Mezzanine

| 24 |

Nearly thirteen minutes had passed by the time Lola made her way down the empty hall to where I waited. The hum of voices and thoughts dulled as the double doors to the cafeteria slammed behind her.

"You're late," I said.

"Fashionably late." She gave me a half smile as she approached, but she stopped about a yard away, leaving us awkwardly far apart. After crossing her arms in front of herself, she tapped the fingers of one hand on her forearm.

"I'm sorry about yesterday," I began when she didn't say anything. "I'm sorry for not answering your messages."

She blew a strand of curly chestnut hair out of her face, but it flew right back, sticking to the bright red gloss shimmering on her lips.

"It's fine," she huffed, but I could tell from her tone it wasn't. Or, not completely. "Don't worry about it." She tried to conceal an eye roll with a flutter of her thick lashes.

"So, you forgive me, but you're still upset about it."

"Yeah, basically." She raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you can't read my mind?"

"Pretty sure. But I'm also pretty sure most girls are the same when it comes to forgiving dumb boys when we act like jackasses."

Her features softened into a smile, and her posture relaxed as she lowered her arms to her sides. The extra long sleeves of her flannel slid down to hide her hands so just her fingertips were exposed.

"I am sorry, Lola. Really." I paused and took the opportunity to inch a step closer so I could whisper what I was about to say next. "You said you figured something out that you needed to tell me. Something about my brother."

Her face flushed, and she nodded. "I did. But you first. You said you found something too."

I exhaled heavily, glancing up and down the hall to make sure no one was coming before I started talking. "Yesterday, I went over to Carter's house. I told him about the symbols on the back of that Ouija board...about how after he was possessed, we found it flipped over. I told him about how the planchette was pointing to one of the symbols, and it was glowing."

Lola's hazel eyes locked on mine, pulling me in like magnets as I continued speaking. I told her about how Carter had looked up the design online, and we'd seen a similar symbol used by an occult group from the nineteen hundreds to summon a demon.

I explained the hypothesis we'd come up with—that George Renson had been using the hearth in the basement of the factory for a ritual, and that the workers were there as vessels to house each of the twelve demons whose symbols were etched around the hearth—the same twelve painted in the ring on the back of Damien's Ouija board.

"But how did your brother come up with those same symbols?" Lola asked. "He'd never seen that hearth before. He'd never even been to this town. It can't just be a coincidence."

"It isn't," I said. "That's the other thing I have to tell you."

I took a deep breath before continuing my story, finally revealing the conversation I'd had with my mom and how I learned I'd inherited our house. I told her about Carter and I going to the library where we discovered my father's name was John Renson—making Damien and me related to George by blood.

I told her about the man from the news article that threatened the woman in the car right before my dad was found dead. I explained how my mom believed something might have been after him, and that Carter and I thought maybe that man had killed him.

Finally, I told her about the missing newspaper binders from 1978, and how I suspected someone had taken them to cover something up.

I was panting by the time I finished my story, speaking so quickly I'd forgotten to breathe.