Curse Workers 1
Holly Black
CURSES - BLOWBACK
Dream - Unknown
Luck - Same luck on user
Death - body parts rot
Transformation - intense random transformation
Emotion - emotional unstability
Memory - Memory loss
Physical - sickness
1. Cassel Sharpe finds himself on the roof of his school, Wallingford Preparatory, in just his boxers. He was sleep walking while dreaming of a white cat that stole his tongue and trying to get it back. He is in just his boxers and other students take pictures of him in this predicament. The fire department is called to get him down and wrap a blanket around him. No one touches him without gloves. It is well known that his grandfather was a death worker for the Zacharov family. Cassel killed a girl, Lila (his best friend whom he loved) when he was 14. He spends his time trying not to be that person, so he lies and fakes it. The teachers decide it is too dangerous to allow him to continue staying in his dorm room and say he will be picked up by his brother Phillip. They will consider him on medical leave until he gets a doctor’s note saying it is okay for him to come back. Back in his dorm room, Cassel packs and shows his roommate, Sam, how to run the betting ring while he is gone. His mother taught him very young how to con people: charm, convincer, the big score, blow off, and getaway.
2. Cassel has trouble staying awake in class. He missed breakfast and goes to the cafeteria after classes. It is already closed, but the food service lady makes him a plate of cold food. He sits down to start eating and Daneca Wasserman comes up to him to try to get him to talk with her mother. She is a worker’s rights activist trying to make curse work legal again. Cassel tells her he doesn’t care about any of that. Valerio comes over to tell Cassel his brother can’t make it and will pick him up the next day. He gets a call from his mom in jail checking up on him. She is glad he will be back with their kind when he leaves the school. She says a count wants to take her on a cruise when she gets out and tells him he should come with them. Cassel tells her he has to go to do his homework and hangs up with her telling him to stay safe. A kid named Jeremy asks Cassel to find him a worker that can make his girlfriend hot for prom. Cassel says he doesn’t know anyone that can do that. He and his friend Rahul want to place bets on a mouse stuck in a clue trap next. Cassel sends them over to Sam who is playing D&D with his friends. He lies awake in his bed and thinks about how he will have to face the people that know he murdered Lila and he doesn’t even know why he did it. Phillip picks him up the next morning and asks how he could be so stupid. Cassel says he thought he grew out of the sleepwalking.
3. Phillip tells Cassel their grandad is coming tomorrow. He wants Cassel to help him clean out their mother’s house. Maura, Cassel’s sister-in-law, doesn’t wear gloves at home because mom wanted to promote trust in the family. Phillip has a scar across his throat. The cut was stuffed with ash so it would scar and symbolize the death of his old life. Cassel goes to do his homework and sees an email from his exgirlfriend, Audrey saying she is worried about him. He finds two sleep specialists online writes down the information. He calls his brother, Barron that is at Princeton for law school and asks to come stay with him. Barron (compulsive lier who is very convincing) says he couldn’t because of his roommate. Cassel tells him about his dream. Cassel feels like Phillip doesn’t want him there. He remembers when they were kids and he would follow Phillip around. Maura brings him pills to help him sleep. She asks why Phillip is is different when he is around. Cassel thinks about how Phillip is the one that found him with Lila and hid the body. He is worried about his wife and the baby. He sleeps for a while, but goes to join the others when he hears grandad’s voice. Grandad doesn’t like the way Phillip works his wife. Cassel sits next to Maura and she says she is going to leave Phillip soon. They share the stories they have been told about the families over the years. She asks if his great-grandfather Singer was a worker, but he honestly doesn’t know. Each curse work has is blowback and Grandad’s shows. She asks if either he or his mom knew he wasn’t a worker. They hadn’t. He would pretend he was one, but it never manifested. She worries about her own son and Cassel warns her to keep the gloves on. He knows Phillip won’t let him be tested. He asks if she really hears music and she says it sounds like angels shrieking her name.
4. Cassel asks to borrow the car to go see a sleep specialist. He has the lie planned out. He goes to help Grandad clean out his mother’s house. There are a few cats living in the mess. He asks Grandad what Patrick did to Maura to make her hear music, but he says it isn’t his business. Audrey knocks on the door saying they list the addresses in the directories. She says there are sleep pills that cause sleepwalking. He says he already told them he had a history of it as a child. She asks if he thinks he could have been touched/cursed. She wears protective amulets around her neck. She asks if he thinks that is what happened to his dad. He tells her she better go and sees her out. That night, Cassel dreams of the white cat standing on her hind legs and dressed in one of Lila’s doll dresses. The cat’s voice resembles Lila’s and tells him he put a curse on her that only he can remove. He digs his fingernails into his palm to wake himself up and he is soaked in rain.
