"Are you out of your mind?" Sol hissed to her in the kitchen section of their lounge, hands wrapping around a steaming mug of tea. "You know how the last séance went! I can't believe you're taking such a huge risk for a jerk like him."

            "Sol," Erica murmured evenly, eyes unblinking. "Calm down. I'm just doing what I must."

            "You don't have to do this," Sol returned, tilting his head to meet Erica's gaze, and softening at the sight of her copper irises. "I'm just really worried."

            "Don't be," she assured him rather emotionlessly, as if mentally calculating the risk. Nothing about her revealed any anxiety despite the mental quivering she was going through. "I've learned from last time."

            "Are you two lovebirds done in there?" Drew called from the lounge area where they had a coffee table set up for their séance.

            Sol reddened drastically and began to splutter but Erica turned on her heels and swiftly exited the room before she noticed anything of the sort.

            "Here," Erica murmured to Zip, sliding him a mug of Sleepy Time tea across the table. He nodded in acknowledgment and took a gulp, eyes focusing on the tabletop. He appeared graver than usual.

            "Why's he here?" Drew inquired, nodding towards Zip who paid no heed to being discussed.

            "He serves as a vessel," Erica explained, words tumbling out lazily from her throat as she had to force them out. "The spirits seem to like settling into his skin. They talk through him. You'll see soon."

            "Okay," Drew drawled, raising an eyebrow but not questioning her.

            "Now, let me explain to you how this is going to go," Erica began, clasping her hands together and ignoring the daggers Sol was shooting at her from across the table. "You will all be on your best behavior tonight. No aggravating the spirits." She turned her sharp gaze on Drew who simply stared back at her blankly.

            "If any of you begin to get frightened, just remember that ghosts cannot touch you or hurt you," she continued despite fully knowing it was a lie. They could very much hurt if they choose to, but that won't happen if everyone listens to the first rule.

            "Last," she murmured, lighting the candles despite knowing it was against school rules. Zip padded over to the light switch and flicked it off, engulfing them in the hazy lowlight. "Don't ask them something you don't want to know the answer to. Things like 'how will I die?' never end well. However, things like 'what's my favorite stuffed animal?' work as verification. All right." She paused, glancing around the circle, and inhaling deeply. "Who's ready to begin?"

            The other three nodded in agreement at her, scooting closer towards the table and wriggling into a comfortable position.

            "Grab hands and close your eyes," she instructed in a grave tone, voice ricocheting off the walls. Three candles stood before her, one in the middle and the other two at opposite ends. She reached forward towards the closest one and blew it out, gazing as the smoke danced around in the air.

            It twirled through the dim glow of the other candles whose flame thrashed about like trees swaying in a rainstorm. They threatened to extinguish themselves at any moment.

            She felt Drew and Zip's hands slip into hers, Zip's palm cold and dry as his elongated fingers curled through hers. Drew, on the other hand, held warmth but his touch was stiff as if he were too afraid to extend his fingers any further.

            She glanced around the room, waiting for the dead to amble in. However, it remained still for a few moments before she decided to just put on a show for Drew until one of them arrived.

            "How am I supposed to see proof of a spirit if my eyes are closed?" Drew piped up before Erica could continue causing her to sigh.

            "Fine," she muttered, peeling her eyes back open. "You can keep your eyes open."

            At that, she returned to her solemnity, repositioning herself before resuming, "Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come..." She paused, realizing she hadn't rehearsed the theatrics for tonight enough to memorize them.

            In truth, she wasn't religious and only did the Lord's Prayer out of habit more than anything else, something she'd seen in too many exorcism movies and began reciting herself. However, she couldn't recall the next words and hoped she didn't come across as too obvious when she ended with, "Don't lead us into temptation. Deliver us from evil."

            Drew open his mouth to comment on something, but closed it as Erica began to speak again, murmuring, "Is there a presence in this room?"

            The candles began to dance more violently at that, nearly hopping off their wicks. Drew's grip on her hand grew tighter upon witnessing that, but he kept up his impassive countenance.

            "It seems it's making the candles dance," Erica informed them, and she could feel Sol's eyes burning a hole into her head as his questioning gaze expressed the urge to know whether there was a presence within the room. However, Erica simply continued.

            Her own palms grew slightly clammy as she wondered what kind of force was making the flames whip so violently if the spirits were not within her line of sight.

            "Please, if you're here," Erica began, lips uttering the words with deliberate pauses. "Reveal yourself."

            In that instant, everyone seemed to jump as the door to the lounge creaked open, allowing a sliver of light to stream in. Erica's heart raced, wondering why the spirit approaching hadn't revealed its presence to her or why she didn't sense it. She didn't know if she was prepared to deal with a force she couldn't fully comprehend, yet-

            "Oh, shit, sorry," a lanky boy from her building cursed upon noticing them. His eyes squinted through the darkness towards the kitchen. "I didn't mean to interrupt. I was just, um, trying to use the microwave."

            "Go ahead," Erica muttered, pursing her lips to display her vexation as she watched the boy stride over towards the microwave and reheat a slice of pizza. The silence was excruciating as he tapped his foot, eager to escape the room and their piercing gazes on him.

            He padded out and at that Erica exhaled, grabbing back onto Drew's and Zip's hands to resume the séance.

             "Now that that's out of the way," she grumbled, visibly displeased. She shook out her hair and returned to her grave countenance.

            Rolling her shoulders back, Erica grew comfortable and clutched tightly to the palms of the others. A hum resonated from her throat as she settled in, though it was not of her own accord.

            "If you could speak to one of the dead," Erica interjected, addressing Drew. "Who would it be?"

