Chapter 9. Meeting of the occult club.

*********************************************************************************************************James' point of view as he entered the club building.

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I threw my cigarette butt into the bin and headed towards the club building. As I entered the building, I was greeted by a couple, a girl and a guy who were here earlier today. 'Hello! Am I late?' I asked them.

'Hello, you still have time,' the girl replied.

'I would like to ask you something, is that possible?' I asked.

'Of course, ask away. If I can help you, I will,' she said.

'I would like to know if Steve came today,' I asked.

'Yes, he came. Are you his friend?' she asked.

'You could say that. I learned about him from my acquaintance, who is the reason I joined this club,' I replied.

'Then that's great, because we don't have as many members as we would like. The world of occultism is boundless, there is so much unknown inside. There are many inexplicable things that can be understood by studying occult sciences,' she said with admiration.

'I agree with you, because I have a mystery that I want to solve here,' I said.

While I was talking to the girl, the door behind me opened. A girl walked in.

'Hi Sally, hi Maurice,' the girl said as she entered.

'Hi, Nina,' they greeted her together.

'Am I the last one today?' she asked.

'Yes, we were waiting for you only, come in quickly, we will now close the club door,' she said, while at the same time, the guy who was sitting on the couch got up and started locking the front door with a key.

'Well, let's go upstairs,' said the girl who greeted me, who was apparently called Sally.

'Call me Sally, and him Maurice,' she said, looking at me.

'We were already waiting for you, so let's hurry up,' said the guy, named Maurice.

I followed the girl Nina, with Sally and Maurice following behind me. We quickly made it to the second floor, where my gaze met Samuel's. He was in conversation with a man in a bright suit, wearing a pearl necklace wrapped around his wrist. Why does he have that necklace?

While I was thinking about this, I shifted my gaze to Samuel, who was studying the girl who had just come up with me - the one who arrived last, namely Nina. Perhaps he already knew about her and was now putting together a puzzle, which we would follow to gather information to find the criminal.

Meanwhile, as I surveyed the club, a man - or rather Alex, the head of the club - walked into the center of the room. He addressed everyone present in the club in a loud voice. "Hello, everyone! Unfortunately, the number of club members is dwindling, so I am happy to see that two new members have joined us today. As you have already seen, they are here, so let's start with a greeting to the young man who has already made acquaintances here," he said, turning to Samuel.

"His name is Samuel, and I hope you will welcome him to our group. And his friend James is standing off to the side of the stairs. They joined our club today, and as far as I understand, they are just beginning to study occultism. So don't hesitate to help them in their quest to learn about this vast world," he said.

"While you get to know them, I will talk about today's topic - Theosophy and its fundamental doctrines. I hope that together we can discuss a lot today and take a step closer to understanding our world," he finished his speech and sat down at the same table where we had met him earlier in the day.

When the club president sat down at the table, the other club members, who were standing in a peculiar order, started their conversations. Nina, the girl who walked up with me, went in the direction of a group of four people. In that group, I noticed a girl who, like Samuel, was jotting something down in her notebook, and young members of the club were standing next to her. One of them stood out, namely the guy in a bright t-shirt with a skull on it.

I approached Samuel and his new acquaintance without hurrying. "Hello, my name is James," I said, addressing the man with a pearl necklace on his wrist.

"Hello, Samuel. My name is Riley," he said, extending his hand with a loud voice.

I shook his hand, addressing him. "I hope you were able to make friends with my friend. He's a bit unsociable, but a very curious person," I said.

"I've already noticed that. He was standing alone reading a tarot book. That's why I approached him to talk," Riley said.

"Thank you for that," I said. "I'd like to ask you, do you know a guy named Steve?" I asked.

"Steve... Oh, yes, a very curious guy, I would even say overly curious. He's standing over there with Nina, who just walked in," he said, pointing to the group I had seen earlier.

An active conversation was going on in that group now, where the guy was having a heated discussion with Nina, who had just walked up with me.

"Thank you, Riley," I said.

"No problem," he replied. "By the way, why did you join this club?" he asked.

"I've had some free time lately, and I wanted to study something that has always interested me," I replied to him.

"I see. I have the same situation, and this club has drawn me in. After all, I've been a member of this club for several years, and there are only three of us here besides me. Those are the two, as well as Alex, the head of this club," he said, pointing to the mature couple, and then to Alex. "I hope you stay here for a long time too because recently the number of club members has decreased. As far as I know, the number of participants in the club has been decreasing, especially in the last three months," he said sadly.

"Oh," I said. "Can you tell me about those who stopped coming to the club in the past 3 months?" I hoped we had found someone who could move our investigation forward from a dead end.