The Necronomicon did seem to describe things eerily similar to what I saw in my dream. That Cthulhu thing sounded almost exactly like the huge green squid monster that the beautiful boy had saved me from. But how could reading it have had any bearing on the weather? Unless Vik was right, and the book was cursed? In that case, Bree owed him a good five bucks.

Bree’s second prompt of “GUYS” brought me out of my thoughts. Vik took up the Necronomicon, and we hurried back inside the theatre.

Bree pulled the sword from the door and we ducked into the green room (which, despite its name, only had a vaguely greenish carpet). We sat in a circle, catching our breath, and Vik put the book down in the middle of it. He crossed his arms and frowned in much more than annoyance. He was not happy.

“I don’t know why I let you talk me into this,” he chastised Bree.

She rolled her eyes dismissively, but her freckled cheeks were red and splotchy. “Whatever,” she muttered. “It’s just a storm.”

“This was a stupid idea,” Vik said with a frown. “I should have left this thing at home. All I wanted to do was show it to you, Andi. I know how you…” He hesitated as he looked up at me. “You shouldn’t have read from it like that. Who knows what you just did…”

“What!? Me!?” I stared at him in disbelief. Swiping the thing from his parents and bringing it to school had been his idea in the first place! “I read your book and it started raining, Vik. That’s all that happened. Why is this a big deal?”

He shook his head and lifted a hand to ruffle some raindrops out of his curly hair. “Because the book is powerful,” he muttered. “And cursed.”

“Right, Vik,” I answered blankly, “you just keep telling yourself that.”

“What if he’s right, though?” Bree abruptly inquired. “What if, somehow, it actually is,” she hesitated at the word, “cursed?”

I gaped at her. Now Bree was suddenly on his side? She was the one who’d bet against him! Why was it that whenever Vik and I disagreed, Bree always joined with him? She was supposed to be my best friend.

“Whose side are you on?” I demanded. “What happened to ‘there’s no such thing as magic?’ ”

“Nobody’s side!” she replied. “There don’t have to be sides here. I’m just pointing out that, if the book actually is cursed, we could be in big trouble. I mean, if this were a horror movie, we probably would’ve just summoned up the mighty demon Beelzebub or something.”