"Fine, yeah, I'm going. Sorry, I just tripped," I muttered, releasing her hand, and scrambling back to my feet. My knees wobbled, and my head swam with questions, but there was no time for contemplation now. We had made our grand entrance, and it was time for an equally dramatic exit.
As I stumbled back out into the store, I caught sight of Carol's wide-eyed expression and Beth's poorly concealed smirk. They had seen it all, the black smoke, the weird air-dance, and Katie's understandable indignation.
"Tell me you have a plan," I whispered desperately, hoping against hope that they had figured out some way to save us from this madness.
"Of course," Beth said confidently, adjusting her ridiculous scarf. "We always do."
We slunk out of the clothing store, leaving behind the chaos we had inadvertently created. The scent of freshly brewed coffee from a nearby coffee cart mixed with the smell of rain-soaked pavement as we hurried along the sidewalk. I felt like an amateur detective in some absurd comedy, and all I wanted was to shake off the embarrassment and figure out what the hell was going on.
"Okay," I said, attempting to regain my composure. "Well, now we know who cursed Deva, even though the glove didn’t work the way I thought."
"Uh, no, but you're close," Beth said kindly. "Katie's been cursed herself."
"Wait, what?" I stopped dead in my tracks, causing Carol to bump into me from behind. "How do you know that?"
"Call it intuition," Beth replied, adjusting her ridiculous hat and trying to look nonchalant. "Or, you know, the black smoke monster surrounding her. That's kind of a giveaway."
"Right," I muttered, my face heating up at the memory. "So, what do we do now? Do we try to help her, or...?"
"Help her?" Carol scoffed. "She's awful. I say we let her deal with her own problems."
"I'm not exactly thrilled about getting up close and personal with her either, but we can't just leave her like this. It's not her fault she got cursed. Probably,” Beth said. “Even though Deva is still the priority.”
"Fine." Carol sighed dramatically. "But if we're going to play good Samaritans, we better come up with a plan. And fast."
20
EMMA
I stoodoutside the boutique with Beth and Carol, waiting for Katie near her car. The sun was bright overhead, casting playful shadows on the pavement that danced with the rustle of leaves in the breeze. I could hear the distant hum of car engines and snippets of conversation from passersby, their laughter like a melody weaving through the air.
"She should hopefully be out any minute," I said to the others, a bead of sweat trickling down the back of my neck. I brushed it away with my hand, cursing my tendency to burn easily.
Carol sighed. “We have to handle this delicately. Katie is human. She doesn’t know about the supernatural world, but she must have done something to attract a curse.”
“So we can’t directly ask about the curse?” I asked.
They both shook their heads.
“Darn. That would have made things a lot easier…”
“It also seems highly likely that what’s happening to Deva has something to do with Katie. I doubt they were both randomly cursed,” Beth said, looking thoughtful.
I rubbed my face. “I just wish I hadn’t just seen her almost naked in a changing room…”
Carol winced. “Yeah, it might be best to approach things more delicately with Katie this time.”
This was important, and none of us wanted to mess it up. As we waited, I glanced over at Beth. She seemed so tense. Her jaw was clenched, and her hands were balled into fists. She was ready for a fight. In contrast, Carol appeared calm, her gaze focused on the store, watching for any sign of our quarry.
Finally, Katie emerged, her face flushed and her hair disheveled. She looked like she'd seen a ghost, or maybe just realized she was being followed by three very persistent women. I tried to keep my tone light as I called out to her. "Hey, Katie, hang on."
She stopped dead in her tracks and glared at us. "What do you want?" she asked warily, inching toward her car. “And don’t even pretend you’re just looking into my issues with Deva’s Delights, because I don’t believe you.”
“Actually,” Beth said, drawing herself up taller. “You’re right. I’m Beth. This is Emma, and that’s Carol. We all work for Private Psych, and we think that whatever caused Deva’s Delights to burn down has something to do with you.”
She froze, looking nervous. “I didn’t do it.”
“We’re not accusing you of that,” Carol said delicately. “We just think maybe you’ve had a bout of bad luck too lately. Are we right?”
