"I saw her on my first day with the cult." A ghost of a smile formed on Kevin's lips. I knew he was referring to Mitchell. That word cult. Hearing it from Kevin ruled out any doubts in our assumptions.

"I am from a family of witches and wizards. My dad's family is a very ancient one and our ancestors were one of the earliest founding members of the cult. At fifteen years of age, the young witch or wizard will be allowed to visit the rituals of the cult. I was wearing this new red hood and was waiting for the leader of the cult to make an entrance. We use different names in the cult. We never use the name we use in normal society. We don't even get to see most of the members' faces. So, I never knew the leader's name. No one had ever seen his face. Maybe that was also the reason I never knew that Mrs.Lewis was one of us. Anyway, the leader's cult name was Magnus."

"You already knew about that entrance in the cave. That was where we all used to meet. Magnus entered the cave that day, his hood totally obscuring his face. There was a pit of fire already arranged in the cave. He approached the fire and stood with his back to us. Then I saw her. Mitchell. She was at the entrance of the tunnel that Magnus had just come from. She was wearing a parka and a beanie. Her eyes were wide with fear and she was glued to the spot."

My interest was at a peak. I knew what Kevin was talking about. It was the same scene where Mitchell had stopped writing the diary. I listened more attentively.

"'Welcome, child of the devil. Join us. Let's take revenge on those who had wronged our ancestors.' He said. Her already wide eyes widened further. She was shivering and I understood she didn't know anything about who we were and what we were doing there."

"But Magnus explained everything to her and us, that day. Mitchell was one of us. Our cult was formed during the Witch trials of Salem. There were many of our ancestors who were executed in different trials during the same time period. Many of them were innocents. True, they practiced witchcraft but they never harmed any common people with their powers. But the people were too paranoid and overcame with mass hysteria to understand that. So, witches and wizards of that generation decided to form a cult. To help out each other. To make decisions that could save them from the non-magical people. After the trials ended, the coven still continued. Meetings were held every week in the cave on the hill. Witches and wizards practiced their magical skills and improved them. At the very place where the accused were hung during the trials. But we never revealed our true identities because there was the risk of members betraying each other."

"Magnus said Mitchell belonged to the family of the powerful witches of the old times when the cult was formed. They were also part of the founding members. But their family lost their power gradually since they moved away from the town. By the time of Mitchell's parents, they were the only living members. They came back to the town to sort out through some old property and then they died in a car crash. Mitchell was the only survivor of the accident; she was taken by the orphanage and was raised there. The leader of the cult is the one who knows every member's identity and their families. So, he knew Mitchell's parents. He was observing her since the day she was born and now that she was fifteen he introduced her to her true people."

"Mitchell was standing there disbelieving during his whole speech. But she started coming there every week like the rest of us. I could recognize her every time through that sea of redness. She was very remarkable to me. I couldn't forget her since the first day I saw her. I knew it was against the coven's rules but I had to talk to her. I was obsessed with the auburn-haired girl. One day after the meeting, I followed her to the orphanage. I talked to her. She was frightened at first because it was against the rules. But after some days, she started enjoying my company. We became good friends. We used to study in the town park together since we couldn't meet either at my house or in her orphanage. We used to roam the town together. My parents never found out. By the time we were seventeen, we grew so close. We couldn't live without each other. We worked our asses off to get into Harvard so that we could get out of this town and truly be with each other."

"We couldn't live together since my parents used to visit me a lot and they shouldn't know about Mitchell. They shouldn't know I crossed the rules of the cult. So, we rented different apartments. We visited the cave once every month acting like complete strangers. We kept you both oblivious of our personal lives so you wouldn't get freaked out by us. Everything was great. We were having the time of our life. Then the pearl happened."

Wetness seeped into Kevin's eyes. He wiped the streaming tears on his face. I couldn't even fathom how traumatic it was to see your childhood sweetheart dead and you being the prime suspect in the murder. I was just her roommate and I couldn't bear the news of her death. He knew her since they were fifteen and they planned their life together. There was no surprise he was still grieving. But where did the pearl come into this and how did it cause Mitchell's death?