5. The next morning, he tells his grandad about the dream. He remembers growing up with Lila who was a dream working. They would play together and she was a competitive rich girl. He was used to being challenged because of his brothers and didn’t mind. Grandad gives him traps to set up in the barn. When he sets them up, a white cat comes to him. It follows him back to the house and he feeds it and gives it water. Grandad scolds him for bringing it back in the house. He promises to only bring in one cat at a time. He starts going through stuff and cleans up. His dad was a luck worker and his mom was pretty normal when he was around. After he died, she loved working the con with her ungloved and hustled a rich man. He goes through more stuff and finds a memory charm. He takes out the trash and Grandad fixes him the keys for the car.
6. Cassel drives into town and goes to the sleep doctor’s office. He tells the receptionist he has an appointment, but she can’t find him in the system. When she is distracted he grabs a file off the desk and starts heading out like he is calling his mom. The receptionist tells him they have an opening and can squeeze him in. The doctor asks if he is there for “the test” and he says yes. He starts to tell him about the new test they do to determine if someone is a worker. Cassel freaks out and leaves the office saying he can’t do it. He realizes he messed up and made himself too memberable, but he got what he needed from the file: the doctor’s signature. He puts together a letter from the doctor saying his sleepwalking was caused from going off his meds. He is back on them and it has stopped. He mails the letter. He then goes to school because a bet was won and he has to pay out. Sam is in Theater practice and trying to convince the teacher to let him use squibs for blood splatter effects. When Cassel finds him backstage, he shows him the picture of two married teachers kissing. He gets the money from where he keeps it in the library and meets Sam in the bathroom. Sam makes a comment about making their dorm beds into robots that fight each other so they can take bets on them and Cassel likes him. He wonders if Sam will try to take over his betting pool. He thinks of the power dynamic of his friendship with Lila and Phillip’s friendship with her older brother, Anton, would pick on Cassel. Lila would yell that she was the heir to the Zacharov family and was mad at Cassel for doing what he said instead of her. Back at the house, Cassel asks Maura to act like the receptionist for him. She agrees and he asks her to marry him when she leaves Phillip. She is confused by the comment and says she couldn’t leave Phillip when they are so happy. Cassel wonders if her memory is being worked. He tries to give her the memory charm, but she declines saying Phillip doesn’t like her to have charms because it makes her look afraid. When Lila came back from her parents getting divorced and moving, Barron sends Cassel away so he can talk to her. She comes to talk to Cassel after and they talk about books and watch movies. He was jealous thinking about Barron and Lila together. He wanted to kill Barron but settled for Lila.
7. Grandad watches a TV show about murderers. He tells Cassel about how things were when he was younger. Later, Cassel realizes he doesn’t have his mom’s memory charm. He calls Barron, but his roommate tells him Barron dropped out a few months into the school year. He asks for the address where she sent his stuff saying they had a fight when their dad died and he wants to make up. Cassel goes to Grandad and asks to borrow the car again for a followup appointment. Grandad seems to know he’s lying, but gives him the keys anyway. Cassel heads to the address in Trenton, NJ. On the way he thinks of going to Lila’s house and they pierced each other’s ears with a safety pin. Lila licked the blood from Cassel’s ear when they were done and her mom walked in and told him to get out so Lila could get ready for her birthday party. Cassel left in a hurry. Cassel arrives at the address he was given and breaks in. He finds lost it notes all over the place with reminders. He reads Barron’s journal. It has notes about their mom’s case and how they will have to keep her under control when she gets out. It also mentions Cassel’s sleepwalking and “L” escaping. He blames Phillip and tries to get him away from Anton. Cassel realizes a lot more people than just him have been having memory issues. He also realizes Lila might not be dead.
