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“Tell them about the dreams,” Misha says.
Her eyes widen as she rubs the skin on her hands against her leather jacket. “I already told you guys. Is this a joke? Are you guys joking?”
“Why would we joke about this?” Rei asks. “This isn’t a joke. It seems like…when you told us about the dreams at first, we didn’t make the connection. Now we have more information, and it might be something you’re still affected by.”
He trails off. I know he doesn’t quite know how to explain it, but how could he? It’s an extremely difficult thing to explain.
“There’s a formula to an exorcism,” I say, because she at least deserves anattemptat an explanation. “We have to be careful. But it’s like…things fall through the cracks. There’s no way for us to get everything. We triage cases, and when it seemed like you were okay, and you could pass all our checks, we had no reason to keep working on exorcising you. As far as we were concerned, you were no longer ailed by possession. And you probably aren’t. Not as much as before. You can probably go back to living your own life for a while, but I don’t know for how long.”
“Wait,” Trine says. “What are you saying? Are you saying I’m still possessed?”
“I’m saying there’s a strong chance something is lingering.”
“That might be why you’re so perceptive,” Rei says. “That’s the reason I went to your gig in the first place.”
“You didn’t want to see Johnny Baskets?” she asks, mock surprise in her voice.
“This is serious,” Misha says. “You can’t just bat it away by joking about it.”
“There’s no…I’m not batting anything away,” she says. “I’m just telling you that things were fine before you guys showed up, and now…”
“Hey, it’s okay,” Misha says. “We’re going to help you. I promise.”
He puts his hand on her shoulder, but she shakes him off. “Like you helped Tom, right?” she asks, her voice breaking. “You’re going to let him wither away as something fucks with his mind and you’re probably going to let the exact same thing happen to me. You’re going to…”
She closes her eyes as she trails off, her hands now curled around the edge of the table.
Misha opens his mouth to speak, but Rei shakes his head, cutting him off.
When Trine opens her eyes again, she looks furious. “You’re going to let what happened to my mom happen to me,” she says. “And I can’t believe that I trusted you. I should’ve never trusted you. I should have never trusted any of you.”
“Trine, we’re not going to let anything happen to you,” I say. “If Misha wasn’t worried, he wouldn’t have brought it up.”
“But you’re going to leave,” Trine says.
“We were going to leave and figure out how we could come back and help Tom,” Rei says. “But now that we’re here, and something is wrong with you, there’s no chance that we’re leaving.”
“So what are you planning to do?” she says, a muscle clenching along her jaw. “You already tried to exorcise me and that didn’t work. You already tried to exorcise Tom and that didn’t work. So what the fuck do you think you’re going to do?”
“Honestly, Trine?” I say, surprised at the sharpness in my own voice. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”
