“He’d already eaten half of it, the greedy bastard.”

Katie raised the tabby’s remains to her mouth, sank her teeth into its chest, and began snarling and shaking her head, trying to tear a mouthful free. There was a horrible ripping sound as Katie pulled a hunk of bloody fur and meat from the cat’s corpse. She pulled her head back and chewed vigorously, making awful smacking sounds, her lips and chin smeared with the animal’s blood. After a moment, she tossed her head back and swallowed. Then she lowered her head and looked at Lori. She blinked several times as if she’d forgotten she was standing there.

“Where are my manners?” She held the cat out toward Lori. “Want some?”

Lori dashed forward and slammed her shoulder into the door. It swung violently outward, and she flung herself onto the sidewalk outside Get Moving! The door slowly closed behind her as she ran toward her car, but before it closed completely, she heard Katie shout.

“Be that way! It just means more for me!”

* * *

Lori’s pad thai was cold by the time she finished telling Reeny her story. At first Reeny had eaten her Singapore noodles while Lori had talked, but she’d soon gotten so caught up in her sister’s tale that she’d stopped eating and listened intently, leaning forward, eyes wide, lips slightly parted, as if she wanted to interrupt but forced herself to remain silent. By the time Lori finished speaking, her mouth and throat felt dry as desert sand. She reached for her glass of water. Her hand trembled so badly she feared she might drop the glass, so she lowered her hand to her lap. She’d have to live with her dry mouth for the time being.

Reeny didn’t say anything right away. She just looked at her with that same expression, eyes wide, lips parted.

Reeny was shorter than Lori and had carried a little extra weight since having Brian a few years ago. She wore her straight blond hair short – Easier to manage that way, she’d once said – and kept her makeup to a minimum for the same reason. Today she was dressed in a white blouse, gray jacket and skirt, and low-heeled black shoes. She was a real estate agent, and always liked to look professional when she was working. Lori thought they must look odd together, she in her blue smock and Reeny in her business attire.

A Taste of Thai was a small, homey restaurant located a few blocks from the Cannery District. It had the funky, rundown look of a lot of establishments in this area of town – faded carpet, worn chairs, water damage on some of the ceiling tiles – but the food was always excellent and the staff efficient and friendly. It had been Lori and Reeny’s go-to place since their early twenties. Lori had hoped that meeting here would make her feel comforted, safe. But she kept glancing around, surreptitiously observing the other customers and the waitstaff, examining their left hands and looking for red-painted pinky nails. So far she’d seen none, but every time someone new walked into the restaurant, she checked again. They were out there somewhere, the members of the Cabal, just waiting for the next opportunity to fuck with her. She could feel it.

It’s not paranoia if they’re really out to get you, she thought.

She felt guilty telling her story to Reeny. She didn’t spend as much time with her sister as she should, and when they did manage to get together, it seemed she usually asked Reeny to help her with one problem or another. But today she couldn’t help it. She needed to talk to someone about what had happened last night – and the weirdness that had occurred at work today – and who else could she turn to but her sister?

She smiled nervously at Reeny.

“You’re awfully quiet.”

Reeny started, as if Lori’s words had brought her out of a daze.

“It’s a hell of a lot to take in.”

“I know. You probably think I’ve lost my mind.”

She hoped Reeny would protest, would say she didn’t think anything of the sort. Her silence hurt worse than Lori had expected.

“So everything was fine until the woman with the weird eyes started talking to you in the grocery store.”

“Yes. No bizarre encounters, no strange nightmares. Not before her.”

Reeny nodded slowly. Lori had the impression she did this more to give herself time to think than because she was agreeing with what she’d said.

“And you think this mysterious group – the Cabal – is behind all of this.”

The idea sounded crazy coming from her sister, like sign-the-commitment-papers-and-lock-her-up crazy. But she nodded.

“And you believe that the things you dreamed about – the Nightway, the tower – are real.”

Lori wanted to deny it, to tell Reeny that of course she didn’t think that those dreams were real, or at least a different kind of real. She’d have to be insane to think that, right? But she said nothing, and Reeny went on.

“Do you think the Cabal—” she grimaced as she said the word, “—somehow got to Katie and Melinda and…what? Did something to them?”

That’s exactly what she thought, but she said, “I don’t know.”

Reeny took a sip of water. Another stalling tactic, Lori thought. Reeny put her glass down on the table and sat back in her chair.

“If it was anyone else but you telling me all this, I’d think they were playing some kind of sick joke on me or they were….” She trailed off.

“Nuts,” Lori finished.

Reeny nodded. “But unless you’ve suddenly developed a dark sense of humor – I mean really dark – or you’ve had a stroke or a psychotic break in the last couple days….”

Lori felt encouraged by her sister’s words.

“Does that mean you believe me?”

“I didn’t say that. I mean, come on. It’s a lot, Lori. A whole fucking lot.”

Lori felt disappointed, but she didn’t blame Reeny. She was sure she’d feel the same if their positions were reversed. But before she could say anything else, Reeny held up a hand to stop her.

“But let’s say for the sake of argument that it’s true. It all seems to come down to that one message, the one that the Cabal gave you.”

“Confess and atone,” Lori said. “Or suffer.” Speaking the words caused her to shudder.

“A lot of the things that have happened in the last day could count as you suffering, couldn’t they? Like you’re being punished for something you did.”

Lori thought about this for a moment. Goat-Eyes had delivered the Cabal’s message, and after that, everything had started going to hell for her. Almost getting hit in FoodSaver’s parking lot by that poor man. The shadow creatures breaking into her apartment. Her nightmare of being tortured in the Vermilion Tower. Officer Rauch leaving the message on her bathroom mirror. Melinda and Katie turning psycho…. She supposed all of those incidents could be looked at as ways of making her suffer.

She nodded.

“And the Cabal wants you to confess to something you did – or at least what they think you did – and make amends for it somehow. So if you can figure out what they think you’ve done, then you can atone for it, whatever that entails. And once you do—”

“It’ll be over,” Lori finished.

“That would seem to be the logical conclusion. As logical as any of this shit can be, anyway. So whether this stuff is real or…I don’t know, some kind of message your subconscious is trying to send you, it all comes down to the same question: What could you have done that the Cabal would think was so bad they need to punish you in both the real world and the dream world?”

Aashrita’s face came immediately into Lori’s mind, but she banished the image just as swiftly.

“I don’t know,” she said.

Reeny looked at her for a long moment. She might be the younger sister, but she’d always acted like the older of the two, and she could always tell when Lori was lying to her. She’d gotten even better at assessing her truthfulness since she’d become a mother. But Lori had banished the thought of Aashrita so thoroughly that she didn’t remember having it in the first place. Eventually Reeny relaxed, evidently satisfied that Lori had told the truth.

“Then I suggest you figure it out fast and do whatever you need to in order to make it better. Otherwise, things are going to get worse. Probably a lot worse.”

Reeny’s warning wasn’t phrased in the same language as the Cabal’s, but her words were still chilling, so much so that Lori looked at her sister’s left pinky finger. But the nail was free of polish. Reeny noted Lori’s examination of her finger, but instead of getting angry that her sister would entertain the notion, however briefly, that she was a member of the Cabal, she looked sad and sympathetic.

“Promise me something,” Reeny said.

“Anything.”