“Go see someone, get a professional opinion about all this.”

Lori bristled at the suggestion.

“You mean go see a shrink.”

“Yes,” Reeny said. “Do it to humor me, if nothing else. I’m worried about you, Sissy.”

That had been what Reeny had called her when they were kids – Sissy. Lori had hated it back then, but she’d come to love the word over the years, and hearing it now brought tears to her eyes. She knew Reeny didn’t believe her story. How could she? It was insane. But she loved Lori enough to talk as if she believed it, and her support meant everything.

“Please don’t say anything about all this to Mom and Dad,” Lori pleaded. “I don’t want them worrying about me.”

Reeny frowned, obviously unhappy with this request.

“Please,” Lori said.

“Okay,” Reeny agreed. “But if you—” she paused a moment before continuing, “—if things don’t start getting better soon, I think Mom and Dad should know what’s happening.”

Lori didn’t like this, but she knew it was the best she was going to get out of Reeny, so she nodded her acceptance. She felt a little better after talking, and she was able to keep her hand mostly steady as she lifted her water to her mouth and finally took a drink. She drained half the glass before putting it back down.

Their server came over to the table. He was a handsome Asian man in his mid-twenties. Lori didn’t know if he was Thai, but from his slight accent she thought it likely. He eyed their full plates of food and then asked, “Is there something wrong?”

“Not at all,” Reeny said. “The food here’s always delicious. We just got carried away talking and lost track of time. Could we have a couple of to-go boxes?”

Lori envied how easily Reeny could talk to people. She’d always been socially skilled, even when they’d been children. She’d never had any trouble making friends and, later, getting dates, and her people skills served her well as a real estate agent. Lori did okay with people once she got to know them, but she was an introvert at heart. Interacting with people for too long a time exhausted her. Not Reeny, though. She drew energy from human contact, almost like she was a psychic vampire.

“Of course,” the server said. He smiled, then turned and walked away.

“Did something about that smile seem off to you?” Lori asked.

“Off?”

“Not right. Like he wasn’t really smiling at us, like he was faking it.”

“You’re starting to scare me,” Reeny said.

Lori took her gaze off their departing server and met her sister’s eyes. She saw concern there, but she saw wariness, too. She doesn’t trust me, Lori realized. She can’t predict what I’ll say and do next, and that scares her. She needed to cool it with the paranoia, at least until they left the restaurant and went their separate ways.

She dropped her gaze to her plate of cold pad thai. “Never mind,” she said.

She thought Reeny might make an issue of her comment about the server’s smile, but instead she said, “What does Justin think about all…this?”

Lori kept her eyes on her food as she answered. “I haven’t had a chance to tell him yet.”

“So I know and Larry knows, but Justin doesn’t. Your boyfriend Justin.”

Lori still had no appetite, but she picked up her fork and began moving rice noodles around on her plate. “We talked on the phone last night after I got home from FoodSaver. We got into an argument before I could tell him what had happened, and he hung up. I haven’t been able to get hold of him today.”

Reeny shook her head. Before she could respond further, the server returned to their table with a pair of Styrofoam containers. He handed one to each of the women, and as he did so, Lori checked to make sure his left pinky finger was free of polish. It was.

The server placed the check on the table and then with another smile that Lori thought was less than genuine, he left. Once he was gone, Reeny scowled at her, and she knew her sister had noticed her checking the man’s little finger. She didn’t comment on it, though.

“I’m not surprised you and Justin haven’t talked yet. You guys have a lot of trouble communicating.”

This was the last thing Lori needed right now. Reeny wasn’t Justin’s biggest fan, and she’d made no secret that she thought he wasn’t right for Lori. She thought he was too self-focused, almost to the point of being neurotic.

“This stuff isn’t the kind of thing you can communicate easily over the phone.” She hated how defensive she sounded, but whenever Reeny was critical of Justin – which was often – Lori felt a need to defend him. Or maybe she was defending her choice of him as a boyfriend. She felt that by making excuses, she was only confirming Reeny’s assessment, but she couldn’t stop herself.

Reeny seemed to sense this wasn’t the time to dig into Lori’s relationship problems, and she changed the subject. “Are you planning to go back to work today?”

