Mezzanine

| 10 |

"Wait!" Lola called as Christine turned on her heel and headed toward the office. "We need you to help us!"

"No, all you need to do is quit bothering me." She yanked the door open, glancing over her shoulder and shooting us each a glare. "If you really did try to spend the night there and you aren't just messing with me, then what's best for all of you is to do the same thing me and my friends tried to do—forget what you saw and move on with your lives."

Then, she stomped into her office, slamming the heavy door behind her. It crashed against its frame, the sound echoing through the empty library for a moment before dissipating and leaving the space in a hushed quiet.

"What do we do now?" Carter finally broke the silence.

"I can't even hear what she's thinking from out here." Lola kept her voice low enough that only the two of us would hear. "The wall must be too thick."

My hands balled in fists at my sides, and my jaw clenched as I glared at the door. The voice of the girl screaming from within the factory echoed through my mind. If she really was a ghost, had Christine and her friends heard her too and just pretended they hadn't? Was that what was eating her up inside?

Or...was it more sinister. Had they seen the cult as well? I thought about the burns on her arms...the ones that supposedly all of her friends sustained as well. When Lola and I went to the factory, there was a fire in a hearth or something at the center of the gathering of cloaked figures. Had the cult done something to Christine and her friends?

She said we just needed to forget and move on, but we couldn't do that. Whoever that girl was that was screaming needed help desperately.

Not only that...something in my gut told me the Renson Factory had to be connected to the mind reading ability that manifested the day I moved to Sycamore Falls. Figuring out what was going on there was my only chance at fixing my problem...and Lola's.

"She's going to tell us what happened," I finally said, my voice coming out as a growl.

Before Lola or Carter could say anything, I stormed around the desk and banged on the office door with the side of my fist. "Christine!" I called. "You can't just hide from us in there!"

With my head against the door, I could make out snips of thought. Fire...Never going back...just forget what happened. Forget.

Fear and anxiety radiated off her, pulsing through my nerves along with my own emotions like I was feeling the same pain she was. A nauseating ache pounded through my temples.

"Please," I softened my tone. "We just want to talk to you. We really need your help. I know you don't want to talk about it, but we can't just forget what happened and move on. And, it seems like even though you tried, you can't either. At least not entirely. It still haunts you, doesn't it?"

Finally, after what felt like forever, the door slid open a crack. "You really aren't giving up, are you?" Christine asked.

"We can't," I replied. "We can't just forget what happened, because..." I stalled, drawing a blank on what to say next.

"Because it wasn't just the three of us that tried to stay on Ninth Street last night," Lola jumped in. "Our other friend...Maggie...was there too. And now, we just don't know. Something's really wrong with her. She needs help."

"We thought if you told us what happened to you that night, it might help us figure out what we need to do for her," I continued. "It could at least be a start. Please. We don't have any other leads."

Christine let out a heavy sigh, her gaze shifting between the three of us. I'm not sure if they're telling the truth, but I don't think they are trying to trick me either. They look scared. They're just teenagers after all...the same age I was when...