Paranormal is Relative

to be this direct," Nora said.

  "It's usually not. Remember how much trouble had figuring out the identity of your sister's roommate?"

  "Yeah, but that was kind of literal too," Leah said. "We found her by the Moon Bench."

  "Yeah. Hrm. Okay, this card is the background or the reason I'm asking and it’s the Three of Swords, which is sorrow and loss."

  "I see the card is literally a bleeding heart," Leah said.

  "I guess the loss might be whatever caused this person to end up a werewolf," Isabella said.

  "This fits in with the next card, which is the recent past, or what lead up to this situation. It's the Five of Swords, which is betrayal."

  "So maybe whoever is the werewolf was betrayed," Nora suggested. "Maybe the werewolf, probably a guy since this is Case, was dating a girl. The girl was a werewolf and the guy didn't know it, and by making him into a werewolf, she betrayed him."

  "That's not a bad interpretation, actually," Maryann said. "Could be a girl is the werewolf, but same betrayal. This next one is the near future which is the Tower. You can tell by the picture this isn't a good card. Basically everything comes crashing down."

  "Is that for the werewolf?" Leah asked.

  "I assume so since I'm asking about its identity. Maybe this is me figuring out who it is."

  Isabella frowned thoughtfully but didn't say anything.

  "Next card is present state of the problem, and it's the Eight of Swords. That's the prisoner card."

  "Do you think this person knows they're a werewolf?" Leah asked.

  "I don't know. They may not but they may also somehow know something is wrong," Maryann said. "Next is external influences or higher powers and it's the Hermit. That's kind of odd, actually. I guess the werewolf is a loner?"

  "You mean a lone wolf," Leah said.

  Nora groaned. "Honestly."

  "Isn't the Hermit kind of related to the Moon card?" Isabella asked.

  "Oh, sure, by a cross sum, if you take that kind of thing into account."

  "I really wish I spoke occult sometimes," Leah sighed.

  "There are lots of ways the cards can be related depending on the reader," Isabella said. "But since people like to look for meaning and patterns, sometimes those connections aren't always relevant. But considering this is all about a werewolf, I think the Hermit's link to the Moon may be important."

  "Does this help us figure out a name?" Nora asked, sounded annoyed. "Because right now this seems like stuff we already know."

  "Please, Nora," Isabella sighed. "This is divination. It's not an exact science. We already know the only accurate prophecies are the ones that are actually history."

  "Fine," she said, sounding unconvinced.

  "The next card is internal influences, which is the Queen of Wands. That's actually good."

  "That's you, Maryann," Isabella said.

  "Well, sure, because I'm doing the divination to find out its identity," she continued, "the next is hopes and fears and that's the Nine of Swords, which is only the worst card in the deck. Basically this is the worst case scenario. This is everything going wrong."

  "This means we're going to meet the werewolf," Leah said.

  "This isn't supposed to be about us," Nora said. "I thought this was about the werewolf. Clearly it's going to have a very bad day, which is what we want, right? Someone to figure out who it is?"

  "Well, yes, but I don't know if this is what that means. I have a really bad feeling about this spread," Maryann said.

  "Yeah, the last card is Death," Leah said. "I'm pretty sure that can't be good."

  "It's not exactly bad. It doesn't usually mean physical death. I mean, hardly ever as far as I know. It is generally interpreted as a profound change."

  "But it could mean actual death, right?" Leah asked.

  "Sure, it could, but I don't think that's likely."

  "Does this tell us who the werewolf is?" Nora interrupted impatiently. "Besides that it's a student here at Case?"

  "Um, it's probably a guy," Maryann answered.

  "Yeah, and over half the students here are guys," she snapped. "Listen, it's nice that you tried but this doesn't really get us anywhere."

  "I'm just hoping that Death card isn't literal. I mean, werewolves and death kind of go together," Leah said.

  "It's not worth worrying about now. We need to get to some sleep. And tomorrow we need to do some more rehearsing," Isabella said. "You try another divination if you want, but I don't think it will help."

  Maryann sighed. "I just wanted to help Jason."

  "We understand that," Leah said. "But Isabella's right; we need to get some sleep."

  And that's what they did.

  Maryann was the first awake so she got breakfast for the group.

  "You didn't sleep well, did you?" Leah asked, since she had shared a room with Maryann as normal.

  The redhead sighed. "No."

