In one sudden gust, all the air was pulled out of my lungs. I gasped and gasped, fighting to inhale, but there was no air in the circle. The ceiling had opened up overhead, the glass dome splitting into six pieces and sliding aside like the lens of a camera, and everything in the circle was being sucked upwards, like a vacuum, into the sky.

Even the wooden throne, the only thing that kept me in place, strained against the force. Its roots in the floor were pulled taut, its branches snapping off one by one. It was like I was in a howling eye of a hurricane that wanted nothing more but to pick me up and throw me as far as it could.

Then, as sudden as it started, it all stopped. The throne and I dropped back. I choked as air entered my lungs again, the return of oxygen giving me a heady rush. Around me, the chair healed itself, growing new limbs to replace the ones that had snapped off, snaking deeper between the stones to anchor itself for the next time...

The next time...

Panting, I raised my head.

Matilda was studying me from her place at the edge of the circle. Luc was still bound by her side, the gash on his cheek oozing blood, watching me with wide, horrified eyes.

"Come now, Rachel," Matilda said, her tone simpering and condescending, like one of those nosy women at church who only pretended at kindness. "We talked about this. You need to cooperate with me for this to work."

"How do you expect me to do that?" I shot back, my voice rough from the screaming. "You think I can focus when you're trying to tear me in half?"

Matilda shook her head like she didn't understand why I wasn't getting it. "Where did the spirit come from, Rachel?" Matilda asked.

"I don't know!"

I felt her gaze then, tracing across my face. She tilted her head. "That's not true, now is it?"

I thought back to her first exorcism, to when I spoke with a voice that was not my own. Shouldn't you be able to tell if I'm lying or not? That was one of your gifts, was it not?

Matilda would know if I was lying. But I wasn't, so then why...?

Then I realized. Since we had last met, I had remembered some things from my post-breakup blackout. Specifically, the girls who swarmed me before...

The soaking wet arms tightened around my middle, the gurgling whisper in my ear...

Matilda's eyes widened as if she could almost hear the memory playing inside my head. She knew I was keeping something from her.

No! An unfamiliar voice echoed through me. The spirit. Don't tell her anything.

What? Why? I thought back.

Because if she knows, she'll kill him, the voice replied. And probably us, too.

What? I looked back at Luc. Him?

Yes, him.

Why? I asked again.

The spirit didn't respond.

Matilda's milk-white eyes had narrowed at me. "Care to share with the rest of the class, Rachel?"

"Uh..." I stuttered. "I... I don't... know..."

Matilda didn't like that answer.

The next second, the ceiling opened again. The howling gusts picked up, stealing away my air and pulling me upwards, towards the sky. My eyes watered as I stared into the wind, waiting for it to end.

It seemed like forever, but it eventually stopped and I was dropped back into my seat, gasping for air.

"What is it with this man?" Matilda sighed, gesturing at Luc. She stared down at him like he was some kind of disgusting creature dragged in from the street. "All the women who cross your path are led to their doom. What do you do to them, Luc?"

"I don't do anything to them," Luc growled back. But he didn't look at her.

"You ruined my Lillian," Matilda hissed, placing the crescent blade under his chin, tilting his face up to meet hers. "And now this poor girl before us. How do you keep doing this? How do you draw them to you?"

"Lillian ruined herself!" I shouted. It wasn't fair that Luc was bearing the brunt of the blame. Yes, our relationship had suffered, but that doesn't mean he had somehow tricked me into it. I chose him all on my own.

Matilda snapped her head around to stare at me. The force of her eyes was immense, driving me back against the chair, pressing the knotted wood into my back. The spirit inside me began to shiver.

"What do you know of Lillian?" Matilda snarled. A raging red poured into Matilda's cheeks, down her neck, across what I could see of her chest.

"I know that she fucked around dark magic, got herself killed, and released that monster onto the world," I muttered through gritted teeth. "The monster that hunted me."

"I won't pretend that my Lillian didn't make mistakes," she said. Her voice trembled with anger when she spoke."But you never met her. You never saw the talent—the potential. You don't know how far she fell... because of him."

"You're wrong—I have met her," I said. "When she was trying to kill me."

Matilda's lip quivered for a moment before a strange calm seemed to wash over her. The red retreated from her features, fading back to papery pink. She removed the blade from Luc's chin and stepped back from him.

"Tell me."

"Tell you what?" I asked.

"About the time you met Lillian."

I frowned. "Why? Hasn't Polly told you all this before?"

"I want to hear your side."

The stranger's voice came again, echoing in my head. Don't. Tell. Her.

"I... I..."

Matilda's mouth pressed into a line as she watched me struggle. She reached out and took a chunk of Luc's hair, pulling his head back again as he cried out. She pointed the blade at his neck and raised an eyebrow at me. A challenge. A threat.

Do it or he pays the price.

Fuck.

Y'know, if you're going to help me, I thought at the spirit, you might want to get started!

They didn't respond.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

My whole body began to shake.

I had no choice.

"W-We were hiding out in Luc's old apartment," I spat out. Thinking back to that day, it all felt so long ago—another life, another world. The details were murky. My tangled mind struggled to sort out the events in the correct order.

Matilda smiled, pleased. As a reward, she eased the blade back from Luc's neck ever so slightly... but still kept it close.

My voice trembled as I continued. "We were being hounded by a monster. Then our landlady showed up—or who we thought was our landlady. At some point, Lillian had killed her, took her form, and snuck inside. It was then that we learned that she was the one controlling the monster—we thought she was dead."

Matilda nodded along, her face flat and sombre, but didn't move the knife from Luc's neck any further. "What did she look like?" she asked.

"I, uh," I mumbled, trying to remember. "She looked... strange. I hadn't seen her in person before, but there was something off about her, something wrong."

"It wasn't her," Luc added. "Not anymore. Whatever she summoned consumed her.

Matilda shot him a piercing look and pressed the blade closer again. "I didn't ask you." When she turned back to me, her anger faded. "Please continue, Rachel."

"Uh..." I stuttered, trying to regain my place. This was nerve-wracking. One wrong move and Matilda would hurt him. "E-Either way, she wasn't happy. She said we got in her way and that's why she wanted us dead. She wanted Luc to herself. I didn't get it, but it didn't matter. She attacked then, summoning the Beast—that's what we called the monster. It all went to hell, then. The monster—"

"Wait," Matilda said, cutting me off. "What did this monster—this 'Beast'—look like?"

I took a deep breath. How could one describe the Beast? It was a mercurial, strange creature. "It... It had no real body. It had eyes though, many of them, with weird horizontal pupils, like a goat. And its mouth was like a furnace, filled with fire." As I described it, the scar on my hand—the scar I had gotten from shoving my hand down its flaming throat—twinged. "And it made the air filled with this electricity... It was terrifying but it listened to her. it was like her pet or something."

Matilda nodded again. I waited for another question, but she had none to offer. She went quiet, her gaze finally falling from my face to study the stone floor beneath her feet. Her eyes darted around as if she was counting the stones and she began to mutter quietly to herself.

After several tense moments, she looked up to meet my eyes again. There was a strange sense of resolution about her; her face was serene.

"Thank you for sharing that with me, Rachel," Matilda said. "I believe I finally understand what happened to Lillian."

What? I blinked at her. I leaned forward in the chair, eager to know more.

But Matilda didn't care to share her story. Instead, she drew the blade back and slashed it across Luc's neck.

 🔮

Matilda knows something we don't...
What do you think she found out about Lillian?

Shout out to one my patrons MilyCollins for all her support. ❤️