“I do know one thing though. I need to talk to Issac about it,” Eliza continued.

“Is that a good idea?” Mallory asked. She remembered briefly the slight nonverbal communication between Samanda and Sampson. “I don’t know if they’re working with the… stalker. But I still don’t trust them.”

Eliza nodded, her expression grave. “I think they protected us from it. Him. Whatever. I think we can trust them.”

Mallory leveled a doubtful frown at her friend. “This isn’t lust talking, is it?”

Eliza flushed, and scrunched her nose at her friend. “No, it’s not. I’m not gonna lie, I’m very drawn to him, but I don’t think that’s messing with my judgement here. I feel like I can trust him.” Mallory sighed.

They eventually decided she should just stay overnight, and that they would decide how to approach Isaac and the Sams about it the next day. Eliza offered to let Mallory use her phone to let her mom know where she was at, but Mallory shook her head. They spent much of the night theorizing and speculating wildly, about everything from sparkly vampires to aliens to ghosts before finally falling asleep.

The next day they slept in late. When they woke, they decided they would wait until school was out and then maybe visit the motel Isaac had been staying at. If the vehicle was still there, they’d pay them a visit and discuss it there. Mallory wondered if it might be better to confront them on school grounds – if anything happened, there would be school staff and security around to intervene. There would be witnesses. It would be safer. But Eliza continued to insist that she felt comfortable about Isaac and his friends.