Chapter #27The Seduction of Sienna by: Seuzz   "There's nothing wrong with anything I've told you," you tell Fatima in a teasing voice. "You want to know what would be wrong? This would be wrong."
You flip to the page that gives the golem-in-a-mask spell; the others, despite some dark looks, crowd around.
"This spell here would be wrong. What we do--" You take Sienna's mask from her. "What we do is put some special stuff in your mask, Fatima. Then we take a new mask, a blank mask, and we go find Molly Shaw." She stiffens. "We make a copy of Molly in the new mask. You put it on, so that you become Molly. Then we put your mask on her, and she changes into you. You get to be her. Everyone thinks you're her, and they treat you like her. Her friends treat you like you're her. DeMarcus treats you like you're her."
Fatima's mouth splits into a tight, horrified smile.
"And meanwhile Molly gets to be Fatima and fuck up her life," Sienna retorts. "That's a shitty plan, Andrea, even if it weren't wrong."
"But she doesn't fuck up Fatima's life," you reply, turning to her with a smile. "Remember, I said we put this special stuff inside Fatima's mask." You tap the page. "According to the spell, the special stuff puts Molly to sleep. She's asleep under there, doesn't have any idea what's going on. But the mask, it makes her act just like Fatima. She does what Fatima would do. No one would notice that Fatima was missing. And the new Fatima would have to do whatever the real Fatima--" You nudge your friend. "Whatever the real Fatima tells her to do."
The explanation seems to confuse them, so you have to repeat it again, more carefully, and with a few more details. It leaves Jelena and Sienna staring. Fatima jumps to her feet and paces the room angrily, then charges into the kitchen. You hear the back door open and slam shut.
"This isn't cool, Andrea," Jelena says.
"It's very cool," you reply. "It's just wrong. That's what Fatima said, and I wasn't arguing."
"You should get rid of these things. And that book," Sienna says, pushing the book back with her fingertip.
You shrug. "Then you should keep those masks. Put them someplace safe. Hide them."
"And the book?"
"What kind of friend would I be if I didn't show it to you?"
"That's not what I asked. What are you going to do with it?"
"If it's such a bad thing, maybe I'd better keep it so no one else gets ahold of it." They stir uneasily. You smile again. "I promise that I won't use it. I don't want to use it." You shrug, and then fall back onto the floor. "I like who I am. Why would I want to be anyone else? I just wanted to show this to you guys in case you wanted to do something with it."
"You think we don't like who we are?" Jelena asks. Her tone sounds dangerous.
You turn and give her an ingenuous stare. "I'm sure you like who you are, Yell. I like who you are. Same with you, Sienna. But don't you ever want to take a vacation? I don't," you add before they can turn the question on you. "That's what I have the swimming pool for." You raise a leg and point a toe at the ceiling. "But other people like to take vacations. And as I said, what kind of friend would I be if I didn't show you this stuff?"
They are silent for a bit. Then Jelena stirs. "Someone should go talk to Fatima."
"I will," you say, and leap lightly to your feet. "I should apologize." You leave them to talk quietly with each other.
You turn on the back porch light, which brightly illuminates the tiny backyard, which is made even tinier by the large vegetable garden that runs along the back wall. It's cool under the dark sky, and Fatima is hugging her bare arms. You put an arm around her. "I'm sorry," you say. "I didn't mean to tease you."
"Then what did you mean to do?"
"Well, maybe I did mean to tease you. A little bit. To be totally honest with you, Fatima," you sigh, "I'm getting more than a little tired of you moping over DeMarcus. Either he's not worth it, or he's worth doing something about."
"He's not interested in me anymore, which is why I broke up with him."
"But you're interested in him. And when I say he's worth doing something about, I mean he's worth doing something to."
She looks over at you. "I thought you were talking about Molly with that-- That thing!"
"No, I was talking about DeMarcus. Molly doesn't have to come into it, and we don't have to do anything to or with Molly or anyone else. Not to hurt them. Just use their faces with DeMarcus."
"I don't want to be them with DeMarcus. I want to be myself with him."
