Chapter 2: Someone Was Standing Outside
He was holding a small baby monitor.
The old kind.
The kind you use when there's someone in the house you need to watch over.
I stared at it.
"David.
What is that for?"
He set it on the table between us.
"Three weeks ago," he said quietly, "I started hearing something outside at night.
Near your side of the house.
Below the bedroom window."
I felt the air leave the room.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't want to scare you.
I thought it was an animal.
Then it happened again.
And again."
"David—"
"The third time, I saw a light.
Someone was out there.
Standing near the house.
Just standing."
I couldn't speak.
"That's why I switched sides," he said.
"I wanted to be the one closest to the window.
I wanted to be the one who heard it first."
My hands were shaking.
"Did you see who it was?"
He looked at me for a long moment.
May you like
Then he said something that made every hair on my body stand up.
"I think you might know them."
