Page 27 of Brush with Death
Katie and Sam had never had that.They had each other, though, and for them, it had been enough.Katie didn’t have Sam anymore.Now, she was alone, and Cyril was worried.
He grabbed his phone from the table and pulled up his messaging app.He wasn’t sure what to write, so he decided to keep it simple.
I have a few questions about Sam.Would it be okay if Vale and I came over?
She answered a few minutes later, almost as if she’d been waiting by the phone.You can come whenever you want.I’m home.
Cyril put down the phone.“She’s home and happy to talk to us.”
Vale nodded.“Good.Rachel, can you tell us what we need to talk to her about?”
“Well, I found a bunch of recent friendships on Sam’s social media.He was talking to people, but that only started a few months ago.I tried looking into those people, and to say they are weird would be an understatement.”
“What kind of weird are we talking about?”Cyril asked because a lot of people thoughthewas weird.
“Summoning demons weird, amongst other things.”
Cyril blinked.“I’m sorry?”
“You heard me.They seem convinced that the only way to fix humanity is to summon demons and allow them to kill indiscriminately.Of course, they’d be the ones summoning these demons, so they’d be safe, but you get the idea.”
“Is this a conspiracy theory like the lizard people or something?”
“Looks like it.These people are convinced they can do this, and honestly, I’m not sure they can’t.”
“What does that have to do with Sam?”
“He’s friends with them.Was,” Rachel added quietly.“I can’t understand whether or not he truly believed in the summoning demons thing from what I can read on his profile and his messages, but he was certainly entertaining the idea.”She paused.“I also saw messages between him and Katie.She was worried about him because he was spending a lot of time away from home without telling her where he was.”
“She probably doesn’t want to think about the bad things that happened between them now that he’s gone,” Cyril murmured.
“I’m sure you’re right, but this is a lead.I’m not saying these people killed Sam, but it’s certainly something to look into.”
“I’ll ask Katie.”Cyril wasn’t sure how he would ask her if Sam believed in summoning demons, but maybe he wouldn’t have to.Maybe he could talk around it and find out what Katie knew.
He thought about it on the way there.Once again, he was thankful for Vale.He was driving and allowed Cyril to stay silent as he did so.He probably knew that Cyril needed this time to gather his thoughts and decide how to approach this.
He still didn’t know how to do it when they parked in front of Katie’s house.She opened the door before Cyril could even step out of the car.She looked eager, and Cyril hated that he was about to disappoint her.She probably thought he had answers, but he didn’t.The only thing he had were more questions.
“Cyril was unable to reanimate Sam when he tried,” Vale declared as soon as they were sitting on Katie’s couch.“So we thought we should talk to you again.”
Katie frowned.“Are you sure you’re well enough to do this?”she asked Cyril.“I didn’t know you’d been hurt when I called you.Sam wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself even more, and I don’t want that, either.”
He was touched that she was concerned for him, but he wanted to do this.“I’m fine.I just need to give my head more time to heal, apparently.”
“Well, I’ll tell you everything I can about Sam.What did you have questions about?”
She looked better today, probably because she’d had a few days to wrap her mind around the fact that Sam was gone.Her eyes were still red, and she was pale, but she wasn’t sobbing.Cyril wasn’t sure she wouldn’t start crying eventually, but they needed answers.
“A friend of Vale’s dug into Sam’s social media accounts,” he explained, leaving out the fact that Rachel hadn’t gone the legal way and had access to Sam’s private messages.“She found out that he made a lot of recent friendships.”
Katie pressed her lips together and looked down at her hands.Cyril wanted to ask what she was thinking about, but he didn’t.He waited for her to be ready.He wasn’t sure she ever would be, but if she wanted Cyril to find out what happened to Sam, she’d need to be honest.She might not know anything, but chances were that she did, even though she might not realize it.Without being able to talk to Sam, this was the only way they would get answers.
* * * *
VALE WAS INTRIGUED.He wasn’t sure he believed in the summoning demons part—although maybe he should since his boyfriend reanimated the dead for a living—but he didn’t have to.It might not be real, but if these people believed they could do it, they’d act accordingly.
“Sam and I were in a rough spot,” Katie finally said.“He’d started becoming secretive these past two months.I knew he had new friends because I heard him on the phone with them, and he mentioned them a few times, but he never introduced me to them.He spent hours away from the house without telling me where he was going or what he was doing.When I asked him where he was, he said he was with friends, and that was it.He vanished for hours, and I stayed home, worrying.”
