“We can’t go home, grandfather!” Lei stomped her foot. “You’re alright now, aren’t you Ramsey? That’s good, just shake it off. The thing is gone now.”

  Mr. Mori looked between us and nothing. Then he watched the psychic wolf cautiously creep along the ground toward Ramsey. When the flashlights were off, the light from the wolf was the brightest thing here. Ramsey didn’t notice it, not even when the wolf was sniffing along his back. He noticed everyone else looking at the space behind him though. Ramsey started to spin in bewildered circles.

  “What do you mean it’s gone? What is?” Ramsey spluttered. “What just happened?”

  “An Old One borrowed your body,” I said. “I think it could have done worse too, but it just wanted to threaten us.”

  The wolf relaxed and padded away. It seemed satisfied that Ramsey was himself again. I looked at Mori in silent communication. He arched his brows, understanding perfectly well.

  “We have to go look!” Lei insisted. “We’ve come this far, we can’t turn back now.”

  “That is incorrect,” Mori said at last. “I have come this far precisely because I have turned back many times before. I have given my word to it. We will leave now.”

  The wolf turned back to look at them. It wanted us to follow again, deeper into the woods where the trees grew close and tangled. The wolf whimpered softly like a whistling wind through the branches.

  “How are you going to sleep tonight still not knowing what’s out there?” Lei pleaded. “What’s the point of all the time you spend with your books and meditations, if you never use your power when you’re given the chance?”

  I was exhausted though. I remembered how quickly my defenses collapsed before the wave of hunger. I certainly wasn’t prepared for this. I wanted to go back too, but Lei was looking at me, the pleading in her voice stirring something inside me which must respond. I was afraid of the hunger which dominated us, but I was more afraid of being weak.

  “You gave your word, Mr. Mori,” I said. “I never gave mine. I want to follow the wolf too.”

  The old man shook his head and smiled. His fingers anxiously ran through his thin beard and betrayed his true agitation. I looked through his eyes and the mask of his smile into his secret heart. I wasn’t ready for the waves of fear I found overflowing from him. Deep, mind numbing terror, worse even than my own during the height of the attack. I felt like I was in quicksand, and every move or thought dragged me down deeper into his frantic worry.

  Mr Mori winked at me. He must feel me in his head. I pulled back, embarrassed and relieved not to dwell on his struggle.

  “It was a mistake to bring children here,” Mr. Mori said harshly.

  “I am not a child!” I growled.

  “As the driver, I say my car is leaving and will not be back. What choices you make for yourself, I do not control. If you do not trust me, then I have yet to earn your trust. So let me start that journey now by telling you the truth. You are not prepared to face the Mind Flayer which possessed our friend. Mind Flayers are a rare and dangerous type of Old One. Something like a sorcerer of their kind. You are not ready — even I am not ready. We must train and prepare, or avoid such a battle altogether if there’s any way. For too long I have dwelled in comfort and luxury. Years have stolen the keenness from my mind and the sharpness of my sting. You will learn from your own choices however. It is better to learn in study than in battle, but either way you will learn.”

  I looked at Lei. She was looking at the wolf. It was looking at me. Arnold and Ramsey were looking at me too. They didn’t say whether they wanted to go or not, but I could tell without asking. Ramsey was trembling from his head to his toes. Arnold’s face was stoic, but beneath I could feel the desperate rhythm of his heart. His anxious panic was so intense, I think he might have broken into tears if there was no one else around.

  “I suppose we could at least wait a few more days,” I conceded. “After my next dose of medication on Friday I’ll be at my best. That will give me some time to train.”

  A relieved sigh echoed through the minds of my company. Except for Lei, who turned abruptly to swiftly march back toward the car without a word. The wolf must understand too, because it hung its head and loped away without us.

  I thought she was mad at me, but I didn’t dare look inside her head to see. I didn’t care either way. By which I mean, I did care, but I deliberately chose not to think about it and did my best to trick myself out of caring.

  When we got back to the car though, she turned and smiled at me. I could see her glowing from a ways off, her phone’s flashlight held below her face.

  “Sit in the middle.” Lei commanded. She opened the car door for me.

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  “I didn’t think anyone would want to sit next to me,” I admitted, crawling in first.

  “Shut up. Just get in. Arnold, you can be up front this time.”

  “It’s whatever.”

  As soon as we were all in the car, Lei leaned into me and whispered:

  “Don’t get any funny ideas now.”

  “If I do, it won’t be my fault, because I’ll have picked them up out of your head.”

  “Don’t do that. Don’t you dare look.”

  “I can’t help it sometimes. I should sit up front.”

  “You’re sitting here because I want you to read Ramsey’s mind,” she whispered.

  The car lurched and bumped along the dirt road. I looked at Ramsey on my other side. He was looking out the window. She must want to know if the Mind Flayer was still inside Ramsey, hiding as a silent passenger. Just like how it was with Doctor Warmal. The Mind Flayer must have already taken him. And now that I realized the connection, I became aware that sitting next to Ramsey really did feel like being with Doctor Warmal now.

  I couldn’t feel the hunger inside him. But just like with Warmal in the second day in class, there was a quiet dread instead. The hopeless fear, the night without dawn. There were no thoughts at all in Ramsey’s head which seemed they belonged to him. I know he couldn’t have noticed me, because he had no psychic awareness. But he turned to look at me anyway. His usual dark olive complexion was ashen pale now. Sweat beaded on his forehead, dripping through his thick curly black hair. A little smile tugged at the corner of one side of his mouth, then fell slack.

