There was a somewhat understandable anger that radiated from Julia. People were treating her like she was a fragile doll. They were trying to be respectful towards her, she knew that, but she didn’t like how people gave her her space. She wanted to be treated like a friend and as a person.

Oh, and there was the fact that Trill had pinned her down and kissed her. That was far more upsetting than how her classmates were treating her. Julia would swallow down that rage and continue on. She just wanted to get on with her life.

She sat at her desk with her chin in the palm of her hand. The morning announcements stated that there were days where additional counselors would be showing up to discuss student personal problems and that one could sign up in the office. This was merely protocol after all of the incidents and deaths that had happened.

Later that day, Julia would hear the news that the principal had a screaming match with a news van out in the school parking lot. This, however, was the age of the internet. All the students needed to do was to check their phones to see why they were there.

Third student death in small-town America. Two of them had the same scholarship offered to them, and now it was rumored that one had murdered the other. Other websites were reporting rumors of cult worship and human sacrifice. They weren’t exactly wrong, but Julia wasn’t going to correct them.

To distracted by her own thoughts to do schoolwork, Julia was thankful that the bell rang. Britney was following closely behind her as Julia went to her locker. Though initially a bitch, Britney had fully embraced her role as a surrogate sister. She kept people away when they tried to ask Julia about Kara’s ghost.

But that didn’t stop others from trying to find out information a different way. “... Shit,” muttered Julia.

The door of her locker had been bent open, and her stuff had been tossed out onto the floor. Julia set down her backpack and began to load up her belongings into it. Nothing seemed to be missing. There weren’t any notes to indicate why this had been done at all either.

“Aww… Some people can be complete bastards,” muttered Britney. “Want to store everything in my locker for now?”

“I’m fine.”

Britney stood there, looking between the locker and Julia without doing much to help. “You’re still sick, right? Shouldn’t you not carry around heavy shit?”

“I’m fine,” she repeated. Britney opened her mouth to say something else. “I’m fine!”

There were already students watching her, and randomly shouting at Britney wasn’t going to make them stare less. She put a hand to the side of her head. There was already a headache forming. Julia muttered something about needing to use the bathroom and began to race down the hall.

The lights in the hallway blacked out and Julia almost fell over as Trill caught onto her elbow. He yanked her towards him as she let out a shriek. Silently, he put a finger to his lips and gestured to the room that they were in.

It was Eli’s living room. The parents weren’t around, but his brother and sister were drawing an arcane circle on the dining room table. They were using a sharpie, and in the center was a bowl of macaroni cheese and hotdogs.

“I don’t think it’s going to work,” muttered the boy.

“This was in Eli’s stuff,” replied his sister. “Think about all that weird stuff that happened when he was alive. Why you and dad randomly went away without really remembering why, and it was just me and Eli by ourselves for a while. There has to be a real explanation.”

“But you said it wasn’t complete.”

“And we’re going to figure out how to finish the spell and bring Eli back!”

Julia pulled herself free from Trill’s grasp. “You’re seriously not going to help them.”

“Children are unable to cast it,” replied Trill calmly.

Julia let out a sigh of relief. She knew she deserved punishment for what she did to Eli, but his siblings shouldn’t be the ones to have that burden. “That’s good.”

“You are still under threat.” He held out a piece of paper for her to take.

Julia looked it over. It was a photocopy of Trill’s ritual, but a version of it she hadn’t seen before. Parts of it were similar to the one she had done, but she had learned that it changes little by little every time someone put it online. The disturbing part was that someone had added Mackenzie, Eli, and Kara’s pictures to the photocopy. “What really killed them?” Was written next to the pictures.

“Where did you get this?”

“They are being posted around your town and others as well. Whether it is intentional or not, you are being targeted.”

Julia folded the paper and put it in her pocket. “Who is it?” He stared at her blankly. “Is this another conflict of interests thing where you aren’t going to tell me?” He continued to stare. “I suppose it’s fair, considering what I’ve done, but… Death is terrifying.”

“That is a fact. Death is terrifying.” Trill went to pat her head, but she swatted his hand away. “It is a conflict of interests because I need my ritual to spread. All I am able to do is warn you.”

Shadows overtook them, and Julia found herself in the school bathroom next to Trill. “You’re still keeping Kara safe?”

She couldn’t trust anyone else with it. There was the possibility that Britney would continue to try to take it away from her, and she might find her way into Mio’s place to search for it. The fact that her locker had been broken meant that that wasn’t a safe place either. Whether or not that was Britney’s doing was left up to debate, but Julia wasn’t going to risk Kara’s safety to find out.

“And I have the duplicate that you requested.” Trill held up another wooden egg kaleidoscope. It was nearly identical to the one Kara was in. “A simple and soulless toy. One decoy for reward.”

A reward… Thoughts of the kiss Trill had forced upon her was still fresh in her head. The leathery nature of his tongue, the dryness of his lips, and the heavy taste of her blood. Her whole body shuddered with disgust.

“... No.”

Trill placed the egg within her palm. “Then I will be by tonight to get my due in blood.”

