This choice: Go back to St. Xavier's in Vee's place • Go Back...Chapter #43Just Vee Yourself by: rugal b.   "Well I'm not saying those are definitive options. I'm just spitballing is all but they seem like the safest things to do," you tell Vee. "Keeps us close together and far away from anyone at the school."
"We would still need the book if you wanted to help your girlfriend," replies Vee icily.
"Yeah. Yeah I know. We'd have to go back into the school eventually or lure out your friends," you state. "And Shelly's not my girlfriend. She's just someone who got mixed up with me."
"Well those aren't my friends either," she admits with no hesitation. "It's all of us just using one another for our own benefits."
You're astonished by how casually she admits it out loud. "Even you?" you ask.
Vee lets out a small laugh at that. "Oh yes, especially me," she states. "I have nothing in common with any of them save that we go to the same school. Same as none of them have a thing in common with me or with one another." With that she laughs again and follows it with a sort of amused sigh. "I suppose that something like this was bound to happen eventually, magic grimoire or no. You and your book just happened to speed it up."
"Sorry I screwed things up for you then."
"I just told you that it was going to happen, you idiot," Vee says as she waves off your apology. "You need to be less concerned about me and more concerned about how we're getting that book back."
"Well that's what I was going to say," you tell her. "We need the book back and we need to keep you safe, correct? Samantha has to be back tonight right? Never said who had to be wearing her mask."
Vee looks at you for a moment, her normally stony expression now showing one of intrigue. "You're a fucking idiot, you know that?" she finally says. "If you're fucked the whole thing is fucked."
"I know but I can't think of anything else," you admit. "I still owe you and all and like I said since this is your plan you're the key to the whole thing so keeping you safe is our top priority. Besides, I really don't want to see you or anyone getting hurt or worse. That's why I'm proposing we swap masks. I'll go back as Samantha, you continue on as Izzy."
She stares at you for a good long while. Finally, with a barely audible huff, she thrusts a mask at you. You take it and are quite shocked when you get a good look at it.
"This is your mask!" you exclaim.
"I told you that if you helped me you could be anyone you wanted correct? And that I might even let you be the new Davina Macklin?" Her face betrays no emotion other than the one she's been showing you since getting you out of your confinement. "Well today's your lucky day."
"But..."
"Nothing," Vee cuts you off. "If you're going to do this then Davina Macklin can't be missing. So when you get back to campus put my mask on and then... it's up to you, I guess. But you have to get back first and I can't be caught sneaking in so..."
With that she takes a seat and motions for you to do the same. She looks over at you and the neutral, disinterested expression has turned to one of complete seriousness. "For some reason I'm trusting you, Will. With this plan. With myself. Don't ruin things for me," she states.
"What does it matter if you're going to be permanently jumping shit to someone else?"
She looks at you and shakes her head. "Really, Will, you ask too many stupid questions," she says. You watch as she raises her hands to her face and pulls and in a second an unconscious Davina Macklin is sitting where Samantha Tait had been in clothes that practically hang off of her.
With a sigh you follow her lead.
* * * * *
You exit out of the Uber near the front gate and are glad that Vee, now in Izzy's mask, was willing to call it for you. But she'd already called one on the way down herself as there was no way she was going to take her car out for a joy ride. You're left with needing a way in though you hope what Vee told you is correct. You try to stay a good distance from the gate until eventually it's out of sight and replaced with an imposing wall, at which point you move closer.
You find what you're looking for: a tree that grows close enough to the wall to hang over. You try climbing it but have a tough go of it before plopping to the ground. You try another time and another and then you wish that you were Ophelia because she's athletic and likes the outdoors and would be up this tree in a jiffy. But you're not her so you can do nothing else but give it another try and this time you're able to make it up and grab a large branch which thankfully doesn't break. You're able to instead use it to shimmy over just enough to grasp the top of the wall and pull yourself over and then let yourself drop to the ground.
You're by the regular parking and begin making your way across the campus as quickly as possible until you're finally right up at Founder's Hall. You look around until you find the chapel and head over. There's an unused side door that's rarely ever locked as, though it's a journey, students who want to do some sneaking out tend to make their way there and through the door. You go through and into the chapel emerging, eventually, at the first floor of Founder's Hall.
There's not really anyone patrolling this late at night as even prefects need to sleep so quietly you slip across the hall to the stairs on the far right side and work your way up. You come to the second floor and immediately hang a right, darting past the bathrooms.
However one room does grab your attention as you pass by it and you realize you can't just ignore it.
You head over to the room, grab the handle and slowly turn it. It's to your surprise that it does indeed turn and even more slowly you crack open the door. Samantha Tait, the real girl, sleeps soundly in her bed but her roommate, you notice, is nowhere to be found. But that's not surprising. It's a Saturday night and Mary Occam always seems to manage to find ways to escape late into the night and not return until late. Samantha's brain tells you they've reached an understanding and so on Friday and Saturday nights she tends to leave the door unlocked if Mary's not back by lights out.
For a second you contemplate the possibility of swapping with her later before shutting the door and heading towards the room that Vee shares with Kristen. Thankfully the Kristen golem seems to have left her door unlocked too and so you slip in, slowly close the door and lock it. It takes a few minutes afterwards but eventually laying in Vee's bed is the girl herself and, exhausted, sleep is almost instantaneous.
* * * * *
You wake up the next morning tense. Not just because of the events of last night but also because rumor is reality and a sweep is coming. Vee hid the book down in the library and her extra masks and other things inside the rarely used janitor closet on the other side of the hall. So when inspection comes you should be fine and indeed you are as it's not like Dalton and the other prefects have any reason to suspect anything out of the ordinary.
Still though you can't shake the feeling of unease. As Vee you're now going to be under more scrutiny by her so-called friends so you can't afford to mess up even a tiny bit around them. But being her also means you're in the best place to scrutinize them, determine if they're onto you and as well maybe turn the tables on Kristen by getting her out of a Abi's mask and slipping the another golemized mask onto her instead.
So you wonder instead if you should quickly swap out of her mask into another one. You'd had the thought of being Samantha, for instance, and people seem to like her enough that she's largely above suspicion. But there are others too who would be good. Someone like Mary Occam for instance. But if you wanted to get a new mask of someone else you have to wonder who, exactly would create plausible distance while still being able to be useful for what you need to do.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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