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  There were pictures of Eve and her brother at various ages when they were little, playing in a park, helping their parents in the truck. At the end of the row, a new photograph stood, leaning up against the wall. This didn’t have a frame of its own yet. It showed Eve’s parents relaxing on a tropical beach beneath a grove of coconut trees.

  “I know you didn’t come all this way to stare at my family pictures, so what’s the deal?” Eve said, clearly uncomfortable at having all of them there. She kept fidgeting with her curly hair and tugging at her clothes — which consisted of a tattered sweater and some lounge pants that had been worn so much that the bottoms had frayed. Despite the low key outfit, Cassie found herself staring at Eve, startled to see that beneath all those layers of makeup, she was beautiful with skin that practically glowed.

  Only Cassie had the misfortune to look the way she did.

  “Christian is here, and he said he can explain some of what happened tonight,” Marley began, cutting into Cassie’s appraisal.

  “What are you talking about?” Eve asked. Just because they had experienced that madness earlier, it didn’t make them BFF’s. She found her earlier soft-heartedness rapidly disappearing along with her patience.

  “It seems Marley is able to see his ghost,” Tyler explained. “He’s here right now, but she’s the only one who can see or hear him.”

  Eve blinked, staring at them in astonishment.

  “You came all the way here to play some stupid prank on me?”

  “It’s not a prank,” Marley said, annoyed she would even think that. “I can see him.”

  “Yeah?” Eve replied, a challenge to her voice. Folding her arms over her chest, she lifted her chin defiantly. “Prove it.”

  Marley looked to Christian for help. “I don’t know how.”

  “Maybe I do,” he replied as an idea came to him. He gestured. “Give me a minute.” Then vanished without fanfare, leaving Marley with all eyes focused on her.

  “He’s gone,” she explained as a deep flush colored her cheeks. She knew how insane this all sounded. It took every inch of self-resolve not to mumble. “He’ll be right back.”

  “Uh huh,” Eve replied, clearly not buying a word of it. She tapped a flip-flopped foot on the scratched wooden floorboards, the black polish on her toes catching the light. They waited without speaking, the only sound the chiming of an ancient clock that lived in the hallway outside. Tension so thick, it covered the air like a heavy blanket. Cassie found her mind wandering, wondering when would be a good moment to ask Eve about her skincare routine. After what seemed like hours — but was only minutes — Christian reappeared.

  “Finally!” Marley exclaimed.

  “So what’s he got?” Eve asked, fully expecting nothing to come out of this futile exercise except to prove that Marley was full of it.

  Christian smiled at Marley smugly.

  “Ask her who xXIDaBestPlaya420Xx is and why he thinks she’d want to meet him in Dalaran.”

  “Dial-a-what?” Marley asked, not sure if she’d heard him correctly.

  “Da-la-ran,” he repeated. “Just say it.”

  Not understanding any of what she was about to say next, Marley turned to Eve. “He said, who’s xXIDaBestPlaya420Xx and why does he think you’d want to meet him in Da-la-ran?”

  Eve gasped, the smug look wiped from her face immediately. “How do you know that? There’s no way you could know that!”

  “Can someone please explain what’s happening right now?” Tyler asked a little plaintively as Cassie nodded behind her.

  “I went up to her room and saw she was talking to someone in a video game. That’s what they were saying in the chat box,” Christian explained. Marley repeated what he said to stunned silence.

  “Is that true?” Cassie asked, finally breaking the silence.

  “Yes,” Eve replied. “And there’s no way she could have known that unless she’s seen my computer upstairs.”

  “Tell her, I’m also surprised by some of her decor, Goth’s aren’t traditionally into Hello Kitty,” Christian finished. Marley repeated his words again, much to Eve’s embarrassment.

  “That stuff is old… I haven’t gotten around to throwing it out,” she explained quickly as Tyler looked on in amusement. With the truth staring them right the face, Cassie squirmed with embarrassment as her mistake started to sink in. Realizing there was something she needed to say, she turned to Marley.

  “I think apologies might be in order… I’m sorry for doubting you,” she apologized.

  Marley’s eyes fixed on Cassie as she studied the other girl silently. She knew it couldn’t have been easy for her to admit she had been wrong — no one ever liked to think that they were. She shot her a nod, graciously accepting the apology.

  Christian clapped his hands together impatiently, startling her and making her jump.

  “Now that they actually believe I exist, do you think I can start talking now? Staying on your dimension is costing me a ton of willpower that I’m not sure I have.”

  “You need willpower to be here?” Marley asked.

  “Apparently so. I feel like I’m being constantly pulled elsewhere. It’s exhausting.”

  “Talk quickly,” Marley demanded.

  And so he did.

  Chapter 3

  “I ’m a Guardian. We are a secret society that was created centuries ago to assist in the protection of the world from supernatural evil,” Christian answered. “I have trained my whole life for this one sole purpose.”

  “So it’s a pretty big bummer that Marley killed you then, huh?” Eve quipped, but no one laughed, unable to find the humor in the situation. Reminded of her own unfortunate actions that resulted in his death, Marley wished she could sink into the ground.