  The other two joined them for breakfast.

  "I had a weird dream," she said.

  "So did I. I dreamed we were in an Old West ghost town with the Three Stooges," Leah said.

  The other three gave her odd looks.

  She shrugged. "Hey, those are my dreams."

  "Mine wasn't so, um, weird, I guess," Maryann said. "I dreamed about the tarot reading. I saw the Tower but it was the Amasa Stone Chapel. Lightning struck it and I could see who the werewolf was and suddenly I was surrounded by nine swords floating in the air."

  "Can you tell us who it is?" Isabella asked.

  She shook her head. "No. It was so clear in the dream. I was frightened and I ran to the chapel to try to get inside but the door was locked. I was yelling at you to open the door. Charlie and the angels tried to protect me, but they weren't strong enough. Then the moon glowed like the sun, I saw a shadow of someone in a hood and cloak, everything turned silver and then I woke up."

  "I'll make some door charms just in case this is one of your psychic dreams," Isabella said. "And if it's not, well, I'm out some ink and paper."

  "I'm going to call Jason and make sure he's okay since last night was a full moon," Maryann said. "And then I'm going to make sure he comes to our show tonight. I want to get him away from Case since tonight's a full moon."

  "You think he'll be safer in downtown Cleveland?" Leah asked. "At least there are spirits watching over the university."

  "Well, we can protect him if we have to. Anyway, he really needs to get out of that lab and have some fun. If he's going to be stubborn, I'll bribe his friends to take him to our show." After three separate attempts she had failed to get in touch with her brother. "That's it! We're going over to his house!"

  "I'm sure he's fine, Maryann," Isabella said.

  "Well, I want to be sure."

  "Does he share a place with other guys?" Leah asked.

  "Yeah."

  "Then call one of them first. We don't want to walk in on a bunch of dudes unannounced. I have three brothers; trust me on this one."

  Maryann looked doubtful, but contacted one of Jason's housemates. "Okay," she said, hanging up, "Aadi told me Jason's already back at the lab but that he'd be willing to drag him to the show if we can get tickets for everyone."

  "We can do that," Isabella said. "But why didn't your brother pick up his phone?"

  "Aadi said Jason told him he was so tired he left his phone in the lab last night."

  "But if he's at the lab, why didn't he answer?"

  Maryann shrugged. "He's not very good about keeping his phone charged anyway."

  "I didn't know that sort of thing was genetic," Leah replied.

  "Hey! I'm a lot better about that now," she retorted. "Anyway, we need to drop off the tickets and I want to ask those guys how much Jason's been at the lab."

  "They probably won't talk," Leah said.

  "They'll talk to me," she said firmly.

  After taking care of some band business, they drove to the half house
Jason was sharing with three roommates: two seniors and one junior. The junior, a young man with a dark complexion wearing baggy clothes, opened the door. "Hi, Maryann."

  "Hi Aadi."

  "I didn't think you were bringing the whole band just to drop off tickets," he said.

  "I brought doughnuts too."

  "Awesome. Hey, guys, we got doughnuts!" he yelled to the other two unseen housemates. They heard some positive replies.

  "But the doughnuts have a price," Maryann continued. "I want to know what's going on with my brother."

  "Oh, man," he sighed. "Fine, come in."

  They followed him into the living room which was not as messy as they expected. Maryann set the doughnuts out on the coffee table and the other two housemates grabbed some but then quickly made excuses to leave.

  "Thanks guys!" Aadi called sarcastically as they walked out the door. "Look, Maryann, I don't know what you want me to tell you. Jason's been real busy with his thesis. His professor keeps thinking of more work for him. Sometimes I swear the guy doesn't want him to graduate so Jason can keep doing his research for him."

  "He looks awful! Is he sick? Has he been to the doctor?"

  Aadi was looking very uncomfortable. "Well, he does stay at the lab most nights. Like, almost every night. I mean, he comes back here, eventually, but he's usually out real late."

  "Something else is going on here. What is it?" she asked firmly.

  He sighed. "So he didn't tell you about her?"

  "Her?" Maryann exclaimed.

  "Jason, well, Jason doesn't get out as much as he should," Aadi said. "But last semester he met this girl. Deanne or something. He fell for her really hard and fast. Like, creepy tween romance fast. Don't judge me," he said quickly. "I've got two older sisters and two younger female cousins who were always around."

  "That's fine,"