Sunday- Epilogue

We never could recover all our clothes, but Lavania had one last trick waiting for us. She somehow recovered our stolen luggage from the cult and sent it back to our hotel... with only one outfit for each of us, along with an invitation.

Apparently, she was putting on a show in Mallorca, and if we wanted to retrieve the rest of our stuff and arrest her again, we were invited to come. She even included the plane tickets... which she brought using my own damn money that she got from my stolen card. How could I not go?

Even if she paid for the stupidest route possible.

From England to Greenland, to Iceland, to Belgium, to Portugal, and finally to Mallorca. I would’ve trashed her tickets, but I really didn’t want to throw more money in the trash. Specially since I didn´t have any more cash on me, and after Lavania´s spending spree, my account was locked for "suspicious activity". It would remain so until I physically got back to the bank back home.

Which meant that for the time being, I had no way to access the money on my bank accounts, so I was practically destitute until I found her again.

So, we were at the airport waiting to board our flight.

Looking on the bright side, at least this way I’ll get a long, relaxing flight where I can sleep away the excitement of the last few days and try to forget everything that happened on this accursed island.

“Read the papers, boss?” Annie asked. She was not as eager to leave everything behind. “It’s pages upon pages of Cordelia’s naked ride. And the other cultists were rolled around the town to expose them for all to see. Seems like her reign of terror is over for good.”

“Good on them. Maybe they’ll stop being so uptight about the rules then.”

“To think they have been pulling those kinds of pranks all this time. According to the paper, the conspiracy dates way back. Apparently, since their punishments were meted out by embarrassment, the cultists would choose the meanest girl in town to be their leader when the previous one bit the bullet.”

“That explains why Cordelia was chosen. But how did the cult get so much power in the first place?”

“Well, supposedly, they were the ruling town’s council since the Middle Ages. The people believed that their harsh leadership and rules let the town prosper as opposed to their neighbors, so they started leaning more and more into them, until, well, it became the whole thing.”

“No kidding. They certainly innovated with their **** instruments. They even picked up Lavania’s trick quite quickly.”

“Huh, speaking of, how did you figure out her last trick? The one you used to strip Cordelia?”

I shrugged. “Never did, actually.”

“I do have a theory on how it works. Remember her smoke grenade? I think the cloud was made from metallic dust that attaches to clothes. The remote activates an electric signal that magnetizes them and makes the metal fly all over, ripping the cloth they are stuck to.”

“Hmm, and how do you wager something like that might work with other magnetic things, like, say, an airport scanner?”

“I…eep!” Yep. Annie screamed while I sighed. Just as we passed the scanner, our clothes flew apart and disintegrated, leaving our naked bodies for the astonished viewing pleasure of the line.

Yep, Lavania had one last trick... and we had a long flight ahead of us.