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. 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 it 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. No matter how similar they were. “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.
Mallory pulled her car into the dirt lane, slowing to a stop as the dilapidated building crept into view from behind the trees that hid it from the main road. She hadn’t planned to come out here today, but when her best friend had hopped into her vehicle after school and enthusiastically shouted, “Taxi, follow that car!” she had whimsically decided to indulge. After all, she didn’t have anything better to do tonight than go home, and she really didn’t want to do that. Home just didn’t feel like home anymore, and some mild stalking seemed like a fun way to avoid it.
The car in question was old. Very old. Mallory didn’t know enough about cars to identify makes and models of older vehicles off the top of her head, but the metal body was rimmed with rust with only the faintest hints of faded teal paint remaining. The thing had to have been put together in the 50s and likely didn’t adhere to any sort of safety or environmental standards. In fact, Mallory was shocked it was even running. But Eliza wasn’t focused on the car – instead, she was obsessed with the occupants.
Or more specifically, one particular occupant. Isaac.
Since the very first day of their senior year, Eliza had talked non-stop about Isaac. He was new to school. He was in most of her classes. He was tall and mysterious, with a commanding voice and presence. He was dangerously handsome and practically perfect. Or at least that was the case according to Eliza. Mallory hadn’t caught more than the occasional distant glimpse of Isaac, who did seem traditionally handsome.
They had followed the vehicle at a reasonable distance, attempting to keep other vehicles in between where they could manage and drifting back farther as it drove out of town. And then the car had pulled down the dirt road leading to the Miller house.
Mallory came to a stop at the end of the lane. They watched the vehicle turn out of sight behind the trees, and waited as the dust settled. “I wonder what they’re doing here?” Eliza said absently. Mallory eased her foot off the brakes and allowed her car to inch forward.
Eliza glanced at her, her eyebrows climbing toward her hairline. “What are you doing?” she asked, her voice jumping up in pitch the way it always did when she panicked.
Mallory grinned at her old friend. “Come on, we’ve come this far. Let’s go say hi.”
“Mallory! Mallory, no!” Eliza was shaking her head emphatically as the other car came into view. There was no one in sight. They both stared up at the wreck of a house.
The Miller house was supposedly named after a family that had been murdered there in the past, causing the home to become abandoned for years. No matter how much searching Mallory did online, she couldn’t find any actual records or articles about a family named Miller having lived in the house or of anyone having been murdered there. And she suspected that the many other stories surrounding the place were also merely rumors. She at least knew for a fact that the story of the man-eating goat monster was definitely false, as she had spread that particular story herself. Still, looking at the house as it sat in the shadows of the surrounding trees sent a chill down her spine, and she didn’t consider herself easily scared. The entire area seemed like a cold, dark spot that stood out all the more against the bright, sunny September day.
Mallory slowly eased to a stop next to the other car. She glanced over at Eliza, who had sunk far down into the seat, her eyes wide and her entire heart-faced shape flushed a deep red. It suited her – she had milky pale skin, with hazel eyes and almost curly light auburn hair. The heat in her face brought a nice color to her tone. “They’re not in the car. They must’ve gone inside.”
“Let’s just go! Please, Mallory!”
Mallory shut the engine off and began to calmly reason with her friend. “Listen, let’s go in. We can act surprised to see them here and tell them we wanted to explore the place – we’ve done it before. And it gives you a chance to get to know this Isaac guy outside of school.”
Eliza looked halfway convinced, but still hesitated. “You know I’m awful at lying. How am I going to act surprised? It’s going to be so obvious we followed them.”
Mallory shrugged. “How many words have you even said to this guy since the beginning of school?” Eliza frowned. “Come on. If he’s so perfect, let’s go change that.” Mallory opened her car door and stepped out, glancing back at Eliza as she shut it behind her. Eliza scrunched her face and begrudgingly exited the car as well.
From experience, Mallory knew that the inside of the Miller house would be dark because all the windows were boarded up. Luckily, she kept a flashlight in the trunk of her car. Her father had always lectured her to keep a toolbox, a blanket, and a few emergency supplies with her at all times – even a small box of road flares. “It’s better to have something and not need it than to need it and not have it,” he had always warned her. She popped the trunk open and grabbed the large flashlight, handing it over to Eliza. As Eliza fiddled with it, she also grabbed a folding knife she kept in the toolbox, slipping it into her pocket surreptitiously. She wasn’t expecting any sort of trouble. She thought of Isaac and his friends as being completely harmless. But at the same time… better to have something you didn’t need, after all.