Lori thought of Katie’s bloodstained mouth, saw her offering the remains of the cat and asking, Want some? “No fucking way. As soon as we’re done here, I’ll call in sick.”

Melinda would be pissed at the disruption in the afternoon’s schedule. Katie – assuming she wasn’t running around outside looking for more cats to eat – would have to call all of Lori’s clients for the rest of the day and reschedule their appointments. Lori didn’t care, though. She couldn’t bring herself to return to Get Moving! She didn’t know if she’d ever be able to go back.

The server returned for their check, and Reeny took a credit card from her wallet and handed it to him along with the bill. He took them with a smile and headed off again. Lori wanted to watch him closely as he departed, wanted to search for a sign – however small – that something was wrong about him. But she knew what Reeny would think if she did, and she forced herself not to look at the man as he walked away from their table. Reeny’s eyes narrowed as if she sensed Lori’s struggle, but she didn’t remark on it.

“Thanks for picking up the tab,” Lori said.

“My pleasure. So if you’re not going back to work, what are you going to do with yourself the rest of the day?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it yet.”

Normally, she might’ve gone home, but her apartment didn’t feel safe anymore. Even if one of the maintenance workers had replaced her patio door’s lock, there was no reason to think that the shadow creatures couldn’t find some way into her apartment again. And if they didn’t make another attempt to break in, if she fell asleep and took a nap, she might find herself back in the Vermilion Tower, picking up exactly where she’d left off, with the Cabal torturing her. And she had no idea how long Larry’s signing gig would last today. There was a good chance he’d be home when she got there, and while she’d find his presence a comfort, they weren’t a couple any longer and she thought it best to maintain a certain amount of emotional distance between them. Given how scared she was right now, it would be all too easy to fall back into old patterns of behavior, to seek a return to what they once had, simply for the solace that such closeness might bring. Larry might be in a ‘guy phase’ right now, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be tempted to fall back into bed with her if she gave him the opportunity. No, it would be best to keep him at arm’s length for a while – for both their sakes.

She needed to find somewhere to go, somewhere she could think in peace and try to begin sorting out this mess, without having to worry about what weird thing might confront her next. She had no idea where that might be, though.

“You could hang out with me,” Reeny offered. “I’m showing a house at one-thirty, and I have to pick up Brian at preschool at three. He’d love to see you. You know how much he loves his Aunt Lorlee.”

When Brian had first started talking he’d pronounced her name Lor-lee, and that’s what he’d called her ever since. Lori loved that her nephew had a special name all his own for her. She was tempted to take Reeny up on her offer. She didn’t want to be alone, and god knew she could use Reeny’s emotional support. But she didn’t want to drag Reeny into the insane mess her life had become. Who knew what the Cabal might do to them in order to punish her? No, she couldn’t do that to Reeny.

“Thanks, but I think I’d rather keep handling this on my own for a little while longer. Once I figure out what’s happening to me, maybe I can come up with some way to counter it.”

“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.” Before Reeny could say more, the server returned with her credit card and handed it to her, along with a final bill and a black pen to sign it.

“I hope you both have a wonderful day,” he said, and gave them a final smile before going off to see to other customers.

Fat chance of that, Lori thought.

When Reeny finished adding a tip and signing the check, she held it up as if to inspect her work, make sure her signature was neat and legible, her math accurate. As she did this, Lori saw a message scrawled onto the back of the bill in black ink.

Confess and atone – or suffer.

She almost told Reeny about the message, but she decided not to. As much of a relief as it had been to tell her sister about everything that had happened, she wondered if it had been wise. What if by talking to Reeny, she ended up bringing her to the attention of the Cabal? As long as Reeny believed she was delusional and that the Cabal wasn’t real, they’d have no reason to harass her.

She hoped.

* * *

They walked into the parking lot together. They hugged, and Reeny made Lori promise to call if things got worse. Lori said she would, though she suspected Reeny knew this for the lie it was. Reeny climbed into her red Nissan Altima, started the engine, then after a last worried look and a wave, she backed out of the space, put the car in gear, and drove off. Lori got in her Civic and turned on the engine, but she sat there for a moment, thinking, trying to decide on her next move. She was still debating when her phone rang, startling her. She almost didn’t check to see who was calling, afraid to find it was someone from the Cabal. But the phone’s display screen indicated it was Justin, so she answered it.