eric says. "Can you show me how to get masks on and off that thing you left?"
It might be a good idea for Eric to know how to do that, you reflect. "I'll ask Hyde-White the next time he calls. Same as you can ask your boss about getting me one of those flashlights." You and Eric strike the deal with a handshake.
The rest happens quickly. You wait for the mask to come out of Robert before putting the Will Prescott mask on him, and give him your old clothes to change into. Then you go into the very back to seal up Robert's mask, and pull off Lucy's clothes and Lucy's mask. You have to grimace a little as you put your new disguise to your face.
* * * * *
"Son of a bitch," you mutter, and tap furiously at the keys of your laptop while sliding the mouse around. "What are you doing?" you shout at the nearby phone.
"That pig's mine!" Shawn laughs, and his avatar turns to chase the fat little porker. He hits it; it squeals and tries to run, but bumps into a tree. He hits again, and it dies. "Aw, crap. No meat."
"Serves you right! I got more hunger than you!"
"I'da shared. You wouldn't. Oh shit, Robert, behind you!"
Too late you hear the hiss; there's an explosion, and the screen turns red. You curse and hit the "restart" button, and materialize inside a shack. "Grab my stuff," you yell at Shawn. "I'll be back over there in--"
"Hang on, Jeff is asking-- A creeper got him! I'm laughing my ass off!"
"Tell him that if he installed that morphing mod on the server--"
"And if your dad sprang for a headset you could tell him yourself. Oh, Jeff wants to know what you picked up at the comic book shop."
"Nothin'. The guy had to close before we could--" You press a key, sending your avatar sprinting across the blocky landscape. "And Will was being a dick, telling me I couldn't--"
"Will! Robert! Dinner!" That's your mother, calling from downstairs.
"I gotta go." You hurriedly sign off. "You got my stuff?"
"Yeah, I put your armor on myself. Gonna have to fight me to get it back."
"You gonna be on later?" You take the phone with you as you run out into the hall and down the stairs.
"Hope so. Check in later, Jeff wants your help finishing that tower."
"I wanna go find a cave. Okay, talk later." You hang up, for your dad is giving you a hard look from the end of the table. You slide into your seat, and your hand collides with Will's as you both reach for the beans at the same time. You give him a dirty look and grab the fried squash instead.
"You boys finish your homework," your dad asks.
"It's Friday, Dad," Will says. "I've got all weekend."
"So you won't have it hanging over you. Robert?"
"I almost finished starting it."
Your dad snorts. "There's gonna be some chores for you this weekend. Clear your schedules."
You sink into your chair and eat mostly in silence. You can't help watching Will. He's such a sloppy eater, shoveling it in like-- "Robert, close your mouth when you chew," your mother chides.
So here you are, back home after a couple of weeks of adventures you can't tell your parents about. And instead of things being back to normal, you're sitting in your brother's chair while something tall and stinky is sitting in yours. "Stop staring at me," Will growls at you.
Your mom and dad do most of the talking, about their days and plans for the weekend. Housework. Yard work. It's going to be a challenge, getting away from them and finding a new disguise.
It's going to be a big enough challenge getting a disguise anyway. You're not sure if you're relieved or displeased to learn that Robert does not hang out with any "bad kids" like Bob wants you to get. None of his close friends--Shawn Sellers, Jeff Mielke, or Mike McFarlin--are remotely into anything like "black magic." And the one guy he knows who might be--Casey Sennik--is a nasty little piece of work who bullies Robert and his friends. Trouble is, that makes him the ideal candidate for a two-sided play: a plausible disguise and a revenge play on Robert's behalf.
Probably it would be easier to target Traci Small, a girl with pink hair who hangs out with proto-stoners like Bruce Mumaw. Robert barely knows her, but she looks like she could be a witch in embryo. | Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author