Chapter 76 – The Black Letter – Erica Henson

There was an unusual burst of activity in the Meredith Solidarity ChatCat group. Information about Malorie’s diary and presumed demise had spread like wildfire amongst the members of the ChatCat group. The person that submitted the link to this wealth of information did so under an anonymous ID that was just a randomized string of numbers. My question was if this was someone that I knew. Was Zoe anonymously leaking this information? Or was it someone tied to Ms. Logan?

The unexpected occurrence was a gift from the heavens. It gave me the perfect excuse to approach Jackie with questions about Malorie under the guise of being her informant. When I went to tell her the details of what was going on in the ChatCat group she was outraged, of course. She cursed Ms. Logan repeatedly, as though she had somehow outsmarted her from the grave. Immediately after that dramatic display she moved to assure me that everything I read was complete nonsense. I knew by that emotional outburst that it was anything but nonsense.

So I approached her on this topic cautiously while we were sitting on the couch together. It was a lazy Saturday afternoon and her mood up till now had been ambivalent. She was still under investigation by the police and was understandably stressed. She originally promised me that she’d tried to relax this weekend, for her health. Now she looked more stressed than ever. The moment I came to her with this information she stood up off the couch and began pacing around.

“Great!” She yelled while looking up at the ceiling, “This is all just fantastic! What else could go wrong? This comes just as soon as things were starting to cool down!”

“It doesn’t look like anyone has anything solid to prove these theories. They’re just wild speculation.” I noted, “Is there any reason to worry about it like this?”

My intention was to get her to somehow prove her innocence in all this. If she could at least give me a believable alibi and explanation on Malorie then I could forget this ever happened. I had the unnerving feeling that my hopes weren’t going to come to fruition when she turned back towards me. The look of panic on her face was clear as day. It was like some tight-knit ball was coming apart strand by strand.

“There’s no telling what the police will believe if they learn about this. It’s one thing to be blamed for Abby’s murder, but another entirely if they start trying to pin Malorie on me too.” She let out a soft, demented laugh, “I’m sure that’s exactly what Abby would’ve wanted. For all I know she had something to do with this.”

She was biting her thumb in thought like I wasn’t even there.

“Can’t you just prove to them that Malorie ran away?” I asked. “I mean, no one has seen her all this time. Isn’t that the most reasonable conclusion? This whole ‘Ritual of Knives’ business sounds like something out of a horror flick.”

Jackie looked at me with a dumbfounded expression. It was like she couldn’t even process what I was saying. I wanted for her to tell me that my theory was correct and that this was overblown, but she couldn’t even do that much. Instead, we just stared at each other in silence until Jackie’s phone rang on the table. Jackie quickly picked it up and answered.

“Angel…?” She asked quickly, “We’ve got a problem! Wait, you already know…? Were you monitoring that chat group all along?”

Angelica Morelli spoke on the other end but the volume was too low for me to eavesdrop. Jackie took a moment to look back at me.

“Sorry Erica, you can finish the movie we were watching alone. I’m going to be on the phone a while.” She said.

She then walked away in the direction of her bedroom. I heard the door shut in the distance. I considered eavesdropping against the door but it felt too risky in this case. Besides, the fact that it was Angelica Morelli calling about the problem was another strike against her. Officer Morelli was on that list too. The fact that she was monitoring a school ChatCat group was more incriminating. She had no good reason to be there other than for something just like this.

That Saturday night Jackie went out and didn’t come back all night. I was up until 2AM before I realized she wasn’t coming back any time soon. Since I couldn’t ask her any more questions, I decided that I’d go with another idea. I asked people in the ChatCat about evidence to verify this story. I told them that it was all conjecture until they had something of substance. Of course I was laughed off. The Killing Cat mythos was growing and they wouldn’t let me stand in the way.

