Chapter 10: Snitch

We found an important witness for ourselves, who it would be more correct to call a snitch. It was as if fate had provided us with this type.

I approached Samuel and whispered to him, "I can ask him about the participants in the ritual from Emma's story while you look for other leads, what do you think?"

He looked at me for a few seconds, as if thinking about something. "Yes, that would be better. I'll leave the snitch to you." he said, walking towards the girl who came in with me.

Watching Samuel leave, I started a conversation with Riley. "Can I ask you some questions?" I asked him.

"Yes, of course. I'll be happy to help you as much as I can," he replied.

"I'd like to ask you about the members of the club, to better understand them," I said. "Can you tell me more about Steve and the company he's in now?"

"Well, I don't know much about him or many of the others here, just superficially about each one," Riley said.

"I don't need to know a lot, I just want to learn something about my new friends," I said.

"I understand that. Listen, as I said before, he's with a group of girls. The one who's older with the notebook is named Alexandra. She's over 30 but acts like a teenager. Indecisive and very quiet, unlike me," he said with a smirk.

"Next, we have the one next to her, Olivia. She's the same age as Steve. As far as I know, she's currently volunteering for some charity organization, although whether you can call it a job, I don't know."

" The one closest to Steve is Alice, a schoolgirl who comes here, although if I were her parents, I wouldn't let her come here. Let her grow up a bit, she's the same age as my daughter," he said with a smile.

"Since I already talked about Steve, the next one is Nina, who came up with you. I already told your friend about her, but I'll repeat it for you. She's a very religious girl who wants to become a nun, but for some reason, she came here. I don't know what she's looking for here, but if I were as religious as her, I would never have come here, except maybe for exorcism. Ahahaha," he laughed loudly at the end.

Several groups of club members turned to us at his laughter. I hope they didn't hear what we were talking about, although I doubt that it could not be heard considering how loud he was.

"Understood, thank you for telling me about them. Now can we hear about the others?" I asked with a smile.

"Of course, of course. Who do you want to know about?" Riley asked me.

"That group over there, with the teacher," I said to him.

"Ah, I see. Did you like the teacher?" he asked me, winking.

"I just want to know," I replied with the same smile.

"Hmm. That girl is actually a teacher, and her name is Anna. She is the teacher of these schoolgirls, namely Alice and Lena. Lena is standing next to her, and her full name is Elena, and as for Alice, I already told you about her."

"Next, we have Mike, who is also over 30, a dubious character, although that's how many people see us, gloomy and detached, although the word shy suits him the most. And then, in the center of that group, is a guy who seems to be Steve's peer, he is like their occult guru," he said, with a quieter laugh.

"Let's move on," he said and continued, "That couple who are older than me. This is Emily and her husband Edward, you could say they are just the Richards' family. The funniest thing is that Emily likes this club, and Richard goes along for the company," he said, laughing.

"You should know Alex by now, he's got his kids with him. Molly and Jackson. They're in charge of the store downstairs. What can I say, they're both students, but to be honest, I didn't see them studying much." he said.

"Now, onto the last member of this club," he continued with a wide smile, not taking his eyes off my face. "That would be me. As I introduced myself earlier, I'm Riley Davis. You can call me Riley. I'm not particularly fond of horror, but the mystery of occultism, summoning the dead, amulets, and rituals, it all draws me in. It's like a big puzzle to me," he said.

"You're a very interesting person," I said. "It's like you want to unravel the mysteries of occultism."

"Of course, I'm interesting, can't you tell by the necklace on my hand?" he said. "I bought it about ten years ago, it's made of pearls. I was told they bring luck and unparalleled success, but you have to wear them constantly. I used to carry them in a pouch in my pocket, but after joining this club, I read in some book that you can make a necklace out of them by performing a ritual. Unfortunately, I still can't finish it, but I'm close. Only eight pearls left, and the ritual will be complete," he said with a faint smile.

"Do you perform a ritual for each pearl?" I asked him.

"Yes, unfortunately. It's a shame that I can't perform them one after another. But even so, I'm closer to my goal. Before, I had to perform thirty rituals, and now only eight. That's much closer than before, but I only found out about it last year," he said, no longer laughing.

I looked at him, a man who was, in essence, open, but with some problem that was unclear to me. Is it possible that his openness and joyfulness are feigned? Perhaps something happened to him that made him become an overly cheerful person.

My thoughts about Riley quickly changed in my head because of Samuel, who was walking towards me.