Tasha hadn't slept properly in days.
She sat hunched in the quiet of her kitchen, hands wrapped around a chipped mug of cold tea. The walls creaked more than usual. The shadows stretched differently. And ever since her name was added to the jar,even unknowingly,something in her home felt... occupied.
The dreams were no longer just dreams. The woman with eyes like fire and a mouth sewn shut kept reaching for her. Tasha would wake, gasping, unsure if she was still asleep. She hadn't told the others everything,some things felt too dangerous to name aloud.
But something was watching her. That she knew for sure.
Meanwhile…
Adrian sat slouched on the worn couch in Lex's cluttered apartment, nursing a beer he hadn't taken a sip from in ten minutes. Lex was pacing. His energy was unusually restless.
"You ever heard of the buried coven?" Lex asked abruptly.
Adrian raised an eyebrow. "The what now?" Lex stopped pacing and pulled out an old, folded newspaper clipping from a dusty folder. He tossed it on the coffee table. Local folklore: The Sisterhood of Maji Hill.
"It's something I remembered after what's been happening with the jar," Lex said. "When I was younger, my grandmother used to tell me stories. About a group of women—a coven,who lived on the outskirts of town a long time ago. They were rumored to protect a sacred object… something they passed among themselves."
Adrian leaned in. "You think it's the same jar?"
"I didn't… until now," Lex replied. "Ever since that night at Sasha's, things haven't felt right. And not just strange,off. Like time bending. Lights flickering. Whispers in the walls."
Adrian's fingers tightened around the bottle. "You think the girls have activated something?"
Lex hesitated. "I think the jar was never meant to be opened. It was buried with the last of the coven. And now..." he pointed at the clipping, "...it's waking up."
Adrian's eyes narrowed. "And no one told them?"
"No one believed it. Just old town myth. But now Tasha, all the way out of town, is seeing the same things? That's not coincidence."
At Naya's place…
The jar sat between them like a silent judge.
Sienna, Naya, Sasha, and Alani circled around it, candles flickering around them. Tasha's voice buzzed through the speakerphone,her tone was panicked but steady.
"I didn't tell you everything," Tasha admitted. "I've been seeing things. A woman. Symbols drawn in ash. My mirrors fog even when it's dry. And today… someone left a dead crow at my doorstep."
Gasps rippled through the room. Alani stepped closer to the speaker. "Tasha… the jar, it,"
"She's part of it now," Naya interrupted quietly.
Sienna looked guilty. " I'm so sorry we added your name without your permission, to test something. I'm sorry."
There was silence on the line.
Then Tasha spoke again. "Ever since you told me about it, I've felt... drawn. Like I knew it already. Like I've held it before."
Sasha's eyes darkened. "It's not just some object. This thing holds a memory. A curse, maybe. Passed down through time."
"And now," Sienna whispered, "it remembers us."
Elsewhere…
Lex pulled out a weathered map, laying it flat for Adrian. "The last known location of the Sisterhood's gatherings was here,beneath what's now the abandoned Greenspring."
"You think it's where the jar came from?" Adrian asked.
"I think it's where it was meant to stay," Lex replied grimly. "And if they disturbed it…"
"…Then whatever was buried with it is now following them," Adrian finished.
The two sat in silence as the wind howled outside, rattling the windows.
Neither of them noticed the shadow that crept just beyond the curtains.
Watching.
Waiting.
Later that night, back in Tasha's home, she checked her phone one last time before bed. A new message had arrived, from an unlisted number.
"You are the link. The jar knows. And now—so will you."
As she turned, her bathroom mirror fogged completely… and behind her, etched in the mist:
"Return what was taken."