As the four of us shuffled through the dark campus on our way to Dr. Reed's office, we passed by the modern languages building. With Dominic on the side closer to the building and blocking my view, I could see the crowd of people outside, but I couldn't tell who specifically was standing there.

"What the hell is going on, Dominic?" a familiar voice—Dr. Rainier's—asked with an obnoxious New York tone.

I wasn't in the mood for a conversation, so I tugged at Dominic's jacket sleeve to keep him from stopping to chat. We had places to be, and if he asked us about it later, Dominic just didn't hear him. It wasn't our fault.

The sky still hadn't cleared even though we were all together, and after we made it inside, I knocked on Dr. Reed's office door.

"It's me," I said.

"Lindsay?" Dr. Reed asked.

I opened up the door and lead everyone inside. "Look, I don't know what's up with the latte of despair in the sky. I didn't have anything to do with that as far as I know."

"Then who else would do that?"

I shrugged and looked over at Sierra. "Maybe her. She was the first one who noticed anything was weird about my talisman, and now that she's got one of her own, I'm gonna blame her for this one."

"Me? I'm pretty sure this one doesn't actually do anything, and you just let me have it because you feel sorry for me," Sierra said.

"I definitely don't feel sorry for you. You don't have to be concerned about that." What was with everyone overestimating my sympathies?

"Then we are going to sit down and figure this out. This isn't something we can blame on nature," Dr. Reed said.

I nodded. I was definitely responsible for a few of the weird occurrences with the talisman, but this one wasn't me. I was studying with Dominic. What was triggering about that?

"We need space to think. Follow me." Dr. Reed led us into the empty classroom that she used for my class. I took a seat in the front row of chairs, Dominic took the spot on my left, Jack on my right, and Sierra next to him.

It was a little weird to be in a classroom setting without Dominic taking notes and worrying about what was going to be on the exam, but I turned back to the front of the room, where Dr. Reed was opening up a dry erase marker.

"Okay, so I'm going to start with today, and then we'll take every other talisman incident chronologically after that. So what was going on when that happened?" She gestured out the window, and I sank into my seat.

That wasn't my fault.

"Jack and Sierra left to get us pizza, and Lindsay and I had just started to study for ASL. We have an exam soon, but if the world ends, that won't happen, right Lindsay?" Dominic said.

"I guess, except I wasn't even thinking about that. Don't write that down as a possible motive," I said.

"What specifically was happening? Were you just studying, or was there another conversation going on too?" Dr. Reed said.

"I'm pretty sure he was telling me not to judge him for bringing an entire box of Cheez-Its when I noticed the room get darker, but that's probably not relevant," I said.

Dr. Reed's eyes shifted in Dominic's direction. "An entire box?"

"Family-size and everything," I said as Dominic let out a huff.

"That's obviously not important, so can we just move on?" Dominic said.

Sensitive much? It was only a joke, and since I found it funny, I wasn't going to let it go.

"And on the other end, what was going on with the pizza that, I assume, you two never came back with?" Dr. Reed asked Jack and Sierra.

Sierra thought for half a second. "Well, we were still walking to the parking lot where I keep my car, and we were talking about Lindsay and Dominic and how we think they're fucking, and then the sky went dark."

"Sierra," Jack whispered. "You could have left that out."

She looked up at Dr. Reed. "Are we trying to figure this out or not? They were honest, so it's only fair if we're honest too."

I bit my cheek. "You didn't have to be that honest or nosy."

"You didn't answer the question, though," Sierra said.

"There was no question, and even if there was, the answer is hell no," Dominic said.

He didn't have to deny it that harshly. I was cute enough to not be an embarrassment.

I decided not to mention that we were wondering the exact same thing about her and Jack, since that wasn't my business. And no matter what the answer was, I really didn't want to think about it at all.

"Please don't write that down on the board either," I said to draw everyone's attention right back to where it belonged—the talisman's seemingly chaotic patterns.

Dr. Reed didn't. "Then let's go back to the beginning. Tell me about where and when you found the talisman."

"Well, I bought a metal detector because it just felt right, and then Jack and I dug up the talisman in early September or something. I wanted to make sure it wasn't Dominic's, and he got emotionally invested—"

"Intellectually curious," Dominic corrected me.

I rolled my eyes. What was his problem? "Sure, whatever. And then Sierra tried to steal it from me, but she said it suddenly got cold, so it was obviously haunted. And when the four of us went back to the site where we found it, it started raining every single time Sierra got too close."

Dr. Reed scribbled a note on the board: it doesn't like Sierra? Or maybe we're anthropomorphizing it too much?

"That's when Dominic started stalking me, which I don't think we talk about enough. It's really weird," I continued. "Then to test if I had any kind of control over the talisman, I wished for it to warm up a little, and the next day, it was super hot outside. Then I wished for it to get me out of my presentation with Dominic, and then the professor had a heart attack. There is probably a correlation between those two events, but it wasn't my fault mostly."

"Of course," Dr. Reed said and wrote Lindsay has no soul but it still half-listens to her on the board. "Then what?"

"Well, then I ran into Harvey, who's in Jack's band, and he told me that Jack told him that we were dating, which obviously isn't true—"

Jack interrupted me. "Lindsay, focus. This isn't about bringing up every little thing everyone here has done wrong."

"No, no. If she thinks it's important enough to share, it's going on the board," Dr. Reed said and wrote Jack is a dick (likely has nothing to do with the talisman).

I smiled. "Thank you. After that, you and I decided to test the talisman, and that's when I almost killed Dominic, but I didn't because I un-wished it, and after that, we figured out that it was a similar feeling that made him stalk me and that made me buy the metal detector in the first place."

