I Didn't Forget Pt 2: Spirituality Club - SCP Foundation

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Seven Years Ago

I was lying on the couch in the living room, reading, when my brother Evan answered the front door. His friend Callum stepped inside, carrying a blue bag. “What’s up?” Evan asked.

Callum was smirking. “You remember that book we were talking about yesterday?”

I knew which book he meant. A few days earlier, Evan had gone to Runes and Relics intending to buy a rare book that had turned up there, but when he arrived, it’d already been swiped by a boy named Allen, another member of Cypress High’s Spirituality Club.

Evan had been quite disappointed by this.

“Of course, I do,” Evan said.

Callum reached into his bag and pulled out a book.

“Holy shit!” Evan’s face lit up. He snatched the thing out of Callum’s hands so fast it made Callum flinch. He opened the book and flipped through some of its pages.

“Enough to make you swear for once?” Callum chuckled. “In front of your little brother, no less?”

I peeked over the top of my own book to look at the one Evan was holding. It was a dark red hardcover, dusty, with deep yellow pages and a prominent dent across the front. Something, presumably the book’s title, was printed on it in gold, but I couldn’t make it out.

“How did you get Allen to give it up?” Evan asked.

“I bought it from him. Once I offered him three-hundred dollars, he stopped feeling so strongly about keeping it.”

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“I know.” Callum punched my brother’s shoulder. “I just wanted to see the look on your face. For the record, worth every penny.”

“And you’re sure you don’t want it?”

“Why would I? It’s old heptagon stuff, right?”

“Dave, technically. It’s just a book about craft theory, though. It covers a lot of different perspectives. I mean, it’s right there in the title. ‘A Synthesis of Diverse Thoughts.’”

“I guess that’s good. Last thing I need is for you to go hepto on me.”

Evan chuckled. “You’d have to do a lot more than buy a book to get rid of me.”

“Good to hear.”

“Mind if I take it upstairs?”

“Of course. I’ll come with.”

Present Day

“Thanks for coming,” I say to Quinn, who’s sitting across from me and Theo. We’re at a fast-food restaurant on the opposite side of town from the library. It’s not that popular, and I picked a time I knew it would be empty.

“No problem,” Quinn says. He was one of my brother’s friends when he was younger, and he was a member of Spirituality Club.

Evan was always secretive about Spirituality Club. I already wanted to find out more about it as part of my investigation, but Jess’ testimony, that Evan had gone to the Galaxy Plaza with some of his friends from Spirituality Club the night he was taken, multiplied my interest tenfold.

As a teenager, Quinn had long dreadlocks, and always wore a string of stones and crystals around his neck. Now he’s in his twenties, with short hair, jeans and a T-shirt with a large red A on it. I’m pretty sure it’s the ‘Atheism’ A, not the ‘Anarchy’ one. If so, Quinn’s worldview has shifted quite a bit since I knew him.

That shirt is probably the source of the dislike toward him I sense from Theo. Theo’s pretty religious. He’s not a fanatic or anything, but he goes to church every Sunday. He doesn’t talk to me about his faith that often, which I’m grateful for, but he seems to care a lot about it.

“So,” I say to Quinn, “tell me about Spirituality Club.”

“Man, that takes me back,” Quinn says with a bemused smile. “Okay, so, it was an official student club at Cypress High School. Honestly, its name should give you a pretty good idea of what it was like. We were basically a bunch of teenaged hippies. Most of us called ourselves Pagans or Wiccans, and we’d gather there to admire each other’s crystals, read tarot cards, talk about the vibrations we’d felt while we were mediating, and talk even more about the ‘real magic’ we thought we were practicing.”

“How real was the magic?” Theo asks.

Quinn chuckles. “Depends on who you ask. At sixteen, any of us would’ve told you Spirituality Club was a place where miracles happened.”

“What would you say now?” I ask.

“I like to think I’ve outgrown believing in magic. Spirituality Club was just a bunch of kids getting psyched up over standard new age stuff. It’s nostalgic for me. I have some fond memories of it, but it wasn’t magical.”

“How large was the club?”

“There were around a dozen people at the average meeting. Maybe twenty people who were technically members. Your brother was always a big figure in it. He was the full-on leader for a while.”

“And before that, it was Callum Michaels?”

