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A high school student finds a grimoire that shows how to make magical disguises. |
Previously: "A Couple of False Conclusions"  You feel your eyes bulge, and you trip on your heels as you back away from the approaching figures. You didn't even really hear what Jared Larson said. All you know is that you shouldn't be out here at the same time he and his brother are! Jared frowns as you scramble backwards. "Will!" he calls. "Calm down! It's me, Caleb!" But you're now in full-on panic. You run to the other side of Caleb's car—while Caleb himself watches you with a mild frown—and go into a crouch. Run? Fight? Shit yourself? You're tempted to do all three, as embarrassing as it would be! Jared shakes a finger at you. "Grab him!" he snarls. Before you can react, Caleb and Cody dash for you, catching you in a pincer as they come at you from both sides of the car. Too late you turn to run, and then hands are grabbing you, and you are spun around, struggling in their grip, as the frowning Jared trots up to you. "Jesus, Will!" he exclaims. "Calm the fuck down!" "How do you know me?" you shriek. "You don't know me! I—!" You are hit by the sudden realization that Caleb is one of the guys holding tight onto you, and your knees nearly buckle with horror and fright. "Will," Jared Larson says firmly. "I told you. It's me. Caleb. He's a fake." He points at your best friend. "Stop freaking out!"  But all you hear is "Caleb is a fake." "Oh God!" you screech. "What did you do to him?" Jared glowers. Then with a flick of his hand, he gestures Cody and Caleb to follow him, bringing you with him. You kick and scramble against the ground, and the two grunt with the effort, but they succeed in dragging you away from the car and into the barn. As your eyes go to that pile of dirt you got from the graveyard, your sphincter loosens in a way that is even more terrifying that being manhandled by a zombie who looks like your best friend. "Will," Jared says when you're inside the barn, and he glares into your face with his hands on his hips. "I'm going to tell you this one more time. I'm not Jared Larson. It's me, Caleb. You know, your friend. The guy who's been helping you, and Keith and Teresa, with these masks. I'm wearing a mask, Will!" He sets his jaw, and points to his face. "This is a mask of Jared that I'm wearing!" Something like understanding begins to break across your fevered consciousness. It still defies belief, and you cast a terrified, sidelong glance at Caleb, who is watching Jared and listening to him with a placid blankness of expression. So is Cody, when you look over at him. You lick your lips, and look at Jared. His eyebrows go up. "No!" you gasp, and try again to tear away. "You— You did something to Caleb! You—!" "Hold him there," Jared snaps at the other two. He falls ass-first onto the ground with a grunt, and puts his hand to his temple. "Fine," he snarls. "I hope this convinces you." He closes his eyes, works his lips soundlessly, and pulls at his forehead. Something blue flashes across his face, and falls to the dirt beside his hip. His limbs go limp, and his head lolls. All the life goes out of him, and he flops sideways to the ground like a discarded doll. Though he is dressed as Jared Larson, he has the face and hair of Caleb Johansson. * * * * * It was ten minutes before he woke up, groggy, as though from a much longer sleep. All that time, Caleb and Cody kept firm hold of you, and wouldn't even let you sit down. Even when you argued, Caleb only replied, "Boss said to keep hold of you," and tightened his grip on your arm and shoulder. Not until your friend—your real friend—had woken and given them new orders did they release you. Then he explained. After he left you Wednesday night, he called up Teresa and together they came out to the barn. There they met Cody, who had come in answer to Teresa's summons, bringing Jared with him. Together, the three of them overpowered Jared long enough to get a mask onto him. While he was knocked out, Caleb (who had brought a second mask) made a copy of himself. He had then sealed that mask, coated it with a layer of the paste he had already made with the new spell, put some of his own hair into it and set it on fire—and when that was all done, he put the resulting mask onto Jared. And Jared disappeared, replaced by an exact copy of Caleb himself. He was a Caleb, moreover, who followed every command that Caleb gave to him. And though he understood that he was a fake, and