Cults may not allow unsupervised contact with the 'outside world.' From the moment Seph meets her pairs, she spends barely a moment outside of their company if it were up to the boys she would probably never leave their side. The members of the cult become the person's only social contact and feedback mechanism. Step 2, Isolation - Cults cut off members from the outside world. We can't answer that question just yet - soon, but not just yet.' to blindly trust people in a situation like this. 'I understand that it's a lot to ask, Seph. When Seph asks for information on the bond, so she can decide for herself if it's something she wants, this is the response she gets: His expression hardened. They definitely benefit from her vulnerability due to her abusive father and stalker since it helps them gain her trust. The Adairs and Quillans repeatedly dodge questions, keeping Seph in the dark about her own nature and the truth of their bond. Step 1, Deception - cults trick new members into joining by misleading them or withholding information about the true nature of the group they might even use a member's induced altered consciousness to increase vulnerability to suggestion. I recently looked up the common methods of cult indoctrination - on HowStuffWorks, because I have no class - and came to a chilling conclusion the Zevgheni are a cult, and Seph is in the process of joining.Įvery key step for indoctrinating a cult member (aka thought reform), listed in the linked article, is reflected in Charcoal Tears. Someone wanted her to stay away from her new friends, but she wasn’t willing to do that.

She was even less prepared for the mysterious Miro and Silas, and nothing could have prepared her for the bond. She survived working at the club and the drive to school every day in her mother’s rust-bucket of a car… but it all changed when Noah and Cabe came bulldozing into her life, careless of the precious secrets they picked apart in their quest to take over her world. She could last days without eating and she always walked away from the violent altercations with her father relatively unharmed. Seraph Black used to think that she was prepared for anything. Only asinine peace, where my paintings don’t seem to paint themselves, leaving me with terrible feelings of premonition and a chill beneath my fingernails.” “You see, there is safety in simplicity… in a life of simple peace, where the electricity doesn’t dance across the backs of my eyelids, and the sparks don’t slither over my consciousness.

Charcoal Tears by Jane Washington