"Where did you get that?" Dominic asked from the seat next to me in the ASL classroom. His eyes were on the tiny pinkie ring I had acquired a few days prior during my shift at work, but I couldn't blame him. I liked looking at the way it sparkled in the window light too, and it was a pretty reminder that my birthday was coming up soon. Maybe the talisman would do something nice for me for once.

"Butterfly," I said.

He certainly didn't need any more explanation than that, especially since I already heard plenty about it from Jack. Stealing is wrong, Lindsay, and you know that. That makes it extra wrong. But charging seventy dollars for a cheapo pink tourmaline ring was also wrong, but he wasn't ready for that conversation.

Either Dominic didn't hear me or that response satisfied him, and he turned to get his notebook and textbook out of his backpack.

That was fine with me. There were plenty of conversations he and I could have been having, but that topic was the last thing I wanted to discuss. I wasn't sure if he was mad at me or mad at the situation the talisman was putting us through, and for once, it absolutely wasn't my fault that weird things were happening. This time, it sure as hell seemed like it was his.

"Lindsay. Dominic," Dr. Rainier said as he set his case of papers on the desk in the front of the room.

I had been a little better with attendance ever since I did my required chat with Harvey for the class, but I couldn't imagine that it was enough to warrant a personal welcome unless it was sarcastic. There were plenty of other people in the classroom who showed up and participated much more than I did (but not nearly as much as Dominic, of course).

"Good morning," Dominic replied.

"How's that—" Dr. Rainier hesitated for a moment— "situation that you two are involved with?"

I looked over at Dominic. How the hell did he know about our situation?

Right. Dr. Reed asked him to help with the markings on the talisman. He was an expert in languages, after all.

I turned back to Dr. Rainier and nodded. "The same as always, I guess. It's as normal as it can be."

He chuckled. "I don't suppose you had anything to do with the sky incident on Friday?"

I shook my head. "Nope."

"The sky incident that was only over Tillamook and had no known meteorological cause, according to local news sources?"

"Who knows whether that's true or not. You can't trust the media these days, since everyone wants to be the first to report the stories instead of being truthful and accurate."

Dominic nodded from beside me. "It's true. Everybody's got an agenda they're trying to push."

"Right, because everyone wants to be the special town in Oregon where the end of the world began," Dr. Rainier said, and even if his tone wasn't dripping in sarcasm, I still would have known that he wasn't having what we were trying to say.

Besides, maybe everyone did want to be the place where the end began. That would certainly be an accomplishment.

"Do you have any more information on it? I mean, we've definitely given you enough time to inspect the photos that Dr. Reed gave you," Dominic asked.

He shook his head. "It's nothing I've ever seen before."

I bit my cheek. We knew that already. No one had ever seen anything like it, blah, blah, blah, but I wasn't an idiot. There certainly had to be some sort of comparable object out there. And it was very possible that no one with the proper resources cared as much as I did to find it.

What even was the point of college if the professors did nothing to help anyone? Dr. Rainier sure as hell wasn't teaching me any sign language.

But I smiled anyway. "Yeah, that seems like the only answer we ever get."

***

After class ended a couple minutes early, Dr. Rainier left the classroom for a meeting, and I turned to Dominic before he could pack up his belongings and run away from me.

"Remember when you tried to convince me that Dr. Rainier was going to be more help to us than Dr. Reed? I think you owe both she and I an apology," I said.

"I'm not going to apologize for my opinion." He paused for a moment as he put his notebook back. "But I've definitely changed that opinion. That guy's worthless to our situation, as he put it."

I nodded. "He is. And I know that he's busy and all that, so I might be a little too self-centered on this, but I feel like he should definitely have more information than that at this point."

"Maybe he does, and he just doesn't want to tell us. Kinda like Dr. Reed."

I thought for a moment. That certainly was possible, and he was in a rush to leave class. Kinda suspicious.

"Do you think Dr. Reed's in her office now?" Dominic asked.

"Probably. She likes to pretend she's doing her job, and that's a pretty good place to do it," I said.

Dominic and I headed across campus to the anthropology building where Dr. Reed's office was, but the only thing on my mind the entire walk there was that I should have trusted my first panicked instinct when Dr. Reed said she got someone else involved in our talisman.

At least it was a nice change from having Dominic and his post-kiss meltdown on my mind.

The door was open, and Dr. Reed had her head resting on her hand as we walked into her office. "Please. All I'm asking is one day. One goddamn day when I don't have to do anything."

I was pretty sure that was most days for her, but I didn't say anything. "I promise, this will be really quick. We just wanted to know if Dr. Rainier has told you anything about the markings on the talisman."

"And you couldn't fit that into an email?"

"Would you just answer the question?" Dominic let out a little cough. "It smells like smoke in here."

"That's probably from the cigarette. I wasn't expecting company," she said, and that was an obvious clue that she wasn't in the mood to deal with us.

Too bad. She was the one who brought Dr. Rainier into this, and now she had to explain why.

"Has Dr. Rainier told you anything about the talisman? Yes or no?" I asked.

Dr. Reed let out a loud sigh. "Not a thing. Why? Has he mentioned anything to you after class or something?"

I shook my head.

"That's weird. He sounded really interested when I mentioned it to him," she said.

I looked over at Dominic, who was already looking at me. This was the perfect distraction from all the little details and happenings involving the talisman and my mother, and he was an idiot if he thought I wasn't going to run with it.

Even if Dr. Reed wasn't the most reliable person, she had enough on the line that I could trust her. Jack was always good to me and believed in me enough to make him trustworthy. Sierra seemed to like that we were friends, and she wouldn't dare to wreck that. And Dominic knew enough about me and the talisman to know that everything would be fine if he didn't cross us. But Dr. Rainier was a lone wolf, a free agent, and he certainly didn't report to me.

And that was certainly suspicious enough for me to keep an extra close eye on whatever he was doing.

I smiled to myself. It certainly would be a shame if another one of my ASL professors had a heart attack.

I hoped the talisman didn't hear that thought, but if it did, I wouldn't be too torn up about it. The fewer people that knew about the talisman, the fewer threats I had to keeping it safe and sound with me.

"That's just what we were thinking," Dominic said and shook his head. "He better give us some answers on Thursday, or I'm going to think he's up to something."

Jack and Sierra probably would have given me some lecture on how the world didn't revolve around me and what I wanted and that people needed time to do research, especially when it wasn't actually their job to help me, but it was kind of nice that Dominic and I were on the same page. I wasn't a cynical person unlike him, but I usually noticed the beginnings of bullshit. It didn't catch me off guard nearly as much as other people. Some people called it paranoia, and my mother called it being lazy enough to notice stupid things like that.

Dr. Reed nodded. "Especially with something that doesn't seem to have any limits except for user error."

I was doing the best I could. Rude.

"That was all we wanted to know. We're gonna let you go back to taking the day off now," I said.

"Thank you," Dr. Reed said as Dominic and I shut the door behind us on our way out.

"Well, that was enlightening," Dominic said.

I nodded. "You can't trust the media, and you can't trust education. What even is the point of anything?"

"Life is a scam, Lindsay."

I smiled. "It really is."

And no one knew that better than me. All I wanted was to do the bare minimum in college like a normal person, but some stupid talisman had different plans for me.

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