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Riley

RILEY STARED DOWN AT the cracked screen of her phone, the message— WE KNOW YOU’RE IN THERE—ARE YOU ALONE?!?

Not only did she have no idea who sent it, but the meaning of the word WE wasn’t lost on her. From the sink above her, a soft gurgle rolled from the pipes, and Riley let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding. With two shaky thumbs, she typed out a reply. Only five words, but she had to backspace and fix typos three times before she got it right: No, my mom is here.

Riley clicked over to the home screen and opened a browser window, typed in some random letters, and hit search. If text messages were coming in, maybe the internet was back, but the window only hung there for about ten seconds with the progress bar creeping across the screen and freezing at about the midway point before returning a page cannot be displayed message. Riley hit refresh and got the same thing. She was about to dial her mom when the phone dinged with another text: LIAR. WE SAW HER AT THE DINER.

We again. Riley’s heart thumped, and she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

Highlighting the phone number with her thumb, Riley copied and pasted it into Google, hoping to find out who it belonged to, but she only received another internet error.

That made no sense. If the internet was down, how was she getting text messages? Maybe those things came from a different part of the internet?

From her spot on the kitchen floor, she could see the corner of the television in the other room. Most of Vanya’s pixelated face was gone now. Internet still down for sure. She quickly typed: She came home early. She’s right here.

Riley barely hit Send when the reply came back— LIAR!!!

A second later— YOU NEED TO COME OUTSIDE OR WE’RE COMING IN

Riley barely processed the words when something struck the kitchen window above her head.