I sat down shakily on my desk chair and Noelle sat on the edge of my bed. To my surprise, she slowly, carefully, read each and every word. The pages trembled in her fingers as she shuffled them.

“Somebody’s messing with us,” she said suddenly.

I took in a breath and waited for the relief to follow, but it didn’t.

“What do you mean, us?” I asked.

“This,” she said, standing and holding a couple of pages in each hand. “This doesn’t just affect you anymore. It affects me, too.” She put the pages back together and studied them. “Who could have done this? It’s so freaking elaborate. I mean, look at the pages. They really do look ancient. Who could have known about—?”

“Noelle.”

Her head popped up. She looked confused, like she’d forgotten where she was or that I was there too.

“What do you mean, it affects you, too?” I asked.

She hesitated a moment and I felt my blood start to boil. I’d told her everything. She’d better not even think about holding back from me.

“Girls!”

We both jumped as Mrs. Shepard stuck her head in the room. “Downstairs in five minutes!”

“Okay!” we both replied.

As soon as she was gone, I stood up to face Noelle. “What, Noelle? What is it?”

“Okay, promise you’re not gonna read too much into this.” Noelle took a deep breath. She folded the pages up, tucked them under her arm, and shook her hair back, lifting her chin as if ready for a fight. “Theresa Billings? She was my great-great-grandmother.” She cleared her throat. “Our great-great-grandmother.”

“What?” I blurted out.

My heart pretty much stopped. My eyes blurred as I stared at her, trying to figure out what this could mean.

“My father’s mother’s mother’s mother,” Noelle said, narrowing her eyes. “Yeah. I think that’s right. Anyway, remember how annoyed I was when you found the BLS book in your room? That was because I saw her name on the list of members. I figured if anyone should have it, it should be me.”

I nodded once.

“But now that I know we’re sisters …”

“Yeah.”

My brain would not go past one-word answers. It was like it was afraid to think beyond that. Everything beyond that was a swirling black void of horror.

“So that means that you and I are Theresa Billings’s ancestors …,” Noelle said in a leading way.

Suddenly I felt like I was spinning and falling, spinning and falling, right down into the void. I clung to the back of my chair and tried to ground myself.

“So whatever that thing was that took over Catherine’s body, when it cursed them, it cursed us,” I said.

“Yeah. Sure,” Noelle said with a scoff. “And I’ve got some crown jewels I’d like to sell you.”

Suddenly everything snapped into focus. “Noelle, did you not read what Eliza wrote?”

“I read what somebody wrote,” Noelle said with a dubious expression. “Clearly none of this is true, Reed. It’s a piece of science fiction! This kind of stuff does not happen in the real world!”

“Fine. You think someone planted that in my room? Let’s just see.” My wh

ole body shook as I walked over to my duffel bag, unzipped it, and yanked the BLS book out of the bottom, spewing clothes all over my floor. I dropped it on my desk with a bang and opened it right to the spot where the pages had been torn out. “Give me the pages,” I demanded, holding out a hand.

Noelle rolled her eyes but handed them over. She stepped up behind my right shoulder and watched as I lined the torn side of the pages up with the torn scraps along the spine. My mouth went completely dry. The tears, the bumps, the shreds—all of them lined up perfectly.

Tags: Kate Brian Private
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