I didn’t bother hiding my ChatCat ID as I asked these questions either. My hope was that someone would be willing to talk to me at school about it without the secrecy of ChatCat. I wanted the idea of evidence to permeate throughout this newly formed community in the hopes that they would actually bring me something useful. The word ‘evidence’ was like kryptonite to these conspiracy theorists. As strong as my concerns about Jackie were, that fact would continue to anchor my hope that she was innocent of murder.

So when Monday came along I wasn’t expecting much in terms of feedback. Although people were still talking about it at school, it was still rife with unfounded speculation. Over the course of the weekend the mythology had grown even larger. People were coming up with their own pet theories and suddenly people were painting the school staff as demon worshippers and human cannibals. This wasn’t the sort of atmosphere I wanted to foster. This would make getting to the truth that much harder.

Just as I was beginning to resign myself to the fact that I wouldn’t learn anything new anytime soon, I was given a note. At my locker I was preparing to put away some of the heavy books I no longer needed to lug around with me. As I opened up my locker a black envelope fell from the top shelf and fluttered down to the ground. I picked it up suspiciously, and looked around to gauge the people surrounding me. It looked like no one was paying attention to me. Whoever sent this envelope must’ve been long gone.

The letter inside the envelope was also on comparatively expensive black paper. The writing on the inside was in white ink. I knew at this moment that whoever wrote this letter had a flair for the dramatic. Not only was the letter bordered by fanciful artistic design, but the inside was written in such over-the-top cursive calligraphy that I half-expected to be reading it in old English. That wasn’t the case though. The letter was direct and straight to the point.

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“Greetings, Erica. I’ve heard your call for help on the subject of Malorie Noelle’s disappearance. As it turns out, I also require your help. I believe we can help each other. I’d like for you to come to the classroom listed below after school to talk about this further.”

I recognized the classroom number listed below the main text. It was in the same hallway as the Occult Club. Were they behind all this? It explained the archaic looking letter and the fact that they were asking me to talk privately after school instead of just coming up to me. Jackie had said that Holly dealt with them before. It looked like that wasn’t the case. The only thing that was throwing me off was the signature at the bottom.

“Signed, Nyx.”

Nyx…? Was that someone’s alias that I should’ve known about? If I recalled correctly that was also the name of The Killing Cat in the original story. Oh great, just what I needed, more urban legends. When I saw the letter fall out of my locker I was really hoping for something more concrete. Still, I was willing to go confront them after school. If for nothing else, I wanted to ask them why they were continuing to beat a dead horse. They had supposedly promised Holly they’d stop all this.

After school I was held up by one of the elderly teachers that wanted to talk about how Jackie was holding up during all this police intervention after Ms. Logan’s death. The teacher in question knew that I was reasonably close enough to Jackie that I could answer this. This would save her the trouble of approaching Jackie with such a sensitive topic herself. The answer I gave was a polite, roundabout answer that wouldn’t risk damaging Jackie’s reputation. If people really knew just how much she was breaking down then there would be blood in the water. I still needed to help her maintain the illusion of control.

Once all that was done I rushed over to the room that was listed on the letter. The occult hallway very much looked the part. They had added even more tasteless two-bit Halloween decorations since the last time I visited the place. As much as I wanted to laugh at their gaudy sense of design, I couldn’t help but to be snared by the eeriness of this dark hallway. I knew that this convoluted club was all about optics and psyche, but it was honestly having a negative effect on me. My final approach to the meeting place door was practically done in slow motion.

When I opened the door there wasn’t a single person in the room. I was expecting to meet with one or two members of the Occult club, but there was no one at all. I stepped inside and looked around out of curiosity. The room was dark, like the rest of the Occult Club hallway. There was a single light bulb hanging from the middle of the ceiling that looked like it was on its last leg. This crappy ceiling light was nowhere near enough to actually light the entire room. It made my inspection of this room that much harder. It looked like no one was in yet and so I turned to walk away. Then there was a sound from the other side of the room.

“Ahem…!” Someone said to clear their voice.

