Love, Blood and Wilderness | YELLOWJACKETS

Chapter 10

    Jackie and Shauna did a pretty good job at setting up the seance. It was an eerie atmosphere with all of the candles that they had set up. It almost felt like a waste but they had worked hard so we didn't bring it up.

    An eldritch symbol was etched into all parts of the wood; a triangle with a circle on its top point, a line drawn parallel through the triangle and more of the same lines drawn on the edges. At the bottom of the triangle, there was a hook.

I wondered if Jackie or Shauna had come up with it, but I doubted that either of them would have been able to. Lottie was completely engrossed with the symbols.

    "Are you sure you wanna do this?" I asked her, as we went up the stairs, "It's okay to opt out if you aren't feeling it."

    "I'm fine," she said, but seemed hesitant.

    We all sat in a circle, waiting for Jackie to commence. I took my place next to Lottie, and who still seemed unsure, but wanted to participate with everyone.

    Well, not everyone. Laura Lee sat out on account of her religion and Taissa thought that the whole thing was stupid, and Ben wasn't able to get up the stairs but didn't seem eager to join in anyway.

Misty was disappointed but made him a cup of tea before doing the seance with us.

   Travis wouldn't allow Javi to come upstairs, thinking it would spook him. It shocked me that Travis even considered other people's feelings. So Javi, Ben, Laura Lee and Taissa stayed downstairs together.

    Travis wore a goofy smile before we even started. He had looked like that since him and Nat returned from their hunt.

    Nat looked at me and smirked and I immediately knew what happened. I clenched my jaw and reminded myself that I had Lottie and that it was wrong to be jealous when for one, I had my own, sort of, relationship and that two, I rejected Natalie.

    But I knew that Natalie could tell that I was slightly envious and she enjoyed getting something out of it.

She would touch Travis' arm occasionally and would look over to see if I was watching. I rolled my eyes, but she knew she had the upper hand.

So I retaliated by grazing Lottie's arm, but she had no reaction, and that just made Nat even more smug.

     "O keeper of this wild and hidden place," Jackie announced, starting the seance with a bowl of red and brown mush she had created from dirt and deer blood, or in her words, a 'classic witch recipe', "we anoint ourselves with blood and earth.

    She went around the circle and drew an X on each of our heads with her bloody concoction.

    Shauna stood at the edge of the circle, blindfolded. She held a pendulum that Jackie had created using rope and a rock, and she had carved YES and NO in the floorboards at Shauna's feet.

    "O spirit, we offer our sister as your instrument. Come to us and speak your peace," Jackie continued, and coughed under her breath to signal Shauna.

    "It is I, Jacques," Shauna said, monotonously.

   We all fought back laughter, though I couldn't help but giggle at Shauna. Jackie cleared her throat.

    "I mean, Jacques," she repeated in a lower voice, which caused more laughter to erupt. Jackie was satisfied.

    "Ask your questions. The pendulum will answer them."

    Everyone was uncertain what to ask. Silence lingered in the room, Jackie looked at all of us desperately, hoping to get her brilliant idea going.

    "Dear dead hunter guy...," Van begun, "did O.J. do it?"