Together, they approached the house and made their way up the steps onto the large ranch-style porch that wrapped around the building. Mallory opened the door and Eliza shone a beacon of light in through the doorway. They both paused for a moment and exchanged nervous looks. “Clear so far,” Eliza said, ending her sentence on a nervous titter. She was still bright red with embarrassment, but Mallory knew the Miller house itself also made Eliza nervous. Any ghost story creeped her out.
They entered what had once been a large and spacious country style kitchen. The wallpaper was faded and peeling, but had once had a floral pattern that was still visible in some places. Some of the cupboard doors had been broken off or stood ajar at odd angles. There was a large arched entryway that led into a formal dining room off to the right, and a smaller arched entry that led to the living area straight ahead. The last time Mallory had been in the house, a half-sized swinging door had occupied the living area entrance, but it had disappeared since then. The kitchen also had a large walk-in pantry, its door slightly ajar, set next to the stairs leading to the basement. They both stopped for a moment to shine the light at the basement entrance – it no longer had its door, so the stairs descended below into a dark gaping maw.
Another shared glance, and they turned away.
There was evidence throughout of people having visited the house. A pyramid of soda and beer cans sat on the kitchen counter. Mallory briefly entertained the notion of knocking them down, but didn’t want to fall too far behind Eliza as she was making her way out of the kitchen and into the next room. After all, Eliza had the flashlight. Cigarette butts and broken bits of glass, the remains of beer and liquor bottles, littered the floor, glinting in the light’s beam. It smelled faintly of mold, mice, and piss.
From the spacious living area, there was another arched entry to the dining area. Eliza swept the flashlight back and forth, checking the room carefully. There was no furniture remaining in the house. What little of the carpet was left was rotted and it was impossible to tell what the original color had been. The living room had a wide fireplace darkened with soot and containing the charred remnants of an old fire.
They stood for a moment in the silence. Mallory strained to hear anything that would give away where Isaac and his friends might be, but there was nothing – no voices, no wood creaking under footsteps, not even the faintest breath. Despite that, she felt something… like a presence. Like she was being watched. A chill ran up her spine – Eliza had mentioned feeling the same thing a few times over the summer. She had thought she felt something similar, but had dismissed it as ridiculous. Now, standing in a dark, abandoned house, it was easier to entertain the notion.
“Maybe they decided to hide from us?” Mallory said, her voice barely above a whisper. After a moment, she said “Hello?” loud enough to be heard through most of the house. Eliza jumped, then turned, wide eyed and panicked and making shushing sounds, but there was no reaction otherwise. Mallory grinned at Eliza and shrugged, feeling a little less spooked. She made her way to the stairs. There was a hallway leading off of the staircase that led back to a first floor bathroom and bedroom, but the bathroom had fallen into the basement years ago and the bedroom flooring was also unstable. Mallory doubted anyone would be back there.
As her fingers touched the rail of the stairs, the feeling of being watched overcame her again, so overbearing that she felt the hair on the back of her neck raise. She couldn’t see anyone in the scant light they had, and of course they knew that Isaac and his friends were somewhere in the house… but it felt more foreboding than that. It was like pure and stifling malice. She had to resist the urge to reach into her pocket where she’d put her knife. Instead, she forced herself up the stairs.
Eliza followed her, mumbling something under her breath. Halfway up, Mallory glanced up – for a moment, the bouncing light of the flashlight’s beam caught the outline of a man standing at the top of the stairs. She gasped and froze, but had no time to react because at that exact moment the stairs shifted and there came the loud, alarming sound of cracking wood.
Eliza shrieked and Mallory turned to look back at her friend, whose foot had gone through one of the stairs. She turned back to help and suddenly the world fell out from underneath her.
