Page 49 of Eldritch

“I mentioned that my fibro had come back after a long remission. She said the same thing you did. That it would be easier on my body.”

“I see.”

“This flare up didn’t start until we got to Clarice’s house. I think it has more to do with the weird things that have happened since we arrived.”

Sybil hesitated. “You mean the paranormal things?”

In her peripheral vision, Sybil saw Letisha shrug again and shift in the seat as if impatient with the question. “Whatever it is. I don’t know that it’s paranormal. No matter what we might want it to be.”

A sting. That little niggling trigger that reacted to any disagreement with shame. She felt the reaction deep in her instincts and gut.

“Not everything is like that time when we were kids, Sybil,” Letisha said with a sigh.

But it is, isn’t Sybil? Maybe you’re fucking crazy and none of the stuff you’ve heard, seen or felt since you entered the mansion is real. Maybe not a single drop.

“You’re right,” Sybil said, still hearing defensiveness edging into her tone.

“I am?” Surprise colored Letisha’s words.

“It isn’t like the time people thought I was nuts and should be on meds because I can sometimes see dead people and feel things not everyone else can. Because this time, I’m guessing you and everyone else on our crew has felt things and seen things they can’t explain.” Sybil couldn’t help but say, “That means it’s valid. This isn’t just crazy Sybil losing her mind.”

She knew she shouldn’t have said that last bit, but resentment wanted an outlet.

Letisha shifted in the seat again. “Let’s not…do this right now, okay? You still want to have lunch in Estes after I pick up the meds?”

There it was. That brush off.

She’s tired of your shit, Sybil. Everyone is tired of it. Take the medicine and swallow the bitter taste.

“Yes. Besides, I’m starving.”

After a moment, Letisha said, “Look, I’m sorry. I let you down when we were kids. I knew you weren’t crazy. But I gave into what the adults were saying. I let them brainwash me into not believing you. In not believing my own eyes.”

Letisha sounded weary. Bone-tired to the point of apathy.

Sybil remembered the way the cops had looked at her. “I was a kid, too. I took a chance saying something in front of adults and got my head handed to me in a big way.”

“Girl, that is so true. Neither one of us should have trusted the adults. Adults suck.”

They laughed, and Sybil enjoyed the reprieve from that part of herself that couldn’t seem to stop second-guessing her every word and movement.

They’d left the thickest part of the forest, and the trees no longer invaded the van, leaning on the sides of the road and promising to swallow them whole.

“Do me a favor, though,” Letisha said. “Don’t say anything about the so-called paranormal stuff to Maria or Pauline. I mean, they don’t know what happened when we were teens, right?”

“Not about when we were kids. But Maria and I had a conversation last night that definitely veered into paranormal stuff.”

Sybil didn’t want to fudge the truth, so she told Letisha everything about Maria’s conversation last night.

“Essentially, you lied to her when she said don’t tell anyone,” Letisha said.

“Yes.” Sybil didn’t feel good about it.

“I can understand why.”

“So, if none of this stuff in the house is paranormal, what do you think it is?” Sybil asked.

“An elaborate bullshit set up to freak us out.”

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