“Well, I should shower. And then I have a few more things to do before I meet Billy later” Trevor says to his girlfriend, Charlotte, of a little over two months.
Charlotte looks disappointed, giving him a cute pout. “Aw, okay” she replies. “Have fun! Text me later?”
“Definitely.” Trevor leans over and kisses her. He feels her body press into his, as he caresses her soft cheek in his palm. She lets out a light moan before breaking contact.
“Are you suuure you have to go?” She asks playfully, placing a hand on his thigh.
Billy gazes into her sparkling blue eyes, tempted to change his plans. Shaking his head, he says “Sorry, babe. I was late last time and felt bad. I’ll see you tomorrow, I promise.”
Charlotte pouts again. “Okay, okay. I’m supposed to meet my sister soon anyway. Have fun, babe.” she says, kissing him on the cheek.
She stands up from the couch and makes her way over to the door, stopping to blow him another kiss before stepping into the hall.
ONE HOUR LATER
Trevor’s ex-girlfriend Leah is sitting in her room, in front of her large vanity mirror.
“It was so nice spending time with you today, Trevor” she says to herself. But the voice isn’t her own. It belongs to Trevor’s latest sweetheart, Charlotte.
She smirks, turning her head to admire her creation. Charlotte’s hollow face sits on a dark-coloured head form, starting at her with empty eye sockets and parted lips. Leah reaches out and strokes the soft, fake skin, running her fingers along a pattern of light brown freckles. She brushes the reddish-brown hair aside, tucking a strand behind the mask’s ear.
She places a fingertip underneath Charlotte’s chin. “Yes, it was!” She continues in her borrowed voice, playfully prodding the mask and working the lips like a puppet.
The mask’s “skin” continues down its neck, ending right above where the girl’s collarbone would be. The edges of the mask are finely tapered, almost transparent.
Still smirking, Leah reaches to her neck and peels away a thin, flesh-coloured strip. She winces slightly at the feeling of the strong adhesive tugging her skin before it finally snaps free.
“Finally” she says, now speaking in her own voice. She picks up the mask of Charlotte and carries it over to a large, tall wardrobe. Reaching into her pocket, she extracts a key and uses it to unlock the wardrobe’s door. Opening it, she smiles proudly at the empty, slack faces staring back at her.
“Hello, everyone” she says to herself, placing Charlotte up on one of the shelves.
The masks were all her creations, the products of hundreds of hours of careful work. Enrolled in the best special effects program in the country, she had - over time - mastered the skills necessary to create these lifelike disguises.
She had always been passionate about her work, but when Trevor broke up with her, her neuroticism caused her to become obsessed. He said they should “be able to see other people since they were both so young”, but Leah knew that was foolish. No one would ever care about Trevor as much as she did. If it took him some time to realize that, then so be it. She knew how to push him in the right direction.
Now she played her current role as the slightly needy, but lively Charlotte. Before her, there had been Hailey, a fiery blonde with an insatiable appetite for partying and…other things. Trevor had been very sad when Hailey broke up with him unexpectedly, but Leah knew if was better that she do it - with the best of intentions - rather than letting some other tramp do it for real.
The first girl she impersonated had been Eliza, a shy, black-haired beauty who dated Trevor right after he broke up with Leah. They spent a couple of months together, before Eliza confessed to sleeping with her boss, leaving Trevor heartbroken. Still raw from their breakup, Leah had wanted that one to hurt.
She reaches out and strokes Eliza’s straight dark hair, the mask gaping at her. “Sorry, Trevor” she mocks, working the bottom lip like a puppet, as she’d done with Charlotte.
The Hailey disguise had required a full body suit, since her proportions were significantly different from her own. But most of the time, Leah could get away with just prosthetic torsos and thighs, using makeup to change some of her other identifiable characteristics.
The persona she was about to assume, however, certainly did require a full suit. She reaches out and strokes another mask, this one of an attractive young man with short brown hair and a strong jawline.
“Hey there, Billy” she giggles, before picking up the mask and walking back to her vanity.
Most of her disguises were of other women, but she eventually decided she wanted to get to know Trevor in a different way, to better manipulate him. She walks back to the wardrobe and drags out what looks disturbingly like a person’s empty skin.
Minutes later, after stripping nude and removing the appliances that gave her Charlotte’s unique curves, she finds herself tugging Billy’s hefty body up her legs and onto her chest. The suit has broad shoulders and the musculature of someone who works out regularly, but not excessively. And of course, a recreation of the male sex organ between its legs. Not functional, but certainly realistic enough to fool an observer.
She’d already used athletic tape to compress her breasts, so Billy’s pecs sit comfortably on her chest. Soon, she’s pulling the zipper up her back, sealing herself inside the young male’s body. Quickly swapping the contact lenses for Charlotte’s blue eyes for Billy’s dark brown ones, she then adheres a new voice changing strip tightly to her throat.
Tugging the mask off of its stand, she stares down at it, flopping lifelessly in her slightly larger, rougher hands. She strokes a finger along its smooth cheek. I wonder if I could mimic him growing a beard. That would be a fun challenge.
