Andrea
It's not Kate. It can't be Kate!
Emily
And she looked sick.
Andrea
You gotta get her out, Emily!
Andrea
Please. Help Kate!
Andrea
Tell her to leave with you.
Emily
I think she's in too deep, Andrea.
Emily
I doubt she'll walk out of here of her own volition.
Andrea
You said you heard her crying in the cell.
Andrea
She's miserable there.
Andrea
You said she looked traumatized and sick.
Emily
I didn't tell you what she was saying while she cried.
Andrea
Huh? What was she saying?
Emily
"Mea culpa, mea culpa."
Emily
Over and over again.
Emily
I think she's brainwashed like the rest of them.
Emily
Can you call your mom?
Andrea
Her health has gotten worse since dad died and it could upset her too much.
Andrea
I'm afraid the news that Kate's in danger could kill her.
Andrea
You could tell her you're friends with me.
Andrea
Tell her Kate is my sister.
Andrea
Beg her to help us.
Emily
Sasha seems like a zombie sometimes.
Emily
And if she faked her own death to get away from her friends and family, I'd say she's committed to the cult.
Emily
I doubt she'd help us.
Emily
Kate is 18. She's not a minor anymore.
Emily
She's here of her own free will.
Emily
The cops can't arrest Derek for that.
Andrea
He locked her in a cell!
Emily
I think she went in there willingly.
Emily
She seemed pretty cooperative when I saw her.
Emily
Sick, but submissive.
Andrea
What the fuck are we gonna do, Em?
Emily
Look, I will stay here with Kate.
Emily
I'll keep pretending to like Derek.
Emily
But clearly he's psycho if he's involved in this crap and I'm breaking up with him after we get Kate out.
Emily
I'll act really interested in the cult and all vulnerable and stuff.
Emily
I'll talk to Kate somehow, OK?
Andrea
OK. Keep me in the loop.
Emily
But I gotta go back to bed now.
Emily
Derek could notice if I'm gone too long.
Andrea
OMG. This is insane. OK.
Emily
I'll text you when I wake up.
Emily
I'll look after Kate.
Emily
It'll all be OK, somehow.
Andrea
Yeah. I couldn't sleep at all.
Emily
Yeah. I talked to Kate.
Emily
I saw her earlier and asked her to help me with something in the bathroom.
Emily
It was an excuse to get her alone.
Emily
She didn't seem to recognize me.
Emily
She's only met me a few times when she came by our dorm.
Emily
I guess she forgot.
Andrea
Did you remind her you're my roomie this year?
Emily
Yeah, but she just kept on talking about The Order.
Emily
Yeah. She said the cult is called The Order of the Fox Tooth.
Emily
I acted like I wanted to join so she'd keep talking about it.
Andrea
Why the "Fox Tooth?"
Emily
I noticed they all wear necklaces with a fox tooth on them.
Emily
Me and Kate didn't get that far.
Emily
The breakfast bell rang and we had to go eat.
Emily
We all had to get up at 6.
Emily
They rang some kind of wake up bell.
Emily
I got Kate in the bathroom around 6:45 but the breakfast bell rang at 7 and she ran off.
Emily
She got scared and said she wasn't supposed to be talking to me.
Emily
Something about a vow of silence.
Emily
I think she feels bad about breaking it already.
Emily
She seems really disoriented.
Andrea
I gotta get her out.
Andrea
Why do they have bells there?
Emily
Derek said it helps to have a daily schedule or routine or whatever.
Emily
I think we need to get a move on, though.
Emily
It's worse than we thought.
Emily
Kate looks really rough, Andrea.
Emily
She's dangerously skinny.
Emily
I think she needs to be in a hospital.
Andrea
You said they gave her breakfast!
Emily
Yeah. They gave out bowls of grain and some juice.
Emily
A big disappointment considering dinner was salad and water.
Emily
But Kate told me she hadn't eaten in a week.
Emily
Something about the cell.
Emily
She called it "The Breaking."
Emily
She said it's pitch black in the cell and there's no food.
Emily
There's some jugs of water and a bucket and that's it.
Emily
It's the first step to officially joining.
Emily
It's time for some kind of ritual silence or something.
Emily
They'll notice if I keep making excuses to sneak off and text.
6 hours and 4 minutes later.
Andrea
Where the hell have you been?!
Andrea
I'm beyond worried about Kate.
Emily
Derek told me to put away my phone, remember?
Emily
I can't text around him anymore.
Emily
Or anyone here, actually.
Emily
I gotta act like they're sucking me in.
Emily
I've been secretly charging my phone behind a dresser.
Emily
Otherwise they might figure out what I'm doing and we won't be able to rescue Kate.
Andrea
Where are you now?
Emily
I told them I needed to shower and brought my phone in here with me.
Emily
I wrapped it in the towel to keep it secret.
Andrea
Alright. What's going on?
Andrea
Did you find out more about Kate?
Emily
I passed her a note a few hours ago.
Emily
I wrote that I'm seriously considering joining The Order and I wanna know more about The Breaking.
Emily
To get ready for it.
Emily
I asked for her advice.
