Page 94 of The Last Session

“Sure.” Moon pulled me into a tight hug. She leaned back, her arms still around me. “And don’t worry, we forgive you three for snooping. I totally understand why. Your love and care for Catherine is so admirable. She was a patient for what—just a few weeks? The fact that you showed up here looking for her—it’s incredible. It shows how much you connected.”

“Thanks.” I grinned down at her, pretending to be comfortable at this close range. Everyone was acting here; I could too.

Finally, she let me go. “We’ll have a big discussion tomorrow. I’m sure you still have a lot of questions. And there are some things I’d like to share with you too. Including why you’re having the dreams you’re having.”

The words jolted me. “What?”

“About the desert. And the cave too?” She patted my arm. “Try to get some rest. We’ll talk more in the morning.”

39

I stand in the open doorway.

There they are, Moon and Sol, their naked bodies gleaming in the candlelight. They’re on an animal-hide rug, treasures glittering around them. She’s on top, gazing down, lips parted in pleasure. Then she sees me and smiles. She holds out a hand, beckoning me. I step forward and Sol cups the back of my calf. But when I take her hand, something changes.

It’s not Moon anymore; it’s Jamie, Pastor John’s wife. And she’s already snatched her hand away, sneering with disgust. We’re not in a palace, we’re in a cheap hotel room, and they’re on a towel that barely protects them from the nubby, stained carpet. I try to back away, but Sol—now Pastor John—clamps down on my calf. At the sharp pain I fall to the floor. Pastor John stares at me, grinning hugely, and it makes my blood run cold. Jamie gets off him, muttering, and grabs my left arm. Pastor John stands and grabs my right arm. They start pulling me forward, towards—what?

Then I see it. A whirlpool in the middle of the hotel room, the water sucking inward, downward, making a sickening noise. The hotel melts away. We’re in the cave now. It was all a trap. I try to brace against the ground but they drag me forward and skin scrapes off my feet. I’m bleeding, and that makes the hole excited; the sucking noises get louder. As they push me to the edge, Pastor John places a huge hand on my lower back, and I look into the water and see rows and rows of teeth.

Not a hole.

A mouth.

“No!” I gasped, my eyelids flipping open.

Familiar golden sunlight streamed into the yurt. My phone beeped its alarm. I sat up slowly and picked it up. Still no Wi-Fi. My body was still tense from the nightmare, and now new apprehension flooded my system. What was wrong with the Wi-Fi? Didn’t that seem suspicious?

At least I still had SOS. The satellites reached even this remote place.

As I dressed, I tried to shake off the dream—a clear manifestation of the unease I felt in this place, where I’d spilled a traumatic memory to literal cult leaders. Catherine’s terrified face still shone in my mind.You should leave.And I would. I just had to figure out how to get her to leave with me.

I had a feeling trying to talk to Moon and Sol would be a lost cause. They were utterly convinced of themselves and their methods. I could try, but maybe I should focus more on Catherine herself. And I had very little time. Grace was set to drive us all back to the airport after lunch.

Walking to the bathroom, I remembered Moon’s parting words about my dreams. How had she known I was dreaming about the desert and the cave? Maybe the desert dreams weren’t that wild of a guess, given that we wereinthe desert. But the cave? I’d dreamed about it—twice—before we’d even found the cavern.

“Thea!” Moon accosted me as I exited the empty bathroom. “There you are. Ready for your one-on-one?”

“Oh.” I clutched my toiletries bag. “Right now?”

“Yes. The sooner the better.” Her tawny eyes shone. “Why don’t you grab some breakfast and bring it to the yoga tent?”

“Sure.” I tried to match her smile. This would be my chance to see if I could talk some sense into Moon and Sol. And, if not, try to gather as much intel as I could.

“Hey,” I said as we walked outside together. “I noticed the Wi-Fi still isn’t working.”

“I know.” Moon rolled her eyes. “It happens a lot, unfortunately. I’ll see if Steven can take a look at it.”

“Thanks.” I paused in my yurt to consider my plan. If I could convince Catherine to come with us to the airport, then what—I’d send her on a plane back to LA? In an ideal world, her parents could help set up treatment. But given that she’d used words like “force” and “controlling” to describe them, they clearly weren’t the right people to ask.

There were also private treatment centers in New York; maybe Catherine would agree to go to one of those?

“Hey!” Mikki was sitting alone at the dining room table. “Finally. What the fuck is going on?”

“Yeah.” I settled next to her. “It was a weird night.”

“So Catherine’s been here the whole time?”

“She has.” How to tell Mikki about what I’d seen? AndshouldI tell her? After all, Mikki was a journalist. She hadn’t yet recognized Catherine was a celebrity, but when she did—what then? Mikki wasn’t bound by any rules of ethics. She could spread the news immediately, interfering with my plans to try to quietly get Catherine out.