• It was three of us now and we were getting desperate. Tasha, which I figured was short for Natasha, was kind of a drawback. She couldn’t get tired, but she’d start crying every time we’d come across some place she knew. It was annoying to say the least and John wasn’t taking it lightly. I, on the other hand, had to keep them as far from each other as possible, and being in the middle is not fun at all. We walked and walked looking around, checking all the doors and occasionally sitting down to talk a little. Dawn reached and we hadn’t made any new discoveries. We knew something was up, duh, we knew someone was behind it and we knew it could not be human.

    “What if it’s aliens?” Tasha asked as she turned another locked doorknob.

    “Ooh!” I mused, “Like E.T.!”

    “Who’s that?” Tasha made a face.

    “You don’t know who E.T. is?” John said.

    We both looked at him stunned. This was the first time he responded to anything Tasha said.

    “Well, no.” She responded quietly, timidly even.

    “What is wrong with kids these days?” he yelled, waving his arms in the air.

    “Nothing!” she said, putting her arms on her hips.

    I let them argue. It showed John wasn’t as frustrated anymore. We checked another door, found it locked, and went on to the next one passing an alley on the way and I think I heard something. I stopped dead stiff, front and center, my ears searching for another sound, something other than John and Tasha’s arguing, something to show me I wasn’t crazy, or as crazy as I thought. I didn’t hear it again; I dismissed it as being a stray cat or something. I started walking, at a brisk pace so I could catch up to the others when I heard it again. This time it was the ruffle of clothes and footsteps, I looked back, nothing.

    I began panicking again, first I got stranded in front of my house, then the world disappeared and now I was hearing things. I must be crazier than I thought. But then.

    “Did you find out what was making that sound?” John asked.

    “You heard it too?” I sighed. I’m not crazy after all.

    “Yeah, I thought you stayed behind to check it out”, he continued.

    I didn’t notice before, Tasha was hanging on his back. Piggy back style, something must’ve happened when I was back there.

    “I did, but didn’t see anything. It was probably nothing anyways,” I told him then I pointed at him and Tasha, “When did this happen?”

    He shrugged. Typical men.

    We kept walking, talking occasionally about nonsense. I could still hear the footsteps following us, and so could John but we silently decide to ignore them. I was hoping that the person who was following us would just come up to us. This sneaking around business was a little disturbing, at least for me it was. We were finally nearing the town square, hopeful. We’d decided that we’d stay there until someone came around. It was the most ideal spot, or so we thought. We were about a block away from the town square when we heard a yelp. It caught us by surprise; we’d given up on our stalker.

    “Stop!” he yelled, “Don’t go there!”

    We stopped walking and turned around. He was a bum, how many times did I walk past him without a second glance, and here he was, trying to warns us of something.

    “Don’t go in there, please!” he’d stopped in front of us, his hands stretched out.

    John, who still had Tasha on his shoulders, recoiled away from the man.
    I, on the other hand, was intrigued.

    “Why not?” said John.

    “People have been disappearing,” he said. That much we knew.

    “And?” John said, rather rude.

    “The ones that were not taken last night have been disappearing,” he said, “I’ve been watching them, everyone walking over to the town
    square. They won’t come out.”

    “Maybe it’s ‘cause they’re planning something. How would you know?”

    John was getting out of hand.

    “I don’t,” he replied in a small voice, “But I think the doors are locked for a reason.”

    This caught my attention. I turned around watching him, he was dirty, from head to toe, but he didn’t seem to want anything bad for us. I turned to John who was shaking his head, then to Tasha who was eyeing him nervously.

    “Do you have a theory?” I asked him.

    “I think, something, or someone, is trying to keep us out. They want to show us something.” He said.

    “Any idea what?” I pressed on.

    “No.”

    “We have to keep him” I told John.

    “No.” he said.

    “But the more of us, the most likely we are to learn the truth behind all
    of this.” I said urgently.

    “No.”

    “He’s coming with us whether you like it or not.” I yelled. I had no idea I was so demanding.

    “No.” he replied.

    “Uhrg!” I screamed with my arms up in the air.

    We ended up walking up the square. John was in the lead, with me close behind and Tasha holding Mark’s hand. Yes, we kept him.