He vanished and Julia made her way back to class. Was it Britney? Britney’s gift was popularity, and Mio’s was confidence. Julia was the one who had gotten Trill’s aid in a more magical sense, but did that make her a force to reckoned with? Eli was dead. There was no one else for her to target. Julia was no threat.

There hadn’t been any efforts to hide the fact that it was her that had killed Eli. Anyone who knew about the ritual would be able to figure it out quite quickly. Though those who would use the ritual to hurt her would be limited. Someone was obviously spreading the word in hope that she would get what she deserved, and that person was likely Britney.

But why? She was Kara’s friend. Britney would know that Julia would never want to hurt her, wouldn’t she? Then again, Julia would’ve never viewed herself as the type of person to mutilate or kill anyone. She was different. She had changed… For the worse.

The final class bell rang and Julia went to hang out in the library. It was both a familiar yet terrifying experience. This is what she would do when waiting for Kara to be done with practice, but Kara wasn’t here anymore. Instead, she was waiting for a ride from Britney. Mackenzie was dead, and Mio had to go home right away for piano lessons. All she had was herself.

But not her laptop. She had left it at home, which was a shame because she had a mountain of homework to catch up on. Most of her time was spent playing on her phone until it was time for cheerleading practice to end. Getting up, she began to make her way to the gym.

Honestly, it would’ve been better to have hung out on the bleachers, but it felt weird to sit there watching a bunch of girls jump up and down. There was no hiding the fact that she was attracted to girls, and people would stare at her like she was a pervert if she did it. The last thing she needed was to be accused of being a pervert on top of being a demon worshiper.

There were no girls jumping around, or anyone, actually. Julia checked her phone and saw that there were no messages from Britney. She began to curse as she realized that she had been too distracted to get confirmation on if there was practice today. Her thumbs worked quickly to send out a text, and Britney was even quicker to get a response.

“Couldn’t find u. Thought u went hom with Mio. LOL” This was followed by an emoji sticking out its tongue.

“I need a ride home.”

“Can’t. On date.”

Julia let out a sigh. She could wait for Mio’s practice to end and get a ride from her afterward, but it would be another hour. Her home was about that far of a walk away, but her body was still feeling weak. Trill drinking her blood wasn’t helping her regain her strength, even though she was being fed afterward by him. She always felt weakened by the experience.

She sent Mio a text and began to walk towards the parking lot. The school was in a residential area, but she could walk fifteen minutes to a local coffee shop. Waiting there was easier than getting kicked out of the school for hanging about too long.

As she made her way through the parking lot, she stopped when she heard someone call out to her. She began to look around and saw someone wave to her standing by a van. “Julia!”

Julia couldn’t quite make them out. “Hello?” They waved her to come closer, but she was hesitant. She took off her glasses and began to shine them. Whoever it was could wait a moment while she took a moment to make certain she could see.

There were footsteps running through the gravel behind her. Julia spun around to see who it was, only to be greeted by a fist to the stomach. The glasses dropped from her hands, but she was kept from falling by another person tugging up on her backpack. They kept a grip on her bag as they shoved her forward, tearing it away from her.

“What are you-” Someone slapped her across the face hard enough to split her lip open.

The jacket was ripped from her next, and someone was pinning her arms behind her back. She could feel someone’s lips press against her ear and whisper in a harsh tone.

“Don’t scream. Don’t struggle.” Something sharp was pressed against the side of her neck. “This is a knife, and I will not hesitate to slice you open and leave you bleeding to death in this parking lot if you choose to struggle.”

She instantly recognized the voice. “Austin?” Everything was too blurry for her to make out who the other two were.

“Shut up and start walking.” Austin began to push her while barking out orders to the guy he was with. “Did you find it?”

“Hold on.” Julia could hear them dropping her backpack and picking up her jacket. “Yeah, it was in her pocket.”

“Good. That might take her powers away, but we still have to be careful.” Austin pushed Julia towards the van while his partner opened the door for him. He shoved her in and closed the door after himself. “Buckle yourself in.”

Julia was pushed towards the back of the van, where she began to buckle herself into the back seat. “Where are we going?”

Austin buckled himself in. “Let’s get going.” His partner started up the van, and Austin turned around in his seat. “It doesn’t matter where we’re going. Stay put, do what you’re told, and you won’t get hurt.”

“... Alright.”

“Shut up,” he replied.

“I was just telling you that I understood,” Julia spat back.

“It doesn’t matter! Shut up!

Julia squinted her eyes. Austin’s face was fine… She was so shocked that she was being kidnapped that she hadn’t even noticed that he had somehow regrown half of his face. This was it. She was going to be dragged someplace and killed by someone who had performed the ritual. Certainly, she was expecting it, but it was much sooner than she had anticipated.

But she didn’t want to die. Julia curled up on her seat and defensively put her arms around her legs. She thought that maybe if she understood death, she’d be less afraid of it. That’s how it was always supposed to be when it came to fears. Once you knew about it, it wasn’t supposed to scary.

She was terrified. Her eyes shut tight, silently praying for Trill to come and save her. Yet she knew he likely wouldn’t be coming. That would be a conflict of interests. Like so many that had done the ritual before her, it was now her time to die.