“Yep. God, he was the worst.”

“How so?”

“He was so full of himself. He always had to have his way, and he wasn’t afraid to flex his popularity and his family’s money to get what he wanted. I’m surprised you need to ask me about it. Your brother was his archnemesis after he left.”

“Evan always tried to keep me away from his school stuff.”

“That makes sense. Evan was a pretty good guy. I’m sorry about what happened to him, by the way. I should’ve opened with that. I wasn’t one of Evan’s close friends, but everyone in the club liked him.”

I nod. “He was pretty cool.”

“Yeah. That’s why everyone liked him. Well, that, and because most of the club was convinced he was the best at magic.”

“Best at magic?”

“Yeah. All of us thought we could do a bit of magic, but everyone agreed Evan was the best at it. Even Callum admitted that, back when the two of them got along.”

“Do you remember why everyone thought that?” Theo asks.

“Not really. I’m sure it was something silly.” He taps his foot for a moment. “Actually, I remember one thing. There was this exercise we would do where we would wrap sticks in tinfoil and sit in a circle with them. The sticks were supposed to channel the energy of the universe or something. We all thought we got results from that, but he got the most.”

“Did that exercise have a name?” Theo asks.

“Something like buzz or hum,” Quinn says. “I’m sure there’s something on the internet about it.”

“What results did my brother get from this?” I ask.

Quinn thinks about this for a moment. “Was… was your brother into stage magic at all?”

“Not that I know of. Why do you ask?”

He hesitates. “His stick would float. It would float in the air. I don’t know how he did it. Must have been some kind of magician’s trick, but it had us completely convinced at the time.”

“Do you remember where the idea for this exercise came from?” Theo asks.

“It was already a thing in the group when I joined.”

“Was Evan’s floating stick the only extraordinary result you got from it?” I ask.

Quinn stares blankly at us for a moment.

“Dude?” I say.

“Sorry. No. It wasn’t the only one. There were others. One time, Callum’s stick got cold. Like, freezing cold. So cold that it hurt to touch, and…” he pauses, “Almost every time we did it, I would hear music. I don’t mean that metaphorically. I really heard it. I would try to play what I’d heard back to the group on my guitar. That’s where a lot of the pieces I wrote as a teenager came from. How did I forget that?” The question is for himself, not me.

I have no answer, so I respond with another question of my own. “Was that the only magic trick my brother would do?”

Quinn shakes his head. “There were others. He could push things without touching them, and I remember he could predict what card someone would draw out of a tarot deck without having to do any kind of card trick with it. Also, one time I remember him and Callum talking about winning the lottery.”

“Winning the lottery?”

“Yeah. This wasn’t on club time. It was just something I overheard them talking about. They were debating whether they should use magic to look into the future and buy a winning lottery ticket. Callum was arguing they should, while Evan thought they shouldn’t because it was cheating. That was his only problem with it, though. The whole time they were talking, neither one seemed to doubt that they could do that if they wanted to.”

“As far as I know, my brother never won the lottery.”

“I know. I just mention it because hearing that conversation was one of the things that convinced me they were God-tier warlocks. They sounded so sure it would work.”

“Were there any rules in the club about keeping the results you got secret?” Theo asks.

Quinn nods. “Yeah. We weren’t supposed to talk about any of it to outsiders. God, how the hell did I forget about this?”

“What do you mean when you say you forgot?”

“An hour ago, I would have sworn to you that I’d never experienced anything supernatural. I would have said there’s nothing like that in the whole world, and everyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot. That’s not true, though. I saw that stick float into the air. I felt it go ice cold. I heard music. I…” he stammers, “I’m sure there is a logical explanation for all of it. Lots of people think they’ve seen real magic, but how did I forget I was one of them?”

He’s not looking at either of us. I don’t think he’s really talking to either of us. I have a guess as to how he might have forgotten all of this, but I can’t tell him about it. Either way, why is he remembering everything now, when he happens to be talking to me? Why did the same thing happen to Jess?

“Be thankful you have the memories back now,” Theo says. “Hopefully it’s taught you a lesson about respecting other people’s beliefs.”

Quinn nods, but his attention is still off in the distance. For a moment, we all sit, silently.

“Did Evan ever say anything to you about the release party for Glorious Dawn?” I ask, breaking the silence.

