The People Were Different

Alice wasn’t herself. She hadn’t spoken since the night she’d returned home, twigs and leaves in her hair, black muck on her face and clothes, scraped knee bleeding. It had been two days.

“What happened to her?” Miriam asked, turning her head to look over her shoulder at Alice’s mother, partly in anticipation of her response but mostly so that she’d no longer have to meet Alice’s dead gaze.

“Who knows?” Alice’s mother was standing in the kitchenette, pouring a glass of orange juice. “Maybe… probably nothing. Your generation is so dramatic. She’s been having trouble with that boyfriend of her’s. Probably got in a fight.”

She carried the glass across the room and held it out to Alice. Alice ignored her.

“Jesus.” She left the glass on a nearby table and moved about the room, distractedly doing busywork. “I took her to the hospital. They said there was nothing wrong with her. She’s normal. She’s-”

She stopped and looked at her daughter. Alice stared past her, head slightly lowered and unbrushed hair in her face.

“Jesus, Alice…”

The next day, Miriam kicked a rock and watched it tumble across the asphalt. She pushed up the sleeves of her grey sweatshirt, but quickly felt a chill in the autumn air and pushed them back down.

“Her mom doesn’t even know what’s wrong with her.”

Her friend, Toni, leaned back against a brick wall. She fiddled with one of her long, golden braids. They were in the parking lot of a small restaurant and Toni was holding a fountain drink she had bought inside. They were often stuck standing outside of places like this; Miriam’s mother usually made her bring the dog with her whenever she went out (“He needs the exercise or else he gets wound up”).

“Is there anything we can do?”

“I don’t think so,” Miriam shook her head. “Well, no, I don’t wanna say that. Maybe we could- I was thinking, maybe we could bring her something?”

“Like what?”

“Maybe food? Well, her mom said she wasn’t eating. But she’s gotta eat eventually, right? So maybe if we bring her something she likes…”

Toni stepped forward and smiled. “I know just the place.”

It gets dark out earlier in the fall. The orange of the street lamps stood out against the deep blue sky. Miriam and Toni walked side-by-side down a cracked sidewalk, Miriam’s dog trotting ahead of them. In one hand Miriam clutched a plastic bag that held a dinner from Alice’s favorite Chinese restaurant. Her phone chimed and she pulled it from her bag.

“Oh, Devin’s been messaging me.”

“That guy you met on, um, whatever app you’re on now?” Toni laughed.

“Yeah, that guy,” Miriam smirked, half amused and half annoyed by Toni’s remark. “He seems sweet. We were planning on meeting up in a couple days.”

“It’s your first time meeting him in person, right? Be careful.”

“I will.”

“Text me where you decide on going in case you, like, disappear from there. And be sure to bring your phone. And um, some pepper spray. And a lighter.”

Miriam laughed. “Oh my god, okay, Mom. But I don’t have any pepper spray. Or a lighter. And what the hell would I need a lighter for on a date, anyway?”

“I don’t know. You never know when you might need a lighter. I always carry one.”

“Yeah, I know. And it makes no sense. You don’t even smoke.”

Toni grinned. “Maybe I just like to burn stuff.”

“Yeah, okay. I think you just like to carry plastic tchotchkes.”

Toni sipped the fountain drink she still held onto from earlier in the day. “This is- ew- the ice melted and now it’s watery. Is there a trash can here?”

“Um…” Miriam glanced around, and finally pointed to their right. “There’s a dumpster down there.”

She was pointing down an alley. Out of the way and lacking the light of the street lamps, a dumpster barely stood out as more than a dark silhouette against a shadowy background.

Toni sucked her teeth. “Are you trying to get me murdered?”

But having rarely felt threatened in their sleepy town, Toni’s eagerness to no longer be carrying something unnecessary quickly overpowered her unfed fears, and, turning on the flashlight on her phone, she made her way into the alley. Miriam followed close behind.

Miriam’s dog, Tucker, was a stout, blue pit bull. Upon entering the alley, he lowered his head and followed his owner more hesitantly than before.

