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The Reunion
Author: Sam Wills
last update2025-11-10 18:40:31
The message came through network channels six months after my return from sabbatical.

Victoria, this is Thomas Wright. The former Circle member. I need to speak with you urgently. It's about the Inheritors. I have information that could stop them permanently. Please contact me.

I was immediately suspicious. Wright had helped us convict Edmund Price, but he'd also been part of the Circle for fifteen years. Trusting him completely felt naive.

"Could be a trap," Detective Chen warned when I showed her the message. "The Inheritors might be using him to lure you somewhere vulnerable."

"Or he has genuine information. He's helped us before."

"Under immunity agreement. With nothing to lose. What's his motivation now?"

Good question. I arranged to meet Wright in a public location with security present. A café in central London, busy enough that an attack would be complicated.

Wright looked older than when I'd last seen him. Thinner, more worn. Prison time on the Circle members he'd testified ag
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  • The Letter from the Past

    The letter arrived on an ordinary Tuesday, fourteen months after the tenth anniversary.Hand-delivered by a lawyer I'd never met. He apologized for the strange request but had been instructed to deliver it personally and watch me open it."Who's it from?" I asked, examining the sealed envelope. The paper was old, yellowed with age."I'm not at liberty to say until you've read it. Those were my instructions."I opened the envelope carefully. Inside was a letter written in elegant handwriting I didn't recognize. Dated twenty-three years ago, three years before my family's deaths.Dear Victoria,If you're reading this, I am long dead and you have survived whatever darkness consumed our family. I am Constance Ashbourne, your great-aunt, though we have never met. I am writing this letter as insurance, as warning, as a small attempt at redemption.I know what your parents are planning. I've seen the texts Margaret is studying. I recognize the ritual preparations. They intend to sacrifice yo

  • The Tenth Anniversary

    The tenth anniversary of the network's founding fell on a bright autumn day.We held a memorial service first. Honoring those we'd lost. Patricia Thompson, murdered by the Crimson Circle. Dr. Helena Marsh, who'd trained so many of us. The clients we couldn't save. The practitioners who'd died doing this work."We remember them not with guilt but with gratitude," I said during the service. "Gratitude for their contributions. For their courage. For their dedication to helping others. They're part of this work forever."We planted a memorial garden at Oxford. Trees and flowers representing each person we'd lost. Physical space for remembering. Place practitioners could visit when carrying grief from difficult cases.The afternoon was a celebration. Network gathering, practitioners, volunteers, clients, supporters. Over a thousand people attended. Too many to fit in a single venue. We used multiple spaces at Cambridge, where the academic program had originated."Ten years," Sarah said, lo

  • Chapter Fifty-Eight: The Global Conference

    The invitation list for the first International Supernatural Crisis Intervention Conference included three hundred practitioners from forty countries.We'd outgrown network meetings. The field had expanded beyond what started as the Ashbourne Prevention Network. Academic programs existed at seventeen universities. Regional organizations operated independently on five continents. The work had become a genuinely global profession."This conference establishes us as a serious field," Dr. Santos said. She'd been instrumental in organizing the event. "Academic conferences legitimize disciplines. We need ours."The conference was held in Geneva, neutral location, good infrastructure, and symbolic significance. Three days of presentations, workshops, networking. First major gathering of practitioners from around the world.I was terrified. As network founder and field pioneer, I was expected to give a keynote address. Speaking to three hundred expert practitioners felt more daunting than any

  • The Academic Program

    The university proposal arrived six months after the documentary premiered.Cambridge University wanted to establish the first academic program in Supernatural Crisis Intervention. A master's degree combining psychology, anthropology, religious studies, and practical supernatural training. They wanted the Ashbourne Prevention Network to design the curriculum and provide instructors."This is legitimization at the highest level," Dr. Santos said during the leadership meeting. "Academic programs create professional standards. Establish credentials. Make your work a recognized field rather than fringe practice.""It also risks bureaucratizing what we do," Marcus countered. "Academic programs have rigid structures. We succeed because we're flexible, adaptive. Can we maintain that within university systems?"The Cambridge representative, Professor James Whitmore (distant relation to the Dr. Whitmore who'd died at the beginning of this journey), met with us to discuss specifics."We've watc

  • The Documentary

    The documentary proposal arrived nine months after the Edinburgh event.A reputable production company wanted to create a comprehensive documentary about the Ashbourne Prevention Network. Full access to our operations. Interviews with practitioners, volunteers, clients. Behind-the-scenes footage of actual interventions."This could be powerful," Dr. Santos said when we reviewed the proposal. "Documentary format allows depth that news interviews don't. You could really show people what you do.""Or it could be exploitative," Marcus countered. "Producers might edit footage to create drama. Sensationalize our work. Make entertainment from people's supernatural crises."The filmmaker, a woman named Rebecca Chen (no relation to Detective Chen), came to Oxford to pitch the project personally."I've been following your network since the Edinburgh event," she said. "I'm fascinated by what you've built. Crisis intervention for supernatural emergencies. It's unprecedented. But most people still

  • Going Public

    The week after Edinburgh, my phone wouldn't stop ringing.Media outlets wanted interviews. Government officials wanted meetings. Academic institutions wanted to study us. The public wanted answers about what they'd seen on those viral videos."This is what going public looks like," Dr. Santos said during an emergency strategy session. "You can't control it. Can only try to shape the narrative before others shape it for you."We developed a communication strategy quickly. Key messages about who we were, what we did, why people should trust us. Then I started doing interviews.First was BBC News. The interviewer was skeptical but professional."Miss Ashbourne, millions of people watched videos of what appeared to be a demon in Edinburgh Castle. What exactly did we see?""You saw a manifestation of an extradimensional entity. What many cultures call demons. It was summoned deliberately by people trying to create public panic. Our network responded, contained the threat, and banished the

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