They stopped by the side of the road and got out. Even though she couldn’t see, Julia eventually figured out that the other person was Carter, who was a friend that often hung around Tyler and Austin. Her glasses weren’t among the possessions that they had brought with him, but her jacket and backpack had been left in the van.

Carter had a rope hanging off his shoulder as Austin continued to push Julia ahead of them. They were out in the woods, in a place that Julia didn’t recognize. Roosevelt was at the edge of the cascades. They literally could be anywhere in the mountains.

After they were a mile away from the road, they tied her to a tree. Austin folded his arms and stared at her. The way that she was squinting about made him realize that she couldn’t see well. Kara had always worn contacts, so he hadn’t considered how bad the twin’s vision actually was, but the way Julia’s face was contorting made it seem bad.

“Talk,” he commanded.

“About what?” Julia had expected to be smacked in the back of the head with a shovel and buried. She hadn’t planned to talk about anything.

“What’s your endgame?”

“... What?”

Carter spoke up next. “Who is your next target? Are you going to kill me or Tyler next?” His voice was quivering from nervousness as he asked.

The question confused Julia even more. “I’m not targeting any of you.”

“But you murdered Eli,” argued Austin. Julia began to stammer, and he didn’t buy one second of it. “Eli didn’t kill himself. Even if he was left with half a brain after you were done with him, he wasn’t dumb enough to bring a gun to school.”

Julia broke down and began to explain everything. Eli’s curses, Mackenzie’s death, the fact that Kara had died too. The only reason she attacked Austin was because he was blackmailing Kara. She had let a moment of anger lead her into making a mistake, but one she struggled to regret.

Carter frowned at the story and looked over to Austin. “Eli killed Kara?”

“I doubt it.” Austin placed a hand against the trunk of the tree. He leaned in close enough for Julia to make out his face clearly. “We did the ritual. The demon wasn’t all that helpful, but we were able to piece together a little of what happened.”

Julia’s eyes flicked between Austin and Carter. “Who was your third?”

“We didn’t feel like we could trust anyone else,” replied Austin. “It worked with just the two of us.”

She shook her head. “You can do it with one person, but Trill will pick the other people from someplace nearby. Anyone who has a strong enough desire.”

Austin leaned away from the tree. He folded his arms and thought to himself. “Is that why your mom suddenly became fuckable?”

“You said we wouldn’t talk about that,” replied Carter in a deadpan voice.

“Your mom became a cock magnet overnight and you’re not going to question it at all?”

Carter shook his head. “I never saw a reason to question it, nor am I ever going to question it.”

Austin rolled his eyes before he turned his attention to Julia. “Britney told us that you had Kara’s soul trapped in this.” He held up the decoy that Trill had given her earlier. “Your going to pay for what you did to her.”

“I didn’t do anything to her,” Julia whispered.

“You did the ritual with Eli and Mio, and used it to take out your sister,” replied Austin.

“No, Eli did the ritual with Britney and Kara.”

“But that doesn’t make sense,” said Carter.

“I know it doesn’t, but that’s what happened,” argued Julia. “He was attempting to force Kara into doing the ritual again with him so he could get more wishes granted, and you heard them talking about it. That’s the guy you thought she was cheating on Tyler with, and you used that to blackmail her!”

Carter took a step away from the pair. “... I think she has a point.”

“That doesn’t change our plan,” growled back Austin.

“When did you do your ritual, Julia?”

She had trouble remembering. So much had happened, yet she realized that it hadn’t been all that long ago at all. There was something weird about knowing that. “A few days before I attacked Austin. Less than a week.”

Carter nodded his head. “... Britney lied to us.”

“That doesn’t change our plan,” repeated Austin in a louder voice.

“Our plan was to take her out if she had hurt Kara. What if she’s right and Eli was the one that did it?” Carter shook his head again. “I-I’m starting to think Britney did it.” Austin glared at him over his shoulder. “Think about it. Julia is going after everyone she thinks hurt Kara, everyone gets their memories back after Eli dies, suddenly Britney is freaking out and having us put up those fliers. She’s baiting people into going after Eli’s killer so she doesn’t have anything to worry about?”

“So?” Austin turned around and put a hand on his knife. It was still in its sheath, hanging on his belt.

“What does she have to worry about?” Carter outstretched his hands as a sign of peace. “Unless she was the one that killed Kara?”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Austin shook the egg at Carter. “Then we get proof. We stick with the plan and switch out their souls. Kara can tell us who killed her, and then we can deal with Britney if it was her.”

“But we’d be killing Julia,” whispered Carter.

“That doesn’t matter to me,” replied Austin.

Julia was silent as they argued. Someone was with Kara as she was setting up the noose. She closed her eyes and tried to remember. Kara was attempting to keep her out of the memory, but traces of it were still in Julia’s mind. There was someone with her. Were they male? Female? Could it have been Tyler or Britney?

She opened her eyes up as she felt someone slip her glasses on her face. It was Trill, who was bizarrely outside while it was still light. The trees were dense enough to create thick shadows on the ground. Maybe that was enough to let him feel comfortable here.

Her eyes were shut tightly again as he leaned towards her face. His dry tongue licked closed the wound on her lip, and he pulled away again. A finger was held up to his lips as he disappeared in ash. Neither Carter or Austin had noticed the exchange. One was arguing that this was a bad idea, and the other was trying to figure out how to get the egg to work.

A swirl of ash appeared next to Austin, and Trill slammed his fist into Austin’s stomach. Austin was sent flying back, letting out a grunt as his back struck a tree. He fell into a heap on the ground. Carter took a step back, but Trill vanished a reappeared next to him. The demon placed a hand on the teen’s shoulder as his lips spread into a wide grin.