  I turned away immediately. I stared forward until Ramsey looked out the window again. Then turning to Lei, I whispered:

  “Yeah. Maybe.”

  “What?”

  “Tomorrow we begin our training,” Mr. Mori interrupted loudly from the front. “Everyday after school. You will all come, yes?”

  “Ramsey and I have basketball Tuesdays and Thursdays,” Arnold said.

  “Then you will come as often as you can.”

  “For how long?” Ramsey asked.

  “Until your weariness from training is less than your fear of the Mind Flayer.”

  “I had a lot of fun tonight actually,” Ramsey said cheerfully. He wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. “We should make this like a club or something. Oh hey, dude, I’ve got the best club name: The Sixth Sense Society!”

  “Lame,” Arnold said. “How about the Psychic Avengers?”

  “What are we even Avenging?”

  They began to argue about the name. I wasn’t listening anymore. I was only aware of Lei cupping her soft hands against the side of my face to whisper again in my ear.

  “What about Ramsey?!”

  “I mean maybe the Mind Flayer hasn’t completely left,” I whispered from the side of my mouth. “Or at the very least, the Mind Flayer left its mark on him.”

  “How about the Hungry Bunch?” Arnold asked. “You know, because of what Martin feels.”

  “What is this, a breakfast cereal?” Ramsey laughed.

  The exterior of him looked nothing like the dread I felt inside. Was he pretending? Was it some kind of defense which was blocking me? Sitting right next to Ramsey was starting to take its toll on me. His invisible hopelessness filled my own thoughts and tainted them a sickly hue. I felt so overwhelmed and insignificant. My own power barely enough to keep me alive, let alone survive in a world so far beyond my understanding. The more I tried to learn, the more things I disturbed, and the more lines I crossed to where there is no return. The Old Ones would always be aware of me now. I felt like a pawn in their game, without even knowing the rules.

  Mr. Mori turned off the dirt road and onto the highway. He wasn’t angry at the traffic anymore on the drive back. The sudden smoothness felt like proof we really had escaped. I took a deep breath, and said:

  “How about Psychic Curse? It feels more like that than a club.”

  Ramsey scowled. Arnold laughed, a great big happy sound which I desperately needed to hear. “I’m cool with Psychic Curse.”

  “It’s stupid,” Ramsey said. Then in a falsetto whine: “Sorry ladies, I can’t stick around. I’ve got to go get my psychic curse on.”

  “Whatever man, you don’t even see them. Are you sure you want to be in this club?”

  “So what? I’ll learn. You’re on the basketball team, and you can’t play basketball.”

  “Bull sh…” Arnold cut himself short. He looked over at Mr. Mori.

  “Ahhmm,” Mr. Mori said. “Very well then. Let tomorrow be the first club meeting for the Psychic Curse. I will help you all with your defensive stances. I will teach you how to catch stray thoughts so we might see glimpses of the Old One’s plans. They are rarelyu so active as this, and surely have some goal in mind. I simply hope we do not find ourselves to be in the way and that we can live in peace with them.”

  “The wolves are definitely on our side,” I said. “It seemed like the one tonight was obeying the commands of the Mind Flayer, but I don’t think it really wanted to. After all, the wolf was leading us into the woods, and the Mind Flayer was warning us away.”

  “The Old Ones are fighting,” Mr. Mori agreed. “The time may come when we are forced to choose a side, but we must not do so in haste, lest we make dangerous enemies.”

  “The Mind Flayer isn’t our enemy,” Ramsey said. “He was the most powerful one, right? And he was trying to keep us safe from danger. Maybe we should be on his side.”

  Was it my imagination, or was there a pang of hunger echoing from Ramsey now? Buried in the hopeless dread, a little ember burning dry kindling. He felt like spark which could become an inferno with the slightest breeze.

  It gave me a shiver. I felt Lei flinch with the same reaction.

  “The wolves are our friends. And the ravens, I think. That’s all I know,” I said.

  Mr. Mori dropped us off one by one. First Arnold, then Ramsey, leaving them at the sidewalk of their suburban homes. Nothing nearly so luxurious as Mr. Mori’s house. After Ramsey got out of the car and said goodnight, I didn’t move from my middle seat next to Lei. There was no reason not for me to move over now that I had space, except that I didn’t want to. It was a kind of test for me. To see if she would still trust me to respect her thoughts.

  I only lived about five minutes away from Ramsey. Not only did Lei not protest, but she lay her head on my shoulder for the last portion of the drive. I could feel her heart racing. Or maybe it was my own, it was hard to tell. I wasn’t sure whether I was feeling something psychic or not. Maybe it didn’t mean anything, but I was afraid to move.

  Lei straightened up and looked out the window as we parked. I got out of the cramped middle seat and stretched.

  “See you tomorrow, Martin,” Lei said out the window.

  I nodded. “Thanks for…”

  I ran out of words. But I don’t think I needed them. She smiled and waved as the car drove away. I looked up at my concrete apartment building. I had to find a way to get my hands on some more of the medication so I could take it when I needed it most. Maybe I even needed a stronger dose.