Yet another weird weekend.

It started with Tilly calling her sister Caitlin.

Tilly called me at like 9 am on Saturday morning which put an end to all my worrying that it would be weird after making out. My stomach tried to claw its way up my esophagus when I saw her name on the caller id. But when I picked up, all giddy and nervous, her voice sounded weird and frantic and I stopped thinking about how good she smelled.

“Can I come over?”

“Of course,” I said, obviously.

And then she hung up without saying goodbye.

She was banging on my door like five minutes later. She must have sped the whole way.

My mom was in bed after a long shift so we went into my room, which under other circumstances might have been a Thing, but Tilly was so freaked out that it was decidedly Not A Thing.

And it’s no wonder. I like don’t even know how to write this down.

Tilly called Caitlin first thing when she woke up to ask about why she and Serena stopped being friends, and the answer was INSANE

So apparently Caitlin finally approached Serena because obviously she was worried as hell, and also because Serena seemed to be avoiding her. And at first Serena didn’t want to talk to her about anything and was like hedging and not answering her questions straight. So Caitlin got kind of pissed and like begged her to tell her what was going on and Serena told her that she wasn’t at an internship in DC over break. Instead she was KIDNAPPED BY CULTISTS.

You read that right.

According to Caitlin, Serena said there were five people and they kidnapped her from the Seatac airport. They kept her in a basement somewhere and did like fucking rituals and shit.

So Caitlin asked if she knew who those people were, and Serena said she thought she did. But when Caitlin suggested that they go to her father — you know, the sheriff — Serena freaked out and like refused point blank. She refused to go anywhere near her house even.

“She refused to tell my dad especially. Like she didn’t want to tell anyone, but Caitlin said that when she mentioned Dad Serena completely lost it,” Tilly said, pacing around my room while I watched her from my bed in my pajamas. “Why was she so scared of my dad? And then yesterday, Serena said to me Tilly you don’t want to know, stop digging. Me specifically.” She looked at me with her brown eyes all huge and luminous. “Why did she say that?”

I opened my mouth to say something reassuring, but Tilly went on. “And she was so ready to believe that I was somehow involved with the cult. Why would she think that?”

“What are you saying?” I asked.

Tilly collapsed face first onto my bed. “I don’t know,” she moaned into my comforter. “FUCK.” I put a hand on her back and she turned over to look at me. “Caitlin doesn’t believe her. She thinks Serena had a mental break.”

I didn’t say anything because I wasn’t sure what I thought.

“She didn’t seem like she had a mental break yesterday,” Tilly said. “She was terrified. She was terrified of me.”

“Did she say what the cult wanted?” I asked.

Tilly shook her head.

“Do you believe her?”

Tilly shrugged one shoulder. Then, “I mean look at all the other shit that’s been true. If fucking magic is real why not cultists in Black Lake?” She pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes. “My dad isn’t in a cult.”

“Of course not,” I assured her. And as far as I know he isn’t. He’s the sheriff for fucks sake — if he was in a cult that would be like A THING for sure.

“You should call the Hawthornes,” Tilly said. “They should know if there’s rumors of fucking cultists.”

And then it kicked me in the gut like a donkey. I lurched off the bed. “Madelyn might be locked in a cultist’s basement,” I said. “Holy shit. We should call the —” but then I stopped because I’d been about to say we should call the cops. I stared at Tilly. “Should we call the cops?”

She covered her face with her hands again. “Just call the Hawthornes.”

That chilled me, right down to the bone. But I didn’t say anything, I just called the phone number and when I got Julian I explained everything about the motel in Seattle and how it lead us to Serena, and finally what Caitlin said about a cult. I don’t know if that information helped them at all. Julian thanked me like I’d told him that his lunch delivery was on time.

So that was the beginning of my weekend, but it was not the end.

Tilly spent the night at my house. Let me tell you folks being gay is the shit.

Not that we even really did anything. Like we made out in the kitchen. And we snuggled obviously when we got in bed but like… idk we like didn’t talk about it or anything but we just sorta agreed to be chill about it.

But that is not the point. The point is that whatever was haunting my house before — it’s back. Idk, maybe whatever cleansing we did wore off. Or maybe it just didn’t work and whatever is living in this place was just lying in wait, biding it’s time. I don’t know, but whatever happened before, it’s back now.

Saturday night the lights started flickering, which was, you know, sorta weird but not the end of the world. But then it got weirder. Like Tilly and I came into my room and it was super wet in there? Like the mirrors and windows were covered in condensation for some reason? But the super fucked up part was that there were hand prints in the condensation. Like super obvious hand prints, there was no denying it.

We both had nightmares that night. I don’t really remember them but they were super unsettling and I woke up feeling sick and exhausted.

Then all Sunday was just fucking weird — I don’t know how to explain it. Just like unsettling stuff. Like there’s this regular thumping, like someone is marching in place on the floor above my bedroom. The clock over the stove stopped working at 3:33 which is so cliched it’s like we have a lazy ghost from a b-movie haunting us. At one point on Sunday the kettle started screaming for no reason. My mom opened a cupboard and no kidding like ten GIGANTIC wolf spiders crawled out. We screamed for 12 hours.

Then Sunday night I don’t know what I was dreaming about but my mom woke me up because apparently I was screaming bloody murder in my sleep.

I called the Hawthornes and they said they’d come and take a look tomorrow.

I’m dreading going to sleep tonight. My mom got the night off from the hospital. She didn’t say it was because of me, but I know it was. I felt sorta embarrassed when it was still daytime, but now it’s dark and I’m just glad I don’t have to do this night by myself.