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.”

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 near Mallory’s perch, making her feel slightly crowded. “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 to face us. 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 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 to join Mallory. 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 a lot more.”

“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.