We were sitting in my living room. We had just gotten back from the church after picking up the last of the ritual stuff and were now watching TV. Jo was resting on the easy chair flipping through the channels, while Quentin was on the floor paging through the TV guide. I was sitting on the couch with Sophia, just chilling.
"I'm going in for an interview tomorrow," Sophia said.
"Where?" I asked.
"It's the grocery store off Highway 95 - Gold's."
"You going to be a cashier?" Quentin asked.
"Yep."
"It should be easy to get into, they were desperate for work when I left."
"How come you quit?"
"Well... I didn't. I got fired, written up too many times."
Jo chuckled to himself as he clicked the remote.
"How much did you get paid?"
"Well, I got $6.50, but the cashiers get $6.90."
"That's pretty good," I said.
"It wasn't for me, I was the cart pusher so I didn't have any time to flirt with the cute girls."
"Like you would've gone out with any of them," Jo said.
"I think there was one eyeing me when I left."
"What, you mean that fatass Rebecca? Why the hell would you want to go out with her?"
"Sorry, Jo, people like me have got to take what they can get, I'm not a mac like you," he said slightly acidly.
"That's right," he responded, pleased.
I turned to Sophia. "So do you think you're going to get it?"
"Oh, yeah, no problem. When I walked in, the lines were backed up to five or six people. They only had six cashiers on."
"Sounds like you got a chance."
"I've wanted to work there for a while, but I didn't have time to drive out and get an application. I heard that if you work there long enough you get a 30% discount."
"Good deal."
"Hey," Quentin said, "When you go, find out if Sarah's still working there."
"Who's Sarah?"
"She was my best friend there, my only friend there. She was really good to talk to, very flirty too."
"What's she look like?"
"Short blond hair, blue eyes, they all got name badges on, so..."
"Quentin, she's not going to ask if your little bitch is there."
"She's not a bitch."
"Anyway," Sophia interjected, "It's after school tomorrow so I probably won't be here."
"Aw, what a shame," Jo said. "Well, I'm going to get this ritual stuff in the shed and go home, there's a South Park marathon coming on in a few hours. Quentin, help me."
Quentin put down the TV guide and stood up
"You grab the box with the pan and stuff, I got the candlesticks," Jo said.
Quentin picked up the large, heavy box, shifting its position a couple times so he could see over it. Jo picked up the four tall candlesticks.
"See ya," they said as they exited.
"See ya," we replied.
The door shut.
"Good, they're gone," Sophia sighed.
"Good?"
"Listen, Caleb, you haven't been around us that long so I'll let you in on something. We are not the greatest friends in the world."
"Well, I could see that. No friendship is perfect."
"No, I mean we really don't like each other that much."
I was rather puzzled. "What kind of friendship is that where you don't even like each other?"
"Not a very good one. We just stay together because of the ritual. Now that we're all in it and we all know, if one leaves, the others would suspect him of telling and that wouldn't be good for his health. If we hadn't started this we all would have been long gone. I mean, you see how Quentin's only in his own pathetic little world with his God cards and whatever. Actually, I feel sorry for him. And Jo... Jo is just such a domineering angry bitch. He treats Quentin like shit. That's why Quentin does what he says all the time, because he's afraid of him. I've been thinking that maybe we should cast him out."
"Cast him out?" I had overheard Jo and Sophia's argument before about casting out and it sounded like a pretty severe thing. "Isn't that sort of betraying?"
"He's too dangerous, he's like a walking time bomb. You saw the first time we went in the shed. He was this close to going out like David Koresh. He almost went postal on us!"
She had a point, but then... "I don't know, it just wouldn't feel right. We're not friends, maybe, but we are the Chosen, united under the Hall of Epiphany with the powers of bloodlust."
She looked at me funny. "You've been reading that book, haven't you?"
"Quentin lent it to me after the ritual."
"Yeah, you're starting to sound like him."
"What would casting him out do?"
"I don't know, but I know part of what the ritual is. It's not pretty."
"What do you do?"
"First you put him in the middle of a room in a circle of drawings and candles, and all the members of the cult surround him. Then you take any bonding elements, like in the other ritual, and you burn them so that your ties to him are severed. Then you tie ropes to his arms and legs and hang him above the circle. Then you burn off his hair to the scalp, and you cut his forearms lengthwise," she ran her finger starting from her elbow to her wrist. "That's supposed to be the loss of his vitality."
"That can't be good."
"Like I said, it's not pretty."
"I doubt Jo's going to stand still for that."
"I suppose we'll have to surprise him and tie him to a chair or something. Maybe kidnap him while he's sleeping."
I really did not want to do this, "Well, we don't have to decide anything right away."
"I have a bad feeling it's going to come to casting him out pretty soon though."
"Are you going to tell Quentin?"
"Yeah, but I won't tell him until later. He's not going to like it, he loves Jo. It's like the guy who beats his wife to a bloody pulp, but she stays with him cause she 'loves' him."
"Well, we haven't decided anything. We don't need to tell him right now." I was doing everything to discourage her. I really didn't want to expel anybody form our circle of friends. A guy like Jo will take that and return the favor tenfold. But there was that feeling that compelled me to follow her, to go with whatever she said, the same thing that took me into this mess in the first place.
"Yeah, let's just wait and then see what happens."
"All right, you should just concentrate on that interview tomorrow."
"Good idea."