also correctly guessed that he was really a mask that had been set upon the face and body of Jared Larson, he confessed that he knew nothing about Jared. In other words, he was a Caleb Johansson who looked and acted like just like one of the golems you had made when putting a mask of Mickey—or one of the other girls—upon it. Only this one looked and acted like a real person and not a construct. Then, after sealing up the mask of Jared, Caleb had put it on. It turned him into Jared, but he didn't have Jared's memories. Still, to test things as far as possible, he went home as Jared, with the Teresa-controlled Cody along to help with the impersonation, and succeeded in passing himself off as Cody's brother. The next morning—yesterday—he woke with Jared's memories, and went to Eastman High as him, while a fake Caleb Johansson went to Westside in his place. That afternoon he met Teresa again (this time at the old school) with Cody, and moved Cody's mask onto the golem that he (Caleb) controlled, so as to keep Cody on a tighter leash. And while has been living out Jared's life perfectly, an obedient duplicate of himself jhas been taking his own place at his house and at Westside. Just as you and he had theorized you might be able to do. And what did that mask do to Jared, the one you were afraid would turn him into a golem for good? Caleb pulled the mask off "Caleb," to reveal Jared—hole and hale and in the flesh, but asleep—underneath. He even poked him to the verge of consciousness, before dropping the mask back onto him just as his eyes were fluttering open. So he seems to be okay. And has he shown all this to Keith? Not yet. He wanted to show it to each of you one at a time, for fear of freaking you both out, and elected to show you first. (It upsets you a little when he confesses afterward that he flipped a coin over who to show it to first, and it was heads—you—who came up top.) The way you reacted, he says with a sneer, shows I had the right idea to show you guys separately. * * * * * So what are you going to do with this stuff? It leaves you dizzy as you reflect on how Caleb has usurped the body, memories, life, and existence of someone else. Caleb even points out that when he returns to his own life (and he does use the word "when") he could keep Jared bottled up by putting some of that paste into Jared's mask, and turning him into the same kind of obedient golem as Cody. Then, he says, I could switch back and forth. I could be me whenever I want, and him whenever I want. "Do you want to be him?" you ask now. Caleb holds up the mask of Jared for contemplation. He also gives Cody, standing patiently nearby, a good, long look. "He's got a hell of a better life than me," Caleb finally says. "He's got two parents, for a start, and a lot of money, though you wouldn't know it from the way they dress. And Jared's gotten laid. He knows how to get laid," he adds with a little choke in his voice. "Yeah?" You feel yourself stiffening, even as you remember Jared's questing mouth when he cornered you in the barn during that "barbecue." "But we're not talking about someone who's super-smart, or popular, or a star on the football field," Caleb continues. "He's not a lot different from us. Fuck me," he adds, fixing you with a beady, one-eyed glance. "He's not a lot different from you." You feel yourself turning pink. Is Caleb saying that you could get laid, that you could get to "know how to get laid"? Then he blows your little fantasy by explaining: "He's kind of a lazy dumbass. He's just better at being a lazy dumbass than us, and grabbing whatever goes by. Anyway," he concludes, "I'm thinking about just doing this for a week, then, I dunno, switching back, getting rid of the mask. Have some fun being him, then let him have his life back, why not? And I don't think he'd notice if a week went missing." Then he fixes you with a sharp look. "You wanna be his brother?" "What?" You glance over at Cody, who returns your glance with a cocked eyebrow. "It'd be more fun if you were out there with me," Caleb says. "And Cody gets action too. Him and me, whether you go as him or not, we're going out to the Warehouse tonight. It could be you and me." You hesitate. And in that moment Caleb shrugs. "But don't feel like you have to decide right away," he says. "We got, like, six hours before anything starts. Plenty of time for me to get Keith out here if you wanna pass. I'm sure he'll want to go." Next: "An Offer You Can Refuse" |
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