Emily
I told her I thought it'd be OK to communicate through notes.
Andrea
Did she write back yet?
Emily
Yeah. I got her note a few minutes ago.
Emily
She slid it under the bathroom door when I was brushing my teeth.
Emily
They have extra toothbrushes for new recruits.
Emily
Extra clothes. Soap and stuff.
Emily
They take this cult crap seriously.
Andrea
What did Kate's note say?
Emily
She said you have to "be of strong moral fiber" to get through The Breaking.
Emily
Apparently, you go in the cell willingly.
Emily
Three cult members follow you in.
Emily
For the first day in the cell, they tell you how terrible you are over and over.
Emily
I guess they insult you, make you feel guilty—basically break you down.
Emily
Kate wrote that it feels horrendous.
Emily
They keep at it for 24 hours straight.
Emily
Sometimes cult members rotate out, but there's always three in there with you for the first 24 hours.
Emily
Then they leave you totally alone in the dark with no food for the other six days.
Emily
And you think about how awful you are.
Emily
There's no human contact at all during the last six days.
Emily
It's solitary confinement.
Andrea
See! They DID lock Kate up against her will.
Andrea
She could have wanted to get out by then.
Emily
That's where the "strong moral fiber" stuff comes in.
Emily
The padlock on the outside is there so other cult members can't help you.
Emily
Like talk to you or sneak you food if they feel sorry for you.
Emily
But there's a button in the cell.
Emily
Every morning at 6—when the wake up bell rings for the rest of us—the button lights up red for five minutes.
Emily
If you want out, you can push the button.
Emily
It doesn't light up the first day because there are three cult members in there berating you.
Emily
But the rest of the days, it does.
Andrea
What happens if you push it?
Emily
It signals Derek and he lets you out of the cell.
Emily
And you fail The Breaking.
Emily
That means you can't join the cult.
Andrea
That's ridiculous.
Andrea
Why would anybody put themselves through that?
Andrea
Why would Kate stay in the cell if she could get out?
Emily
The button tests your dedication to The Order.
Emily
It's a temptation to get out and escape The Breaking.
Emily
It tests your willpower.
Emily
But if you stay in the cell until the end of the seventh day, you pass the test.
Emily
That's why they let Kate out. She did her time.
Andrea
Why would anyone want to be in The Order though?
Emily
They promise a lot of things.
Emily
They seem to think the end times are coming or whatever.
Emily
If you're in The Order, you'll be able to survive and keep living in the New World.
Andrea
They actually believe that apocalypse crap?
Emily
They're pretty persuasive about it.
Emily
And they deliver the information to you in small doses.
Emily
They lure you in, I guess.
Andrea
Then why is Kate telling you all this stuff?
Emily
She's not officially in The Order yet.
Emily
She hasn't been trained to recruit.
Emily
That could be the reason for the vow of silence.
Emily
Because I acted really into it, I guess she believed me.
Emily
Like she thinks helping me join will make her look good to Derek.
Andrea
Is Derek like their leader or whatever?
Emily
Seems like it. They call him The Shepherd.
Emily
Like he's gonna herd us through the end times or something.
Emily
I can't believe I thought he was the perfect boyfriend.
Andrea
My sister is in a creepy cult and my roommate is dating the fucking leader!
Andrea
What the hell is going on?
Andrea
Why would Kate fall for this stuff?
Emily
You said she's been out of it since your dad died last year.
Emily
I guess they sucked her in or thought she was weak or something.
Emily
But it kind of seems like they could get to anybody.
Emily
They are good at it.
Andrea
I'm freaked out, Em!
Emily
But we'll figure this out somehow.
Emily
I got a lot of information from Kate's note.
Emily
I'll keep getting more and we'll get her out, OK?
Emily
But I gotta take the quickest shower known to man and get out of the bathroom before they get suspicious.
Andrea
OK. Thank you, Em.
Andrea
Thank you for helping Kate.
Emily
But if I'm still here tomorrow, I need you to take notes for me in class.
Emily
OK. I'll text soon.
5 hours and 38 minutes later.
Emily
Andrea. Something went wrong.
Andrea
What?! Where's Kate? Is she OK?
Emily
A girl named Celia.
Andrea
What are you talking about?
Emily
Celia had to go through the third rite of initiation tonight.
Emily
It's called The Cleansing.
Emily
I guess after The Breaking, you take a vow of silence 'till The Confession.
Emily
That's what Kate has to do next.
Emily
Confess all her sins out loud to The Order.
Emily
If they accept your confession, you move onto The Cleansing.
Emily
Celia told me since I seemed so into it.
Emily
She already did her confession.
Andrea
What happened to Celia, Em?
Emily
At The Cleansing, Derek takes you out to the lake in the woods behind the house.
Emily
He holds you under the water for a long time.
Emily
'Till he feels you are "clean."
Emily
It's like a baptism or something.
Andrea
Emily. Tell me what happened to Celia.
Emily
Derek held her under too long.
Emily
He told us she began to struggle and that meant she was "unclean."
Emily
She drowned, Andrea. Celia drowned.
Emily
And Derek killed her.
