Under_The_Whispering_Door_by_TJ_Klune

For a moment, Wallace thought it was all for show. That Mei was being
overly dramatic, playing a part. But there was a twist to her mouth he’d never
seen before, and a sheen to her eyes that hadn’t been there a moment ago. She
gnawed on her bottom lip as she blinked rapidly. He remembered what she’d
told him about what it’d been like for her when she was younger, when no
one would listen to her when she tried to tell them something was wrong.
“What does she do?” he asked.
“Ouija board,” Nelson said. “She said she found it in an antique store, and
that it once belonged to Satanists in the 1800s. There’s a sticker on the
bottom that says it was made by Hasbro in 2004.”
“Because she’s full of shit,” Mei snapped.
“Pretty much,” Nelson said. “She also records everything and puts it
online. Mei looked it up once. She has a YouTube channel called Desdemona
Tripplethorne’s Sexy Seances.” He made a face. “Not exactly quality content,
if you ask me, but what do I know.”
“But…” Wallace hesitated. Then, “If she tells people what they want to
hear, what does it hurt?”
Mei’s eyes flashed. “Because she’s lying to them. Even if it makes them
feel better, she’s still lying. She doesn’t know anything about what we do, or
what comes after. Would you want to be lied to?”
No, he didn’t think he would. But he could also see it from the other side,
and if people wanted to give her money just to have reassurance, then wasn’t
it their business? “She charges for it?”
Mei nodded. Hugo wrapped an arm around her shoulder but she shrugged
him off. “After what she did to Nancy, I really thought you’d see right through
her. But here we are.”
Hugo deflated. “I…” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “It was her
choice, Mei.”
“What did she do to Nancy?” Wallace asked.
Everyone stared at him, the silence deafening. Wallace wondered what
fresh hell he’d stepped in now.
“She found Nancy,” Mei finally said. “Or Nancy found her. I don’t know
which, but it doesn’t matter. What matters is that Desdemona filled Nancy’s
head with all manner of crap about spirits and her ability to contact them. She
gave Nancy false hope, and it was the cruelest thing she could have done.
Nancy believed her when Desdemona said she could help. And then she