This choice: Try to replace Whitney or one of his friends. • Go Back...Chapter #22The Man in the Holzer Mask by: Masktrix   “We leave Roxanne out of this,” you blurt, almost a little too quickly. “You saw how she reacted to the stuff we showed her. Plus she’s the one that has most to lose if Charles decides to go after someone.” Or, you suddenly consider, the most likely person he’ll have turned into a golem to cover his tracks.
“She’s already in too deep,” Dylan mutters.
“Yeah? And whose fault is that?” you say, anger rising. “She only got dragged into this mess – like Charles and his asshat friends – because you decided to catfish someone.”
“You’d have done the same,” Dylan retorts.
“Enough!” Caleb interrupts. “It doesn’t matter who did what. We’ve still got to find out what they know before they come for us. They’re not going to just give things up. If we’re not involving Roxanne, that leaves impersonation or trying to use that golem goop.”
“Let's go with spying,” you say. “We’ve got the masks they’ve been making, so they can’t have swapped with anyone yet.”
“We haven’t got all of them, Will,” Caleb says quietly.
“How do you figure?” you ask. “We just went over the math. It takes a week to prepare these things.”
Caleb shoots you a look. “Because they unlocked three spells, dumbass. It means they’d have to have used them. Even if that one of Rory Bynum was used for testing, that still leaves the –” the word seems to catch in his throat. “The corpse golem.”
You forgot about that. Whatever the spell does – and you’re still not completely sure what it would look like – there was no evidence of it in Charles’ makeshift lab. That means it’s still running around somewhere.
“It doesn’t change anything,” you shoot back. “You’re right. Our first priority has to be replacing one of Whitney’s cronies: Ethan Gilkey and Zachary Holzer. We just need a way to get to them. Alone.”
“Well, the fastest way’s pretty obvious,” Dylan chirps in. “We’ve got a lovely disguise of a very attractive – if a little dishevelled at the moment – young lady…”
“Too risky,” Caleb interjects. “You try a honey trap and someone’s going to smell a rat in an instant. By now, they’re gonna have realized we got their stuff. They’ll be on alert. There’s no way this Whitney guy wouldn’t have told ‘em about Jessica.”
But Whitney didn’t know about every mask, did he?
***
It’s 9pm by the time you’re ready to make your move. Dylan, for his part, ordered a questionable pizza as you went over the plan: isolate one of the Eastman guys and switch with him. The only problem was how to find them without raising suspicion.
It was a problem that you all struggled with over three slices each, Caleb wedging cheese between his teeth and almost choking at one point as you mulled it over. Initially, you were convinced they’d most likely be hanging around together, or sticking to their own houses until they worked out what they were doing. But then you realized a simple home truth that made things far easier.
“We’re pussies,” you suddenly exclaimed.
“Fuck you!” Caleb had retorted, almost immediately, before you managed to get your point over. Charles (and Charles) had burst in on you, Dylan, Caleb and Roxanne. It was a straight four-on-four, and yet with the wave of his (admittedly terrifying) knife and a promise to remove one of your eyes, you’d given up a book of potentially life-changing magic, along with virtually everything you knew. Charles, Ethan and Zachary aren’t expecting you to come after them. They’re expecting you to hide.
Armed with that epiphany, you’d hit up information on the parties in town, narrowing your options down to Meghan Farris’ bash… before Dylan pointed out your mistake. You shouldn’t have been looking for Eastman or Westside parties. You should have been looking over at Keyserling, and the fake frat house of those spoiled rich assholes.
Now, the hour ticking on, you’re sat in your truck, headlights off, wondering if this is really a good plan. What if they aren’t coming? What if it was just Charles at that stupid party? What if there’s no party tonight? What if…
GET RDY! 1 CMNG!!!!
The message from Caleb pings on your phone. You take a deep breath and climb out of the cab. There are only two roads to the edge-of-campus row of student accommodation, so Dylan watched one side of the road, while Caleb watched the other. It was a fishing expedition, but somehow it’s paid off. You head to the road, wondering which one’s coming, a mask in your hand concealed under a slung laptop bag. By now, Caleb will be coming up behind, while Dylan should be moving in too. Your plan is to grab them on the street, pretend they’re drunk and you’re his bros, and get them to your truck. It’s stupid, and wild, and reckless. But maybe it would work.