It was chaos and cacophony. The flashlight beam flipped through the air, briefly highlighting falling wood and dust and Mallory shut her eyes tight and clamped her jaw shut as she heard Eliza screaming. The thought crossed her mind, ‘I’m dead.’ She felt a slight shock at how ambivalent she was about the fact – the acceptance she felt. Strong arms enveloped her, and she felt her stomach give a confused lurch as gravity righted itself, felt her feet placed firmly on the ground. Coughing in the falling grit and sawdust, a moment of panic overtook her as she wondered who was touching her, and she remembered the dark shadow at the top of the stairs. She reached for her knife, grabbed it, flipped the blade out, and slashed – all in a practiced, smooth motion, as she had been taught.
Further confusion – the arms pushed away and she felt like the nerve endings of her fingers all fired at once, the pins and needle feeling of a sleeping limb coming back to life, only a hundred times worse. Mallory cried out as her knife flung out of her hand of its own volition. “Is that any way to thank the person that saved you?” a strangely accented voice admonished.
Mallory looked up, but her eyes were drawn first to what was caught in the light. The flashlight had fallen just right to perfectly illuminate the scene, and with the dust twirling in the air and catching the light it gave everything a more ethereal feel. Standing directly in the beam of the light was Isaac, his arms tightly around Eliza. He must have caught her, Mallory realized. He was staring straight into her eyes with an expression that communicated surprise and wonder. He did not appear to be bothered by her weight, and was holding her effortlessly, pressed tightly against him. The two stared at each other wordlessly.
Mallory breathed in deeply, which turned out to be a mistake – with all the dust in the air, she burst into a sudden and uncontrollable coughing fit, breaking their reverie. She opened and closed the hand that had seared with pain moments ago, and then started rubbing her palm with the thumb of her other hand – it felt fine now. As Eliza and Isaac sheepishly separated, Mallory looked to her own rescuer, a thin young man of moderate height, with long black hair.
There was something about his features that reminded Mallory of a trickster spirit like Puck – maybe the arch of his eyebrows, or the sharp point of his slightly upturned nose. Mallory was still coughing horribly in the dust, much to her annoyance. Is no one else affected by this shit? she thought to herself. “We should get out of here,” Isaac said, and led Eliza by the hand off toward the stairs to the kitchen, helping her around and over the surrounding debris.
The one that had helped her offered his hand, but she waved him off as she followed the others. Once outside, Mallory collapsed on the overgrown grass and took several large gasps of the refreshingly clear air, reveling in the warmth and light of the fading day. It felt great to be out of that dark death trap. She thought briefly of her knife, but didn’t want to go back into the house immediately. Maybe someday she’d go back and find it. After her breathing calmed, she opened her eyes and sat back up, dusting herself off as she observed the pair of young men that had rescued them.
Isaac was easily discernible from Eliza’s description and the few times Mallory had glimpsed him. He was broad shouldered and thin waisted, with wavy strawberry blonde hair and bright blue eyes, and a dimpled smile that seemed suited to a life in politics. He was flashing that smile now at both her and Eliza. Mallory thought he looked a little too old to be in high school. Eliza stood sheepishly a few feet away from him, refusing to look up from the ground. She had turned a shade of pink that wasn’t entirely due to the exertion of their ordeal. She had immediately started preening, attempting to put her hair in order and dust her clothes off.
“So, you were following us,” the dark haired one said, smirking slightly. “I was pretty sure it was the same car behind us since we left the school.” Eliza turned a deeper shade of red at his words, still refusing to look up. “Any particular reason?”
“She likes him,” Mallory said simply, gesturing vaguely between Eliza and Isaac. Both heads shot up and stared at her in surprise, and Eliza started a spluttered protest.
“Really?” Isaac said, sounding awed. Mallory noted he did not look at all disappointed.
She grimaced. The dark haired one chuckled and offered his hand to her. “My name is Sampson,” he introduced.
“Mallory.” She waved away his hand and stood up on her own, and he shrugged and stepped back to give her more room. He looked amused that she kept refusing his help.
“Pleasure.” A young woman with short black hair came jogging out from a nearby copse of trees. Sampson nodded toward her. “And that’s Samanda.”