            "Not sure," he replied instantly, lowering his head as he seemed to contemplate something. "I've never had anyone close to me die."

            "You have, though," she replied softly, and instead of simply seeing Zip seated cross-legged on the carpet, she saw the faded silhouette of a young boy. He couldn't have been older than eleven or twelve years old.

            "Do you have any siblings?" Erica breathed at the sight of the young boy, wide eyes glimmering in the candlelight. "A brother, perhaps."

            "I did," Drew returned, inhaling sharply. "How did you know that?"

            "Hello," Erica addressed the boy, ducking her head to fully envision him. He materialized as she focused her energy on witnessing him. "What's your name?"

            "Alexander," the boy answered, trembling slightly in his place as if it strained him to even be there.

            "Alexander," Erica repeated, glancing over at Drew who grew white as a sheet as the blood drained from his features. "Do you know an Alexander?"

            "Fuck," Drew spat out, hands slackening within hers. "You looked me up online, didn't you?"

            Sighing, Erica pursed her lips before uttering, "Zip, tilt your head back. I'll show you."

            The boy complied, allowing his eyes to shut as he craned his neck back. His breathing grew steady until they could practically only hear silence.

            "Are you there, Alex? You can speak now," Erica informed the frightened boy.

            "Andrew?" Alex murmured, voice quivering slightly as Zip's lips rolled open.

            "Alex," Drew murmured, tilting his head forward to examine Zip. He felt a chill travel down his spine as he hadn't heard that voice in years. "How do I know it's you?"

            "Andrew? It's me! It's Alex," the little boy called back anxiously, unsure of how to prove himself.

            "Do you remember," Drew began, hissing out a pained breath as if each memory stung. "The woods behind our house and how we'd always play pretend back there?"

            "Of course." Zip's lips twitched slightly, making Sol shift uncomfortably. Both he and Erica knew they were intruding on a personal moment but breaking the circle would also instantly disrupt the connection.

            "I was Batman, and you were Superman," Alex returned, easing a bit as a grin slowly broke out over his features. "We would run around looking for anybody to save. Remember when we found a bird with a broken wing? We finally found somebody to help and didn't even know what to do. We had to call Abu."

            The multitude of words that didn't belong to Zip tumbling out of his throat put his body under a strain as he began to tremble slightly, fingers losing grasp of Erica's. She knew this wouldn't last very long as she even found herself growing exhausted but knew Zip could only last with spirits a fraction of the time she could.

            "Jesus," Drew sighed, scowling. "It is you. It really is you, Alex!"

            "Who else..." The noises came out garbled as Zip's hands grew slack. "Would it..."

            "We're losing him," Erica muttered under her breath, glancing into Sol's panicked filled eyes.

            "Alex, what happened? Who did this to you?" Drew demanded urgently. His grip on Erica's hand tightened in desperation as if that would somehow secure the young boy.

            "Drew... I'm c-cold," the voice came out once more, heavily distorted. "D-D-Drew..."

            At that, Zip's body grew limp, and he rolled back onto the floor, releasing Erica's grip and landing with a soft thud onto the carpet. Sol instantly ripped his hands from Drew's, jetting up to examine the boy.

Drew, too, escaped the room as everything descended into chaos.

Erica, before she could even stop to consider what she was doing, instinctually went after Drew into the hallway. He paused to glance up at her.

            Unable to take the way the silence pressed at her, Erica piped up, though not very genuinely, "I'm sorry." His eyes remained on her, growing blank as he seemed to enter a state of numbness.

            "I didn't think any of that would happen," Erica continued, toeing at the carpeting.

            "I didn't know," Drew began after a beat, chewing on his bottom lip.

            "Didn't know what?" Erica inquired, eyebrows furrowing.

            "That he was dead," Drew returned, suddenly looking up to pierce into her expression. "He went missing a few years ago, but some part of me always believed he was out there. I guess, I'm kind of glad."

            "Glad?" she spluttered slightly, blinking rapidly.

            "My mind always jumped to the worst conclusions sometimes," Drew explained, voice barely above a whisper. "He was alive but trapped somewhere. Or living in constant pain. At least this way I... know he's not hurting."

            "Oh," Erica breathed, realizing she could never understand grief like that. Her palms shook slightly as she became overwhelmed by this new information. She couldn't help but inquire, "Who was he?"

            "My twin brother," Drew informed her with a hollowness to his tone as if he hadn't spoken the words in years and.

            "I'm sorry," Erica whispered, flinching slightly at her inability to formulate anything comforting to say. Nothing she could muster up would make him feel better, so she settled on the simple phrase.

            "Don't be," he told her, eyes glassy. "At least now I know."

            At that, he took a step back. noise and heavy against the tiling.

"Oh, and Erica?"

She stilled, unable to handle his intensity.

"You got what you wanted," he informed her, turning and beginning to walk away. "I'll come to your meetings," his retreating figure informed her over its shoulder.

Somehow victory didn't taste as sweet as when she initially imagined it.

            Erica nearly forgot about Zip by the time she wandered back into the lounge and at that point Sol had knocked him out of his daze. Zip said nothing but appeared irritated to have woken up to Sol's incessant, anxious squawking.

            That night, Erica fell asleep with a scowl that didn't even fade until the next morning as she realized the club fair was today and if she didn't gain at least one new member her funds would be pulled out from right under her. Well, whatever was left of the funds.

            "C'mon, Erica," she murmured to her reflection as she examined her outfit of the day, deeming herself as approachable as she'll ever get. "You can do this. You're nice. You're friendly. People love you."