Your Turn to Suffer by Tim Waggoner (the ebook reader .txt) 📕

idea how long Larry’s signing gig would last today. There was a good chance he’d be home when she got there, and while she’d find his presence a comfort, they weren’t a couple any longer and she thought it best to maintain a certain amount of emotional distance between them. Given how scared she was right now, it would be all too easy to fall back into old patterns of behavior, to seek a return to what they once had, simply for the solace that such closeness might bring. Larry might be in a ‘guy phase’ right now, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be tempted to fall back into bed with her if she gave him the opportunity. No, it would be best to keep him at arm’s length for a while – for both their sakes.

She needed to find somewhere to go, somewhere she could think in peace and try to begin sorting out this mess, without having to worry about what weird thing might confront her next. She had no idea where that might be, though.

“You could hang out with me,” Reeny offered. “I’m showing a house at one-thirty, and I have to pick up Brian at preschool at three. He’d love to see you. You know how much he loves his Aunt Lorlee.”

When Brian had first started talking he’d pronounced her name Lor-lee, and that’s what he’d called her ever since. Lori loved that her nephew had a special name all his own for her. She was tempted to take Reeny up on her offer. She didn’t want to be alone, and god knew she could use Reeny’s emotional support. But she didn’t want to drag Reeny into the insane mess her life had become. Who knew what the Cabal might do to them in order to punish her? No, she couldn’t do that to Reeny.

“Thanks, but I think I’d rather keep handling this on my own for a little while longer. Once I figure out what’s happening to me, maybe I can come up with some way to counter it.”

“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.” Before Reeny could say more, the server returned with her credit card and handed it to her, along with a final bill and a black pen to sign it.

“I hope you both have a wonderful day,” he said, and gave them a final smile before going off to see to other customers.

Fat chance of that, Lori thought.

When Reeny finished adding a tip and signing the check, she held it up as if to inspect her work, make sure her signature was neat and legible, her math accurate. As she did this, Lori saw a message scrawled onto the back of the bill in black ink.

Confess and atone – or suffer.

She almost told Reeny about the message, but she decided not to. As much of a relief as it had been to tell her sister about everything that had happened, she wondered if it had been wise. What if by talking to Reeny, she ended up bringing her to the attention of the Cabal? As long as Reeny believed she was delusional and that the Cabal wasn’t real, they’d have no reason to harass her.

She hoped.

* * *

They walked into the parking lot together. They hugged, and Reeny made Lori promise to call if things got worse. Lori said she would, though she suspected Reeny knew this for the lie it was. Reeny climbed into her red Nissan Altima, started the engine, then after a last worried look and a wave, she backed out of the space, put the car in gear, and drove off. Lori got in her Civic and turned on the engine, but she sat there for a moment, thinking, trying to decide on her next move. She was still debating when her phone rang, startling her. She almost didn’t check to see who was calling, afraid to find it was someone from the Cabal. But the phone’s display screen indicated it was Justin, so she answered it.

Instead of saying hello, she said, “Justin?” as if unsure it was really him on the other end.

“Hey.”

His voice was subdued, but it was him.

Before he could say anything else, she said, “I’m sorry about last night. I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that.”

He didn’t respond right away, and she thought he was still angry with her. She was going to apologize further, but he said, “I got the CT scan results this morning.”

She was confused. She’d known he’d had a doctor’s appointment, but he’d said nothing to her about needing a CT scan.

“Justin, what are you—”

“I didn’t want to say anything to you until I was sure. I didn’t want to worry you unnecessarily. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that. Maybe I just wanted to pretend that everything was normal for a little while longer, you know? Still, that’s no excuse for keeping you in the dark like I did. Sorry.”

Lori was stunned. After everything that had happened since last night at FoodSaver, she’d come to expect that her life was going to continue to get increasingly fucked up. But finding out that her boyfriend had some kind of ongoing medical issue – evidently a serious one – that he hadn’t told her about seemed equally as surreal as sadistic occultists in blood-red robes and black cars traveling an ebon road beneath a starless sky.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I’ve been feeling rundown for a couple months, so much so that I’ve been guzzling coffee by the gallon trying to stay functional. It helped, but not as much as I’d hoped. I decided to go to the doctor for a checkup, and the doctor ordered a series of tests. X-rays indicated the presence of shadowy masses on my lungs, so the doctor ordered a CT scan.”

The word shadowy caught her attention as much if not more than masses. She imagined night-black multijointed fingers entering Justin’s mouth, reaching down into his lungs, infecting them with darkness.

“It looks like cancer,” Justin