Tension twists up in my gut. How do I reason with him? I have to come up with a better strategy than I did in the library.
As the guys sit in silence, Brad nuzzles his face against Luke’s neck, kissing softly, and Luke rolls his head back. It makes me think of those pages Alexei copied. Jesus, howmany students at St. Lawrence are into this crap? But if these guys get together and meditate…I don’t know what Alexei thinks that’s going to prove.
It’s freezing on the ground, and I have to reposition with my hands under my chin to get a little more comfortable.
A minute goes by.
Then a few more.
Brad is really going at Luke’s neck, which has me thinking this isn’t something we should be watching, when I notice something happening with the necklace around Luke’s neck.
It’s moving—no, floating up. Slowly but steadily. No, that can’t be right.
I blink a few times. I guess I haven’t slept that well the past few nights, so between that and what Alexei and I have been talking about, my mind’s playing tricks on me. But my blinks don’t make the illusion go away, and something feels different all of a sudden. I can’t put my finger on it, but as I assess the room, I realize there’s space under Seth and Cody… Empty space. Like they’re hovering an inch or two above the ground.
Again, I try to fix my eyes, but it doesn’t change what I’m seeing. This time when I turn to Alexei, he’s watching me. He nods, and my gaze returns to the guys.
This must be a trick. But if it’s not… No, that’s impossible!
As I wrestle with my thoughts, I suddenly understand why Alexei’s come to the point where he believes the things he discovered in that notebook. I realize I haven’t taken abreath, and despite how fucking cold it is, I’m sweating.
Studying the space under Cody and Seth and seeing Luke’s necklace midair are tripping me out, so I rise up on my hands, crawling backward, away from the window.
Alexei gets on his knees and hurries to me.
I open my mouth, about to spit out a “What the fuck?” but Alexei places his hand over my lips.
*
“I haven’t beensleeping well,” I explain. “I’ve been reading about cults…and sleep deprivation can cause hallucinations.”
We’re back at the dorms, Alexei in the window seat in my room as I pace.
“You know that’s not what this is,” Alexei says.
It’s hard to object when, after I pulled away from the window at the church, I went back, checking a few more times in a desperate attempt to restore my faith in the world I’ve always known. But maybe like Alexei, now that I’ve seen this, I’ll never go back.
He’s curled up on the seat, scrolling through his phone, as though what I saw was some mundane thing, like stumbling upon them playing a pickup game midday. “How can you be so chill right now?”
His brows tug closer together. “I’m a bit ahead of you on this. I’ve known about it since before school started. And I’ve been spying on them for about as long.”
“What you said earlier, about not being able to get a recording of it?”
“There must be a spell or something on the church, blocking you from recording. That’s why they needed someone to go out there and keep an eye on them.”
Another thing that a part of me thinks can’t be true, but on top of all the weird-ass paranormal shit, there’s another burning question in my mind: “Why didn’t you mention Brad was involved in this?”
“I didn’t want to get you all wound up about it, especially when I didn’t have any plans of sharing that with you…until you pushed.”
“So they meet there and like, what, practice magic?” Even after what I’ve seen, that still comes out sarcastic as fuck.
“I don’t want to get into it. I wanted to show you so that now you know I’m not in a cult. Some of the guys on campus have figured out how to tap into this power that comes from something they call the Rift. It’s an alternate dimension, and its energy seeps into ours. Those amulets they wear help them store up the power from it, like a battery. Wild as it sounds, it’s real, and that’s what I’m planning to use to get answers about my brother.”
Now we’re talking about energy from alternate dimensions? Amulets?
Maybe he’s not in a cult, but that doesn’t make everything okay all of a sudden. “Alexei, just because these guys are fucking around with this stuff doesn’t mean you should.”
He rolls his eyes.
