Oops, I Joined the Occult Club!

Lena Morales knew two things about high school clubs:

1) They looked great on college applications.

2) They were usually painfully boring.

Which was exactly why she chose Outdoor Club.

Fresh air. Maybe a hike. Possibly learning the difference between a pine tree and… another pine tree. It sounded peaceful. Safe. The opposite of drama.

So when Lena walked into the basement hallway after school and saw a paper sign taped crookedly to a door that read:

“OCCULT CLUB – NEW MEMBERS WELCOME”

…she assumed someone had terrible handwriting.

“Outdoor,” she muttered, squinting. “Yeah. That says Outdoor.”

She opened the door.

This was her first mistake.

The room looked less like a club meeting and more like a Halloween decoration store had exploded.

Candles flickered on a large table covered in symbols. A chalk pentagram stretched across the floor. Books with titles like “Summoning for Beginners” and “Hexes That Work (Mostly)” were stacked everywhere.

Five students stood around the circle.

They all turned and stared at Lena.

For a long moment, nobody spoke.

Finally, a tall boy with messy black hair and round glasses blinked.

“…Did we summon her already?”

“I told you the candles were wrong,” said a girl with bright purple braids.

Lena slowly closed the door behind her.

“Hi,” she said carefully. “Is this Outdoor Club?”

The group looked at each other.

Then they all burst out laughing.

“Oh wow,” said the purple-braid girl. “She’s serious.”

“This is Occult Club,” said the tall boy. “With a C. Like curses. Spirits. Minor dimensional mishaps.”

Lena stared.

Then she reached for the door handle.

Unfortunately, before she could escape, a short guy wearing fingerless gloves slapped a clipboard into her hands.

“Great timing!” he said cheerfully. “We needed a sixth member!”

“I didn’t—”

“Name?” he asked, already writing.

“Lena Morales, but I’m not joining—”

“Too late,” he said. “You signed the attendance sheet.”

Lena looked down.

She had.

Because apparently her hands betrayed her in moments of stress.

“Nope,” she said immediately, shoving the clipboard back. “I’m going to Outdoor Club.”

“You are in the Outdoor Club,” the tall boy said.

Lena pointed at the pentagram.

“Does that look outdoorsy to you?”

The purple-braid girl raised a hand.

“Technically spirits come from outside our dimension.”

Lena turned back to the door.

It did not open.

She tried again.

Still locked.

Everyone else in the room slowly looked at the chalk circle on the floor.

Then at Lena.

Then back at the chalk circle.

“Oh,” said the tall boy.

“Oh no,” said the girl with braids.

Lena frowned. “Why are you saying ‘oh’ like that?”

The tall boy adjusted his glasses nervously.

“So… funny story…”

The candles flickered violently.

The chalk pentagram glowed faintly.

And the door behind Lena clicked even tighter.

“You might be… slightly involved in the ritual.”

“I didn’t even touch anything!”

“You walked through the circle,” the glove guy said.

Lena looked down.

Her sneaker was, unfortunately, standing directly on one of the glowing symbols.

She slowly lifted her foot.

The symbol glowed brighter.

From somewhere inside the walls, a deep whoooom echoed.

Lena froze.

“Why did the building just make that sound?”

The tall boy sighed.

“Well…”

The lights flickered.

Books slid off the shelves.

One of the candles exploded like a tiny firework.

“…because you accidentally activated the summoning circle.”

Lena stared at him.

“You’re joking.”

The floor trembled.

Purple-braid girl looked delighted.

“Oh wow! We’ve never gotten this far!”

A swirling shadow appeared in the center of the pentagram.

Wind blasted through the room, knocking papers everywhere.

Lena pointed wildly at the growing vortex.

“That seems bad! That seems extremely bad!”

“Probably,” the tall boy admitted.

The shadow twisted upward like smoke.

Something inside it growled.

Lena turned to the group.

“What do we do?!”

Everyone looked at each other.

Finally, the glove guy shrugged.

“…Usually it fails before this part.”

Lena inhaled slowly.

Then screamed.

The shadow exploded outward—

—and vanished.

Silence fell over the room.

The candles returned to normal.

The chalk stopped glowing.

Nothing else happened.

Everyone blinked.

Purple-braid girl frowned.

“Huh.”

The tall boy flipped through a book.

“That’s… not in the instructions.”

Lena leaned against the wall, breathing heavily.

“I’m leaving.”

Before anyone could stop her, she yanked the door open and stormed into the hallway.

She took five steps.

Then something cold whispered past her ear.

A voice, ancient and amused.

Ah… she awakens.

Lena froze.

Slowly, she turned back toward the club room.

Inside, the five students were staring at her.

Not scared.

Not surprised.

Just… fascinated.

The tall boy pushed his glasses up again.

“Well,” he said.

“Good news.”

Lena narrowed her eyes.

“What good news?”

He smiled nervously.

“You didn’t summon the spirit.”

Lena waited.

“…You are the spirit.”

Lena stared at him for three seconds.

Then she fainted.