“This the place?” she asked after a moment of me just sitting in the back of her black Altima.
I nodded. “Can you give me a second, please?”
“Sure, sis.” She eyed me in the rearview. “I don’t know what you’re doing here and it’s none of my business, but I wouldn’t feel right with myself if I didn’t tell you this is creepy.”
I nodded and offered her a small smile as I scrolled through my contacts and clicked on Travis’s profile. Was it weird to send my ex-boyfriend, whom I hadn’t spoken to at all in well over a month, my location? Yes. Was it weird that I was being dropped off in the middle of nowhere at a structure that sat on top of a waterfall in the absolute dead of night? Hell yes. Therefore, texting my ex-boyfriend my location was the least weird thing about all of this. I took a few deep breaths and gave myself a little pep talk: I can do this. I’m doing this. I’m doing this.
“Thanks.” I opened the door and looked at my driver. “And thanks for waiting for me to get my act together.”
“No problem. Remember to five-star me. If you make it out alive.”
As soon as I stepped out of the car and shut the door, she drove off. My heart jumped to my throat. If I made it out alive? Who said things like that? I stared at the rear lights of her car, wondering if I would’ve just driven off after dropping off a woman alone here in the wilderness. Probably not. My phone buzzed with a phone call and I looked down to see Travis’s face staring back at me. I answered it, grateful to have one moment of comfort.
“Why are you sending me your location?”
“Because I’m in a creepy place and I didn’t know who else to send it to.”
“You can’t do this, Mae.” He sighed into the phone. “You agreed that once you broke up with me and left, you wouldn’t play games.”
“Games? I’m not playing any games. I just need a friend right now, okay?”
“Okay,” he said slowly. “Why is it so loud there?”
“I’m by a waterfall.”
“Waterfall?” He seemed on alert now. “Where the hell are you?”
“Ithaca Falls.” My lip wouldn’t stop quivering.
“Why are you there? Are you alone? Is that why you sent me your location?”
“Yes.”
“Goddammit, Amelia. Why are you there?”
“I don’t know.”
“Jesus Christ,” he muttered. I could picture him pacing up and down his bedroom. “Does this have something to do with Lincoln? Promise you’re not going to hurt yourself, Mae.”
“What? No. Oh my God. No,” I said sternly. Did he think I called him because I was contemplating suicide? It was rather cocky of him to believe I’d make him my final call.
“What happened? Is everything okay?” The question came from a woman in the background.
Suddenly, his cell phone was muffled, probably by his shirt, as he said something. It was then that I realized how stupid I was being. I wanted comfort and the first person I thought to turn to was my ex-boyfriend, who had clearly moved on, not that I could blame him or cared. I’d chosen to come here by myself at this time of the night and I needed to grow the hell up and accept that nobody was going to come to save me.
“I shouldn’t have sent you my location.” I wiped my face. “I’m sorry.”
“No, don’t—”
“Just ignore it. I have to go.” I hung up before he could say another word.
I walked slowly toward the wooden door. With the Uber gone and no street lights, it was pitch black out here. I brought a hand up and held it in the air, taking a couple of deep breaths in hopes to gather the courage to knock. I was already here. And it was dark, which I didn’t like. And I wanted answers about Lincoln. Maybe they were the ones behind the creepy texts too. It was that thought that made me tighten my fist and pound the door with the side of it three times.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
The door creaked open slowly. It smelled like incents, the kind I’d only smelled at Sunday church, or when my crazy Mexican grandmother decided she needed to cleanse a new property my parents acquired. I had a clear view of candles scattered all over the floor, the only thing giving light to the otherwise dark house.
“Hello?” I stepped inside, looking for someone behind the door, but it was empty. I walked toward the center of the room. “Hello?”
The door shut loudly behind me. I jumped, heart pounding wildly as I whipped around, looking for whoever shut it. There was no one there, or more likely, I couldn’t see them in the dark.
“This isn’t funny,” I yelled out, wrapping my arms around myself as I walked forward, looking up at a big circular window that covered the entirety of the center of the ceiling.
It had the perfect view of the stars. I was almost at the center of it, surrounded by candles on either side of where I stood, when four tall figures cloaked in black gowns from head to toe stepped into view. I rocked back, my feet nearly stumbling over themselves as I tried to give myself distance from the people before me.
“We didn’t intend for it to be funny,” one of them said.
“What do you want?” My hands shook. I clasped them in front of myself.
“What do we want?” He chuckled. “It’s more a question of what do you want?”
“What does that even mean? You’re the ones summoning me, which by the way is absolutely ridiculous. I’m not a freaking witch or vampire or whatever.”
“Does anyone know you’re here?”
“Yes. I’m not an idiot.”
The two in the middle looked at each other, though I couldn’t imagine they could see much out of the things covering most of their faces. They turned to me again.
“Rule number one: you speak to no one about this.”
“Maybe you should’ve written that in the invitation,” I said, sounding much more confident than I felt. “Why am I here?”
“We’d like you to be a part of our club.”
“What kind of club?”
“The secret kind.”
“I gathered that much.” I signaled at their wardrobe. “You look like satanic monks.”
“Is that a yes?”
“What do I gain from joining?”
“Loyalty for life. The keys to any city, in any country you may want.”
“I don’t need your loyalty.”
“Don’t you?” They all seemed to cock their heads in the same direction at the same time. It was as if they were all puppets being controlled by an invisible string. My insides quivered.
“You also get $50,000. In increments. Until the end of the year.”
“Was this the offer you made my brother?” I pulled out the card with Lincoln’s name on it.
“Yes.” They cocked their heads in the other direction. I felt a chill wash over me. “And he took it. Do you know why? Think about it for a second. Do you know why?”
I bit my bottom lip. My phone vibrated in my pocket, but I didn’t dare touch it out of fear that I’d lose sight of one of them. If one of them came at me, I could try to defend myself. If all of them came at me, I was done for. No amount of Tae kwon do could’ve prepared me for this moment—not the four years of classes, not the black belt, not the sparring or the older brother who flung me around any chance he could. This was real life and it was absolutely terrifying.