Using the same hand that was holding her cup, Toni awkwardly lifted the dumpster’s lid, whose ill-kempt hinges groaned loudly at the disruption. Tucker growled.

Toni chuckled, dropping her drink in the trash. “Is he scared of the dumpster?”

“No, he-” Miriam stepped backwards. “He’s looking over there…”

A few paces behind the dumpster, the backs of two buildings faced each other only a couple feet apart, forming an offshoot from the alley. Entirely hidden from the street, it was cast in thick, black shadow.

A littered can crunched loudly under Miriam’s foot and she jolted away from it. Tucker’s growling turned into violent barking. The girls turned and ran, screaming as they went. From the alley’s offshoot, a third scream joined theirs, the voice of another young woman, pained and forceful.

Toni, just a few steps out of the alley, turned and shined her flashlight back the way they came. “Someone needs help…?”

“No, no, no, we gotta go!” Miriam shrieked.

Then, in the alley, a girl stumbled around the corner and pitched sideways into the dumpster. Tucker started at the resulting clamor, but had stopped barking.

The girl in the alley had long, black hair that twisted and knotted around her arms and over her face and down her back. Her clothes were rumpled and smeared with something that looked like oil, and as she sat against the dumpster, her horrified expression softened into a dissociated calmness, until she looked to be in a complete daze.

Toni squinted at her. “Gina?!”

“Gina?” Miriam approached the alley, craning her neck to see if Toni was right.

Toni and Miriam had gone to high school with Gina. They’d kept in touch online, but hadn’t seen each other in person since graduation a couple years back. Toni ran back into the alley, and Miriam reluctantly followed, Tucker in tow. Toni crouched in front of the girl. It was definitely Gina.

“Gina!” Toni said. “Are you okay?”

Gina didn’t respond. She didn’t look up. Even when Toni shook her by the shoulders, she sat limp against the dumpster, looking at the ground.

“I’m gonna call an ambulance,” Miriam said, dropping the bag of food and pulling out her phone.

The ambulance came within minutes, and with it two cops, who looked down their noses at the girls and wrote notes on their notepads and feigned sympathy. They walked down the alley and around the corner and found nothing and nobody, and came back and asked the girls questions, like what were they doing and how did they know this girl and did she do drugs.

“Did you see or hear anyone else in the alley?”

“No, but nobody gets like that by themself.”

“You’d be surprised.”

Gina was put on a gurney and packed into the ambulance. She never said anything. The ambulance drove off and after a while, the cops did too, leaving Toni and Miriam under the dim orange light. The sky was black.

Tucker poked the takeout bag with his nose. Miriam lifted it away from him.

“Stop! This is for Alice.”

They started walking again, leaving the alley behind.

“It’s kind of late to bring that to her now though, don’t you think?” Toni said.

Miriam frowned. “Yeah, I guess so…”

There was a bus stop with an old bench and a lamp post that stood an equal distance between the two girls’ homes. They sat there to share the meal intended for Alice with each other (and Tucker) before going their separate ways for the night. The food had gotten cold.

Toni fiddled with the beaded bracelet she was wearing and tried to collect her thoughts. This was her first time meeting Gina’s mother and, her feelings of discomfort exaggerated by the circumstances, she found herself feeling stiff and untalkative.

Gina sat propped up in a hospital bed, head slightly bowed, eyes open but unseeing. A machine beeped next to her in a steady rhythm.

“Has she said anything?” Toni finally asked.

Gina’s mother was stroking her daughter’s hair. She didn’t look at Toni.

“Nothing at all.”

“Do they know what’s wrong with her? Will she get better?” Toni’s eyes widened and she pursed her lips, suddenly worried her persistent questions might cause Gina’s mother more stress.

Gina’s mother sighed and finally turned to look Toni in the eye. “They don’t seem to know anything. Apparently they’ve had a few other patients admitted in the same state…” She turned away again and clasped Gina’s hand in her own. “They thought maybe it was some new drug…? But they tested her and they couldn’t find anything. And Gina’s not into that stuff anyway… Either way I don’t care. I just want her to get better.”

