e m p a t h y .

now she had been back at monarch for an hour and in that hour, she had done two things. she had put her bags in her room and bumped in to a student in the broadview hallways who had just been broken up with. clearly, tilly had no luck right now and her toxic trait was to always want to help people so the second she was done with absorbing all of that, she was done. matilda hadn’t even had chance to tell anyone she was back on campus before she wound up at mars bar, buying a bottle of tequila and sitting in a booth in the corner on her own. when someone approached her, she didn’t even look at them. “if you’re not going to drink shots with me, I’m going to politely ask you to walk away.”

“How about we do something else that doesn’t involve inviting entities in to this world?”

“that works too. drink?”

“May I ask… why… you want to contact the dead…?”

“it sounds like fun and would confirm if ghosts are real or not.”

Lovey gave Tilly a look, the same one she’d given Clementine who seemed to have turned into an absolute train wreck since the day of Addison’s death. “That’s fine, Tills. We don’t have to talk about anything. But you’re fucking crazy if you think I’m just gonna leave you out in the open by yourself, not with everything that’s happened.”

“i never asked you to leave, i just need some fresh air and to be away from all the emotions in there. it’s exhausting for me.” tilly sighed out. “feel free to come and sit down.”

“Even psychics use Amazon. Interesting,” she giggled. “What did she say about your future?”

“we did tarot card readings so it’s all pretty vague about new chapters in your life and meeting people.”

“They’ll freak out just knowing that it’s happening in the same house as them, you know what people are like around here”.

“that’s why salt circles are important so the spirits can’t leave the seance circle. everyone will be safe.”

“Okay, okay” Austyn nodded his head firmly, “I’m here for this. You know we’re already being chased by a serial killer. Why not get an evil spirit in the mixture. How maybe they’ll cancel each other out and we’ll all be freed from this hell hole.”

“you think someone killed addison and serena?” tilly asked. as far as she knew, serena had disappeared somewhere and addison had killed herself. 

“I’m happy to hear you speak to ghosts then.”

“there’s still a good chance i won’t speak to a ghost but it’ll be fun to try.”

“That must be a pretty long list by now”, Amber-Jade joked.

“it’s a really really long list.”

“Of course, you’re more than welcome to join me. It sure beats drinking alone”.

“thanks. drinking alone can only be fun for so long.”

“Did she have a crystal ball? Could she predict the future and stuff?”

“she did but i think it was one she bought on amazon so think what you will. she’d try to predict the future but you never know if it’s true until it happens.”

“Hear me out… no.”

“fair enough, worth a try.”