I scanned the room again to see if I had missed someone. There was no one in the room. That is, no one except the black cat sitting atop a desk on the other side of the room. It wasn’t even a real black cat, just a doll. Its eyes were shining a cold bluish color. The lights behind the artificial cat’s eyes flickered, giving it the appearance of blinking without having any moving parts involved. This couldn’t seriously be what I was here for, could it? Was the Occult Club really pulling such a stupid prank on me?

“This isn’t funny.” I said. “I would’ve thought that the Occult Club could come up with a better prank than this. Thanks for wasting my time.”

Suddenly an unlit light on the cat’s face turned on, giving it the appearance of smiling for a brief moment.

“I didn’t bring you here for a prank!” The cat said with childlike glee, “I brought you here for a riddle.”

The cat’s voice was odd. It sounded like a little boy, but the voice was distorted somehow as if it were passing through a filter or going through a tunnel.

“Riddle…?” I asked, trying to look past the fact that I was talking to a child’s toy.

“What has a good pair of eyes, but can’t see a hint right in front of her? What has a sharp tongue, but refuses to use it to get what she’s looking for?” The doll asked.

I scoffed at it.

“The letter said that someone here could help me.”

“That’s correct. It actually said that we could help each other. That’s the part I want to emphasize.”

“And why should I waste my time talking to you, a doll?” I asked. “If you weren’t a coward you’d come out and show your face, not hide behind a kid’s toy.”

Feeling frustrated, I started to take a step towards the doll. My leg was immediately caught by a steel wire that dug into my skin before I reflexively pulled away.

“Ah… ah… ah… I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” The cat warned. “It’s a good thing that you didn’t pull that tripwire out of its connector housing. I already cleaned this place up before you got here. I don’t want to clean it up again. Watch your step.”

I pulled back a few feet and eyed this mysterious black cat with newfound caution.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“You didn’t read the signature down at the bottom of the letter?” The cat asked playfully, “You haven’t heard the rumors of enigmatic intrigue? You haven’t heard the legendary tale of my death and rebirth?”

I glared at the stupid doll.

“You seriously expect me to believe that you’re the Killing Cat?” I asked in disbelief.

“No.” The cat said honestly. “I expect to show you that I’m the Killing Cat.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that I’m willing to help you.” The cat said, blinking its eyes intermittently. “I’ve seen your calls for help in the school ChatCat group.”

“You’ve been following it?”

“I’ve been following it long enough to know your dilemma.”

“And what dilemma is that?”

The cat’s smile lit up, sending me a chill of unease.

“You’ve been begging for someone to prove that the horror stories aren’t true. You’ve been praying that the dark things that happened are more myth than reality. You want desperately to believe that this world isn’t as bad as it seems. Tsk, tsk, tsk… You’re an optimistic young girl, aren’t you?”

The way this doll was talking to me was obnoxious. It sounded like it had the voice of a kid, but was talking down to me like I was an idiot.

“I don’t know who’s pulling your strings, puppet, but I don’t believe in your occultist nonsense. If I tell the vice principal about this she’ll deal with the Occult Club more harshly this time.”

“Oh? Something tells me she’s going to be too busy in the near future.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You sense it, don’t you? The changing wind… The feeling of not being able to go back before the time that Abigail Logan was murdered. You must sense that things aren’t even close to being over now that the students talk about me out in the open.”

“Spare me the theatrics. The only thing behind your doll is a coward too afraid to come and speak to me themselves. Here I thought you could give me some useful information.”

“More than that,” The cat said, “I’m going to give you useful information from a first-hand source. I’m going to give you a witness to the Ritual of Knives.”

“Bullshit,” I said quickly, “How would you be capable of something like that, assuming the ritual was real.”

“Just look for my signal. You’ll see it in your ChatCat inbox soon. I’ll give you the information you seek.”

I folded my arms, not sure what to think of that. However, I’d entertain the idea just to see where this went.

“And what do you get out of all this?” I asked.

The cat’s grinning smile lit up once again.

“A catalyst.”