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Trine says something a little louder than she did before. I think she might be calling my name, but I don’t look back. I don’t want to hear it. They’re still talking when I leave the hotel room, closing the door softly behind myself despite how much I want to slam it.
I fucking hate this emotional whiplash. It makes me feel out of control and I have spent the majority of my life trying to feel in control. This all needs to be fixed and it needs to be fixed quickly. My willpower reserves are dwindling, and it will only take another dream like that to do something I can’t take back.
Something permanent.
Fuck.
I’m on autopilot as I walk up to Luke’s room, knocking lightly on the door. He opens it almost immediately. He doesn’t look great. There are shadows under his eyes, his hair is messy, and it’s obvious to me he didn’t sleep well.
“Wow,“ he says. “You look like shit.“
I resist the urge to laugh. “You too.“
“What’s up?“ he asks, opening the door to let me through.
“Okay, long story short, I checked Trine out and I think you need to do an exorcism on her now.“
He takes a second to process that. “Okay…“ he says finally. “And where is she?“
“My room. With Misha.“
His eyes widen, but he doesn’t say anything. “Does she know we’re going to perform another exorcism on her?“ he asks. “I mean, I assume since you checked her out, you filled her in. Right?“
I bite the inside of my mouth. “No,“ I say. “I was hoping you could help with that.“
“That’s not like you. You don’t avoid awkward conversations.“
“About that,“ I say, leaning against the door, closing my arms over my chest. “Something’s happening…I don’t feel like myself.“
I can tell he’s biting down a snarky remark, which is also not like him. “So how do you feel?“
“Like whatever’s happening to her is spreading to me,“ I say. “I’m aware I’m not immune to symptoms of mass hysteria, but I’m having a hard time being self-reflective about it. It feels like I’m in over my head and I hate it.“
“You can’t outrun demonic possession,“ he says matter-of-factly. He walks toward the coffee machine above the mini-fridge, tilting water into it. “Did you have breakfast yet?“
Fuck—I don’t even know what time it is. “No.“
“You want coffee?“
“Sure,“ I say. “Thank you.“
He shrugs. “Look, I know it’s your natural inclination to want to understand everything, but there are things that you just aren’t going to be able to,“ he says, turning on the coffee machine. “You said it yourself that even if the effects of the exorcism are a placebo, they would still work. So maybe they would work with you, right?“
“Right,“ I say.
“So maybe you just need to be there and see what it does to you,“ he says. “I mean, you’ve been through a lot of exorcisms before. So we can see what it does to her, and since you two seem to have a connection, then we can see what it does to you.“
“It’s not going to do anything.“
“Not with that attitude.“
I can’t help but laugh when he says that. “I mean, I don’t think there’s anything else we can do,“ I say. “She’s waiting for you, so we should probably get going.“
Luke hands me a foam cup full of boiling hot black coffee, so hot it practically burns my hand when I close my fingers over it.
“Alright,“ he says. “Let me get my bible. Let’s go do an exorcism.“
LUKE