“What kind of name is Samanda?” Mallory wondered aloud, still annoyed at the entire situation. As she approached, Mallory noted that there was a strong resemblance between Samanda and Sampson, and she wondered if they were twins. She shared the same nose and sharp features, and there was something of a perpetual smirk threatening the corner of her lips. Her hair was cut short, jet black and spiky. Her eyes were shockingly golden, almost the same deep shade as a cat that Mallory had once had.
Samanda grinned as she approached, and responded, “It’s Amanada, with an S.” She had the same strangely lilting accent as Sampson that Mallory couldn’t quite place. It was almost but not quite Irish. Sampson raised an eyebrow at the approaching girl, who gave a slight shake of her head, before saying, “What happened to all of you?” in a way that sounded suspiciously like over-acting to Mallory’s ears.
Frowning at the unspoken communication between the two, Mallory felt suddenly exhausted. She had the feeling that knowing more would be bad and decided not to push the issue. “Thanks for the…” she tried to think for a moment of how they could have possibly saved them and found her mind hurtling through all sorts of impossible mental gymnastics. “…help. We need to go.” She turned and unceremoniously bee-lined for her vehicle, and heard Eliza murmuring embarrassed goodbyes as she quickly followed.
It wasn’t until they were halfway down the road that Mallory surfaced from her thoughts enough to glance over at Eliza. Eliza was pouting, glaring at her sideways as she slumped in the seat with her arms crossed. Her face was red from the roots of her hair to her neck. “I can’t believe you told him I like him!” she said, her voice coming out in a long drawn-out whine.
Mallory grimaced. The first thought that ran through her head was, That’s really the only thing you took away from all of that? But if Eliza hadn’t noticed the shadow or wondered at how they had been rescued… she found herself not wanting to worry her friend. “You’re welcome,” she said instead, instilling a slight smugness to her tone. Eliza huffed and turned to stare out the window.
After getting Eliza home, she drove around for a while before begrudgingly returning to her own house. The driveway was empty – she hoped that meant her mom had found a new job. Still, she was quiet as she entered. She stopped at her mom’s room first and pushed the door open slightly to confirm that she was home alone. Then she went to her own room and flopped down onto the mattress. Her mind continued to race, replaying the entire stairwell scene over and over again. She couldn’t work out how the rescue had happened. How none of the debris had buried them, or broken them. And that shadowy figure she had seen at the top of the stares…
She closed her eyes. She didn’t want to worry about any of this. She didn’t want to think about it at all. She was going to specifically focus on not thinking about it.
The next morning, she woke and performed her normal morning exercises and got through the first half of her school day specifically not thinking about it. At lunch, she found her usual perch to hide and read when a familiar overly-friendly voice said, “Asimov fan, huh?”
Looking up, she could see that Isaac was leaning down to observe the cover of her book. Behind him, Samanda and Sampson (who she had by now dubbed “the Sams” in her mind) stood, almost like overprotective bodyguards carefully trailing their ward. Mallory sighed and marked her spot in the book with a finger. “What do you want?” she asked, her tone flat.
To his credit as a future politician, Isaac’s smile only slightly faltered before he cheerfully said, “You get straight to the point, don’t you?”
“Well, the sooner we’re done, the sooner I can get back to my book.”
“I see…” His mouth opened like he was going to speak more, but then slowly closed as the smile faded from his face. Being this close to him, Mallory could see that he had a scar across his nose, and it wrinkled noticeably as his features shifted into a frown.
Bewildered, she wondered what could possibly be on his mind, but she had no reason to speak first so she allowed the silence to linger uncomfortably. As the silence dragged on, he began to look rather sheepish and a blush rose across his features. He had opened and closed his mouth a few times, clearly struggling to find the words. Sampson finally cleared his throat and crossed his arms, and Samanda threw her arms into the air in exasperation. “He wants to know if your friend really likes him!” she said. Isaac’s head snapped back to glare at her, but Samanda barreled on with, “There, it’s out now! How hard was that to say?”
Mallory wasn’t sure what she had expected, but that wasn’t what she had been prepared to hear. She stared for a moment at Isaac, watching his ears turn bright red. Samanda and Sampson moved past him to settle on either side of Mallory, making her feel slightly crowded, especially as Samanda familiarly placed an arm across her shoulder, like they were old friends already. “Every day, it’s like we hear about nothing else but Eliza,” Sampson explained.
