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Come on, Google, don't fail me now.
It was only when I made it to the second page that I finally found something doable, and I quickly checked the time.
8:05.
Not exactly witching hour, but eight plus five equals thirteen, so that should be almost as good...hopefully.
DR. HARRIS' CLINIC only had one cloakroom, and I pushed the lock to Occupied as soon as I stepped inside. I stared at my reflection in the mirror, and the face that looked back at me was apprehensive. I really hope this was going to work, and I'd end up talking to the right ghosts...instead of accidentally dial the wrong number and end up speaking to Bloody Mary.
So here goes nothing.
I flipped the main lights off, and goosebumps broke over my skin as the entire restroom was plunged into darkness.
Meditate.
That was Step #1, and I closed my eyes and willed myself to relax.
Me-di-tate. Me-di-tate. Me-di-tate.
I was thinking my mind should be blank by now, but it was still chaos despite the darkness behind my lids, and all I could think about was how those six corpses could have been stalking me from day one.
Me-di-tate. Me-di-tate. Me-di-tate.
But all this did was make my imagination take a gorier turn. All I could see now were tongues littering the ground, shadows merging and taking shape...until they slowly turned into...a fiery-red...demon.
AAAAAAH!
My eyes flew open—-
And that was when I saw it: six women staring back at me from the mirror, their eyes once again completely white.
The air around me turned icy cold, and as my teeth began to chatter, letters slowly appeared on the glass.
A N T H R O P O
"Ms. Sullivan?" Dr. Harris' fist rapped against the door, and the sound seemed to break some invisible connection between me and the other world, with the temperature inside the room instantly shooting back up, and the lights switching back on all by itself.
I stared blankly at the mirror.
Anthropo...what?
Why couldn't they have just spelled their killer's name—-
"Ms. Sullivan?"
Dr. Harris' voice startled me out of my thoughts, and I realized belatedly that I had yet to answer him. I hurriedly unlocked the door and stepped out of the restroom.
"Are you alright? I thought I heard you cry out."
"I...um..." Gaaaah. Why was it always so hard to lie on the spot?
Dr. Harris was looking at me with growing concern. "Did you have an upset stomach?"
It was as good an excuse as any, and I nodded right away. "I'm sorry, doc. But I don't think I'll be any good to you..." I gestured vaguely to the restroom, adding, "It's toxic inside, too..."
"Thank you for the warning," Dr. Harris said with a wince.
I clutched my stomach. "I think it's starting again..."
The speed in which Dr. Harris took a step back almost made me laugh, and when I asked him if I could take my - er - toxic business elsewhere, he said yes right away, and looked more than a little relieved to wave me off.
I felt guilty about having to deceive him like that, even if it were for a good cause, and I promised myself to make it up next time. For now, however...
My steps slowed to a stop, and I took my phone out to type those eight letters in my dictionary app. A painfully long list of possible words showed up, and I clicked on the first term that struck me as something a ghost demanding justice would write.
Anthropogenic
It referred to anything humans did that affected nature, and right away I thought about The Happening. But if that were the case, those ghosts would've been the evil ones, and nature was simply delivering justice with their deaths.
So no, it had to be something else, and I tried looking for another term.
Anthropogony
This could be it, I think. It was like anthropo and agony combined, so maybe it was some code word for human torture? I clicked on the term—-
To access this definition, please visit the App Store and purchase the full version of our app.
It was the very first time I had seen this notification pop up, and it was almost felt like the gods were having fun on my expense. I was doing my best helping those ghosts here, and I still had to pay an extra five dollars to look a word up?
No way.
I switched to my Internet browser and typed anthropogony in the search bar.
Ha!
It meant the study of human origins, and since the term obviously hadn't anything to do with my murder investigation, that would've meant five dollars wasted if I had gone ahead and downloaded the full version.
So take that, gods, fates, or whoever it was up there—-
An icy breeze blew against my skin, startling me into looking up—-
What the hell!
Six dead girls were rising out of the shadows—-
And then they were screaming.
Disjointed words that I couldn't make sense of, but underneath it all was a terrible sense of urgency—-
