We sped over the bridge, back into the city. The car was heavy with anxious energy. I was squeezed into the tiny backseat with Polly; I was fidgeting while she had her head leaned back and her eyes closed. Tory and Ethan were in the front, with Tory at the wheel. He had all but screamed when Polly told him he could drive her Jag, which then led Polly to apply the condition that no one was allowed to speak while inside the car. Tory was happy to abide if it meant he could drive the Jag.

As we drove, Ethan kept glancing at me in the rearview mirror. I returned a weak smile each time, but it didn't seem to soothe the knot between his brows. It seemed more like he was checking on me. What was he looking for? Reassurance?

I had none to give.

We were already walking a thin line. An hour didn't exactly give us a lot of time to execute the plan—not that we had much of a plan to begin with. We had gotten as far as: show up, surprise him, and hope he gives me enough time to explain before... what? He locks me up again?

So simple.

And if he does listen, then what? He happily changes all his plans? He volunteers to do whatever we want? He has some magical way to get rid of my tag-along that's both quick and painless?

None of them seemed likely. But what else could we do?

I hated thinking of Luc like that... like he was someone to convince, outsmart. We were on the same team if only I could remind him of that. He didn't have to do this, carry this burden, all alone. There had to be some way we could work together...

I began to shake in my seat as we pulled into the neighbourhood. My whole body was surging with electricity. It felt like I could jump out of this car and run the rest of the way.

Tory pulled into the alley behind the shop and parked in a visitor space at the back of the hairdresser across the way. My seatbelt was already undone before Tory turned the car off. I hopped out and then just kinda bounced around in place, full of energy that had no direction.

"Chill out," Polly groaned, emerging from her own side. She was donning sunglasses even though it was a cloudy day. "You're giving me a headache just looking at you."

"It's not me giving you that headache," I teased, miming a swig from a bottle.

Though I couldn't see her eyes through her dark shades, I was sure she was glaring at me.

"He won't recognize this car, will he?" Tory, poking his head out the open driver's window. "Should I move it down the block?"

"Do we really need to go that far?" Polly sighed. "This isn't a spy movie."

"You have no idea how suspicious he is right now," Tory said.

"Do whatever you want, kid," Polly said.

He paused for a moment before deciding. "You know what? I'm moving." He slipped back in the window and started the car again. "I'll be back in a second! I gave Ethan the key. Get inside and hide before Luc shows up!"

We watched Tory drive further into the alley before we crossed and headed for the back door of the shop.

Seeing the building again made my skin go cold. I hadn't seen it from the outside since Luc had left. I had thought his golden cage had only encircled the interior... but in reality, it wrapped all sides of the building, inside and out, the gold writing shimmering even in the dull cloudy sunlight. How had no one on the street noticed it?

"What are you staring at?" Polly asked. She and Ethan were already at the door Ethan had the door unlocked and open, waiting for me.

"Luc's barrier..." I said, pointing at one of the golden veins spidering up the wall. "The gold writing."

Polly tilted her head, looking where I pointed. "What writing?"

"I see it," Ethan confirmed. "It's... intense."

Polly glanced between us, looking confused, before shaking her head. "I guess that's what Matilda meant," Polly said. "Fuck her stupid riddles." She headed inside.

I wanted to ask her what she meant, but she was already gone. This was the first time I had heard anything of this—what had Matilda told her?

Ethan pulled me out of my thoughts. "Coming?" He was still waiting for me at the door.

I hesitated. Tory has promised he'd be able to get me past the barrier again once I was inside... That is, if everything went okay. With a gulp of air, I crossed over the threshold into the shop. I expected to feel strange, like pushing through some kind of bubble, but there was nothing.

Ethan closed and locked the door behind me. "How are you doing?"

"Alright," I said. We were standing in the back stairwell. Everything was just as we left it, a haunting reminder of all that had happened here. The empty frame of the golden mirror was still propped up against the corner under the stairs, its shattered face sitting in a tidy pile swept up at its foot. "I think."

He gave me an understanding nod. "Let me know if you need anything."

I tried to give him a smile, but I didn't think it was very convincing. "Thanks."

Polly returned from the front room, still wearing her sunglasses, even indoors. "I'm just standing around out there. What should we be doing?"

"I guess we should find somewhere to hide," I said, glancing around. "The storeroom is the best bet, I think. Upstairs would be too, but it's not like we can exactly pop out if we're up there."

"Actually, that's exactly where you should go," Polly said. "You should grab a few things before Tory gets back. Then we'll all hide."

I tugged at the change of clothes Polly had picked up for me yesterday. I had no idea where she bought them, but they were cheap and itchy. "Good idea."

"Be quick," Ethan said, before turning to Polly. "You should go with her. I'll wait down here for Tory, let him know where you went."

Polly nodded and headed for the stairs, leading the way. Despite her hangover, she was fast. I had to jog up a few steps to catch up with her, leaving Ethan to wait in the storeroom.

As we rounded the landing, I turned to her. That something she had said—about Matilda labelling her—had stuck with me, and I wanted clarification. "What did you mean, back there?" I asked. "About Matilda being 'right'?"