“She’s so perfect!” Samanda mimed.
“She’s got such beautiful brown hair!” Sampson added.
Isaac refused to turn around. His ears were absolutely scarlet. “For the record, Eliza says her hair is auburn.” Mallory clarified. Watching the Sams put their friend through some good-natured ribbing was calming her down quite a bit. There was something humanizing about it. How evil could they be if they teased their friend over having a crush? “But yes, I understand the frustration. It’s been non-stop on my end as well.” Mallory pitched her voice up, mimicking Eliza’s tone. “He’s so dreamy!”
Isaac finally slowly turned to face Mallory, a slightly dazed look on his face. “She really said that?” Samanda erupted in laughter and Sampson audibly groaned, slapping a hand over his face.
Usually, Eliza went to eat lunch in the cafeteria with some of her other friends and then joined Mallory when she was done. She took longer than usual before arriving, so lunch was almost over when she turned the corner of the hall. She froze at the sight of the four of them sitting together amicably. Mallory watched as Eliza approached, her face tilted down and her skin turning pink. Mallory waved as she got closer. “Turns out he likes you too,” she said by way of greeting.
Eliza turned to look at Isaac in surprise, who had audibly spluttered at Mallory’s statement. They stared at each other silently for a ridiculously long moment, prompting Samanda to begin snickering again. It was funny to Mallory too, and she would have loved it at any other time. But something still felt off… She had honestly expected some other reaction from Eliza. There was something almost too reserved in her nature, and there was the slight frown furrowing her brow, as though she found something concerning. The bell saved them from having to interact further, and the Sams cheerfully said their goodbyes as they dragged Isaac away to class. Eliza watched them leave. “I would have thought you’d be happier to hear that,” Mallory said, standing and brushing off her pants.
Eliza frowned. “It’s just… I started thinking about some of what happened yesterday. I couldn’t stop thinking about it all night.”
“Ah,” Mallory said, not prompting an explanation. She felt a chill run down her spine. She had been doing such a good job avoiding thinking about it, hoping that she was overreacting or being crazy suspicious.
Eliza looked up at her. “Mallory…”
“We’re going to be late for class,” Mallory cut her off. Eliza looked disappointed, as though she wanted to speak more, but she nodded and left. Mallory watched her go for a moment as the hall became more crowded.
At the end of the school day, Mallory sat in her car, idly waiting for the parking lot to clear a little before attempting to leave. The ancient POS that Isaac and the Sams drove was in view, and she stared at it absentmindedly, lost in her thoughts. When she saw them exiting the building, she slumped low in her seat and watched as they got into the vehicle. Had she been waiting for them? She hadn’t consciously thought of it that way, but as they pulled out of their parking spot, she decided to follow them again. She didn’t have a concrete plan in place. But there was something about them that bothered her, and if her best friend was going to get involved with them…
Remembering that she had been spotted following them the other day, she tried to keep farther back this time, cursing each time she thought she lost sight of them. Eventually, their vehicle pulled into the lot of a cheap motel across town, and as Mallory drove by, she saw what door they were going into. She frowned, wondering why they had come to this place, and continued past, pulling into the parking lot of a little pizza parlor around the corner. She sat for a moment, contemplating her next move.
Everything had been on a whim, but now she was here. She took a deep breath and got out to walk down to the motel. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest as she walked, hands in her pocket, wondering how suspicious she looked every step of the way and feeling like a million eyes were watching her, accusing her of being where she wasn’t supposed to be. Eliza was going to get involved with Isaac, so she wanted to know… what? She couldn’t say for sure, beyond that she wanted Eliza to be safe.
In no time at all, she found herself standing outside their door. She stared at the little metal six tacked to the front of it and hesitated, losing her nerve again. Should she knock? Should she leave? She tentatively bent to place her ear against the door. She couldn’t hear anything…
“Can I help you?”
Mallory jumped, straightening and turning to find Sampson was standing behind her, carrying three bottles of soda. She felt her face warm as she tried desperately to think of a reason – any reason – that she would be standing outside of their motel room door, attempting to eavesdrop. She leaned back against the door as he moved closer, and was further shocked when the door opened and she fell backwards into the room. “Mallory? What are you doing here?” Samanda asked, grabbing her by the arm to help her stand and then ushering her over to sit on the bed.