On her way out of the room, Toni heard Gina’s mother: “You’ll be okay… I’m here… Are you hungry?”

Gina didn’t respond.

Toni went out to catch the bus. At the bus stop across the street from the hospital, a homeless woman sat slumped forward on a bench, her hair in her face and her hands resting palm-up in her lap, black smudges on her sleeves. There was a money clip with a few bills folded in it lying on the ground at her feet.

Toni noticed it and pointed. “Oh, did you drop your money?”

The woman didn’t respond. She seemed to be asleep.

Toni hesitated, then stepped closer and bent down. “Here, I’ll get it for you.”

Bending over, Toni was able to look directly at the woman’s face. Her eyes were wide open. They seemed to be covered with a film of murky water, and sat lifeless behind puffy, baggy lids. Her mouth was pulled into a slight frown. She didn’t look at Toni. Her body didn’t move.

For a moment Toni remained fixed, eyes wide, body stiff, watching the woman. The woman kept still. Down the street, the bus Toni was there for, turned the corner and approached the stop. Neither reacted.

Then, slowly, the woman’s chest rose, then sunk back.​​ Toni sighed with relief. Maybe she slept with open eyes?

Toni stood. “Your money…”

She placed the money clip in the woman’s open palm. It started to sink down, enveloped in the flesh of the woman’s hand. Toni jumped back, eyes scanning the woman again. Her hands lay limp in her lap, like overused candles, in a small pool of their own melted skin, which dripped slowly between the woman’s legs.

Toni covered her mouth to suppress a scream. The bus arrived and she jumped onboard. As it pulled away, Toni looked straight forward, but in her mind she saw only the woman sitting still at the bus stop, fading into the distance.

Miriam and Tucker were already sitting on the bench at their usual meet-up bus stop when the bus dropped Toni off. At Toni’s arrival, Tucker jumped to his feet, his whole body twisting excitedly with the force of his wagging tail.

Miriam hopped up. Her curly hair sprung out in every direction. Too short to comfortably pull into a ponytail, she had attempted to tame it with hair clips, which only barely pushed back the brown tangles from her face.

“How’s Gina?” She asked. “I couldn’t even pay attention in class today. I couldn’t stop thinking about how weird last night was.”

“Oh, um… honestly, she seemed pretty bad. She didn’t say anything the entire time I was there.”

Miriam frowned. “Just like Alice.”

After stopping back at last night’s restaurant, Toni and Miriam stood in the grey corridor of an apartment complex, in front of the door to Alice’s home. Miriam knocked. They waited for a few moments with no answer, shifting awkwardly, the crinkling sound of the takeout bag echoing in the hall. Miriam looked nervously at Toni and then raised her hand to knock again. Just then the door swung open and Alice’s mother was standing in front of them, hair disheveled and brow furrowed.

“Did you bring that dog here again? I told you he shouldn’t be here.”

Miriam twisted the leash in her hands and her voice came out small and squeaky. “He doesn’t have anywhere else to go.”

Tucker stood behind her, all smiles, oblivious to the disapproval directed at him.

Toni held up the takeout bag. “We brought food for Alice. Her favorite.”

There was a beat of silence, then Alice’s mother stepped back and opened the door wider, motioning with her head for the girls to come in. As they walked through the foyer she glared down at Tucker, who beamed up at her, panting happily.

Alice was slumped in a chair in her room, staring out the window. She was wearing the same clothes she wore when Miriam last saw her.

Toni put the food down on a nearby nightstand and bent over slightly to look Alice in the eye. “Hi, Alice,” she forced a smile. “We brought your usual, from the Chinese place.”

Alice stared straight ahead. Her eyes looked wet and the corners of her mouth hung down in a limp frown.

Hesitantly, Toni brushed a lock of hair away from Alice’s face. “She’s… she’s a lot like Gina.”