  “That’s one way of putting it,” Christian replied, shooting her a hard look that made Marley feel even crappier.

  “So supernatural things, they really do exist?” Cassie couldn’t help asking, feeling a chill run down her spine. Did that mean all those monsters they had read about in books and watched in movies… were they all real too?

  “Yes,” Christian replied simply. “And since you all have a gift, I’d argue that you belong in that category too.”

  The girls went silent as his words fell over the room. Cassie looked down at her hands, to see if she could see the magic coursing through her, but all she found was a chip in the pale pink polish of her little finger.

  “What magical powers do you have?” Cassie asked the air where she thought Christian was standing, though he had actually moved over to the window. Marley didn’t think it necessary to correct her, however, as where he stood in the room seemed of no consequence.

  “I don’t have any, not exactly. But I can’t be killed by supernatural evil. I’m protected from that,” Christian revealed.

  There was a pause in the conversation as the others found themselves looking surreptitiously at Marley. With a sinking heart, she finished the one thought he didn’t express.

  “But not from me.”

  “The magic is meant to ward off evil, and apparently only evil,” Christian said.

  Marley could see that he was far from accepting his fate. He paced the room, running his fingers through his short hair in agitation. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see him for the moment. The sight of him constantly sent her mind reeling, her emotions see-sawing from horror to shame. He had been protected from evil, but whatever that magic was, it hadn’t been able to stop her from killing him.

  “Well, at least that proves we’re the good guys,” she said, fighting to find remain optimistic when all she really wanted was to be back home with her dad in San Fran. Life there seemed like a dream compared to her troubles here, and it was only her first day. Why had she insisted on coming here? Why did she think school would be the best experience of her life?

  If she expected an answer from Christian, she found none. He kept his eyes fixed on the ground, studiously avoiding her gaze. She didn’t n
eed to be a detective to know there was something he wasn’t telling them.

  She knew it immediately but couldn’t summon up the courage to confront him. With so much confusion in the air, whatever this other thing was, it could wait for another time.

  “The guy you were fighting, who was he?” Eve asked.

  “His name is Michael,” Christian replied. Feeling relieved at the relatively simple task, Marley went back to translating. At least while she was doing that, she wouldn’t have her own disturbing thoughts to consider.

  “Whenever something suspicious happens, we — my mentor Eric — and I investigate to see if there are any supernatural influences at play.”

  “And if there are?” Tyler asked.

  “If there are, we put an end to them.” He stopped, letting his meaning sink in. A dry lump formed in Marley’s throat that she tried to swallow.

  “We first learned of Michael a few weeks ago, when the first young murder victim was found in Boston with their neck snapped. You must have heard about it in the news. There were several magic sigils on the dead body that ordinary people can’t see, but we could.”

  “You saw them through the television?” Cassie asked in amazement.

  Christian gave her a level look before answering. “No. We saw the sigils when we broke into the morgue and examined the bodies.”

  Cassie blinked, trying not to recoil in horror as Christian continued. “We knew immediately that the murderer was killing the victims and using their deaths for something, but the trail went cold until a few days ago, when Becky Stevens, the Tennerson student, was killed in Copley Square. We tracked Michael down, but when he realized who we were, he paid some human low lives to attack us.” Christian’s voice broke. He stopped, his eyes turning bright with tears.

  “Eric was killed, but I got away.”

  The girls gasped, horrified, taking in his pain even though they couldn’t see or hear him. Marley found herself wishing she could touch him to offer some small semblance of comfort. He looked so lost at losing someone obviously close to him that she felt her complicated feelings melting away, leaving only compassion.

  “I followed some leads of my own until I found Michael again at Trinity…” He trailed off, not knowing how else to continue.

  “And that’s where we came in,” Tyler finished for him. “But what are we exactly? And why do we have these powers? What are they?”

  Christian hesitated. Marley could almost see his mind working over the question. His eyes slid to the floor as he mumbled a response. “Well, that I don’t know yet.”

  The hopeful feeling that had been in her chest now plummeted. A lead weight settled in her stomach. “Wait, you don’t know what we are or why this all happened?”

  “No. It can’t be a coincidence, you all turning up to the church at the same time. Or even that three of you live across the hall from each other. I just don’t know what the wider story could be.”

  “Four,” Eve said quietly suddenly. “It was meant to be four of us living across the hall from each other.”

  Marley and Cassie looked confused until Tyler chimed in. “That’s right! Eve was supposed to be my roommate.”

  “Eve is the girl who took one look at you and left?” Marley asked without thinking, drawing an embarrassed cough from Eve.

  “Yeah,” Eve replied simply, though her jutting chin challenged anyone who dared to call her out on it. No one did. The three other girls each found her pretty intimidating. Marley let the news sink in as as she considered Christian’s lack of helpful knowledge and had to resist the urge to scream. She was back to nothing making sense again.

  “When you said you had things to tell us, I thought, that you know, you had things to tell us. Instead, it pretty much sounds like you don’t know what you’re talking about,” Eve said to Christian.