Noah stood up and approached Kevin. He put his hand around Kevin awkwardly. Kevin composed himself after a few moments. Noah sat back. Kevin resumed his account.

"One week when we visited the coven, Magnus called Mitchell to talk to her personally. She was not quite herself when she came back. She was worried. After so much asking from my side, she finally gave in and told me what Magnus had asked her. He told her there was a pearl that was handed down in Mitchell's family for generations. He wanted it for some ritual. But Mitchell was always doubtful of him. She didn't want to give it to him without knowing what he would do with it. It was the last thing she had in the memory of her parents, so she was very unwilling to give it away. In my parent's house, we have all books on the Satanic rituals and artifacts ever written. So, we ran our own research on the pearl and what we found wasn't very pretty."

I saw Noah's hand hovering over the pocket containing the pearl. His eyes were focused on Kevin with interest. Kevin took a sip of his hot chocolate and continued.

"We discovered it was the blood pearl, which all the Satanists around the world want to possess. I heard even my parents talking about it so many times. It was believed to be the devil's blood drop and it was believed to possess many powers. That was not all of it. We discovered the ritual that was performed with the blood pearl in a very old book. If on any one of the five days after Christmas the pearl was sacrificed to Satan along with ten human heads, Satan, he himself will reward the person who did the ritual with powers to rule the earth. As soon as we read it, we knew we had to stop Magnus. We all knew he was sort of an extremist and wanted revenge on the non-magical people for executing our ancestors. This type of power was not safe in his hands."

My stomach churned at the ten human heads part and I placed the cup of hot chocolate on the floor. I didn't believe myself not to be sick.

"Do you really believe it would happen?" Noah asked, skepticism evident in his voice. "That Satan awarding the part of the world-ruling powers?"

Kevin shrugged.

"Anything can happen in our world, Noah." He said. "I saw magic happen and Mitchell and I cast many spells ourselves. Even if the ritual was hocus-pocus, we couldn't let ten human heads be severed, could we?" Kevin said.

I was reminded of the way the hooded man disappeared in the seminar hall the other day. Yes, there were powers beyond our understanding and now those powers were working against us. I felt a shiver run down my spine. Was the hooded man, the Magnus, Kevin was talking about?

Kevin continued:

"So, Mitchell told Magnus that she couldn't find the pearl. He acted as though he believed her but we knew that he didn't. The books we read said that the pearl couldn't be destroyed. So, our only chance was to hide it. We cast protection spells on our apartments so no witch or wizard couldn't enter them without our permission. Then we figured, we should make sure that even if we were caught, we shouldn't spill the whereabouts of the pearl. So, Mitchell gave the pearl to you and I gave the chain with which the pearl goes, to Noah. Then, we didn't know where the pearl was hidden. We thought they wouldn't suspect that we gave the pearl to non-magical people."

"The night Mitchell was murdered she wanted me to come over. I came down to the apartment. I came inside to find...." He trailed off. He couldn't tell that by himself. Even I couldn't tell that word to the detective, the night Mitchell was murdered.

"She was gone by then. I knew who killed her and I also knew the boyfriend would be the prime suspect. Once I got into the hands of the police, I couldn't get out early enough to stop Magnus from doing his ritual and catch the people who killed my Mitchell. So, I got out of there. I knew Naina would get there any minute. So, I went to my apartment, gathered a few things, and came down to this cottage. It belonged to my family and no one but my family knew about this. I was keeping an eye on the cave to see if Magnus was up to something. I created a mist to hide this cottage from the view of the others. That was what you saw yesterday." He said nodding towards me.

So, this was the story behind the pearl. I sighed. I contemplated the risk Mitchell and Kevin took and the sacrifice that was made by Mitchell. I could never do that for persons I never knew. Then another thought entered my mind. Kevin said they had cast protection spells or whatever in the apartment. So, Mitchell had to let in the person who murdered her. Who was it?