Page 28
“This is actually insane,” Priya said. “Did you try DMing them?”
“The accounts are all dead.”
Priya shifted in her seat. “I found something, too. On a Discord server.”
“Wow, you dug deep,” Callie said.
“Always. I DM’d a woman who left a cryptic message about Aurora. And this is what she sent me.”
Priya scrolled to the woman’s reply and passed the phone around the booth. When I read through it, my whole body went still.
Whatever happened to you, you can’t fix by talking about it. You can only make it worse. I’m not going to be in touch with you again. Please don’t contact me. If you have to know something, know this: you are not the first. You will not be the last. And the way out is not the way you think it is. I’m sorry.
The table went silent.
“She didn’t say what the way out is, then?” I said, feeling the blood drain from my face.
“She blocked me.”
We debated in murmurs, our nervous fingers worrying at the stems of our glasses. We retraced every moment of the ceremony we could remember, and every hour since. We mourned Bram, and Callie looked like she’d cry all over again.
“But witchcraft is nonsense,” Priya said, a little strained.
“Actually, it’s not,” Jess said. “Manifestation is witchcraft.”
“That doesn’t help.” Priya glared at Jess.
“What did we get ourselves into?” Callie gripped her glass.
“It’s a cult,” Priya said. “And I think we just got initiated.”
Callie leaned in. “So what the hell do we do about it?”
“Stay calm, for one thing,” Jess said, taking the sunglasses off her forehead and setting them on the table.
The jukebox opposite our booth suddenly clicked, and Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” started playing.
“What in the—”
“It’s haunted,” I said to Priya.
“Of course it is.”
“Did anyone read the paperwork we all signed?” I searched my inbox as I asked the question, but when I clicked on the link I’d used to sign the waiver, it had expired.
“No,” Callie said.
“No.” Jess shrugged. “I figured it was fine.”
“I glanced at it over a bowl of noodles at lunch,” Priya said. “It was about seven pages long. I got frustrated and just signed.”
“Well, guess what? If you didn’t save the documents, they’re gone.” I turned my phone around.
“How is that legal?” Jess said.
“If I was a lawyer, I wouldn’t have been dumb enough to sign up.” Callie crossed her arms.
“This doesn’t make sense. There are hundreds of great reviews. Everyone loves this woman.” Priya was scrolling. We were all scrolling, searching for information that wasn’t there.
