The girls were quiet on the ride back from Mapatoni, the silence in the van heavier than the jar that now sat dimly on Naya's living room table. No one had spoken much since they left the chapel. Lex and Adrian had gone their separate way, still disturbed by what they'd uncovered,what they'd felt.
At Naya's, the jar pulsed faintly like a heartbeat in the dark.
Sienna paced near the window. "It hasn't stopped since we returned. It's like…it knows something's changed."
Sasha sat curled up on the couch, arms wrapped tightly around herself. "That vision... I can't shake it. The fire. The betrayal. One of them was me, I'm sure of it."
Alani poured tea with shaky hands. "And if one of them was you... are we the rest?"
Before Naya could respond, a breeze swept through the room. Every candle flickered. The jar flared once,then dimmed. Tasha's voice crackled through the group chat.
"Guys... I swear someone called my name from the mirror just now. My lights keep flickering. I know I'm far, but something is here. Watching."
Sienna and Naya exchanged glances. Naya walked to the jar and placed her hand over it. "It's linked to us, not just the place."
Meanwhile, across town...
Liona stood near her bedroom window, arms crossed, glaring at the hooded man who now nervously shifted at her doorway.
"You said you were just going to watch," she snapped.
"I did. They came back with something. A scroll. A pendant," he said. "But ever since I returned,I haven't slept. I hear... chants."
Liona's lips thinned. "You're being dramatic."
He removed his hood,his eyes were bloodshot. "Am I? Last night I saw something crawling on your ceiling. It looked like a woman,burnt."
She flinched. "Enough."
But that night, as Liona drifted into sleep, she too heard it: faint voices chanting in an unknown tongue. And in the mirror across her room, something watched her,its eyes gleaming like ash.
Back at Naya's...
The group sat around the table. The scroll was unrolled. Its language, though ancient, was similar to what Naya had once studied during her time in folklore research.
"'Five shall carry the mark. Bound by blood. Betrayed by one. Awakened by fire. Judged by fate,'" Naya read aloud.
Alani's hand trembled. "That sounds like us."
Sienna leaned in. "But who betrayed who?"
Akani opened a notebook. "The visions. The symbols. The pendant. It all connects. This coven… we weren't just linked by chance. It's ancestral. We're tied to them."
Sasha sighed. "And if we're repeating their story…"
"We're walking toward the same ending," Naya finished grimly.
Just then, a knock echoed at the front door.
Everyone froze.
Naya opened it to find a small, unmarked box. No name. No return address.
Inside was a black candle,half-melted, its base shaped eerily like the sisterhood jar.
No one spoke.
Then Sienna whispered, "It's starting again."
At that same moment, back in Tasha's house, the mirror cracked violently. Her scream echoed through the empty hallway,
and on the mirror, scrawled in a substance too dark to be dust:
"She remembers. And she's not done."
Back at Naya's
A cold breeze swept through the room, though no windows were open. The jar's glow dimmed, settling into a faint hum, like it had heard its name spoken in shadow. The girls exchanged tense glances, hearts pounding with unspoken fear. Somewhere deep inside each of them, a memory stirred,one they hadn't lived, but somehow knew.
Outside, the wind howled low, almost like a whisper calling their names. Naya reached out to steady the jar, but it no longer felt like glass,it pulsed faintly beneath her fingers, like a heartbeat. Whatever they had awakened… it wasn't done with them yet.