“The one where he passed away?”

“Yeah.”

“No. I don’t think I even knew about that party until I heard about the disaster on the news. I liked Evan, but I wasn’t one of his close friends.”

“What happened to the club after my brother died?” I ask. “He was leader at that point, right?”

Quinn shrugs. “Yeah. Once he was gone, people just kind of lost interest. I was one of those people. I’d always liked to debate skeptics online, but around then, I started to find them convincing.”

“Who ran the club after my brother?” I ask.

“His friend Daisy, for a few months, but there were only a few people still interested in it. She graduated that year, and once she was gone, there wasn’t enough interest left to keep it going.”

“Alright,” I say. “Thank you for telling me all of this.”

“Try not to mention this conversation to anyone else,” Theo adds. “We’re trying to keep aspects of this confidential.”

“No problem,” Quinn says. After a moment, he stands up and leaves.

“What do you make of it?” I ask Theo once he’s gone.

“I’m sorry, but I still think it’s an act.”

“Just like you thought with Jess?”

“Why would he start remembering those things just when we were talking to him? This guy was a hardcore atheist for half a decade, and then a single conversation about his pagan phase in high school has him acting like he believes in magic again? It doesn’t make sense.”

“We know ‘amnestics’ are fallible. They didn’t work on me.”

“But why? How could a conspiracy like this survive if its memory-erasing drugs were unreliable?”

“I don’t know, but we know that they are.”

“He might have been told to say that. This might be a trap. We might be in a lot of trouble. If there’s heat on us, maybe we should wait a bit for it to die down.”

“I’ve already waited long enough. You don’t have to keep doing this with me, if you don’t want to, but I’m not stopping.”

He puts a hand on my shoulder. “I didn’t mean that. I’m in this as long as you are. I just think we should be careful. This could end with us in cages, too.”

“I understand, but that’s the risk we’re taking on. It’s the risk we have to take on order to find my brother.”

Seven Years Ago

Evan never wanted me anywhere near Spirituality Club.

“There’s stuff there that a kid shouldn’t be exposed to,” he once said.

“You’re also a kid,” I replied.

“I’m a teenager. Completely different.”

“Not what mom says.”

“Ask if you can watch a PG-13 movie. See if she still thinks that.”

His efforts to keep me away were mostly redundant. Spirituality Club meetings were at Evan’s high school, which I seldom had any reason to visit. However, one night, I happened to be with Mom when she picked Evan up from his club meeting, which left me standing outside the club room just after a meeting had concluded.

I’d always pictured the club room being full of crystals and hanging stars, with shelves holding books on pagan spirituality, the same kind of stuff that Evan’s room was full of. It wasn’t like that at all, though. The club just held its meetings in an ordinary classroom. As we approached, the students inside were arranging the seats back into rows, having seemingly had them in a circle during the meeting. There were no crystals decorating the room, but every student there wore a polished green stone around their neck, and most of them wore other crystals on top of that.

Evan had been chatting with his friend Daisy in the corner of the room, but he’d broken off from that conversation when he saw me and Mom approaching. He hurried outside. Even at the time, I suspected this was because he wanted to stop us from entering the room.

“You ready to go?” Mom asked once he emerged.

“Yeah,” Evan said.

“Actually,” Allen said from inside the classroom, “Evan, can I talk to you for a minute?”

Evan looked over at Mom. “A few minutes?” he asked.

“Sure,” Mom said.

Evan stepped back in the room and closed the door behind him. His conversation with Allen was short and quiet. Through the window in the classroom door, I saw Allen say something that upset Evan quite a bit. It made him angry at first, but over the course of the conversation, his mood shifted from anger, to worry, to sadness. After a few minutes, Evan came back out.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Nothing big,” Evan said. “He wanted the book back.”

“The one Callum gave you?”

“Yeah.”

“Didn’t Callum give him money for that? Why does he want it back?”

“He said he’d return the money.”

That didn’t really answer my question, but I didn’t want to press him. “Are you going to give it to him?”

“It looks like I’ll have to.”

Present Day

Runes and Relics is even smaller than I remember. The so-called ‘occult store’ isn’t much more than a small blue box. In one corner, dozens of crystals are arranged on shelves to be sold. In another, there’s a variety of old books. In another, jars are filled with strange, stringy herbs.

