Page 68 of Monsters in Love: Lost in the Deeps

“They all gather at this location until all the main members are present. Then, after some sharing of wine and chants, we split and meet up again in an hour at our second location.”

These guys actually go out in public like this?

“What’s the purpose of all this migration?” I couldn’t be the only one who had this question. “Why not have everything happen in one place if we’re all already here?”

“Look, it’s not in my interest to question how they do things.” I slowly turn to face him, astonished. “This is just how it’s always been. You gotta just go with the flow. So, we usually meet up by the ocean side…”

This is really starting to sound like a horror movie gone wrong. He can’t be serious. Hopefully, they don’t have any plans to baptize us in the ocean and then ‘accidentally’ drown us as an offering to the sea. I don’t want my buddy to be thatonewhite person who dies first. I have to say something.

“James, have you ever—” I try to interrupt, but my own sentence gets cut short.

He grabs my arm and starts pulling me. “Come on, they’ve already signaled for us to leave.”

What the heck? I didn’t hear a peep or see anyone lift an arm. The crowd moves en masse, and it's an eerie feeling that goes straight down my spine like a physical chill. There’s a shifting of air and my gut tells me this isn’t a good idea. Everyone seems to be moving mindlessly, and these masks aren’t helping me feel any better about it all.

Looking over at James, he has his head tilted down and is going with the crowd. I’m starting to feel like that token black guy who is going to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Keeping my mouth shut, I stay by James’s side and let out a breath of relief when we make it outside of the building. The cool air is freeing, the darkness from the disappearance of the sun is already upon us, adding to the creepy vibe we got going.

The sound of shuffling and swishes of fabric become a soft buzz beneath the sound of insects in the night.

“Come on,” James whispers. “Everyone goes their own way, but meet up at the beach.”

Looking left and right, my body is tense and ready for whatever is going to happen. Whispering back, I start to again wonder if this is a big mistake. “Why the beach, though?”

“Dude, I don’t know. I just do what everyone else does. No one really asks questions.”

This. This is exactly why people like James would be the first to die in a horror flick. I need to talk some sense into my idiot friend. My whispers become more frantic. “What the hell is wrong with you? Why would you join shit you know nothing about?”

“I don’t fucking know. I was in a weird place at the time. And now that I’m out of that funk, I just kept on going to the meetings.”

What in the ever-loving hell is wrong with this fool? Keeping my thoughts to myself for the time being so we don’t draw attention to ourselves, we get back to the car and start the engine, our headlights cutting through the darkness like a knife. Driving the short distance to the ocean-side, we follow the other tail lights heading in the same direction. The moisture in the air changes and I know we’re close.

“Pull over right there,” James points to the right shoulder.

“Right where?”

“There,” he points again.

It’s an obscure parking space by the beach. You’d think there would be a million cars from the amount of people we saw back at the warehouse, but no, the parking lot is empty. Goosebumps pebble on my skin, but I pull in, anyway, trusting James.

This ain’t right. This just ain't right.“Bruh,” I try, about to voice my thoughts. “This—”

“Come on, we don’t want to be late!”

Cursing under my breath, I put the vehicle in park and both of us exit the car quickly. Our robes flap with the breeze as we begin to notice dark figures emerging from random directions the closer we get to our destination. Where the hell did these guys park? Looking up and down the windy streets around the beach, all I see are the sporadic vehicles lined up along the curb.

Turn around now, Der.I’m caught between my fight-or-flight instincts and sticking by my friend James in case I need to drag his ass out.

“James, you sure about this shit?” I whisper under my breath as our feet hit the sand. We continue to walk in silence. The additional people around us never come close enough for us to look like a crowd.

Finally, the asshole opens his mouth. “Yeah. We don’t gather at this location too frequently, but nothing bad ever happened,” he reassures. It doesn’t work. “We just stand around, do the chanting thing, talk for a few and reconvene once more at the next meeting.”

What the hell is the purpose of all this?

James leads us further onto the beach and around some rocky formations that jut out of the ground. The air is thick with moisture tonight; the mist hitting our faces the closer we walk towards the ocean.

“No one ever questioned a bunch of guys in robes out on the sand?” I throw the question out again.

James chuckles. “Nah, it’s not like that. We don’t just stand out in the open. Come on, we’re almost there.”

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