This choice: You can't tell him, fob him off with something. • Go Back...Chapter #8You can't tell him, fob him off with someth... by: Seuzz   (Text by Gimlet )
"I've just had homework." you manage weakly and Caleb leans in closer.
"Right, pull the other one."
"OK, alright, I've been thinking about Umeko, OK?"
"Your cousin? Oh come on, surely you're over her by now?"
"Oh right, like you haven't drooled over her when you bumped into her?"
"We aren't related."
The rest of the conversation is predictabl, getting nowhere whatsoever, but doing it loudly. After parting outside school you head home thankful that you can get back to finishing the second Mask.
Once you get home the conversation from today comes back to you. What about Lisa? Is there any way a Mask could help get her back? You could make a merged Mask and use that to try and date her as someone else? But that strikes you as a lose-lose situation. If she rejects the new you she still won't be with Will Prescott, and if she doesn't reject him it'll just prove it was the real you that was the problem the whole time!
No, you can't face that, and the only other way you can think you daren't do. Making a Mask of Lisa. Not only wouldn't it feel right you'd probably never get the courage up to wear the damn Mask after you fixed it!
You put the whole idea on the back burner for now until you can find a way that a Mask could help with Lisa. Instead you finish burnishing the Mask while watching evening TV. After an hour and a half it's finally an even glossy blue, deep like crystal just like the first Mask.
Now comes the decision you've been putting off all week. Who to put in the mask for Andrew? You aren't even sure what blending two people in a Mask would actually do. Is it a straight blend between them? Looking as if you were their kid? Hmm, there is the other issue of how to get the images to put in the Mask. Oh, well you and Andrew could just put both your faces on the Mask? That would keep it private at least.
Yeah, that should work, and use the Robert Mask to prove the masks work. Oh this should be interesting. Besides you always liked Andrew. He works at home on his programs (you are still not sure if he is freelance or works at home for a corporation) so he should be in now.
You get some clothes that will fit both you and Robert then head to Andrew's before you can talk yourself out of it.
"Yeah? Who is it?" comes the familiar response to your knock.
"Avon calling. They want their money back!"
With a chuckle he opens the door, pulling his wheelchair out of the way to let you in.
"So, what do I owe the pleasure your company Will?" He says, leading you into the living room.
"This is gonna sound weird Andy, but I ain't shitting you." You get out the Mask. "This thing can make you walk again."
Silence falls and Andrew turns to you with a fierce expression.
"Don't joke about that man! This shit is serious. I ain't some kind of freak for your..."
"OK, I'll prove it!" you interrupt and (remembering to sit down on the couch this time) you put on the Robert Mask.
The familiar sensations wash over you as the Mask sticks, you focus as much as you can as you weave, and for a moment you think you can stay conscious ...
You wake up to see Andrew's shocked face peering down at you.
"JEEEZUS! What the hell was that!" he gasps, touching the side of your face.
"This is worth a grand, Andy. A heck of a lot cheaper than any of the medical asshole's treatments they pushed on you. This one is my brother, I don't want you wandering around as him, but we can..."
"Who whoah a minute!" He says, getting up close to your face. "Backtrack. This one what? What the hell have you got here?"
You grin up at him with Robert's face.
"What I have is something I stumbled across online, Andy. A recipe for making Masks that can record what someone looks like, then project that onto whoever wears the Mask! Is that cool or what?"
"You found this online?" he asks suspiciously.
"It's kind of weird, but it's there, and it's not. Look I'll show you. You got a pen?"
Andrew rummages around and finds one and hands it to you with a notepad.
"OK, the recipe is like this..." and you start writing, or attempting to.
"Wait," Andrew says as he sees nothing being written, "I'll find a working pen."
You grin up at him
"It is working. Look." and you write your name.
"Huh?" Andrew takes the pen and checks it out, finding it works just fine "This is some sort of joke right?"
"No. Got me at first though. The original thing is in Latin. Bitch to translate, especially when you can't type or write any of it down. Even on a computer it just vanishes."