Near the entrance is the counter. It’s made of glass, so it can display a few high-value items, including large crystals, a huge book, and an ornate statue of a serpent coiled around a tree.

Daisy is standing behind the counter. She’s in her twenties, tall and blonde, with her hair in long braids. She greets us as we approach the desk. “Hey, Jerry.”

“Hey,” I say. “Thanks for agreeing to meet with us.”

“No problem.” She was one of Evan’s close friends, probably his closest friend after he stopped getting along with Callum. She was a founding member of Spirituality Club, and her interest in that sort of thing had persisted through the years, which is why she’s now the manager of Runes and Relics. “You said you wanted to meet in the back?”

“Yeah.” There’s no way Daisy is part of the group that kidnapped my brother, but her store could have been bugged by them. If that’s the case, the bug is probably in the public area of the store. If so, hopefully it won’t hear us while we’re in the back.

Daisy escorts us back to the break room, where we sit at a white plastic table. “You said this was about Evan?” she asks, a bit somber.

“Yes,” I say, trying to match her mood. “I want to understand him better. He was always so secretive about Spirituality Club, even though it was such a huge part of his life. If he were still around, I wouldn’t resent him having secrets, but with him gone…” I trail off. I think I’m doing a good impression of a grieving brother. I feel a little bad for putting on this kind of performance for someone I know, but I can’t risk letting on that I know Evan is alive.

“I understand,” she says. “The club was very secretive. We always thought someone was out to get us. Looking back, it was pretentious as hell. We thought what we were doing was so subversive, like if it got out, it would doom us all.”

“Do you know what made you think that?” Theo asks.

Daisy shrugs. “It was just teenagers being teenagers, thinking they’re more important than they are, and we thought we were extremely important.”

“How so?” I ask.

“There was a sort of inner circle within Spirituality Club. It was basically Evan and his best friends. Callum used to have us working on special projects, and there was another one Even had us doing after he left.”

“What was it?” Theo asks.

“I honestly don’t remember.”

“Did it have to do with the release party for Glorious Dawn?” I ask.

“Come to think of it, yeah, it did.”

“So you went to that party?” Theo asks.

“All four of us did,” she says. “By which I mean me, Evan, Allen, and Lia. There was something we were planning to do there, but I don’t remember exactly what.”

I hesitate. Both of my conversations until now have followed a pattern. People don’t remember things. I ask them questions, then they remember them. It’s dangerous to let on how much I know. I trust Daisy, but they could get information out of her in any number of ways. At the same time, I want to drill to the heart of this. I can’t avoid all risks. I’m going to go for it. “Just before he went to the party,” I begin, “Evan told me he was going there to stop Callum from doing something that would hurt the people there.”

“That was it!” Daisy says. So, this interview is going to be like the others. “We thought he was going to take some kind of revenge on the town for turning against him.”

“The whole town? I know he had a falling out with my brother, but—”

“A lot of things went wrong for Callum around that time. Evan ousting him from the club meant he lost his entire friend group. His girlfriend had just broken up with him. His parents were having relationship problems, too, and his grades were getting worse.”

“Where did you learn about his grades?”

“Callum told us about all of it. He had it in his head that it was all Evan’s fault. He even blamed us for a strike at one of his dad’s stores. I guess he thought we were cursing him.”

“Were you?”

“No. I don’t believe in using the arts to hurt people. I’ve never done that, and I never will.”

“Could Evan have done it without your knowledge?” Theo asks.

“He wouldn’t. I think Callum just had some bad luck and was looking for someone to blame, so he blamed us, and he promised he’d get revenge.”

“Do you remember what he was planning to do?” I ask.

“I don’t think we ever knew, but Evan thought it was going to be at the release party.”

“Why would Callum target that?” Theo asks.

“Best guess, he wanted the largest crowd he could find.”

“Given what wound up happening, is it likely that he went through with his threat?”

“There’s no knowing that kind of thing. The disaster was natural, as far as anyone could tell, but sometimes that’s how magic works. You send energy, good or bad, into the world, and something happens that looks totally natural, even though you caused it.”

“Is that the only kind of magic Callum ever used? Did he ever do anything more impressive?”

