Page 137 of He Who Sleeps

“Okay, okay. We are all here, finally,” Carlee said to her as Fiona pulled away from the hug she was giving her. “So, dish finally, because I have been chomping at the bit to find out what the ever loving fuck is going on!”

With a laugh, Petra shook her head. “Let’s sit...yeah, you are going to wanna sit down for all this.”

They sat around the living room of the brownstone she and the guys had rented in New York, all smiles because she was finally together with her best friends, her sisters in The Order. Well, they didn’t know that yet. Finn had sent the jet to get them, and they had finally been able to meet all in the city for a girls’ hangout. Or what they thought was a girls’ hangout.

“Seriously, Petty...you need to say something, that smile is starting to look all black hole sun,” Carlee quipped. “Come on, stop being a bitch and talk!”

“Okay, Okay,” she sighed. “So...god, this is going to be harder than I thought.”

“What, you’re marrying someone?”

“Um...no... No, I don’t think I can?” she said absently. “No... I... Okay... So, we, the four of us, as well as the girls that were with us in Ohio...we are part of a very special bloodline dedicated to He Who Sleeps.” There. She knew she sounded crazy but it was out there now. She could work from there.

"I fucking knew it was a cult!" Fiona declared triumphantly. "I knew it!"

"What the fuck is a He Who Sleeps?" Victoria ignored Fiona, who was nudging her for support.

“Who,” Petra said and proceeded to tell them the story Kildare told them about the God, His consort and the thirteen. They watched her, eyes wide, and when she was done she smiled. “And all of us belong to the most precious bloodline.”

“How do you know?”

“One of the matrons told me. And I can prove it...we just kinda have to go to the Balkans to do the ritual.”

"And that's my cue to call an ambulance." Fiona shook her head, reaching for her phone.

"An ambulance?" Victoria stared at her. "She sounds pretty coherent to me."

"What part of any of that didn't sound completely delusional to you?" Fiona gaped at her. "She thinks she's the high priestess of some cult and that magic is real."

"That's not quite what she said,” Victoria started, but Fiona sighed.

"That's exactly what she said. She thinks she and these guys are somehow blessed by some god that lives in a well. She's clearly hallucinated magic sparkles. She's been completely brainwashed and the sooner we get her into psychiatric care, the easier this will go."

Petra shook her head. Fiona was going to be the hardest to convince she knew but... “Honestly, Fi, when have I ever believed in magic or anything supernatural? That’s all Carlee.”

"That's why I'm so worried," Fiona said bluntly. "I mean...you're talking about glowing stones. Maybe they drugged you."

“My guys do a lot, but they don’t traffic in drugs of any kind,” she said with a laugh, because whatever they put in the champagne to stop her remembering the route to the devotional mansion every year was for safety and protection. “Honestly, I didn’t believe this either, ‘til things started happening. I mean three years of being their devotion, and I only know everything because I wanted them, because I wanted to be with them.”

“Yeah...explain that?” Carlee said. “Cuz I’m still spotty on that.”

Petra told them how she met her guys, the real story, and watched as they were collectively horrified, and intrigued by the time she was done.

“So lemme get this straight. You saved a girl from getting murdered by seven dudes, took her place, and then they kept it going for three years, the last of which, last Halloween weekend, you had a plan to unmask them and did, and this is why we are here now?” She nodded to Carlee. “Hot. What kinda masks?”

Petra laughed. “A lady never tells,” she said and Carlee frowned.

“Damn it, Petra...won’t tell us who is the biggest, won’t tell us about their masks...” she pouted. “You are mean as hell.”

"Have you collectively lost your fucking minds?" Fiona was starting to look upset. "She hooked up with guys who openly claim to be serial killers and you're asking about dicks?! What the fuck is wrong with you all?"

“Maybe because you’re looking at this wrong?” Carlee said to Fiona. “She figured out why we are orphans, Fi...she figured it out. This isn’t her just pulling this shit outta her ass, this is her, after doing the work, giving us the truth. It’s all fact-checkable, right?” Petra nodded. “See? That’s why I’m not freaking out. Because it’s fucking real, Fi, and we...we belong somewhere...”

"How do you look wrong at serial killers? How do you 'fact check' magic? What are you going to do if we fly halfway around the fucking world and it turns out it was just some mindfuck trip these people, who are clearly a cult, put her through? You're so blinded by your desire to belong to someone or something that you're glossing over how utterly fucking crazy this all sounds!"

“And you’re so focused on what’s acceptable that you can’t fathom that this might be real. I mean what the fuck, Fi? The major religions aren’t a cult? They aren’t killing in the name of their own gods?” Carlee asked.

"We've never believed in them, either!" Fiona said hotly. "And there's a massive fucking difference between huge, global organized religions and some tiny cult that no one has ever heard of! It's not about what's acceptable! It's not acceptable that anyone kills in the name of religion. Not the big religions. Not these guys! Replace this Finn dude's name with Charles Manson and it's history repeating itself all over again!"

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