Wearing the first mask placed him on the brink of death, or so Thom thought. It did things to his body. He doesn't know what they are yet, but it - did - things! He feels all icky inside, like something gnarly mixed up all his innards and bits. That enough should make him scared of wearing one of these masks again, but it seems Thom is a masochist for punishment.
He got his loins ready this time. He stood in front of the mirror and saw himself - a 23-year-old man that still looks like he's fresh from high school. He wore an old T-shirt that grew every time he washed it. It used to fit him right, and now the dark-red shirt hung loosely on his gangly limbs.
He raised the mask and laid its edges on his face. Cold and stagnant air filled his lungs. He prepared himself since he knew he’d lose consciousness, but the fear in his bones is stronger. What the fuck is he doing? He kept asking himself that question. Is his life so boring to warrant such stupid actions? If Dominic knows everything he has done, he'd be screaming at the top of his lungs at how much a silly retard Thom was.
"Why the hell would you wear the mask?" He imagined him saying. "Instead of using it on yourself, why not mail that shit to assholes like Terry? Or that bitch Kendra?" Thom mentally slapped himself. Why didn't he think of that sooner?
Thom repeated the charade of looking for the non-existent seams of the mask. There are no seams like before. And he's hyperventilating again. He rose the guard of his consciousness once more, but the darkness did not wash over him. He remained fully lucid, or so he thinks?
Flesh bubbled where the seams of the mask should be. Bubbling wildly, Thom watched as the boiling meat enveloped the rest of his skin. As he stood wide-eyed at the events, he fell on the floor. The wave of flesh spared no inch of his body. At its conclusion, Thom found himself naked and afraid. It may seem that the mask stripped him of his clothing and made it vanish to nothingness, but Thom has the gut feeling that it didn't. No - it's something else.
He saw the mask produce that thick bubbling liquid flesh that covered his body. This is a bit familiar from the film he watched with the movie buffs once. An invisible man was seeking to turn normal bathed in a pool of flesh-colored liquid. This mask produced that liquid to turn him into well - himself.
Thom touched his naked form and realized how real it is. He pulled the skin and felt no layer of faux flesh. This is real, as if it were his own. He crawled close to the mirror to see if there were changes he couldn't see—Nothing like before. The mask is gone, but when he came to touch his jaw, he could feel an invisible embossed edge. He was looking for it then, and now it's here. His fingernail dug between the space of the mask and his real skin, then pulled off the mask. The skin on his feet bubbled first. It formed tendrils that reeled back as Thom pulled the mask farther. The fleshy tendrils lashed in the air while it disappeared inside the edges of the mask.
Thom was back in his clothes, and the mask with his face rested neutral like nothing ever happened.
Dominic might call him a dunce, but he's more or less grasped the powers of the flesh-colored mask. Exhibit A - the original mask. If a person wears it, they will lose consciousness for a few minutes. It will produce a mask in the wearer's image. Exhibit B - the constructed mask will transform the wearer into the mask's source. In this case, Thom transformed into well - himself. It was stupid, but it taught him the ways of the mask.
Thom smiled. Then laughed maniacally - his laughter reverberating in the thick grey walls of the cellar he turned into his bedroom. Thom calmed himself to silence. And then he laughed again like an idiot who recently escaped a mental ward.
"Holy fucking stupid ass meatballs!" He cursed at the mask. The power they contain is a magnitude to behold. It's like magic. He knows magic does not exist, and there might be some scientific explanation for this or something. But it feels like magic! He could already imagine himself transforming in the guise of others. How would it feel to be in another person's body? He used to wonder when there's nothing to do but think. How would it look like if he was his older brother or his younger one to be treated like a success and not as the family’s black sheep? How would it feel to be some random geezer on the street? He could steal Terry's guise and run naked like an idiot in the town square. That would surely wipe off his reputation like a smidge of shit in the dirt. The possibilities are endless!
But calm down. Thom can't just walk to someone and say, 'hey, can you wear this mask that will knock you out for a few minutes?". That would break his already broken reputation in the town if somebody saw him. He could make a plan, but that would need some of his brain cells to work, which he does not have a lot.
He could rush at someone and make them wear the mask. The mask incapacitates them, which is nice if you think about it.