She glances at the clock on the wall and says in a much deeper, masculine voice “Shit, I only have twenty minutes. I’ll have to hurry.”
She lifts the mask up over her head, using the backs of her hands to spread the neck opening wide. Pulling it down, she feels its features slide over her face and cling to her own. Moments later, she’s squeezing and prodding it into place, making small adjustments.
She glances into the mirror, satisfied with the reflection of a naked Billy Parker smirking wickedly back at her.
THIRTY MINUTES LATER
Trevor grabs another two beers from the bar and returns to the table where his friend is sitting.
“Here you go man” he says, sliding one of the beverages across the tabletop. “You feel like playing some pool?”
Billy lets out a short laugh. After taking a sip of his drink, he replies “Eh, maybe later. Let’s watch the game for a bit.”
“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea after last week. It’s like you’d never played before” he jests with a smirk.
“Hey man, I was just a bit rusty!” Billy retorts, smiling back.
“Sure, dude. It was still a fun night though. So you really didn’t hook up with that blonde chick?”
Leah blushes underneath Billy’s prosthetic face. She had intended to remain completely in character, and refusing that girl’s attention might have seemed odd to Trevor. So she had decided to let Billy make out with her for a bit. But then the girl had drunkenly dragged her into the bathroom, despite her protests. The girl - was it Erica? - had then slipped her hand down Billy’s pants, inside his boxers. Apparently very pleased with what she felt, she tried to escalate the situation and Leah had been forced to stammer a lame excuse. Something about having to work early the next morning.
“Nah” Trevor’s “friend” replies. “She wasn’t really my type, anyway.” Changing the subject, Billy continues “How are you and Charlotte?”
“She’s pretty great, actually. We’re going to a movie tomorrow night.”
“That’s cool. Are things with her serious or whatever?”
Trevor shakes his head subtly. “Eh, I’m not really sure. We’ll see where it goes I guess.”
Billy nods, seeming to understand. “Why the hesitation? Trying to keep your options open? Risky game for a guy like you” He says, playfully hitting Trevor’s shoulder.
“Ha, very funny. I don’t know, she can be kind of needy, I guess. But she’s still cool, though” Trevor replies. He glances over his shoulder at the wall, seeing a dart board. Nodding his head in that direction he asks his friend “You in?”
Billy appears to think for a moment. “Sure, why not?”
Underneath her disguise, Leah inwardly rolls her eyes. Time for Trevor to kick his friend’s ass yet again, she thinks. I really need to get better at these games.
Minutes later, she was regretting agreeing to play. She was never the best at darts, but with all the padding to give her Billy’s frame, it was hopeless. Another one sails widely and buries itself in the wooden frame next to the ring.
Trevor chuckles. “Damn, dude. You know you’re supposed to aim for the bullseye, right?”
Billy just sighs, frustrated. “Just not my day.” He hands over the darts and watches his friend toss the dart that wins the game.
The disguised Leah glances to her left at the classic Pac-Man arcade game and grins. Knowing any physical activity was doomed to fail, she had spent some time over the last month improving her video game skills. She didn’t want anyone to recognize or bother her, so she’d tugged on another one of her many masks during those practice sessions. This one of a slightly overweight, middle-aged blonde named Wendy.
Billy points to the machine. “How about that?” He asks.
Trevor nods, and the two of them head over. Fifteen minutes later, Trevor slams his hand against the console. “Shit!” He exclaims. “Alright, you win.”
His friend grins triumphantly, slapping him on the back. “You can’t win ‘em all” he says.
THE NEXT DAY
“So, you had fun with Billy yesterday?” Charlotte asks Trevor cheerfully, handing him a soda with a smile.
“Yeah, it was a good time” he replies.
“That’s good!” She sits next to him on the couch in front of the television, and leans her head on his shoulder.
The two continue chatting until the disguised Leah is eventually able to steer the conversation towards Trevor’s past relationships. In her experience, this subject was fraught with risk and best approached carefully.
She places her hand on his thigh. “You totally don’t have to answer that, either” she says with fake sincerity.
Trevor shakes his head. “No, it’s okay. I…really like you. And I don’t mind sharing.”
He can’t see it, but Leah is brimming with nefarious excitement underneath Charlotte’s perky, genuine face.
“I dunno, I’ve dated some girls, and they were okay relationships. But the one I remember most was Leah.”
Trying to remain calm, his disguised ex-girlfriend just tilts her head. “Oh, why is that?” She asks, with a light touch of simulated jealously.
“Because she was completely crazy. I broke up with her and she stalked me for weeks. She called me all the time, waited outside my apartment, stuff like that. Honestly, I hope I never see her again.”
Leah feels her hand squeeze his thigh harder before she quickly stops herself. She adopts a look of concern on her prosthetic face. “Oh…I’m really sorry to hear that. That must have been awful.”
The conversation continues, but Leah is mostly distracted. Eventually, she knows she can’t keep up the ruse much longer, and says she has to get going. Trevor looks a bit disappointed, but he gives her a tender kiss and says he’ll text her in the morning. She leaves shortly after.