Your heart thuds. Up ahead, you can see your target. It’s one of Charles’ two friends – the blonde one, with short-cut hair and a squarish face: Zachary Holzer. He looks like he can handle himself if a fight happens. But, fortunately, at the moment so can you. He gives you only the briefest of looks as he passes you on the sidewalk, wearing a smart shirt and jeans. He’s so close he couldn’t fail to recognize Will Prescott. But, right now, you look like Jeremy Richards.
For a moment, your heart thuds in your chest. Then, as you’re only a foot away, you whip out the mask and lunge at him.
Holzer collapses to the sidewalk, and you quickly glance around to make sure no one’s around. A figure’s running up, but it doesn’t take a moment to realize it’s Caleb. “C’mon!” you yell. “Help me with him, yeah?”
Caleb rushes up, but skids to a halt. “The fuck happened?” he asks.
“C’mon!”
“The. Fuck. Happened. Will.”
You pause, and look down. On the floor is Zachary Holzer’s prone body. Except the mask hasn’t vanished like normal. Instead, it’s stuck fast on his face. You glance at Caleb, and then reach down, pulling it off. Beneath, Holzer’s eyes flutter, dazed but still clearly conscious. You jam the mask down again… and once more it remains stuck to him.
“What the hell are you doing?” you hear another voice. You glance around, and see Dylan. Both you and Caleb breathe a sigh of relief.
“C’mon,” you say. “Something’s gone wrong. Let’s get him to the truck.”
You don’t see anyone on the street, and no one stops you as you help what looks like a passed out drunk wearing a mask down the street toward the car – it’s probably a normal night off campus. With a groan, you haul Holzer into the back. Then, confident you’re alone, look at your conspirators.
“What the fuck’s happening?” Dylan snaps. You can only shrug meekly. Then an idea emerges. What if you can’t put a mask on a mask… you pull off the first, then, warily, you grip Holzer’s forehead and tug.
“Holy shit!” Dylan says, tumbling back a little. Caleb can only stare. Looking back at you is another boy – someone you don’t recognize. He’s grey in the moonlight, still and dead, and it’s only when you all catch yourself that you realize it’s a golem. No… not a golem. A perfect statue of someone you don’t recognize. He’s handsome, fit and muscular but not overly so, with hair perfectly coiffed.
“What the hell is that?” Dylan asks.
“Not what,” Caleb says quietly. “Who.”
***
“His name is Marius Hall,” you say, slumped in Dylan’s house. The past half-hour seems to have past in a blur. First, you hauled the statue to the elementary school, the three of you man-handling it down into the basement to keep it secure. Then you headed back to work out what the hell you’re going to do. The good news is that the Holzer mask doesn’t have any of the golem gloop on it, meaning you can put it on your own golem and, assuming you’re right about how everything works, have it infiltrate Charles’ circle as planned.
The bad news is that the three are clearly further along in their plans than you thought. It’s why you donned Roxanne’s mind band to identify the corpse-golem.
“So he’s a Xavier’s student?”
“More,” you mutter. “He’s the Xavier’s student. Quarterback of the football team, and head boy. Prefect. Uh… they’ve got some kind of goofy honor system, the students police themselves.”
“They what?” Caleb snorts.
“Seriously. And Marius Hall is in charge of it all. Fuck, they must have switched with him. They could control the entire school.”
“And if all three have already switched, we’re never gonna find ‘em,” Dylan says.
“We’re gonna have to go after them, then,” you say. “One of us is going to have to use a golem goop mask on an Xavier’s student, snoop around and track down Charles, Ethan and Zachary.”
“Well, Rox…”
“Not Roxanne,” you say firmly. “She deserves to be kept out of it. We pick someone else.” You use the mind band, and ponder likely options. You could choose someone who lives in town; that would give you an easy way to get back to Caleb, Dylan and the book. But it’d be harder to flush out the others. Alternatively, you could select one of the students who boards at the school… but you’d be on your own if something went wrong.
Or, finally, you could always use the Zachary Holzer mask instead of your golem, and pretend you’re under Charles’ control.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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