Sampson moved in and closed the door behind himself, and within moments Mallory found herself staring up at them. Her instincts screamed at her for allowing herself to be caught and surrounded, and her mind raced for something, anything, to explain herself. But before she could think of a single thing, Isaac appeared out of thin air.
Mallory gaped in shock.
It wasn’t that Isaac had walked in from another room, and he hadn’t been there the entire time unnoticed. One moment, the spot was unoccupied, and then suddenly he had appeared out of thin air. Isaac looked just as startled to see that she was there, staring at him in slack jawed disbelief. “Oh,” he said as their eyes met,” shit.”
Mallory couldn’t remember moving, but suddenly she was standing on top of the bed, pressed against the wall, wielding a pillow threateningly at the three of them. “What the hell?!” she shrieked, uncertain if she was yelling at the sudden reappearing act or the pillow weapon. Just in case the message hadn’t been received, she repeated herself, even louder, “What the hell?!”
“Mallory… please calm down. And stop shouting,” Isaac had his hands up, gesturing that he meant no harm. Mallory dropped the pillow, and for a moment he looked relieved… until she bent to pick up the bedside phone instead. “Mallory…!” he started, but his words cut off as she threw the phone at him. Isaac gasped and jumped back at the same time Sampson dashed forward to protect him. Both actions turned out to be pointless as the cord on the phone pulled it short of hitting Isaac, but Sampson’s lunge forward cleared the path to the door. Mallory instantly jumped off the bed and ran to it, slamming it open. She felt Samanda’s fingers brush the back of her shirt and she gritted her teeth as she started her sprint across the parking lot.
She could hear Isaac calling her name, but that only made her run faster. She rounded the corner on the sidewalk, twirling to dodge a woman walking down the street. The woman dropped her cellphone, and was screaming at her, but Mallory ignored it, focusing only on her mad dash back to her car, her heartbeat thrumming loudly in her ears.
Mallory fumbled her key fob out and hit the button to unlock the door and had just started pulling it open when another set of hands slammed the door shut again. Making a strangled throaty sound of frustration, Mallory turned, a little surprised that someone had caught up to her – she wasn’t the fastest runner in school, but was physically fit enough that she hadn’t expected to have been caught so quickly. It was Samanda. Mallory shoved forcefully into the other girl’s shoulders, but Samanda took a quick step back and grabbed her wrists with shocking speed. Mallory kicked out, exactly as her father used to teach her, and Samanda quickly dropped her wrists to move out of reach.
Sampson and Isaac had caught up and were standing just behind Samanda. Mallory felt surrounded. “Let me go,” she said. She shifted her weight back and moved her keys between her fingers, curling her hand into a fist. She watched as Samanda smiled, tilting her head to regard her curiously while watching her. Mallory’s mind buzzed, trying to decide whether it would be better to let them make the first move or to go on the attack, decisions buzzing through her brain… Isaac opened his mouth to speak again.
“Hey! What the hell’s going on out here?” They all turned to look at the pizza parlor, where an employee still wearing his apron had stepped out to intervene. He was an older man, massive, but not tall – fat, but not pure fat. He stood just outside the door, trying to figure out what the situation was. Behind him, a burly teenage boy that Mallory recognized as being from the school’s football team looked ready to leap into action as well, and several customers were peering out the glass curiously.
Changing tactics, Mallory pressed against the car, acting terrified (though truthfully, it wasn’t that much of an act) and shouted, “Help!” The man started pulling his apron off to approach, and Sampson and Isaac backed away a few steps. Undaunted, Samanda pointed at Mallory and said, “She stole my brother’s cellphone, and just started running!” This statement made the man stop short, and now he peered at Mallory, squinting his eyes slightly.
Mallory narrowed her eyes at Samanda and spoke loud enough for the man to hear. “If I’m a thief, you can call the cops. I’m willing to wait for them to sort this out. What about you?” It was a gamble, but Mallory felt certain they wouldn’t want to involve the police.
“Hmm. You know. Never mind,” Samanda grinned as she backed away. Mallory tensed, watching her every movement. Her voice lowered so only Mallory could hear her. “We’ll deal with it later.”