In Leah’s typical form, she heads to the bar outside her studio apartment. She doesn’t even bother to remove the mask, preferring to wallow as Charlotte instead of herself.
After her fourth drink, she makes a snide comment to a patron a few seats away, which quickly escalates into a drunken tirade.
“What, you think you’re better than me?!” The disguised Leah shrieks. She points to the man’s companion. “I’m sure you’re sooo happy to be dating a fatty!”
Someone quickly comes over and escorts her out the door. She screams the entire way, giving everyone around her the middle finger.
Minutes later, she’s back in her apartment, with tears running down her face. Angrily, she scratches for the flap of fake skin and pulls it upwards, roughly tugging off Charlotte’s lovely, innocent face and hair with a loud squelch.
She throws the mask onto her bed, cupping her face in her hands. “Arghhh!” She drunkenly shrieks at the ceiling, loud enough for the neighbours to hear her through the wall.
THE NEXT DAY
After spending the morning and early afternoon composing herself and regrouping, Leah had pulled on the mask of Charlotte once again. She spent some time in front of the mirror, getting herself back into character.
Now, she knocks on Trevor’s door with some homemade cookies in hand.
The door opens and she adopts a sweet smile. “Hey babe, I thought you might like some…”
She stops, startled by the look of pure anger on Trevor’s face. “You!” He explodes.
In a state of pure confusion, the disguised Leah can’t even react in time as he reaches a hand out and grabs the top of her hair.
“What! No!!” She squeals, but it’s too late.
He tugs roughly forward, and Charlotte’s adorable features stretch unnaturally before snapping off with a rubbery noise. Leah’s flushed face is revealed.
Trevor holds the mask in his outstretched hand, mouth clenched in rage. He throws it at her and she barely catches it, as the tears start flowing from her eyes.
“Wait, I can explain!” She starts, still speaking in Charlotte’s higher tones.
“Leave me alone!” He snarls. “I never want to see you again! You or Billy! And whoever the fuck else you’ve dressed up as!”
Without another word, he slams the door on her.
She sobs in the hall, holding Charlotte’s deflated face in her hand. Overwhelmed by sadness and anger, she shoves the mask in her purse and trudges back to the elevator. How did he find out?
EARLIER THAT DAY
Leah’s neighbour Alan lays on his bed, head resting on a pillow, with one leg bent and the other resting on its knee. He scrolls though his phone, smiling when he finds the video once more. He presses play.
Leah’s face is revealed, dark streaks running down her cheeks. She holds a mask up, and Charlotte’s sagging face stares into the camera.
“Fuck you, Trevor!” She snarls, drunkenly slurring her words. “The joke’s on you, anyway. I’ve been Charlotte this whole time! And you know your best friend Billy? That was ME!”
The video continues for another fifteen seconds or so, with Leah cursing out Trevor and making all sorts of mean taunts and threats before it ends abruptly.
“I guess you got what you deserved, Leah” Alan jeers. But the voice coming out of his mouth isn’t his own. It’s a perfect copy of the young woman from the video.
He glances over at his desk at Leah’s hollow face. An utterly lifelike recreation, perfect in every way. The mask’s cheeks still have dark streaks where the mascara ran down from its currently empty eyes. And it doesn’t stop at the neckline, it continues down to replicate a pale, female chest. A supple pair of perky breasts sit below a sharp collarbone. Alan knew he’d need to reproduce more than Leah’s bitchy face for the video, so he’d spent some extra time on the disguise.
It all started weeks ago, when he noticed a redheaded young woman coming and going from Leah’s apartment. He’d had the displeasure of knowing Leah from the special effects classes he was also enrolled in, along with a good portion of the building. The apartment complex was a short walk to the university.
He hadn’t thought anything of it at the time, but then he ran into the young woman chatting happily with Leah’s ex-boyfriend Trevor at a local coffee shop, and his suspicions were aroused. If Leah was stealing material from one of the workshops, that was a big deal. And the fact that she was doing it to trick poor Trevor made it even worse. Alan had liked Trevor, so he knew he had to intervene. After a couple weeks of observation, he had also discovered Billy wasn’t who he appeared to be at all.
And so he’d come up with the perfect punishment. When she’d stumbled home drunk the night before, muttering curses at Trevor under her breath, he knew he had a perfect opportunity to send the poor guy the damning video.
He saunters over to his desk and sits in the chair, smirking.
“I’ve been a bad, bad girl” he mocks Leah’s empty face in her own voice, prodding her lower lip with his finger. It was the same weird practise he’d seen Leah use with her creations on more than one occasion, and it never failed to creep him out. But it did feel good to use it against her.
He carries the mask over to his closet and places it up on the shelf. Already present is Charlotte’s hollow face, which stares back out at him, framed by soft, reddish hair. He’d only used it as a prop for the video, because he’d needed some way for Leah to prove her guilt. But he’d destroy the masks tomorrow, he wasn’t like her.
Well, he thinks to himself wickedly, poking Leah’s face. Maybe I’ll hang on to you for a little while longer.