This choice: Go back to playing yourself • Go Back...Chapter #36Hell Breaks Loose by: Seuzz   "I know I said I'd take care of it for you," you say. "But--"
"Oh, fuck me," Will Prescott sighs. "I'd tell you to take it like a man if I weren't being you at the moment. But this date is pretty fucking important to you, isn't it?" He starts to take his clothes off. "Just get out of that mask, because as soon as I'm out of this one, I'm probably going to change my mind."
"Thanks, man," you say fervently. "I will do anything, and I mean anything to make it up you!"
He gives you a look. "Your first real date, the date you think you're gonna do it with her, will you let me step in for you?"
You start to laugh it off, then gasp when you see he's serious. "Oh, fuck me, you wouldn't!"
"I'm letting you get it on with Chelsea."
You can only gape. And as he continues to stare at you, you curl up in a ball and hide your head under your arms. "Can't it be some other favor?"
He pulls your head up. "Patterson would let me," he says quietly.
Your eyes widen. And since you're being Gordon Black at the moment, you know he's right.
But he's also left you an opening: "You putting me on a par with Patterson?"
He returns your gaze steadily for a few seconds before looking away. "It's different with us. Weirder. How about your second date with her?"
"After the first date there probably won't be a second one."
You gasp as he tears at your scalp. "And that's your fucking problem," he says. "That attitude. You're looking like that, but you're talking like--" He glowers. "It's fucking humiliating looking at you and listening to you."
"Yeah, I need help."
"Just get that mask off, or I'll go on that date with her myself. I'm already dressed for it."
* * * * *
The tardy bell has long since rung by the time you get out of the gym, so you trot off to the library until fifth period starts. It feels weird being back to yourself as you jog along, though you still feel echoes of Gordon's persona inside you, and have your chin up. But mostly it's the sensation you get when you return home from a long and intense vacation. It feels familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.
Carson Ioeger is in the library, and you almost turn to dash back out, but he sees you first and gestures you sharply over. Reluctantly, you slide into a seat next to him. "Well, aren't we moving up in the world," he says with a thin smile. "Has Black ever paid any attention to you before?"
"No, and he can keep it," you say.
"So what happened? You didn't just come from the nurse's office, did you?"
"Oh, I'm in one piece. We just talked, actually."
"For forty minutes?" he asks incredulously. "Does he even know that many English words?"
"He's not--!" you start to exclaim, for you are suddenly feeling very loyal toward him. "Turns out he wanted to talk about Lisa."
Carson's eyebrows shoot up so far and hard they actually tug at his upper lip. "He wasn't shitting when he said he--"
"Well, maybe it has to do with Mansfield." You hunch forward, to talk in a low voice. "He's got some grudge against Geoff. And given a choice between Geoff and Gordon, I'm not sure who I'd pick. Anyway, he heard somehow that me and Lisa were, you know, for a little while." You jerk your shoulders in a shrug. "And he's egging me on to keep being interested in her."
He just stares back with his mouth hanging open. Finally, he shakes his head. "Well, what you won't pay to get out of the mess you're in," he says. "'Cos when the shit hits the fan--"
"What makes you think--?"
"It's Chelsea behind it, dude," he says. "Gordon doesn't give a shit about this stuff. And you're just going to be collateral damage when--"
He sees something behind you and snaps his mouth shut. You turn, to find James Lamont standing in the library doorway. He looks between you and Carson, and then comes over, to sit stiffly in another chair. "Hey, Prescott," he says. "So what did Gordon have to say to you?"
You look between them. "You guys are as bad as any of the other gossips around here. I'll leave you to talk about me behind my back." Neither one makes a move to stop you as you move to a distant table. When you look back, you see them huddled close, and several times you catch them glancing over at you.
* * * * *
You run into Lisa before school lets out, and your heart hammers hard as you reconfirm that you'll pick her up at around seven. You notice that Mansfield isn't around. Funny the way it's worked out: Justin setting you up with Lisa, while you've unwittingly helped on the other side by intimidating Geoff.
