“What do you want to go away?” I asked. The pain in her eyes was difficult to witness.

Kendall eased back onto her pillow and closed her eyelids. “I did something bad,” she murmured, tears squeezing from the corners of her eyes. Minutes ticked by as I waited for her to say more and she finally opened her eyes. “What Cora says to you is private, right?” she asked. “So you can’t tell anybody what I say either, right?”

“That’s right,” I said. “As long as you aren’t planning to hurt yourself again or aren’t planning to hurt someone else, what you say to me will be confidential.”

Kendall thought about this; red dots pinpricked the skin beneath her eyes, broken blood vessels from vomiting up the pills she had taken. “Even to my parents?” she asked. “Even to the police?”

My pulse quickened but I kept my face neutral. “That’s right. I can’t tell your parents or the police.”

“It’s my fault,” she whispered. “What happened to Cora. Emery and I were the ones pretending to be Wither. I found out Cora was looking for information about him in a chat room. It was just a joke. We didn’t really think she would fall for it. But she did.” Kendall swallowed with difficulty and I picked up a glass of water next to her bed and held it out to her. She waved it away.

“After a few days I told Emery we needed to stop,” Kendall explained. “And I thought she agreed. But she kept going. I didn’t know. I swear. But Cora was acting all weird so I checked the website and found the emails. Emery was the one who told Cora to go to the train yard.” Kendall bit her lip, drawing blood. Tears streamed down her cheeks and thick mucus collected beneath her nose. “She’s the one who told Cora that she could see Joseph Wither in person. That all they had to do was go to the train yard at midnight. It was supposed to be a joke.” Kendall clutched at the bedsheets, twisting them between her fingers. “I know we should have never done it in the first place. But I tried to stop it, I really did.”

I tried not to let the horror show on my face. “Do you think that Emery may have been the one to attack your sister?” I asked.

Kendall shook her head vigorously. “No, no. That night I was texting with her until after midnight. And when she heard about what happened she became hysterical. It was so mean of her but she wouldn’t hurt anyone. I don’t know what to do,” she cried, covering her face with her hands. “What should I do?”