Dr. Reed nodded. "So a lot of these have to do with Dominic, don't they?"

My eyes widened. "I'm sure that means nothing, though. It's just that the talisman wants me to be miserable, and he's good at making sure I am."

Dr. Reed ignored that and wrote another note on the board: Dominic and Lindsay are way too obsessed with each other.

Even though that wasn't a completely fair assessment, I could let it go if only half of the blame was put on me.

"Can we move on? All you've done so far is write small notes that call us out for relatively unimportant things," Dominic said.

"Just pointing out the trends. Dr. Reed smiled. "What happened next?"

"Then we got Dr. Rainier as our new professor for ASL, and he seemed too friendly for me, but Dominic had no problem sucking up to him right off the bat. And there were a couple of times when Dominic showed up while I was at Jack's band rehearsal at Harvey's place. Then Sierra and I found the second talisman-like thing, which we eventually had to give Butterfly when the whole breaking the store thing happened," I continued.

None of that information was going to disprove anything on the board, though, so

"And don't forget that Lindsay broke the store because she was mad that Dominic was talking to her mom," Sierra said.

Dr. Reed underlined the note about Dominic and me.

"Then Dominic and I went back to get the talisman back because I wanted it, and then blah, blah, blah, and then I gave it back to Sierra, and then she cried, and now we're here."

"Blah, blah, blah? What's that supposed to mean?" Dr. Reed asked.

"Way to go, Lindsay," Dominic muttered beside me.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit. "We got it back, and then everything was fine. I just figured that was implied." Nice.

"Lindsay, it's after five, and if I'm going to be spending time here beyond work hours, you're going to have to tell me everything," Dr. Reed said.

I shook my head. "No thank you. I'm good."

"Lindsay?" Jack asked. I hated when he used the tone of voice that made him sound concerned about my well-being and decision-making. I wasn't sure how he knew how to manipulate me, but it worked just like when he convinced me to do the right thing and not go through the secrets Dr. Reed was keeping upstairs in her house.

They probably had something to do with her family, specifically her nephew. I would probably try to keep that away from my students too.

"Fine. We kissed, but it was only because we had the two talismans together, and we're both somehow connected to the magic in them. I don't know how or why, but that's the only possible explanation, because he hates me, and I can't stand him."

"You didn't try to kiss me when you finally let me have the second talisman," Sierra said.

"That's different, Sierra."

"Is it though?"

"Yes."

"Sounds homophobic to me."

What the hell was I doing with my life? "Well, you're being really nosy right now, so if I were you, I would just shut up if you want to keep being friends instead of just roommates."

Sierra shut up, and I turned my attention from the board down to my hands in my lap before I could look at anyone's facial expressions. I knew the truth, so no one else's opinion mattered, but I still didn't want to see them. I hated to like what happened between Dominic and me enough already.

Dr. Reed smiled to herself. "Well, isn't this interesting?"

"It's not. I just want to find the common denominator between all of these events, and—" a lump rose in my throat and my face burned— "this isn't fair to me. I'm doing my best right now, but it's exactly like what Dominic said. We're all just trying to embarrass each other and not looking for what's really going on."

I didn't look over at Dominic, but I was pretty sure he would have nodded. That seemed like something he would do.

All we were was a group of shitty people who got thrown into a paranormal shit show. What else was there to know about what was going on really?

Before a tear could sneak out and embarrass me even more, I crossed my arms tightly over my chest. "If we're going to actually try, we can keep talking about the talisman and try to figure it out. That's what we're doing here past business hours, right?"

Dr. Reed moved back on topic first. "To me, Dominic always seems to be involved, either directly or indirectly."

I nodded. "Unfortunately, I agree."

"So what does that mean?" Dr. Reed asked us like she already knew the answer. "If we look at the data which shows that it did not want anything to do with Sierra, it really seems like it was supposed to end up in Lindsay's hands. She was the only one with a direct link to Dominic—ASL—and she's the only person unfocused enough to buy a metal detector just because she feels like it. It's not a slight; it's a fact."

Thank God it wasn't a personal attack. I smiled, even if I didn't feel it.

"It's old, of unknown origin, and deposited in this area. Lindsay's family isn't from around here, correct?"

I nodded. "I came here to get away from them."

"Dominic, what about yours?"

"Well, I grew up in Tillamook, if that's what you're asking."

Dr. Reed nodded. "That's a start. How long has your family been here?"

"Do I look like Ancestry dot com?" Dominic asked.

She let out a long sigh. "Just when I thought I had it all figured out, Gen Z's nonchalance of the past screws everything up."

"So you're thinking it's a family heirloom that used to belong to Dominic's ancestors?" I asked. "Is that what you're thinking?"

She nodded. "And it just wants to be in the correct hands again. Talismans protect, and this one is no different."

I looked over at Dominic. "But what the hell does that have to do with me? It's mine, and I'm not going to give it to Dominic just because of a hypothesis."

"And you shouldn't. I think it knows what it's doing," Dr. Reed said.

Well, it could definitely improve its communication skills a little, because no one else knew what the hell it was doing.

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Hello everyone! Thank you so much for your patience (again)! I've obviously been very busy lately (I'm graduating from college in a month! Ahhhhh!), and I'm doing my best to keep up with this book, but that's not always possible. So I really, really appreciate everyone respecting that. You're honestly the best.

So now that some of the details have been outlined, what do you think is the big picture of the talisman? What truly caused the sky to turn into a latte of despair, as Lindsay put it?