8. On the way home, Cassel stops by the dirt mall about 20 minutes away from Carney. He goes inside and it looks like he remembered it as a kid. He finds Crooked Annie’s table and buys three small memory charms and an onyx one. He asks her about memory work. She explains the best workers will take away memories and replace them with something else. The worst will just take the memory and the victim becomes suspicious. Most are somewhere in between. He asks about transformation work. She explains something can be changed back to its original form by another transformation worker as long as the person wasn’t changed into something inanimate. Lastly, he asks if Lila’s mom is still in town. Annie tells him she can’t leave Carney or her husband will get her. He has the Resurrection Diamond he and Lila got in Paris and no one has been able to kill him yet. On the way home, he remembers how Barron wasn’t serious about dating Lila and how angry it made him. In the car, he shaves and cuts open his leg, inserts the small charms, and stitches himself up. When he gets home, the cats are gone. Grandad tells him Phillip took them to the shelter.
9. Cassel gets to the shelter and finds cat-Lila. He tries to adopt her, but the lady won’t let him because he put down his real birthday which makes him only 17. He calls Sam and tells him he needs his help getting his cat out of the shelter the next day. He agrees and asks Daneca if she wants to come along. Grandad is furious when he gets home because he took the car without asking. Cassel tells him to shut up and goes to his room. Sam calls later that night and drunkenly invites Cassel to a party. He goes and everyone treats him like a worker. Audrey comes up and kisses him and he kisses her back. Her new boyfriend, Greg, tells him not to touch her. When Greg accuses Cassel of working Audrey, Cassel attacks him and they fight until they are pulled apart. Sam follows Cassel out of the party and throws up in the bushes. Cassel drives him home and stops for coffee on the way. Sam asks how people know when they are workers. Cassel tells him how Phillip had broken the legs of three boys at school that had been bullying him and was sick for a month. Cassel knows he’s not supposed to tell people that story, but he figures Sam is too drunk to remember it.
10. Same and Daneca meet Cassel at the shelter. He sends Daneca into the shelter asking after a white, fluffy cat named Cocoa that is her grandmother’s show cat she lost. They wait an hour and then Cassel goes into the shelter with a flier for the white, fluffy cat he supposedly found. The guy behind the desk tells him he thinks he knows whose cat it is. Cassel then tells him about he promised his sister a white cat if no one claimed it. He asks if they have any white cats and the guy shows him cat-Lila. When asking for his ID, Cassel pretends to have left it somewhere. They guy lets him finish the adoption anyway. Cassel asks Sam if he can hold onto the cat for a few hours. Daneca says he can if he takes her home and agrees to meet her mom. He agrees as it will give him a chance to grab his money and get a car so he can take off with cat-Lila. When he meets Mrs. Wasserman, he tells her he isn’t a worker. She tells him the term worker started from when workers where put into camps and gangs started from there. She shows him pictures of workers with their hands cut off. She tells them some learned to work with their feet. Some people think workers are the babies of demons. She tells him they are taking care of a young worker boy, Chris, whose family kicked him out. Cassel reminds them he isn’t a warker, but she says he doesn’t have to be to help. Cassel excuses himself and takes off.
11. By the time Cassel gets to Phillip’s apartment, Grandad is already asleep in a chair in front of the TV. Barron is there as well and Cassel asks why they are celebrating. Barron tells him their mother is getting out. Grandad asks him what is going on with them. When their mother calls and the receiver is handed to Cassel, she thinks he has been avoiding her. She tells him Lila is gone. He asks what kind of worker Anton is, but she asks him to put Phillip on the phone. He gives Maura the onyx memory charm and tells her to sew it into her bra. He say they non-workers have to stick together. She says she knows he is one of them and he is confused. Cassel asks Barron about a series of stories that didn’t actually happen. When Barron say she remembers them, Cassel points out they were from other people and warns him his memory is messed up. Barron starts talking about Lila like her death was something he read of in a history book. Phillip pulls him aside and says he needs Cassel to trust him. He and Barron are working on something to make everything different. He doesn’t want Cassel to rock the boat. Cassel notices sediment at the bottom of one of the wine glasses and tries to remember who sat where. They carry Grandad out to the car. Daneca calls because the cat killed the mouse that has been around the dorm walls. They get to keep the money because no one won the bets placed.