  “I do know what I’m talking about, I just don’t know why the four of you came into your powers like that tonight,” Christian snapped back, annoyed. “You are obviously powerful, or have the potential to be…”

  He turned to stare directly at Marley. “And since you have powers, one thing I do know. You need to find out what Michael is up to and stop him,” Christian finished firmly.

  Chapter 4

  “Say what now?” Tyler asked. “You want us to go after and stop this Michael guy?”

  “And by “stop” he means kill,” Cassie supplied helpfully.

  The whole thing hit Eve like a truck just then, the ludicrousness of the situation. A laugh burst out of her and once it left, she couldn’t stop, not even when tears streamed down her face. She held her sides, gasping for a breath that wouldn’t come. The others watched on in bemusement, unsure of what to do when the front door slammed shut. When the figure stepped in, the room fell into a sudden silence.

  “What’s so funny?” the guy asked. This must be Eve’s brother, Marley thought, recognizing him from the photographs on the mantelpiece. He had similar features to his sister, though where Eve’s face was heart-shaped his was more angular with a strong jawline that hinted at a stubborn streak. Seeing Tyler, he gave her a small smile, shrugging out of his leather jacket and slinging it over the back of an armchair.

  “Are you having a sleepover?” he asked Eve, looking confused.

  Eve fidgeted, suddenly extremely nervous.

  “No, because we’re not five,” she finally managed.

  Si shot a quick look at the watch on his wrist, frowning at the time. “It’s not like I’m not happy you’ve made friends on your first day, but isn’t it kind of late?” he asked, channeling their absent parents perfectly.

  “Yes, they were just leaving,” Eve said quickly, already trying to get the girls out of the house.

  “No! We have more things to discuss,” Christian began, but Marley didn’t bother to translate for him as Eve grabbed her arm, steering her towards the front door.

  “You need to go,” she hissed under her breath at them. “I don’t want him involved in any of this.”

  “But we literally know nothing,” Marley said quickly.

  “I’ll meet you tomorrow, at one. In the food court. We’ll talk then,” Eve replied, flinging the front door wide open. She shoved the girls out, slamming the door behind them. Christian who was still inside the house, stepped through the door then shivered violently.

  “That’s possibly the strangest experience I’ve ever had in my life, and I’ve had a few of those lately,” he said to no one in particular. Seeing the girls trooping down the steps, he ran in front of Marley.

  “You can’t seriously be going back to the dorm?” he exclaimed. “We need to find out what Michael is up to…”

  Having reached her threshold, unable to take any more, Marley held up a hand to silence him.

  “Christian, stop! It’s been a really stressful day, and that was even before all the weirdness began. Can you just give it a rest for now? You heard what she said, she’ll meet us tomorrow. We can talk about it then,” she pleaded, looking suddenly wary and tired.

  Christian paused. There was so much he needed to find out from them. The clock was ticking and it wouldn’t wait for anyone, no matter how tired they were. He opened his mouth to speak, to plead for them to see sense…

  And then he vanished.

  Chapter 5

  I t was almost midnight by the time Marley came out of the bathroom, ready for bed.

  She knew Christian had more to say to her when he had suddenly vanished. Like the video games she used to play, he must have run out of whatever energy he needed to stay on their plane with them. What had he called it? Their dimension.

  She knew she should have been worried about him disappearing like that, but truth was, she was actually super relieved. At least now she could just sleep and forget everything that had happened. Sleep could always be relied upon to provide relief.

  The drive back had been even quieter than the ride to Eve’s if that was possible. It was also filled with a deep sense of unease that hadn’t
been there on the first journey. Though they knew a little more about their predicament, it felt as if they were in a more precarious position. They still had no idea what they were and why they had any kind of power at all.

  To think all she had to worry about before was how to keep her mental illness at bay. That seemed like a snap in comparison to how complicated her life had become now.

  Wearing her usual sleepwear of an old t-shirt and shorts, Marley caught Cassie studying her. She sat on the edge of her bed, not even trying to hide what she was doing. It felt as if she was taking in every little detail of her appearance and filing it away into her head. It made her extremely uncomfortable, and she wished she’d quit it.

  “What a day,” Marley said, climbing into bed hoping a talk would stop the scrutiny.

  “Yeah,” Cassie replied. “Couldn’t have imagined any of this when I signed up for classes.”

  “Especially when we haven’t even started school yet. I thought that was going to be the big killer.”

  Cassie laid down, took off her glasses then reached for a silver case sitting next to her. Snapping it open, she took two small objects out that Marley couldn’t make out from her side of the room.

  “What are those?” Marley asked.

  “Earplugs,” Cassie answered. “I’m a light sleeper so I can’t do without them.” Settling herself, Cassie looked over at Marley then hesitated. It seemed as if she had more to say until a buzz sounded on her phone. Picking it up, Cassie saw that she had a notification on her Instagram account, the one her mom had set up.

  Great. Just what she needed.

  Cassie looked at the new comment. Someone she didn’t know had posted a YouTube link to her page. Steeling herself, Cassie clicked on the link, expecting this to be another of her mom’s fans, filming the model while she was out and about. For some strange reason, people loved to tag Cassie on videos of her, as if she found her mom’s day-to-day activities as exciting as they did.