Mischa handed the deck to me and said in a timid voice, “You have to shuffle these while thinking about how you want the cards to predict your death.”

Grim, I thought. To make light of the situation and try to get her to smile, I performed a fancy pivot cut shuffle. Mom and I often played War at home, and I’d practiced shuffling moves as a kid. Neither Mischa nor Violet seemed impressed. I realized suddenly that the shoestring on which the gris-gris hung around my neck began to make the skin it was touching itch with a burning sensation while I handled the cards, and I quickly handed them back over to Mischa. Dread pooled in my stomach. “Tough crowd,” I tried to joke.

“Are you sure?” she asked me. “Are you sure you’re done shuffling? You have to be sure.”

I took a shallow breath and said, “Yes.” How can anyone ever be sure when they’re shuffling a deck of cards that will predict the end of their life? I didn’t want to touch the deck again, though. I wanted this over with.

“Okay,” Mischa said. She set the deck facedown in front of her on the table. “I’m going to take the first five cards and set them down, and then… I’m not sure what will happen.”

Violet lost her patience. “How can you not know what will happen? McKenna’s trusting you with her life!”

“Because that’s all they’ve shown me!” Mischa snapped. “I’m supposed to put five cards down, and then they’ll take over.”

Five. A chill ran down my spine.

I still had Mischa’s AirPods in my ears, and her phone was set in front of me on the table. Jennie had remained quiet since I’d returned inside, but the time had come for me to ensure that she was still engaged. “Jennie, if you’re listening, Mischa’s going to draw the top five cards from the deck.”

“I’m always here,” Jennie told me. I was starting to get the sense that it required less effort from her to repeat certain phrases.

I nodded at Mischa, giving her permission to begin.

As she reached for the deck and touched her fingers to the top card to peel it off the stack, my scalp broke into a raging fit of tingles. Violet and I locked eyes, both of us sensing in unison that the spirits were now present. When Mischa set the first card facedown on the table, I thought perhaps I was imagining things when the table shifted almost imperceptibly. But Mischa noticed the subtle movement too, and her hand hesitated over the stack before she reached for a second card.

This time, right as she placed the card on the table, the table jolted as if hopping up off the floor.

“Um…,” Violet said, with enormous eyes. “Maybe we shouldn’t be doing this.”

It took every ounce of courage I could summon to look at Violet and say, “It’s fine. We have to keep going.”