Miriam, who had been standing a few paces away, watching Toni and Alice with wide eyes, strode across the room and sat on Alice’s bed. Tucker sat next to Alice and put his head on her lap, looking up at her expectantly.

“There’s enough food in there for, like, four people. We figured you’d be hungry,” Miriam rubbed her hands together for a moment, then stood quickly. “I’ll get you a fork! And some napkins. They always forget to give you the utensils and stuff at this place, you know?”

From the kitchenette, Miriam could see Alice’s mother sitting in the living room, hands tightly clasped together, staring at the floor.

She paused before returning to Alice’s room. “Hey, has Alice eaten anything at all? Since she, um…”

Alice’s mother sat back and looked at Miriam, the seemingly ever present look of disapproval still stuck on her face. “Not that I know of.”

“Have you tried to make her eat?”

“What do you mean, make her eat?”

Miriam shifted awkwardly. “Well, we don’t want her to starve.”

“She’s not a child.” Alice’s mother stood and walked about the room, trying to find busywork, something to do with her hands. “If she wants to eat, she will. I’ve tried to talk to her, and she won’t say anything to me. She’s doing a pretty good job keeping her problems to herself. I don’t interfere where I’m not needed.” She shuffled some things around on a table, pretending to organize them. “You can’t make someone eat.”

Miriam looked down and lowered her voice. “That’s… so that’s it? Is that good…?”

Alice’s mother slammed a brass candle stand down on the table. “What?”

“Is that a good idea?”

“Is what a good idea?”

“Well- Just leaving her- That seems-”

Toni came out of Alice’s bedroom. “What’s going on?”

Alice’s mother gestured vaguely towards the girls. “I think you two and your little dog need to get out of my home.”

Toni cocked her head. “Huh?”

“Now.”

Miriam shuffled back into Alice’s room to collect Tucker.

“All due respect, ma’am,” Toni said. “Why are we being made to leave?”

“You two have got an attitude problem,” Alice’s mother said before returning to her busywork.

In Alice’s room, Miriam picked up Tucker’s leash. “C’mon, buddy, let’s go.”

It was then that she noticed Alice’s hand on top of Tucker’s head, her thumb moving back and forth, gently stroking the fur above his eyes.

“Alice, I hope you get better.” Miriam bent to give Alice a hug. “We’ll try to come visit you again soon.”

“I want to see y’all moving!” Alice’s mother called from the other room. “Don’t waste anymore of my time.”

Miriam gently placed a fork and paper towel on top of the takeout bag. “Please eat.”

She met Toni back out in the hall and they shuffled out together.

Outside, Miriam kicked a rock across the pavement. “I hate that woman.”

They walked together in silence for a while, headed towards home.

As they approached their usual bus stop, Toni suddenly gasped. “Oh my god, Miriam. I saw a lady at the bus stop, the one at the hospital, when I was coming to meet you today.” She paused for a moment.

Miriam looked at her sidelong. “Okay? What happened?”

“Well, I think she had, like, spilled something on herself.” Toni clasped her hands together. “But it made her look like she was melting. Like, I literally thought her skin was melting!”

Miriam cackled. “Ew, what?”

“No, seriously, it scared me so bad I, like, actually ran away from her. Like, I jumped on the bus as fast as I could.”

“Oh no, she was probably so confused that you were scared of her.”

“Oh god, yeah, I hope I didn’t hurt her feelings.” Toni pushed a braid out of her face and her fingers lingered for a moment over her ear. “Well, she didn’t seem to notice me. Hopefully she didn’t notice.”

So Toni lied to herself, and she laughed, but that night she dreamed of dripping skin, and blind, soul-piercing eyes, and she thought she heard the woman say, “Who will care for me? When my soul lies naked and exposed, and I have nothing left to give… Even then, who will care for me?”

Miriam smiled awkwardly. “Can Tucker come in, too?”

Gina’s mother, greeting Miriam at the front door, blinked in surprise at the dog, but still let them inside with a welcoming gesture. “Sure thing, sweetie.”