“I warned you not to take action against her,” he said in a low, deathly tone.

“And I-I.. Ahh.. F-fuck... I said it wasn’t enough that you restored my face,” growled Austin as he struggled to stand up. “I am owed a chance to get back at her!”

Trill slowly turned around. The forest grew dark around them, as though night had fallen. A silence hung in the air. No animals made a sound, nor did the wind dare to blow. A darkness overtook the entire area, making it pitch black for a moment, then Trill was suddenly within inches of Austin.

“I informed you that I needed time to prepare her. Time to make her willing. Such matters are to be treated with delicacy, and you have failed in that regard,” he growled back.

“Trill?” Julia raised her voice to get his attention. He shattered into ash and reappeared next to her. “What’s going on?”

“They are going to murder you because they believe you killed your sister,” he said in a hushed tone. His hands cupped her cheeks, taking every opportunity he could to touch her while she was tied up.

“But I didn’t kill Kara,” she whispered back. Her eyes widened. “But you weren’t able to tell them that because it’s a conflict of interest. They assumed that meant that I had done it, just as I had assumed that Eli was directly involved.”

Trill took a step back. “I informed them that it was possible to bring your sister back to life.”

“If it’s possible, then why didn’t you use it to bring back Mackenzie!” Julia began to kick at him. Her feet were hovering just out of reach to strike him. Wisps of blood broke through her skin, flapping around like tendrils and flopping against the ropes that bound her.

“What the fuck,” whispered Carter.

Trill licked his lips at the sight. He had to take a deep breath to quell the hunger in his eyes. Ignoring her kicks, he stepped closer and leaned in as though he were about to kiss her. This only coaxed Julia to struggle more violently against her restraints. A hushing sound came out of him as he tilted his head and leaned in.

“I am not able to resurrect the dead,” he said firmly. “But you and your sister share a certain resonance. I would be able to exchange your soul for hers, but I am unable to do so as long as you maintain a will to live.” He shot a glare over to Austin. “Which is why I was taking my time to bring up such notions.”

Julia’s breathing slowed to the point where she was hardly able to get any air. “But what would happen to me?”

Trill lowered his voice again. “You do not have to consider it.” He was taken aback by the way she was staring at him. For once, he appeared to be at a loss for words. “You have this.” His hand rested above her heart. “You would never be able to return to the world of men, but you would not forget your life.

I will keep you safe. You will be able to search the underworld for your fallen love, but I will warn you that you will not like what you see. Locating her will be difficult. Restoring her memories may as well be an impossibility.”

“And Kara?” Julia kept her eyes locked on his. “What about Kara? Would she be able to remember anything at all, and would she have to live her life as Julia or can she continue on like she hadn’t had died at all?”

“The only ones who would know that she were dead would be herself and those present at this very moment,” he replied. “She will have a human body. Free of the illnesses and strengths that you have. You need not worry of her coming to misfortune due to them.”

That’s at least part of what she wanted, wasn’t it? Julia furrowed her brow. What did she deserve? It certainly wasn’t to live anymore, not after she had killed Eli. She was still on the fence on if Austin deserved his injuries or not. Her eyes flitted from Trill to Austin.

He was glaring.

She frowned. Without a doubt, he deserved them. A shake of her head was given as she attempted to consider it. Though there wasn’t much to consider. Her sister’s life for her own, and after everything she had done, Julia knew that she didn’t deserve to be selfish.

“May I call Mio first?”

The ropes that held her snapped and Julia stumbled forward. Trill caught her. He stabilized her and held out his hand. A shadow passed over it, then her phone appeared. Julia took it and realized that she had half a dozen texts from Mio and two voicemails. Unsurprising, since she had texted Mio saying they needed to talk, then vanished.

“Thank goodness your okay!” Mio still sounded panicked when Julia called.

“Sorry. Britney bailed on me at school, so I was going to ask for a ride, but I ran into someone who could. We ended up in a no signal place, so I couldn’t tell you it was fine.” Julia leaned back against the tree and smiled to herself.

“That’s great! Sorry, I was busy with practice.”

“I understand completely. It’s fine, Mio.”

“I’m done now. If you can’t stand Britney, I can come over and we can do something. Would you like to go out and get pancakes? When was the last time you had those?”

Julia laughed weakly. “Every morning. Britney’s mother is seriously the perfect movie mom. It’s honestly kind of creepy.”

“Do you want to come over and play some board games then? It’s been a while since we’ve done that.”

“Yeah… Yeah, it has, but I can’t. I’m going to be busy today.” Julia smiled all the wider as Mio made a pouty noise. “I’m just calling to tell you that I’m okay. Everything is fine.”

“That’s good. Are we still going to Portland this weekend?”

“We are,” replied Julia. She tensed up for a moment before she continued speaking. “Mio, you’re awesome.”

“Eh?”

“You’re just an amazing friend. The best, okay?”

“... Okay?”

Julia snickered again. “I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”

“See you then.”

Julia hung up and clutched onto her phone with both hands. She took a deep breath to calm herself down. Of course, she was scared. Trill had guaranteed he would keep her safe but had very odd definitions for such things.

No. Now wasn’t the time to be afraid. Julia was going to find Mackenzie. Trill thrived off of giving people their desires. Her desire was to be with Mackenzie again and to have her sister safe. This is what fixed it, and she knew that he wouldn’t fail her. She looked up at the demon, who was staring at her with such a sad expression. A small nod was given to reassure herself.

“Do it.”