You check your phone before heading out, though, and discover a message from the real Justin, telling you to meet him at Tsosie's as soon as possible. That's fine: You'll just tell him that you and Gordon and he will be returning to your own lives.
You wonder how he'll take the news, and feel a bit of disquiet. Maybe he was intending tonight's date for his own benefit, and not yours?
So you've got your gut girded for trouble when you rap on Maize's door. Justin opens it, and pulls you in without a word by grasping your collar. "Before we start," you say, "I got something I have to talk to you about."
And then all hell breaks loose.
Tsosie, who's been standing by the sofa, leaps forward and grabs Justin from behind, putting him in a headlock. "Mask is in the bedroom," he shouts from behind Roth. "Get it on him! I got the shit together!"
Justin's face freezes in surprise; surely it mirrors yours. "Fuck are you talking about," you gasp when you recover your voice.
"I got the shit together!" Maize yells back. "Get the bitch's mask and get it on him!" Justin flails at him. "The fuck is your problem? We got the book, we'll use it on him! But we gotta keep him--!"
Justin springs backward, knocking Maize off-balance, and they fall in a heap on the floor. They tear and punch at each at each other while you--
Who is totally confused.
--watch in horror. You hop around helplessly. Do you help one? Help the other? What the hell was Tsosie bawling about? Dimly it occurs to you that they must think that you are the golem. But is Tsosie trying to save the golem from Justin? Or is he--?
Someone was watching Gordon last night, you remember the two of you wondering. Was it Tsosie?
It's a heads-or-tails situation, and taking your fate in your hands, you dive in on Justin's side, tackling Tsosie, and wrestling long enough that Justin can get on top of him.
Still, Roth glares hard at you once he's got his friend pinned. "What the fuck is going on?"
"Fuck if I know," you gasp back. "What's been going on here?"
"Get the mask on him!" Tsosie howls. "You double-damned double-crossing--!" Suddenly, his eyes go wide, and he claps his mouth shut.
You stare at him; he stares back, eyes glittering. "Fuck is your problem, Maize?" Justin yells.
"It's not Tsosie," you say in a dull voice. "There's other people mixed up in this. It's someone--"
Maize twists his head violently, and only after Roth seizes him by the scalp can you get your hand on his face and pull.
When the mask is off, Justin leaps back and screams.
* * * * *
It looks like Tsosie, but the color is all wrong. He is the color of ash all over--even his hair and eyes are a blank white--and he lies stiff and unmoving on the floor. His face is frozen in an expression of surprise. Justin is still mobile, but his color is eerily like Maize's. Yours is probably as bad.
For nearly ten minutes the two of you can only hunch and tremble and grunt in guttural syllables at each other. Through some unspoken negotiation, though, you submit each others' faces to probing, and confirm that neither of you is wearing a mask. "We have to get Gordon out here," you finally say.
Justin flinches violently. "He did it," he mutters. "Whatever it is, he--"
"He didn't do shit!" you yell at him. "I know that, Roth! But whatever you and Tsosie were up to--"
He punches you in the face, so hard he knocks you down. But he doesn't do anything else. His eyes roll in terror, and he trembles all over, and he falls back on the sofa. "Then who--?"
"There's someone else mixed up in it, Justin," you mumble through your hurting jaw. "These two new assholes at school. Guys who know about this. They got to Tsosie, I guess. Got to the golem. Shit! And they're with Gordon now, at practice!" Your fingers quiver as you try calling him. "We gotta get him out here, make sure he's still--"
Justin knocks the phone from your hand. "What the fuck are you two up to?"
"Nothing! If it was us doing it, I wouldn't have--"
Your eye falls on Tsosie's mask, which is lying on the couch. Only by putting it on, probably, can you learn what's going on. | Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
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