Page 6 of The Cult

“Okay. Can you point me in the direction of where I might find him or her?”

“Sure!” the blond says, taking my question literally and pointing toward the corner of the building. “There’s a farm about ten miles outside of town. It’s actually really easy to find. You just drive down Main Street until you leave town and then keep going straight. The property is on the right.”

For a moment, I try to place the location, but it’s been years since I was out that way. All there is in that area are farms, and since I wouldn’t know what to do on a farm if my life depended on it, I don’t tend to think about that part of the county much.

“Okay. Thanks!”

“You’re welcome. May The Golden Light shine on you.”

I stop in mid-turn and look back at her innocent expression and wide eyes. “I forgot to ask. What is The Golden Light?”

My question makes her entire face light up as if someone flipped a switch and turned on the inside of her body. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so happy in my life.

“The Golden Light is a self-improvement group, but it’s so much more too. We work with people who want to make the most of their lives. Each of us has a special talent, and it’s our duty as humans to cultivate that talent to help ourselves and the world. We only have one planet, so we have to do all we can to make this world the best it can be.”

Her explanation sounds like a combination of a recruitment ad for the military and some quasi self-help jargon. I have a hard time believing Rina spent any time hanging out with people who are so woo-woo, but it sounds relatively innocuous. There’s nothing wrong with positivity. In fact, my sister could do with some after her breakup.

“Thank you for your help. Have a great day!” I say, attempting to be as perky as she was.

“Happy to help! May The Golden Light shine on you!”

As I walk toward the door, I see a tiny red light in the corner of the room. When I turn to look at it, I see a camera. Interesting. What’s the camera for?

It seems like a strange thing to have in a half-empty room that only has one woman sitting behind a desk. I didn’t get a sense anyone else was in the building, but then again, I didn’t look in any of the offices.

Still, something about being watched unnerves me.

All of thisrolls around in my head as I drive out to the farm the blond woman told me about. I forgot to ask the name of the property owner, a stupid mistake for someone whose job is research. Worrying about my sister is definitely throwing me off my groove.

I follow the directions the woman at The Golden Light office gave me, and when I come upon a farm in the exact place she said it would be, I can’t help but be a little surprised. It’s unfair, but all that golden light stuff and her unrelenting perkiness gave me the impression she wasn’t too bright.

A dirt road leading away from the main road takes me to an old, white farmhouse with a huge wraparound porch complete with white rocking chairs. I don’t see any people around or any cars, so I wonder if this trip was all for nothing. Discouraged, I consider simply turning around and driving home, but I park the car and get out, needing to at least try to find out if anyone here has seen my sister.

I knock on the front door, but nobody answers, so I walk around the house looking for anyone. The place seems deserted, but when I peek through the window in the back door that leads to the kitchen, I see a tea kettle with steam coming out of the top on the stove.

Thrilled to know there’s at least one person in the house who may be able to help me, I knock on the back door and eagerly wait for someone to answer it. The tea kettle begins to whistle loudly, the shrill sound coming through the door loud and clear.

But still no one comes to the kitchen to take it off the burner.

I look around as I wonder where the person boiling the water could be, and right above the door I see a camera just like the one in The Golden Light office. Uncomfortable I’m likely being watched or recorded at this very moment and hating the sound of that tea kettle whistling away like it’s calling out for help, I knock hard on the door and stare through the window hoping to see someone come at any second.

After another minute of that piercing sound filling my ears, I jiggle the doorknob and find it unlocked. I shouldn’t walk into a strange house, but that kettle is going to run out of water, and I wouldn’t want it to cause a fire.

At least that’s what I tell myself as I rush into the kitchen and hurry over to the stove. I take the kettle off the burner, so the whistling ends, thankfully. Someone must be here since they were making water for tea, but I see no one when I look into the dining room.

I’m not sure I should go any further into the house, but curiosity gets the better of me and I slowly walk through the dining room to the living room at the front of the house. The home is clean and orderly, but I see stacks of that same pamphlet as my sister had in her apartment spread out all over the coffee table.

“Hello? I’m sorry I came in uninvited, but your kettle was going off, and I didn’t want it to cause a fire.”

My words seem to go unheard since no one answers me or comes down the stairs to order me out of their house. I walk over to the foot of the staircase and look up, but something tells me I shouldn’t go up there.

A sound like a sob makes my blood run cold, and I spin around to get the hell out of the house. Then a terrible thought occurs to me. Could that have been Rina? I think about that for a few moments and decide it wasn’t her. Whoever made that noise might need help, so I need to call the police as soon as I get back to my car.

The sound of a man angrily complaining about something stops me dead. Oh, God. He’s in the kitchen. I can’t leave that way.

I turn around to head for the front door but see another man walking toward the house. Damn! I’m trapped here. The man in the kitchen sounded furious, so I don’t want to run into him. I have no good reason for being in this house, and they’d have every right to not be pleased with my intruding.

Frantic, I look for somewhere to hide and see a closet behind the front door. Hopefully, neither of the men need to look for anything in there, but it’s my only choice at the moment.

---