In the car again we are all abuzz with new information, and our morale is boosted by having one more piece of the puzzle.
“So,” I begin. “The mirror is the object tied to her resurrection. Do we just destroy it?”
“I don’t think so,” Ian says thoughtfully. “I think there will be more to it. It was a blood ritual, so something similar would be in order to counteract it. Let’s blow up the photo I took of the spellbook page and see if there is anything we can decipher from it.”
“Hopefully we don’t require Mary’s blood, since she’s been dead for centuries,”
Kayla remarks, grabbing Ian’s phone and peering down at the pictures he’d taken.
“That would certainly suck,” I say with a wry laugh. “But it would certainly fall in line with my life up until this point.”
Back at my house, we all pore over the photos. The resolution is good, but the weathered page was stained with both dried blood and some other smudges. The chant appears to be in Latin and many of the words are obscured. Ian believes that we wouldn’t need to repeat them anyhow, that destruction of the mirror in her presence with some sort of suitable blood offering likely would be enough.
Juniper sits quietly in our presence, just rigidly perched, resting her hands atop her cane. As expected, she has become withdrawn and depressed. Even more so now after having tasted fleeting freedom, even though it had been a ruse.
“Mary has engineered all of this,” she says suddenly, surprising me. “From day one she had this plan. I was meant to befriend Kat, you were meant to fall in love with her, we strengthened her and she bided her time until she could clear away our parents and any other opposition. She knew I thought re-opening and closing the session would banish her, so she haunted Kayla and Kat until they felt they had no choice but to join and it sealed her success.”
“That seems accurate,” Kayla confirms with a sigh. “What can we learn from this? Not to be so predictable?”
“She had the upper hand when we had no information,” I interject, magnifying the picture, forgetting the Latin chant in favor of trying to make sense of the specifics of the spell, which are written in old English. “Now not only do we have information, but she’s no longer privy to everything we say, like she was when she was haunting this place.” “That’s true,” Ian agrees, drumming his knuckles on the table, which sounds jarringly loud in the echoey dining room. “No matter what, she loses some of her advantage by being stuck in Kat.”
“How do we seize that advantage?” Kayla asks, wearily reaching back to massage her own neck as she stretches out her legs, which crack loudly. “Yikes, I’m falling apart.”
“Whatever Mary is trying to accomplish, I think she needs to be in Kat’s body to do it, and getting in doesn’t seem like it was easy,” Juniper begins, her milky blue eyes haunting with her nearly expressionless face. “I feel as though without energy she won’t be able to re-enter her, so will likely remain there at all costs.”
“We can lure her here and restrain her,” Kayla says quickly.
“But we still don’t know what the fuck we’re doing,” I counter, looking at her as she sighs and shrugs. “I certainly don’t think she’s going to tell us how to destroy her, even tied up.”
“We know it has to do with the mirror, and we know you factor into it all, Erik,” Ian says. “Maybe it’s your blood we need,” he grimaces and laughs. “That sounded incredibly dramatic.”
“Hey everyone,” Kayla sits up excitedly, or, her version of excitement, and holds her phone out. “I think I know why Mary wanted Kat specifically, and it isn’t just because she has shiny hair and a nice butt.”
“Oh?” Ian questions, dropping the cookie he’d been eating to look at her expectantly. “Do tell.”
“I went onto an ancestry site, and because of Bishop’s push to gain tourism through historical relevance, it looks like they have added a wealth of information in terms of genealogy.”
She hands us her phone, but when we don’t immediately catch on to what she’s trying to point us to, she grabs the phone back exasperatedly. “Katherine Clary is directly descended from Iris Adams, meaning she is also a descendant of your very own family curse AKA Mary Worthe.”
“Oh my god,” Juniper whispers. “Her descendant and George’s together, as they couldn’t be in life.”
“So Kat’s blood is the answer,” Ian points out. He’s apparently a stress eater, as his plate is now a graveyard of cookie crumbs, and as he motions, little bits of sugar cookie fly in all directions.
“We get her here, tie her up in front of the mirror and cut her?” I say incredulously. “Our dates are supremely fucked up.”
“I’m fairly certain that Kat would be glad to wake up hogtied with a paper cut to get this thing out of her body,” Kayla says, reaching over and snagging the last cookie before Ian can claim it, as he hovers over the plate. He looks disappointed but relinquishes it, dropping his hand back into his lap, like the gentleman he is.
“We are operating under the assumption that she will stay in Kat’s body during this?” Juniper inquires, unaware of the baked good gladiator match that’s transpiring. “If she assumes her spiritual form we will all die. Quickly.”
“So we drug her before we hogtie and cut her?” I ask with a disbelieving laugh, rising to retrieve more cookies. If I don’t then I’m certain Ian will begin drumming his fingers again to keep his hands busy.
“What a story to tell your kids,” Ian says, eyes alight when he sees the sugary bounty I place in front of him. “So as far as Mary/Kat knows, I’m already out of town and have nothing to do with any of you.”
“Yes,”