“We all did,” she says. I ask her to elaborate, and she tells us a lot of the same things Quinn did. She, too, doesn’t seem to have thought about them in years, though she’s less shocked by the emerging memories. “I’m not sure Callum could have done something that big,” she continues. “As difficult as it is to imagine, I think the disaster might have been a coincidence.”

“Is it possible he had outside help?”

Daisy shrugs. “Maybe. He was wealthy. He probably could have hired a practitioner to do anything.” Suddenly, her eyes go wide. “Wait,” she continues. “We…okay, this was just our speculation, as children. It’s entirely probable that we were wrong, but I just remembered, at the time, we thought Aster Sterling was going to help him do it.”

“What?”

“We were probably wrong. In fact, I’m a bit embarrassed mentioning it. I mean, he died there. Obviously, he didn’t do that on purpose, but, at the time, that’s the impression Evan had us under.”

“Do you remember where he got that idea?”

“He didn’t really explain himself. We trusted him.”

“And he’d told you that Callum and Aster Sterling were conspiring to make something happen at the release party?”

“Yes.”

“I see. Thank you. This has been very helpful.”

“It has?”

“What I mean,” I rush to add, “is that it’s comforting to know that he went to the party to help people.”

“Oh. Well, you’re welcome.”

“One other thing,” Theo says. “Jeremy told me about a book that was purchased here when he was a kid. An old, rare book about magic.”

“The one Allen bought?”

“Yes.”

“I remember the drama at the club about that, though it was before I started working here. Why do you mention it?”

“Do you have any idea what the book’s name was?”

“No clue, sorry.”

Theo gently elbows me under the table. It takes me a moment to realize why. He wants me to see if me asking her makes a difference. “Are you sure?” I ask. I try to will my words to jog her memory. “I know it had the phrase A Synthesis of Diverse Thoughts in it, but I don’t think that was the entire title.”

She thinks about it for a moment. “Yeah, sorry, I don’t know anything about it.”

“Are there any sales records you could check in order to find out?” Theo asks.

“Maybe,” Daisy says. “There are records in the system from around that time. I can see what books Allen bought around then.”

“I’d appreciate that,” Theo says. “Do you have anything like that in stock now, by the way? Not just that specific book, but anything like it?”

“Sure. You want me to show you what I have?”

“Absolutely.”

Seven Years Ago

Evan hurried downstairs as someone knocked furiously at the front door. He opened it. It was Callum. “We have a problem,” Callum said. I was curious enough that I lowered the volume on the TV so I could listen in.

“You’re right,” Evan said. “We do.”

“Look, before anything else, I want to tell you that I’m sorry. I have no idea how it happened. It shouldn’t have been possible.”

“Is that what you think the problem is? The fact that Allen was able to tell me what you did to him?”

“Of course that’s the problem. What else would it be?”

“The fact that you did it to him! Do you do this kind of thing all the time?”

Callum scoffed. “Of course, I do. Don’t be a square.”

“Square?”

“Yes. Square. We worked for the power we have. We have the right to—”

“My brother is in the other room.”

Callum sighed. “Right. Of course.” They went upstairs.

Later that night, I asked Evan what he and Callum had spoken about.

“We were just talking about the book,” Evan said.

“You sounded really mad at him. What did he do?”

Evan took a deep breath. “According to Allen, he only sold the book to because Callum forced him to.”

“What do you mean? How did he force him?”

“Does it matter how? He did it, and he did it as a favor for me.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“I know. I really do. I still feel bad. I just wish Callum had asked me before doing it. It doesn’t even seem to have occurred to him that I wouldn’t want that. That’s what scares me. The fact that he thinks I’m the kind of person who would want him to control other people. It also means he’s the kind of person who’s willing to do that. I really thought he was better than people said he was. Now I’m not sure.”

“Does that mean you won’t be friends anymore?”

“I hope not. I’ll talk to him again once we’ve both had time to calm down.”

“I’m sure everything will be fine.”

“Yeah,” Evan nodded. “I’m sure it will be fine.”

Present Day

“This is the third time it’s happened,” Theo says, as we get in his car after leaving Runes and Relics. “Every time you talk with someone, they act like they’re suddenly regaining memories—"

“That probably means it’s not an act.”

“Or, it means they’ve been one step ahead of us this whole time.”

