Chapter #42Into Lucy by: Seuzz   "Look, just tell me this much," you say. "Do you guys already have a whatchamacallit of me? Out at Carlos's storage place?"
Cindy smiles tightly and avoids looking you in the eye. "Yes," she says in a small voice.
"How come?"
She seems to vibrate before she replies.
"Look, we had a mask of you, alright? The guys wanted to test something out, so they made a mask of you. They already knew it would work!" she exclaims after reading the horror that has probably spread over your face. "They wanted to test something out on the mask, and, um, they couldn't use one of theirs!"
"Why not?"
"Look, do you want to go into all the dumb technical stuff? The point is, they had that mask of you, and it's a really good thing that they did! It's how come you didn't get in trouble with your dad last night!"
The morning's events have completely driven last night's party at the Warehouse from your mind, and it takes you a moment to figure out what he's even alluding to.
"When you told Jessica—that was Carlos—that your dad would be checking up on you, he took your phone and went back to his storage unit. They had your mask there, and also a beta like that one, uh, that's up in Lucy's bedroom. He put the mask on the beta and gave your phone to it, and told it to answer when your dad called and to talk to him like he was watching a movie at Caleb's house. It worked. Your dad doesn't suspect a thing."
"So that was the guy I saw at Carlos's place this morning?"
"Yeah." Cindy combs out her hair with her fingers. "We were all wiped from last night, we didn't get out there in time to turn it off. Turns out your beta's as much of an assful of trouble as you are, Will. It called Keith to talk to him because it got bored. And you were there, which was bad luck, so—"
"So that's the thing you're sending home to be me while I'm—" You gulp again. It's getting no easer to say "being Lucy Vredenburg." Cindy nods. "Is there anything else I should know?"
Cindy's mouth says "No" but her eyes say "You have no idea the kind of shit I'm holding back from you." But you decide to let it pass.
"Alright," you say. "I guess I've fucked things up enough for you guys." You put your hands on your hips and kick at the patio. "You know all the stuff that Cindy knows? Then how about you tell me something about Lucy."
Keith only has time to say a little before the French doors open, and three girls come out: Eva Garner, Jessica Garner, and Maria Vasquez.
"Alright, we're off," Maria says. The normally vacuous cheerleader has a very intense expression on her face. "We need the keys to your truck, Will."
"Why? Oh. Right." You dig them out. "Tilley tells me there's a fake me back at Carlos's place." You look at Eva. She points to Jessica, and you follow her finger. "He says you used it to fool my dad last night."
"Yeah, sorry it went all wonky," Jessica says as she takes the keys. "Are you going to be okay with having it pretend to be you for the rest of the day, maybe tomorrow?"
"Better than me just disappearing," you say with a shrug.
There's an awkward pause, and Maria says, "We'll talk later this afternoon." He and the others shuffle back inside.
* * * * *
"The thing to remember about Lucy," Cindy says as you follow up the stairs, "is that she doesn't talk much. Well, that's not true. She's a total chatterbox with her friends, and she's full of words when talking about everything wrong with Cindy. At least she hates Seth, so she's got that going for her. God, I think she hates him more than I do."
"How long will it take me to get her memories and stuff?"
"Couple of hours, at least." She leads you into the fatal bedroom. "Fairfax says it's on account of it takes time to integrilate psychologies, or something like that, but clearly he's just making up shit." He points at the bed where the "beta" is resting: "You'll probably have to spend the night here before they all start coming through, but you might start getting some this evening. Spending the night'll be fun for you, though, you can spend it grabbing yourself all over."
"Is that what you did your first night as Cindy?"
"God!" She shudders all over. "It was great and gross at the same time, 'cos I kept thinking of all the times Seth had his cock where my fingers were." Her body almost liquefies with another shudder. Then she gets control of herself again. "Of course, you don't want to get caught doing that stuff," she says as she tucks a strand of hair back behind her ear.
You pick Lucy's mask up off the desk, where Fairfax had set it. There's a pile of things in the floor: a jeans skirt, some canvas sneakers, a blouse. You notice now that there's a bra and a set of panties on the beta. "Yeah," Cindy drawls in a way that sounds just like Keith. "We caught her with the blank mask while she was undressing. Had no idea that thing was underneath her."
"What are we going to do with it?"
"Beats the fuck out of me." Cindy takes her phone out. "I'll ask Fairfax, but I bet he'll just tell us to shove it under the bed."
"What happens if we put a mask on it?" you ask. "Isn't that what you're supposed to do with them?"
"Right," Cindy says as she taps at her phone. "It'll turn the beta into the person who's in the mask. But it will only obey the person who made the beta. Well, actually, it looks like it has something to do with hair, but the point—"
"Hair?"
"You have to use someone's hair when you're making one. It looks like the beta has to obey the person the hair came from."
"What happens if you put two people's hair in it?"
"Dunno. Fairfax is being super-anal about trying out anything the book doesn't tell you to try out, and I guess the book only talks about using the hair of one person."
"Where did he get this book?" You fall quiet as Cindy raises a finger before she resumes typing with renewed concentration. "I'll start getting undressed," you mutter.
"You know what," Cindy says with a frown as you unzip your pants. "I'm gonna let you do that by yourself. Even a monkey could get in and out of these masks, so you don't need me."
Yeah, you think at her retreating back. If you can figure it out, I can too.
You get the rest of your clothes off—and it's only then that you wonder, briefly, what kind of clothes Fairfax and them have for your "beta" to wear—then sit on the floor with the mask in your hands.
It looks like the one that you woke up with on your face. It's white and smooth and not very thick. There are lips and a nose and cheekbones and a brow over deep-set eyes. It doesn't look like the mask of a particular person, but something about the way the light plays over its surfaces gives you the impression that there really is a living face inside it. You raise it up and study it more closely.
From certain perspectives, you finally decide, it does look like there is an image, like a 3D picture, inside the mask, but you can't make it out clearly enough to be sure, still less to recognize the person. You turn the mask over. Here the illusion of three-dimensionality is much more obvious, for the letters of the name inscribed in Roman letters seem to float above the mask. (When you try to slide your fingers between them and the mask, though, find that they really are embedded in the mask.) PENELOPE LUCILE VREDENBURG, they say.
That's who you're going to be.
Just as soon as you put the mask on.
Which you totally are going to do. Any minute now.
When the delay is finally beyond stupid, you shut your eyes and slam the mask over your face.
For a moment you are aware of the mask resting against your skin. Then, like giant hand, it seems to grab your face and pull you inside itself ...
* * * * *
You groan and lift your head. "Mmph," you say when you lightly bang the back of your head against an unyielding surface. You open your eyes. Hair dangles in your face, and you push it back.
You're in your bedroom; you recognize it easily, though the lights are out and the curtains drawn. You frown and squint at your bare knees, which are bent up near your face. You stretch your legs, catch yourself from falling over, and try to put the pieces back together.
You had come home and gone into your bedroom to change clothes; yours were skanky with sweat and beer and smoke and— You rub your forehead and frown. God, you hope you didn't have any of Ethan's cum on you, but when he came in your face it was like—
You dive forward as something rushes up your esophagus. You catch it in time, though, and force it back down. You choke and cough.
Anyway, you were changing clothes when the door opened, and Cindy and her friends came rushing in. They were grinning like sharks ...
Your whole body seems to levitate. "Holy—!" Again you have to fight an upchuck as you remember who you are, and how you got here.
And then you're trembling as you stretch your legs out, and put your hands on your thigh, and stare down at ... at Lucy Vredenburg's bush. With gritted teeth, you probe inside it. There's a slit there, but no sign of a penis.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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