12. Phillip and Barron wake up Cassel and say it is time for them to go. Phillip checks his pockets to see what he has on it. They say it will take a bit for the memories to settle in. He realizes they have already worked him. Barron is the memory worker. He tries to figure out what they are doing. Anton tells him they are going to rehearse for Wednesday night’s assassination. They want Cassel to walk up to his father and turn his heart to stone. They think the Resurrection Diamond won’t affect his kind of magic. He realizes he is the transformation worker. They arrive at the family restaurant and Anton starts explaining how the rally for “vote no on proposition 2” will go. They decide Cassel will act drunk and go to shake Zacharov’s hand. There will be a hole in his glove that will allow him to touch his skin. They decide it will be more convincing if Cassel can make himself throw up. They send him to the kitchen to make himself throw up and store it in a bottle they will hide until Wednesday night. Cassel is against it, but Philip tells him to go do it. In the kitchen, Cassel grabs a milk carton. A man comes in through the other door and points a gun at him. Another man enters before his siblings and Anton come in. Cassel touches the gun and turns it into a snake. Then he deals with the recoil from doing so. Phillip gets him out to the car and tells him it will be okay soon. When they get out of the car, Anton is pissed that he had to kill the men because his ability is supposed to be a secret. He says he is going to make it like it was in the old days when workers were respected. Cassel asks how he plans to accomplish it when his father couldn’t. They beat him up until he passes out.
13. Cassel wakes up in the morning and can feel the charm stones in his leg are broken for each time Barron tries to work his memory. He has one left. Cat-Lila is there and he tells her he doesn’t know how to change her back. He asks if she can make him dream like she used to. He falls asleep and he dreams of his brother and Anton in a play on a stage. Anton had to get rid of Lila to take over the family. Phillip went along with it because they were poor and he got his girlfriend pregnant. Lila is shrunk to the size of a mouse and a cat eats her. Cat-Lila tells him he has to behead her. He wakes up. He tells Grandad he isn’t feeling well and his hangover is bad as well. Phillip calls to ask what he said to Maura to make her leave with their son. He says he doesn’t remember. The cat tells him to swing the sword at her. He goes to get it and as he swings it, he sees the curse in her and is u able to do it. He throws the sword to the side to avoid the naked curled Lila. They hide in the closet when they hear someone coming. Phillip calls out. They look for Cassel and know he remembers something. When they go upstairs she tells him they would send her to get into people’s dreams and send them to them. He tells her he remembers killing her. He had no idea she was alive. When they come back down, they are discussing all the problems they are having. Anton is unstable and Maura running off. When they leave, Cassel comes out of the closet, but Phillip comes back in. Cassel lets himself be found so Lila can stay hidden. Phillip knew Cassel was there. He says asks him to speak to Maura for him and to trust them a little bit longer. He says Anton will be out of the picture soon and they will have everything they ever wanted.
14. Sam comes back to the dorm room to find Cassel and Lila sleeping there. Lila introduces herself as a childhood family friend. She borrows some clothes from Cassel’s closet and they take off. They go to the convienent store across the way and the owner tells her Cassel is one of the good kids that doesn’t try to steal from him. Cassel calls a cab and Lila is trying to think of where she can get cleaned up. Audrey and her friends happen along and she offers for Lila to use the dorm showers. Lila takes off for the school and Audrey stays to talk to Cassel. He tells her they are step cousins. Lila apologizes for her actions and says she shouldn’t have kissed him especially when she is dating Greg. She says he likes her more than he ever did. Lila comes back and they take off. Lila says her dad has a room at the Taj Mahal casino, so they try to call him to tell him to meet them at his room. He doesn’t believe she is who she says she is. They get on a train and start heading that way. On the way, he tells Lila that he had no idea about anything that had happened. He didn’t think that he had any abilities and has no memories of using them before a few nights ago. She tells him how his brothers would use her to lure people out of their homes and use him to turn them into objects they could easily dispose of. Cassel feels sick. She tells him about how Barron was holding her down and she thought he was just messing around until Phillip and Cassel came along. They had Cassel hold her down and wanted him to turn her into glass so they could easily smash her. He whispered for her to run and then turned her into a cat instead. She ran, but they caught her and put an electric collar on her. They kept her in a cage and sometimes Barron would forget about her. Cassel feels horrible about the things he did and can’t remember.
15. When they get to the casino, Lila goes to head up to her father’s room alone. Cassel gets seen by an employee and dashes out the back door. He sees Mr. Zacharov there who is very upset that he called him and had someone say she was his daugher. He grabs Cassel and starts hurting him discreetly until Lila comes out and he stops. He recognizes his daughter and Cassel suggests they go inside to talk. Inside the room, Mr. Zacharov wants to know where Lila has been but she tells him she is not ready to talk about it. One of his men takes Cassel home.