“Daisy’s not with them.”

Theo starts the car. “You can’t know that for sure.”

“I’ve known her since I was a kid. She was one of Evan’s best friends. There’s no way she’s with the people who took him.”

“People can change a lot over the years.”

“She hasn’t changed. She’d forgotten about the magic she used to do, but learning about it didn’t freak her out like it did Quinn. She’s still interested in the occult. She runs Runes and Relics for God’s sake.”

“She wouldn’t be a good secret agent if it was easy to tell that she was one.”

“Isn’t it your theory that their overall goal is to hide the paranormal from the world? Why would someone who wants to do that be running an occult store?”

“Maybe she’s in deep cover?”

“No. It’s not possible. Daisy is a friend. End of discussion.”

“Then there has to be some other reason people keep recovering memories while talking to you.”

“I suppose there does.” There is a pause. “Any ideas? Because I don’t have any.”

Theo thinks for a moment. “We know they erase memories. So far, all the memories people have seemed to ‘get back’ have had to do with the supernatural. Those are memories they would want to erase.”

“If you’re right about what their agenda is.”

“Fair, but assuming I am right about that, the question before us is why talking to you makes them remember.”

“I agree.”

“Maybe it’s the same reason they couldn’t erase your memories. Maybe something about you negates their ‘amnestics.’ Not just for you, but other people to.”

It would explain why they couldn’t take my memories away. “I’ve interacted with Daisy since Evan was taken. If being around me negates their amnestics, why didn’t it happen earlier?”

“Did you talk about Spirituality Club with her?”

“Not much. I’ve always tried not to talk about any of it, with anyone.”

“It’s only your questions that make people remember things. Mine don’t. We saw that with both Daisy and Jess. If these people aren’t acting, there must be something about you asking questions that makes people remember the answers.”

It’s a hell of a thought. “I don’t know. The idea that I’m special feels like wishful thinking.”

“But your brother was special.”

“What do you mean?”

“They took him. They didn’t take Daisy, Quinn or Allen, even though they knew everything he did, and had performed magic just like he had. They just erased those people’s memories, but they felt the need to kidnap Evan. There must have been something special about him, and whatever that something is, maybe you have it to.”

“Maybe.” It’s a sickening thought. Being special should be a good thing. It’s not something you should be punished with a lifetime of imprisonment for.

“If that’s true, this investigation could be even more dangerous than we’d realized. They might want to take you too.”

“Maybe,” I admit. “At the same time, they might have taken him because he was some kind of threat to them. That could mean I’m a threat to them, too.” I smile. “I like that idea.”

Seven Years Ago

The pounding knock at the door startled me as I sat in the kitchen, eating a late lunch. Dad was on his way to the door when Evan ran in front of him. “I’ll get it.”

He opened the door. Callum was standing there, daggers in his eyes. “What?” Evan asked, meeting his gaze.

“You made my girlfriend break up with me,” Callum answered, his voice dripping with venom.

“No, I didn’t.”

“Yes, you fucking did. After one conversation with her, she called me and said she never wanted to see me again. What the fuck did you do?”

“I asked her how you treat her. That’s all. It’s not my fault the answer made her want to leave you.”

“Don’t play dumb. You know exactly why she shouldn’t have been able to break up with me.”

“My dad and brother can—”

“I don’t give a fuck! Tell me what you did!”

“I already have. I asked her how you treat her.”

“Bullshit. There had to be some kind of magic to what you said.” At the time, I thought Callum meant that metaphorically.

Evan scoffed. “Do you really find it that hard to believe that she’d want nothing to do with you once she had a choice?”

“Stop being a smartass and tell me what you did.” There was something in the way he said those words, some special combination of force and venom, that made my blood run cold.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Evan said, with a defiant calm.

“I said, tell me what you did,” Callum seethed.

Evan just stood with his arms crossed. “You know, I used to think you liked the fact that I didn’t always do what you said. Being showered with all the unearned reverence you get would drive me crazy. I thought it drove you crazy, too, but I was wrong. You love it. You’re just as shallow as everyone says you are, and you hate that there’s finally someone who can stand up to you.”

“You’ll pay for this,” Callum growled.

“Give me your best shot. I’m sure you’ll have just as much influence over everyone else as you did on your girlfriend.”

