circle of friends?

Once upon a time, I answered a "room for rent" ad posted on a mega church bulletin board. It stated that the owner of the house was away for work and wanted to rent out two rooms. One room was occupied by her friend, Jennifer, and the other I decided to rent. Soon after moving in, however, Jennifer started acting very strangely: accusing me of purposely clogging the shower drain with hair, planting a cockroach in the hallway to see when I'd find it, etc . Before the first month was out, I had decided it would be best to leave. A friend, Dee, offered a room at her place, and I was outta there!

Now comes the good part. A few weeks into living with Dee, I realized I'd left a few things behind at the old house. So I called and set up a time to swing by. The night in question, Dee and I were heading to a party, so we'd carpooled together. As we pulled up to the house, I begged Dee to go in with me. She protested, saying that she understood that I'd had a bad experience, but it couldn't be that bad. I refused to go it alone; she relented.

When we got to the door, Jennifer and the owner of the house answered the door together. They were both wearing black dresses, and the house was in total darkness except the flicker of candlelight from the living room behind them. They waved us in but did not speak. We walked further in to discover a table covered in food and a group of girls, all dressed in black, sitting in a circle in the living room. Any talking had ceased as I crossed the room to grab my lamp. Jennifer handed Dee an olive oil spritzer bottle. Without further delay, Dee and I bee-lined it to the door. As soon as the door closed, we looked at each other, busted up laughing, and prayed that we wouldn't be cursed!

To this day, I have no idea what those girls were doing. But I'm really glad that Dee was there to witness it with me!