They sat for a long moment, staring at each other. “We need to go back. To the Miller house,” Eliza finally said, breaking the silence.

Mallory frowned, glancing at the window, and then at the clock. Despite everything that had happened today, it was still before 5 pm – it would be light out for another four hours or so. A part of Mallory wanted to protest this idea, but seeing something in Eliza’s expression – a sort of hardheaded steadfastness – made her nod in agreement instead. Before long, they were both piled back into her car, making the drive out to the dilapidated building.

Once inside, they stood together at the edge of the ruined stairs, shining their flashlights down into the basement. From above, it was clear how bad it should have been. How strange it really was. “I don’t think we would’ve survived that,” Eliza said, her tone strangely flat.

Mallory nodded.

---

Back outside, they walked slowly to the car, each contemplating what they had seen. “Where we were standing,” Eliza began tentatively, “it looked like we were protected somehow. Like we were in a bubble that just dissolved all the wood.”

Mallory nodded. In a rough circle around the area they had been standing, there was no debris. It wasn’t even that it had fallen around them, miraculously missing them. There had been long pieces of wood that should have fallen onto them, but the edges had been sheered off at the middle where they had been standing, almost like a smooth cut. The central area, the bubble of protection, was covered in bright fresh sawdust. Mallory recalled how it swirled in the air, caught in the flashlight’s beam. She had thought it was only dust in the air.

What had destroyed the wood like that?

As she mulled that thought over, a sudden chill ran down her spine. She had the sudden sensation of being watched. She glanced around, and found herself focusing on the roof of the Miller house, squinting against the fading late afternoon light. There was nothing there, and yet… there was something there. Something watching. “Let’s go,” she said to Eliza, walking quickly back to her car.

Eliza followed, frowning. Mallory immediately started her car, and as soon as Eliza’s door was closed, she sped down the dirt lane. Eliza frowned at her, picking up on her agitation. “Mallory, what’s wrong?” she asked quietly as she buckled her seatbelt.

Mallory shook her head, not quite wanting to give voice to her concern yet.

“Did you see what was watching us?” Eliza’s voice was almost too soft to hear. Mallory stared straight ahead as she drove.

---

It wasn’t until much later, when they were back at Eliza’s house. They were safe in Eliza’s room, seated on the bed. Mallory described the strange figure she had seen at the top of the stairs. The sensation of being watched.

Instead of seeming incredibly freaked out, Eliza breathed a sigh of relief, closing her eyes and reaching out to place her hand gently on Mallory’s arm. “I stopped bringing it up because it sounded crazy, and I thought I was being silly. But I felt it there too. It’s the same as what I had told you about before. About how I felt like I’d been watched all summer.”

“It’s not exactly relieving to me that you’re not crazy about being stalked,” Mallory groused.

Eliza smiled, opening her eyes again. “I’m not happy about that. I’m just glad I’m not crazy after all.”

Mallory waved a hand in the air dismissively at Eliza’s protest. “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, 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.

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.

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 for it. Eliza would be home alone – this was the best time to talk to her about what she had just seen, to warn here 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 she saw you on the doorbell camera.” 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 weakly.

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 moved 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 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.

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 wallet, 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.

“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 she drove away and they started walking back to their motel. They stared at her car until she was out of sight.

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. 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, 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.”