"Yes, I get that. But what if Molly or one of them started doing to DeMarcus what he did to you? What if she was really sweet and attentive to him one day, and then totally blew him off the next?"
"But that would be--"
"You're not listening. We don't do that 'replacement' thing. I told you, that would be wrong. But you could do yourself up as Molly, and go hang out with him while we kept the real Molly occupied. The next time he saw Molly, of course, she wouldn't know what was going on, and would blow him off or something. Like he did with you. And then you go back to him as Molly. Screw with his head."
She shivers. "That would be awful."
"Like he was awful with you."
She thinks for a very long time, and you let her as you listen to the last crickets of the season. "But Molly is interested in him," she mutters. "I think."
"So be someone else. Someone who isn't interested in him, but it would excite him if she was."
Again, she thinks for a long time. Then she turns back toward the house. You follow.
Inside, Jelena and Sienna look up with pale and vexed expressions. Fatima flops to the floor with a frown and picks up Sienna's mask. "Kendra Saunders," she says. "She would be perfect."
Jelena and Sienna exchange glances. "For what?" the latter asks, sounding aghast.
"For fucking with DeMarcus," Fatima says fiercely.
You explain the idea to them, and amplify it to your own ends. Not only would Kendra be a perfect disguise for Fatima, she would be a good catch for your group as a spy.
And with Fatima on board, the rest of the pieces fall rapidly into place. "I don't think any of us can get to Kendra," you say as you thoughtfully stroke your throat. "But what about Kelsey? Sienna, you talk to Kelsey. Think you could get a mask of her? Then we use that face to get to Kendra."
"If you want to know what's going on with Kelsey and Karl--" Jelena starts.
"I've got Charles for that," you retort. "In the meantime, Yell, how about you see if you can get Shep Tsosie's face."
That elicits a sharp gasp. "How come?"
"To get to Jason, of course. You want to do something about him. So do all of us. For Charles's sake, right?" Three pairs of eyes shoot around the circle. "Shep gets to Jason. We get a copy of Jason." You laugh. "How much fun would it be for Jason to get caught in a seriously compromising position?"
The first fish was hard to score. The other two came with their own barrels.
* * * * *
You call Caleb afterward to report your progress and hear about his. "James, Carson and Paul," he tells you with a chortle. "And boy have I got them shitting in their pants."
"How is that?"
"Never mind, but it's brilliant. You should talk to Steve about it, though. He's in charge. Come to think of it, that's where you'll find the real me."
You curse the golem out good and hard before hanging up. And you don't call Patterson. Instead, you just text him, saying you'll need three masks, and that you'll be returning the book to him tomorrow via the Garners.
* * * * *
"You're not acting like Shep," you tell Jelena in a reproving tone as you walk toward the mall. It's Saturday. You didn't have a mask for her, but you did have a mind strip, which she'd taken with her to school on Friday. She called you last night to say she'd gotten close to him in Fernandez's History class (where he usually slept) and gotten it onto and off him without anyone noticing.
"I haven't put it on yet," she says. "I'm not looking forward to it."
"Well, if we're going to get you a wardrobe to go with the face, you'd better get it on. I don't want to waste time in the wrong stores." You steer her over to a bench in front of the entrance and push her onto it. With a grimace, she puts the band to her forehead.
You sit next to her with an arm around her shoulder. It's too bad she isn't your type. You're too much alike in terms of personality to really mesh, and her style--black clothes and librarian glasses; a smoker and a drinker--is a turn off. You like them cuddly. Like Chelsea. You kick yourself for not following up on that yet.
She sits up with a start and looks around with a dark look. "Yell," you carefully ask.
"Yeah," she grunts, and kneads her forehead. "Shit. It's as nasty as I thought it would be." She snorts. "Actually, it's kind of fun." She paws herself.
"Stop that."
"Okay. But we're at the wrong place. He gets his stuff at the second-hand shops."
You start to rise, but she sits back with a startled look on her face. "Lynch," she says hollowly. "Someone else can make those masks. They got a copy of him!"   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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