Page 57 of Girl, Unseen

The words came out pure New England, nothing like Felix's Jersey Shore drawl.

A few masks turned his way. He felt their stares through identical eye holes. Even Ezra's goggled gaze lingered a half-second too long.

Amateur hour, Hawkins. Four months with the Bureau and he couldn't even keep his damn accent straight. The kind of mistake that got undercover cops found in dumpsters. He forced his shoulders to stay relaxed, praying his face wasn't as red as it felt under the mask.

But then Ezra waved his permission. Luca followed Number Four toward the back of the store, past old clothing racks that looked like steel skeletons. A narrow hallway led to what must have been the employee bathroom back when this place sold vintage dresses instead of mystic crap.

Number Four disappeared inside. Luca bounced on his heels while he waited. A long table dominated one wall, stacked with books that would give a library conservator nightmares. Leather-bound volumes with cracked spines. Paperbacks so worn their titles had vanished. Acopy of that book he’d seen in his Felix’s room -Beyond the Veilby Lydia Soulwright. Luca guessed it was a bestseller he was yet to hear of.

But then a different kind of volume caught his eye - a massive tome bound in red leather. Gold letters spelled out ‘Corpus Hermeticum: The Divine Pymander of Hermes Trismegistus.’ Luca's Latin was rustier than a shipwreck, but he recognized enough to know this wasn't light reading.

Luca leafed through it quickly. The pages felt like they'd crumble at a harsh word. Diagrams, symbols, dense text in multiple languages. He wasn't sure what he was looking for.

Until the dog-eared corner led him straight to it.

His stomach dropped like he'd missed a step in the dark, because there, sprawled across two yellowing pages, were the same symbols that had haunted him since this case began.

Not similar. Not inspired by.

The exact same intricate patterns they'd found carved into quarry stone and sprayed on reservoir rocks. Five symbols that seemed to writhe on the page. The triangle inside the circle, the spiral eating its tail, the others that defied description but sent electricity dancing across his skin. The text beneath was a mess of Latin and Greek, but the illustrations punched the air from his lungs. Each symbol had been drawn with mechanical precision in ink that had long since turned the color of dried blood.

No modern reproduction. No interpretation. This was the source. Patient zero for whatever madness had infected their killer's mind.

He felt like he'd walked face-first into a live wire. This wasn't just some coincidence. Their killer hadn't invented these symbols - they'd found them right here, in this book that seemed older than the mountains. He needed to show this to Ella, get someone who could actually read this stuff.

Then the toilet flushed, and the bathroom door creaked open. Luca stuffed the book beneath his hoody as Number Four ambled towards him. Just another cog in the machine, waiting for his turn to drain the snake. Nothing to see here, move along .They passed without speaking, maintaining the fiction of anonymity, and Luca decided to follow his fellow cultist back down the hallway and out of the door. The book rode against his ribs while his bladder staged a riot, but there was one solution for both problems – get the hell out of here.

‘Going somewhere?’

Ezra materialized at the end of the hall like something that had stepped out of tomorrow. The other cultist, whoever they were, had already made their escape given the door chime.

‘Just needed to piss.’ The accent slipped again. Not Jersey enough. Not Felix enough.

‘Really?’ Ezra’s goggled eyes bored into him. ‘The facilities are right there.’

‘Changed my mind.’

Ezra came closer, reached out and smoothed a wrinkle in Luca's hoodie in an oddly paternal gesture. A little too close for comfort, too close to the textbook he’d stolen. ‘Welcome home, Felix. We’ve missed you.’

Luca stayed silent. Every instinct screamed at him to just run, but Felix wouldn't run. Felix would stand his ground. He pushed the book against his ribs with his forearm, suddenly feeling like a magician trying to hide a prop.

‘Thanks.’

‘The path of wisdom is never straight. Sometimes we must stray to find our way back.’

What was he supposed to say? Something equally vague? He adjusted his mask a tad, reassuring himself his defining features were covered.

‘We must. But I’m back now.’

‘I’m glad. And I must praise you on that psychic ability of yours.’

‘Oh yeah?’ Luca said. He had no idea what Ezra was talking about.

‘Indeed. You missed the last session, the one where I told everyone to arm themselves for this session. And yet you did just that. I’m impressed.’

Shit. Now, it made sense. Felix hadn't mentioned the guns because he hadn't known about them. Luca's mind scrambled for an excuse.

Play the true believer. Channel your inner cultist.

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