"Wait, if it can't be written down how did they write it for the website?"
You shrug your shoulders.
"Got me, and now I can't even find the website, my browser doesn't even have a history on it, web-address, nothing. It's as if it never existed. The only way to 'store' the instructions is in here." You tap your head. "Maybe it's some sort of safety feature of... whatever this thing is?"
Andrew slumps back in his chair, exhausted despite barely doing anything physical since you arrived.
"And I have to look like your brother?"
You chuckle.
"As I tried to tell you earlier this Mask is off limits. I don't like my brother, but having two of him around would be too much to bear. Seriously, you don't want to look like someone who already exists. However, this" and you hold up the Mask you finished today "is a blank one. Put it on a face and it records the image of that person. Put it on another face after that and it merges the two into a new, composite, body. Presto! We 'fix' the Mask and you have a new body with legs that work. I'm afraid you'd have to try to figure out some way to change your life over to the new you, but I'll help with that if I can, even if I have to wear the Mask I'm selling you or something."
Andrew peers down at you.
"And this is something from a friend that I have to pay a Grand for? Some friend!"
You get up, still a little off balance, not used to Robert's body.
"Hey! You don't know the materials and effort to make one of these. It's not easy, I need the money to make more masks!"
Andrew squints, a faint smile forming.
"You ain't telling me everything, Will."
You ponder, you could just bluff it out, but this is Andrew. He's a pretty smart cookie and if you start using stuff from later in the book and he notices...
"OK, there was more than instructions on making a Mask on that site. Some of it I... I don't know what it was. I just know it takes a lot of cash in materials and a lot of my time. It's emptied my bank account on just two Masks, and this one of Robert I'll probably never get to use! He's a dweeb but he IS my Brother. I'm not gonna get him arrested or anything. This Mask I'm offering is going to make you able to walk which no-one else has been able to give you. Frankly I think that it's pretty good of me to offer it to my friend rather than sell this on the black market!"
Andrew just laughs.
"Yeah, I'm sure you have tons of contacts in the criminal underworld, Will." He drums his fingers on the arm of his wheelchair for a few moments and ponders. "OK, I might consider your deal but I get to test out this Mask now. I can't be sure I really will be able to walk with this thing."
"OK, hang on a sec. To take one of these things off put your fingers like this," you press fingers and thumb to temple and nose, grip your face and pull, "Ungh, pull while saying this." and you recite the phrase you learned three times.
The ripping sensation is very weird, though not actually painful. This time you actually manage to stay conscious, though it's close, and waver, shaking your head as Andrew stares at you.
"Are you OK?" he asks
"It's a bit weird, but after a few times you get used to it. You'll probably pass out the first time. Here, give it a go." and you hand over the Mask to Andrew.
Tentatively he presses it to his face and convulses, collapsing in the chair before the Mask melts into him. Seeing the changes in someone else is incredible, like a scifi show! You can see muscles shifting, bones moving around into new configurations. You wait nervously and a after a minute 'Robert' wakes up.
"What the... My voice!" he gasps, and looks up at you. He's shrunk and his clothes are now rather loose on him. Going the other way could be tricky. Have to strip to sure you wouldn't do yourself an injury with your own clothes!
"Is this enough proof Andrew?" you say, stepping over and taking 'Robert's' hand.
Slowly you pull, easing him up off the wheelchair till he is standing, amazed, under his own power.
"Oh my god! It's true! Sheeit!" he starts to dance, and nearly falls over.
"Hey, wait a bit, gotta get used to your new legs there MJ."
"OK, you have definitely got a deal, Will. God, you're right, this is way worth a thousand bucks!"
"Ya think I should raise the price then?" He freezes and grimaces at you "Joking! God can't take a joke man! So should we do the Mask thing now? I was figuring mix me and you together should make someone no-body would recognize, plus the body should be half way between our ages. Gives you a little fountain of youth thing, hmm?"   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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