The guy from the parlor finally decided to settle on a course of action that kept him out of whatever the hell was going on. “I want all of you to get out of here,” he said. “If any of you are still near this lot when I’m back in that store, I am calling the cops.” Without needing to be told twice, Mallory pulled her car door open, slipped inside, and drove away. She watched Samanda, Isaac, and Sampson in her mirrors as they started walking back to their motel. They stared at her car until she was out of sight.
Mallory drove straight to Eliza’s house. It still made her feel awkward to drive through Eliza’s neighborhood. It was the kind of quiet, well-maintained neighborhood that always left her feeling a little out of place. The houses were large, multi-storied, gated, with three car garages and pools and manicured lawns. The kind of places that Mallory could only imagine living in. Although she had spent a lot of her life staying overnight at Eliza’s or hanging out on summer days to play in the pool, she still felt strange pulling into Eliza’s driveway and bouncing up the few steps to the front door. Like it was all still new.
The camera doorbell dinged to let her know that she was being recorded. Mallory hesitated a moment at the door. Eliza’s parents wouldn’t be home yet. They both worked at the same hospital, though Eliza’s father was a pharmacist and her mother was a doctor. Her older brother, Michael, was just starting college this semester and had moved away. Eliza would be home alone – this was the best time to talk to her about what she had just seen, to warn her that there was something strange about Isaac.
After shaking her head, Mallory rang the bell. She spent the next several moments glancing about nervously, almost feeling like she might have been followed. Isaac could disappear and reappear out of thin air – what else was he capable of? Eliza finally came to the door, smiling to see her. “You should’ve told me you were coming by, I was gonna ignore it until Mom texted saying it was you.” Mallory smiled stiffly, not bothering to remind Eliza that she didn’t have a cellphone anymore. She pushed past Eliza and into the house, and closed the door behind her, locking it. “Welcome?” Eliza said, quirking an eyebrow up.
“We need to talk,” Mallory said. She moved further into the house, into the kitchen. She had planned to sit on one of the stools at the counter, but instead found herself pacing back and forth nervously. Adrenaline still coursed through her system, and she felt mildly nauseous.
Eliza trailed behind her, looking nervous in response to Mallory’s obvious agitation. She watched Mallory pace for a moment before saying, “What happened? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Her voice lowered a bit, as though she was broaching a taboo subject. “Is it your mom again?”
Mallory paused, staring at Eliza, and then shook her head. “No… no. It’s your boyfriend.”
Eliza flushed. “He’s not my boyfriend,” she protested.
Mallory waved a hand in the air dismissively. “I followed them again tonight.” Eliza settled onto one of the stools nearby, staring hard at Mallory – she was wearing a green shirt, and it made her hazel eyes greener – small, still ponds. Mallory looked away and began pacing again.
After a moment, Eliza prodded with, “I take it something weird happened. Again.”
Mallory nodded. “They went to this little motel, and I was trying to listen at the door when they found me.” Eliza quirked an eyebrow again, silently mouthed the word “stalker” but otherwise did not interrupt. “When I was in the room with them, Isaac appeared. But like… literally. Out of thin air.”
“Out of thin air?” Eliza frowned, her arms traveled up to cross in front of her chest as she slightly hunched, looking thoughtful. “We never did see them at the house until we fell through the stairs.”
Mallory nodded, and a strange sense of relief flooded her. She realized some of her anxiety had been in the thought that Eliza wouldn’t believe her at all. She thought briefly of the figure she had spotted at the top of the stairs, but wasn’t sure how that related, and so didn’t bring it up. “They can somehow go invisible.” Mallory threw her hands into the air in frustration, not sure what to even think. “Maybe they’re not even human. Maybe they’re ghosts.”
Eliza shuddered slightly. She hated ghost stories. Seeing this, Mallory teasingly added, “Maybe they’re the Millers.”
“Shut up,” Eliza rolled her eyes. “I don’t think they’re ghosts. I mean, they’ve been coming to school. They caught us when they were saving us, like they have actual bodies. They seem pretty…” her voice trailed off as though she were searching for the right word.
“Corporeal?” Mallory suggested.
Eliza nodded.
mehryment 