The shadow watched patiently. It knew the plan – it had its instructions and it understood that soon it would be time to attack. Even if the plan was already slightly off course. That didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, although it made the shadow nervous. It wanted to confer with its master, but there was no way to do so at this point. The shadow watched the girl swimming in the pool. From Greyspace it was hard to make out conversation in the Enduring world, but if one was very quiet and very close, one could hear the words – softly, like whispers, like voices carried away on a wind. The shadow was close, so close he could reach out and touch his quarry if it were even possible. But it wasn’t possible. And it wasn’t time.

He stood directly behind his quarry where it sat at the edge of the pool, watching the girl. The girl swam up to the edge of the pool where his quarry sat draping its legs in the water. This girl was the one upsetting the plan. He leaned forward to stare at her – her features were hard to distinguish from Greyspace, but he felt a strange spark of something, an emotion, his first: hatred. He hated her. She had the potential to ruin everything. His quarry sighed. “I wish this summer would never end,” it said to the girl.

“Really? I can’t wait to be done with high school,” the girl responded. “Just think – this time next year, we won’t be required to go to school anymore. Not if we don’t want to, anyway.”

“Well, my parents expect me to go to college. I should be so excited to finally get out on my own.” His quarry leaned back, kicking the water absently. Its movement surprised him and she passed through him – nothing in the Enduring world affected Greyspace, but all the same, the shadow nervously shifted its position. It didn’t like occupying the same space as this… thing. “I just feel like… I don’t know. This dread. Like something bad is going to happen soon.”

The girl in the pool pulled herself up and out in one smooth motion to sit next to the quarry. She stared across the pool, where a young male lay shirtless, tanning in the summer sun. If the plan had gone as expected, he would have been…. Well, that hardly mattered now. The plan would still work, even despite this inconvenience. This girl. “I won’t let anything bad happen to you,” the girl said, so soft that the shadow almost couldn’t hear.

“Oh? For my brother’s sake, or mine?” His quarry leaned forward, giggled as it splashed water at the girl.

“Oh shut up,” the girl spluttered, pushing his quarry into the pool before jumping in herself.

The shadow stood and walked along the edge of the pool, watching, waiting. It stared at the girl, feeling it’s hatred seethe. How had she gotten pulled into this? What made her so special?

She could ruin everything.