Gina was in her room. Miriam had come over because she had heard Gina was doing better after coming home from the hospital, but her fears were renewed when she saw Gina sitting in bed, silently staring at her hands.

But to her surprise, when she showed Gina the bouquet she’d bought for her, Gina looked at them and said, albeit unenthusiastically, “Thank you. These are nice.”

“I’m glad you like them!” Miriam handed the bouquet to Gina, then grabbed the chair by the desk across the room and pulled it over to sit by her. “I remembered you like red, but I didn’t wanna get roses, ‘cause that seemed too, like, lovey-dovey, so I got these.”

“Tulips. I’m pretty sure they’re also used to express romantic love.”

“Oh.” Miriam chuckled uncomfortably.

“Can you thank Toni for me?” Gina spoke hesitantly and continued to stare down at the flowers. “She came to see me in the hospital.”

“Of course! She’ll be glad you’re doing better.”

A pause in the conversation. Miriam looked at the floor.

“Miriam.”

Gina’s voice was a harsh whisper and her tone was grave. Miriam looked up to see her hands clenched tightly and her expression strained.

She continued. “I… I’m only telling you this… because I care about your safety. I don’t care if you believe me. Just listen to me all the way through, okay? Don’t say anything- don’t leave until I’m done. Please.”

“Okay.” Miriam was whispering too now. “I’ll listen- I’m listening.”

“It wasn’t human. The- I-” Gina squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. “The thing that did this- the thing that hurt me. I don’t know what it was. It wasn’t human. It looked like a man and then it changed…”

Miriam’s head was already filled with questions. She wanted to keep her promise that she’d listen until Gina was done, but she was having trouble following what she was saying. She gripped Tucker’s leash tightly and clenched her jaw.

“There’s something out there.” Gina’s eyes were wide and pooling with tears. “Pay attention to the people around you. You never know who could be one of them…”

“Gina, I don’t think I understand-”

“How could you understand?” Gina hissed. “You weren’t there.” Tears ran down her face and her voice softened. “I’m sorry…”

“Gina, it’s okay.”

Gina lay down on her side with her back to Miriam, still clutching the bouquet in her arms. “I just want to be left alone… now…”

“That’s okay. I can go.” Miriam stood up. “I can come back and visit again, whenever you want. Just let me know.”

“I’d like that.” Gina’s voice was quiet and unsteady.

Walking home, Miriam rolled Gina’s words around in her mind, trying to make sense of them.

“Well, what did you make of that?”

Tucker looked back at her, panting.

“Yeah, I don’t know, either.”

Alice’s mother eyed the takeout bag in Toni’s hand. “That didn’t work last time.”

“I know, but-” Toni shifted her weight, avoiding eye contact. “I wanted to keep trying. She’s gotta eat eventually, right?”

Alice’s mother sighed and backed up, letting Toni into the apartment. “No dog today?”

“Miriam is busy.” Toni shuffled in towards Alice’s bedroom. She didn’t like being there alone, but Miriam had her date with Devin, and she had been so excited to meet him, Toni didn’t want her to cancel to take care of Alice. She had assured Miriam that she would look in on their friend, keep her head low to avoid offending the mother, and make sure Alice ate.

“How is Alice doing today? Anything different?”

“I knocked on her door, but she didn’t answer. I don’t even know why I bother. I know she’s just gonna be sitting in that same damn chair, doing the same nothing she’s been doing all week.” She walked off into the living room as she spoke.

Toni frowned and went into Alice’s room. Alice was lying face down on the floor. Toni gasped, dropping the food.

“Alice, oh my god! Are you okay?”

She fell to her knees and grabbed the back of Alice’s shirt, shaking her slightly. Alice’s limp body rocked back and forth with the motion.

“Alice!”

Gripping Alice’s shoulder, she started to lift her up, trying to turn her on her back. As Alice’s face was lifted from the floor, the skin stayed behind, sticking and stretching like chewed gum. Toni yelped, letting her go. Her face hit the floor with a wet thud.