Callum’s hand thrust toward Evan. For a second, I thought this was going to come to blows, but Callum didn’t touch Evan. He just grabbed the polished green stone around Evan’s neck. The one everyone in Spirituality Club wore. “You don’t deserve this,” he said, ripping the stone off of him. The string broke with a satisfying snap.

“You’re right. It’s beneath me.”

“We’ll see. I’d better not see you at any future meetings.”

“There’ll have to be a vote on that,” Evan said. “Club rules don’t let you kick someone out without one. Didn’t you read the document?”

“I fucking wrote it!”

“We wrote it.”

“Fine. Come tomorrow, then. We’ll see how eager everyone is to keep you.”

“Yeah, I think we will.”

Present Day

Theo and I are at home, reviewing our notes.

The fact that me and my brother might have some kind of supernatural ability should be the most shocking thing to come out of our interview with Daisy, but, honestly, it’s second to the idea that Aster Sterling was working with Callum. Maybe I just don’t want to believe that someone I admired so much as a child was capable of immense evil, but I can’t shake the feeling that him being in on it doesn’t add up. Sterling died. Even if he’s secretly alive somewhere, he lost his status as a famous and successful author. Why would he willingly do that? Certainly not just as a favor to Callum.

My phone rings. I answer. “Hello?”

“Hey,” Daisy says. She sounds cold, and a bit angry.

“Is something wrong?”

“Do you know where your boyfriend was last night, around 2:00 AM?”

The question takes me aback. I was asleep at 2:00 AM. As far as I know, so was he. “He was home, in bed, with me,” I say.

Theo looks up from our notes. “Are you talking about me?”

I hold up a finger to tell him to wait.

“Are you sure?” Daisy asks.

“I think so. What’s this about?”

There’s a pause. “One of the books he expressed interest in has been stolen.”

“What?”

“You remember how I showed him the books we have in stock? He was very interested in one of them, a large, untitled book with a star on its cover. This book was worth over a thousand dollars. Last night, someone broke into the store and took it. Nothing else. Just that one book.”

“And you think he did it?”

“Who did what?” Theo asks. I shush him.

“He spent five minutes grilling me about what it was and where I’d gotten it. He came out and told me he thought he might buy it. That same night, it was stolen. You must understand how that looks.”

When she puts it like that, it does sound pretty bad. “He wouldn’t do that,” I say, with all the confidence I can muster.

“What the hell is going on?” Theo asks.

“Can you prove that? Because it’s looking pretty likely that he did.”

How the heck would I even begin to prove that? “Do you not have security cameras?” I ask.

“Funnily enough, the footage of the break-in seems to have been deleted.”

Well, fuck. “Look, I don’t know what you want me to do. He was in bed with me all night. I wouldn’t lie to you about something this important.”

Daisy sighs. “I know you wouldn’t. I’m sure you believe what you’re saying, but I don’t know who else it could’ve been. I consider you a friend, which is why I’m calling you instead of the police, for now. You have twenty-four hours to talk him into giving the book back. If it’s not in my hands by then, the police are going to hear about this.”

“What? But what if he didn’t—”

“Then the police will figure that out eventually.”

“Please don’t do that,” I say. I can’t help but sound afraid. I know they have agents in the police. They couldn’t have covered up the Galaxy Plaza disaster without them. If they take notice of us, they might realize we’re investigating them. That wouldn’t be good, especially if they had an excuse to arrest Theo.

“Twenty-four hours,” Daisy repeats. “I’m sorry, but that’s how it has to be.” She hangs up.

Seven Years Ago

When I heard Evan get home from Spirituality Club, I went downstairs to greet him. I knew this was the night he’d faced off against Callum. “How did things go?” I asked.

“Fine,” he said.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. I got everything I wanted. Callum called a vote on kicking me out. It failed. I called a vote on kicking him out. It succeeded. There was a vote on who the new president would be. I won. I’m in charge of the club now.”

“That’s awesome!”

“I guess.”

“C’mon. Don’t feel bad. Callum deserves it, after everything he’s done.”

“I know. That’s why I said everything went fine.” He patted me on the head as he walked past me. “I just want to be alone in my room for a bit.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“Thanks for understanding.”

He went upstairs and locked himself in his room for the rest of the night.

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