Polly let out a big huff and then frowned, her brows diving down and disappearing behind her shades. "I couldn't see Luc's barrier, right? I think it's because... Well, when I first met Matilda, she took one look at me and said I was a dud."

"A dud?" I echoed, confused.

"She meant that I had no psychic powers. Unlike Lillian, with all her special gifts," Polly said, with a strange air of sarcasm, "I was a dud."

"Why?" I asked. "Is it supposed to be genetic or something?"

"Yeah, it is," Polly said, finally taking her sunglasses off. Her eyes were shadowed and red. "But when Matilda explained that, she confirmed something I had suspicions of since this all started.

"I know I don't really talk about my parents... And for good reason. The thing is, I think they knew. My parents knew—about Lillian, about her powers. In all likelihood, they were psychic, too."

My mouth dropped open. "You didn't tell me that!"

"As I said, I don't talk about my parents," she said, her frown deepening. "And it was kind of a sore spot for me. I had always thought they treated her differently, favoured her, but I had convinced myself for a long time that was just my perception... A childhood resentment." She closed her eyes for a moment. "But I was right. They knew, Lillian knew, and they never told me... because I wasn't psychic. So, I had no idea. I knew nothing at all until after they were all already dead.

"But maybe if I had known that psychics, spirits, monsters were actually a thing, then maybe... Maybe I would've been able to actually help Lillian when she told me something was after her."

Her face looked rough, and it wasn't just the hangover. This was something she had been carrying for a while... and I had no idea. I guess even Polly had secrets that she wasn't eager to share.

"Fuck, Polly. I'm... I'm so sorry."

She shrugged."You can't change the past. You can only try to make sense of it and move forward."

We had reached the apartment door. She opened it and stepped inside.

After a moment, I followed.

The apartment was also the same as it had been left. Only it felt wrong to be back here, like entering a crime scene.

My eyes stung with tears for a moment before I blinked them away. I didn't want to be here longer than I needed to be. I headed for the bedroom, Polly following me now.

We passed the bathroom and... the smell hit. I almost gagged. We hadn't exactly gotten a chance to clean it before we left, and it had been sitting like this for a few days now. The stench emanating from the small room was... There were no words.

Polly froze behind me and then said "Nope," before spinning around and crossing to the other side of the room. She cracked one of the far windows and crouched by the gap, gasping in the fresh air. Her hangover wasn't taking kindly to such a smell.

I pulled my cheap t-shirt over my mouth and nose, leaned in to grab the door, and slammed it shut, trapping the stench inside. It helped, a little. All the more reason to be quick.

I dashed into the bedroom, ignoring the still rumpled sheets—that's where we slept, only a few days ago—and began to throw things into a duffel bag. I had expected to just take enough to last a few days, but to my surprise I was able to fit almost everything I owned in that one bag. It wasn't like I could take the furniture. I wasn't sure I wanted to, even if I could... There were too many memories attached.

Once again, I had little to my name.

As I came back out of the bedroom, Polly was gone. The door was open, so I assumed she had gone downstairs to escape the smell still leaking out of the bathroom. I went to follow her, but spotted my phone on the counter. It had been left there since that night. I grabbed it and shoved it into my pocket.

As I reached the door, I paused, taking one last look at the apartment. Yet another home I had put so much hope into, only for it to blow up. Once, literally.

It was the worst sense of deja vu. It felt like my breakup with Rick when I had also hurriedly packed my things and abandoned the apartment we had shared. In a way, this was worse than that fiery end...

This wasn't hatred or anger.

This was just sadness.

At that moment, it sank in. This was truly over.

I would never come back here.

I closed the door.

My vision began to blur with fresh tears as I descended the stairs. I could hear the others in the main room, talking amongst themselves. I stopped on the last step, taking a moment to collect myself and wipe my eyes. But as I lingered there, I noticed something was off. Out of place.

The gold frame was still leaned against the wall, the broom nearby... Only...

The pile of mirror glass was gone.

For a second I wondered if Polly or Ethan had swept it away while they were waiting, but before I could think about it any longer, a strange noise pulled my attention away.

It was like a tinkling noise, like a delicate wind chime. I turned, looking for the source. I could see through the back door and out into the front room, where Tory, Ethan, and Polly were standing together. They, like me, seemed to hear it. They shared looks of confusion, before seeing me.

Our eyes met but only for a moment... before a glittering shape materialized between us, breaking our gaze. The shape was made of the missing shards of glass. Each fragment glittered, dashing the grey sunlight around the room.

Each flash of glass brought back a few blurred memories of the night Luc left. The eyes, so many eyes, trapped in the shards of glass. The reaching hands are coming for me. The soaking wet arms tightened around my middle, the gurgling whisper in my ear...

Then the mass of glass came together, their jagged edges meeting perfectly as they came together in a single piece. They shifted together, revealing a figure that had been hidden behind the mirrored surface.

Luc.

🔮

Looks like Luc was there all along...
What do you think about Polly's revelation?