A peek inside the book

When we arrived at Femme Fatale, my cheeks were still red from the embarrassment of Anna poking fun.

Mom looked surprised to see us at this hour, so I quickly went up to her and told her that we would not stay long. That I just needed something from my room.

The both of us hurried to the apartment and went immediately to my room. I took out the book with the voodoo spells and got the relevant diaries, that explained what she had done.

The spells weren't that complicated, it seemed like a book for kids to be honest. I could not believe that I had been so scared of this. There was no way that this could be real. While I was starting to feel a little relieved, Anna was reading with big eyes, she was devouring the voodoo book page by page. I didn't want to break her out of her focus so I went to the kitchen to make us some tea.

When I returned, Anna looked up at me and said “I found something, but this could be problematic. It could mean that the voodoo is real.”

“What do you mean?” That book is clearly kid stuff.

“I think Louisa accidentally activated her voodoo spells by committing suicide. See, the spells require a sacrifice of some sort. Usually a living creature, but it clearly states later in the book that it should not just be killing something. It should also feel like a sacrifice to the caster. So you can't just kill something random. Louisa's spells could have activated on her death when she sacrificed herself.”

There is just no way this could be happening. But the fact remains that every spell she cast started happening after her death.

“Then how do we stop bad things from happening?” I asked.

Anna looked at me. By the look of it, I knew I wasn't going to like what she was going to say.

“Burn everything that was used in the ritual together,” Anna said. “The dolls and the sacrifice.”

Burn she says “You mean at the cremation!”

Anna nodded. “We need to find a way to sneak all that stuff into her coffin."

I didn't dare to imagine what would happen if we got caught. At least this was something that could stay between the two of us.

“But won't we reverse the spells? I would not want to accidentally break up Eve and Therese.”

And I did not really want to go back to the way I was before, but there was no way that I would say that out loud.

“The book says that the spells will stop having an effect. There is no way to reverse what has already happened. So we should be safe.

"The one benefiting most of us stopping the spells will be Elsa. That spell that was cast to disrupt her close relationships should be stopped as soon as possible. ”

She then turned the page of the book and looked up at me

“But that is not all.”

I felt I wasn't going to like what she was about to say.

“We will need the help of the other girls that have spells put on them too, and ask what they want us to do. Their consent is apparently very important. They also gave their consent in some way to perform the spell to start with. There are a lot of tips in this book to trick people into that. So that is probably what Louisa did.”

“...”

We weren't going to be able to keep this between the two of us were we...

“We will really have to tell them, won't we?”

“I'm afraid so. This is not something we can pull off with just the two of us. Ideally, everyone puts their own doll in the coffin.”

I shivered at the thought of having to do that.

“Okay, let's gather the relevant diary entries and take them with us. Since the cremation is tomorrow, we don't have much time left.”

We put everything we needed in a folder and made way for school. When we arrived the rehearsals had already started.

Anna approached Ms. Stick and asked if we could rehearse for the idol group at the same time. Nice thinking Anna, that was a way to get together with all the girls we needed to discuss the voodoo situation with.

Ever since Ms. Stick found out that Anna's family was the main sponsor of Bozar, her demeanor toward her had made a 180° turn. “Do call me Narcy, I am dating your childhood friend after all. It would be so weird when we all get together and you are still calling me Ms. Stick.”

You had to give it to Ms. Stick. She had a way with words. She gave us permission to rehearse at the same time, as long as we would come over to help if it was needed for the play.

Anna called the idol girls and said “We get extra time to rehearse. So let us make the most of it.”

They seemed really enthusiastic about it.

“Claire, you are going to be amazed at what we have in store for you,” Therese said.

“You should have seen the Lyst studio where we went to record this morning!” Eve added.

Tina noticing that Elsa seemed a bit uncomfortable said “And Elsa's song came out wonderful. She is a fantastic composer!” The other girls immediately sang Elsa's praises too.

Elsa immediately blushed a little at the compliments and I could see a smile form on her face.

We moved to a separate room where we could practice in private. Anna's eyes were sparkling. I think she already forgot about Louisa's and the voodoo and just wanted to see us do an idol dance.

When we were finally alone, not giving Anna a chance to ignore our predicament, I said “Before the rehearsal starts we have something to discuss.

Anna seemed to be surprised at my words. So she did forget and only asked because she wanted to see the idols... I looked at her and sighed.

She seemed to realize her mistake and she quickly got a serious look on her face. It was impressive how fast she could adapt.

The girls all looked at me with an interested smile, but when they heard what I was telling them, and they also saw the journal entries and voodoo dolls, they started to look horrified.

“This is just impossible. Isn't this all just a big coincidence? The way things happened surely did not seem like a magical intervention.” Tina said.

“Even if it is true and it worked, why would Therese and I want to change anything? I am happy to be together with her!” Eve said.

“I was in love with Eve way before this all started. If anyone brought us together, it was you, Claire. I agree with Eve, I see no point in going through an ordeal for something I am happy with.”

“Well, I want it to stop now!” Elsa suddenly shouted, and she started crying. I could see the fear on her face. She was the one who had all the negative spells cast over her.

“You see what you did,” Tina said accusingly.

“Girls, girls, we just showed you what we found. Since it concerned all of us, we wanted to make a decision together.” Anna interjected. I could see she did not want a row to start.

“Fine! Then, what do we do? It's not like we can ask Louisa to stop...” Tina said.

Anna started explaining how the spells could be stopped, but that what has been done could not be undone. The girls looked with big eyes.

“So everyone that wants their own spell to stop, should put their own doll in Louisa's casket.”

“You mean those things that were made with our menstrual blood. Count me out for sure!” Therese said. “I don't mind staying together with Therese either.” The two of them looked dearly in each other's eyes and kissed.

“I'll do whatever it takes. It's been one thing after another lately. I want it to stop. If Louisa was still alive, I would kill her!” Elsa had gotten angry and found resolve in that. “If that is what you want, you know I'll stand by you.” Tina hugged Elsa and the both of them started kissing.

It was hard to drive a conversation in this room with all the kissing every time someone became emotional.

So we started planning on how we would get the dolls in the casket.

I just hoped Anna did not make a mistake, and we all end up spontaneously combusting the second the casket with the dolls caught fire.