16. Grandad isn’t there when Cassel gets home. He left a note saying he went back to Carney for a few days and would be back. Cassel gets a call from his school saying he is allowed back in, but not in the dorms until next year. He calls Sam to come pick him up early Monday morning. His teachers seem happy to have him back despite him not having done any of the homework they sent him. At lunch, he ends up telling Sam and Daneca everything. He tells them Lila’s plan to have her dad fake his death so she can shoot Anton. They agree to help him. Cassel calls Lila’s dad’s number and is told she isn’t there. He leaves a message anyway that he is going to need two extra tickets to the party. He tells Sam he is going to need help with one of his fake guns. The plans are set the next few days. When Cassel gets home from school on Wednesday, his brothers say they are going to a party and taking him with them. He tries to pretend like he’d rather stay home and do his homework. They tell him to get showered and dressed for a fancy party. He showers and when he comes out, Barron sees the infected cut on his leg.
17. Barron and Anton hold him down and take what remains of the pebbles out of his leg. They have known he was a transformation worker for a long time and their mother made them keep it secret from him until he was old enough to handle it. He tells them to cut him in on the money and he will be fine with it. They agree. Cassel pretends to fall into Barron and takes back the remaining stone charm and pretends to yawn to swallow it. Barron admits he is angry that Cassel got the best ability while he was stuck with memory. Cassel goes to his parents room and takes one of his dad’s suits. They get to the party and the drinking starts. Daneca finds Cassel and is able to give him the pieces for his bloody death and tells him they already got the gun to Lila. Grandad shows up and insists on taking Cassel home. Anton interrupts and insists Cassel drink with him. After stalling with three shots, Cassel pretends that he has to use the bathroom. He is able to get the vomit from the bottle and make his throwing up seem real when Grandad follows him in. Suddenly, the bathroom is cleared out. Mr. Zacharov comes in and Anton introduces Cassel as Phillips little brother. Cassel goes to shake his hand and tells him to pretend his heart has turned to stone. Mr. Zacharov does. Cassel pretends to have the lash back and does a small transformation to make it real. Anton looks at Cassel and reminds him that he made him an amulet to protect him from transformation. He then pulls out a knife with the intention of killing Grandad. Barron comes to the door telling him to let him in. Anton puts the knife away and opens the door. Lila comes in after him with the gun. Anton tells her Cassel killed her father. She shoots him.
18. Grandad rushes to Cassel and realizes he is faking. Anton is confused as to how Lila can be there in human form. She tells him he should have killed her when he had the chance. Anton takes the gun from Lila and tries to shoot her. He is surprised when only pellets come out. He looks at Cassel and he smiles back at him. Zacharov has heard enough and is shocked at Anton’s betrayal. Barron pretends he and Phillip had been helping Zacharov the whole time. Anton attacks Cassel and Grandad kills him. Grandad admits he was there to take Cassel home because he overheard Barron and Phillip talking about their plans. Cassel reveals he re-wrote Barron’s diary to make him think he has been working for Zachorav. Zarchorav tells Cassel he will let his brothers live as long as Cassel keeps working for him. Cassel agrees and gives him back the Resurrection Diamond that is just chipped glass. Zacharov takes Cassel to the kitchen to get clean clothes. Phillip is in the back yelling about how Cassel took everything from him. He is taken away. Cassel introduces Lila to Daneca and Sam.
19. Grandad gets Cassel a car to get him back and forth to school. Barron shows up because Cassel wrote into his diary that they go for pizza every Tuesday. They start talking about when their mother will be released. He is still furious at Barron, but is glad to have a brother to talk to. Lila calls and invites him to dinner and video games. Cassel calls Maura to make sure she is okay. She admits she misses the music. Cassel and his friends attend meetings for workers for support. Lila comes over to Cassel’s house one night after he and Grandad have gotten it cleaned up. In his room. She tells him she always like him and wanted him. They start making out, but grandad interrupted to tell him he needs to take the call from his mom. She is in New York because she needed a time alone after being locked up with a bunch of women. She tells him she got him a present for taking care of his older brothers. She went to see Zacharov and ran into Lila. He realizes she worked Lila and he is furious. She tells him to just wait for the feeling to fade, but she can’t make her like she was before. He hangs up on her and ignores her trying to call back. He realizes how dumb he was thinking Lila would suddenly feel the same way he did.