Alice’s mother stormed into the room. “What is going on here? Alice! What-?”

She quickly flipped Alice over. When her back hit the floor, Alice’s rib cage caved in with the impact, settling down into her softening body, deflating the sweater she wore. Her face, much of which had been left behind on the floor, was mangled and dripping down the sides of her head, the back of which was now slowly flattening against the floor. Her hands were mashed and misshapen, becoming viscous pools of flesh at the ends of her sleeves. Alice was melting.

Toni screamed and ran from the apartment, crying.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Miriam had checked her phone absentmindedly, expecting to just see the time, but was instead faced with several missed calls from Toni.

She rose from the table. “My friend needs to talk to me. Excuse me a minute?”

“Sure thing.” Devin sounded agreeable enough, but as she stood to go she thought she saw him scowl slightly, looking down at his drink.

Another call came in from Toni. Miriam took it in the restroom, escaping the noise of the restaurant.

“Hey, what’s going on? Are you okay?”

“Miriam!”

Miriam jumped at the panic in Toni’s voice. She was breathing hard, and there was a shuffling sound coming through the speaker, like she was moving around frantically.

“Something’s wrong,” Toni continued, “Something’s going on- Alice is dead!”

“What?! How-?”

“Miriam, something really bad is going on. She was just like that lady! Something is doing this to people-”

“Toni, what? What lady?”

“Miriam, can you meet me now? I’m at- I’m at the park now, but if-”

“I can meet you at the park! I can go now- Can you wait for me? By the, uh, the statue.”

“Okay. Okay. I’ll- I’ll wait. Come quick!”

“Of course, I’ll see you in a bit.”

Back at the table, Devin winced at Miriam as she dug through her bag.

“This isn’t one of those, ‘this date’s going really bad, so I’m gonna pretend to have an emergency so I can leave,’ things, right?”

“No, I swear, I just-” Miriam pulled out some cash and tossed it on the table without counting it. “That should cover my half. I really have to go. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry!”

She was out the door before she finished talking.

The streets were dark. Miriam scurried in and out of the orange of the street lamps, the slapping of shoes on concrete and the jingle of the keychains on her bag breaking the night’s silence. Her shadow danced around her, growing and shrinking with the lights, crossing over buildings and sidewalk. And behind her, another shadow followed.

The path through the park had been swallowed by the black of the sky and the trees, but Miriam knew the route well, and so continued on without the assistance of a flashlight. Dead leaves papered the ground, crunching underfoot. Their sound carried Miriam confidently forward, but as she made her way deeper into the park, fear seemed to crawl in through her ears along with it, making her jump at the cracks and pops which followed her ever forward. She would think she heard a twig snap in the distance or a leaf crunch just out of time with her steps. Twice she stopped, turning around and squinting into the darkness behind her, hoping to see nothing, and becoming only more tense when nothing was all she saw.

The statue they had agreed to meet at, a bronze statue of some long-dead man, stood in the middle of the park. It was one of the few places in the park that had working street lamps. When Miriam saw the first hint of light streaming through the branches, she broke into a sprint, hoping desperately to reach her friend before-

Something snatched her from behind and yanked her back. She shrieked, twisting her body to try and face her attacker. Her hand found flesh- a jaw, a cheek- and pushed it up and away from her, and her eyes, focusing slowly in the dark, recognized the face that pushed back against her.

“Devin?!”

But he was already changing. His eyes bulged and his tongue, teeth, gums pushed out of his mouth as if it were turning inside out. His body grew, skin bubbling and splitting open to reveal writhing, night-black flesh. He continued to warp and grow, tearing out of his clothes and human parts like an old costume and reabsorbing them into his new body. Soon the thing before Miriam no longer remotely resembled a person, but was a large formless mass, twisting and pulsing, its dark surface gleaming in the faint light. Miriam started to scream but a long appendage wrapped around her head, covering her mouth. Two more pulled her by the arm and wrist, and she strained against them.

“Miriam!”

Toni bolted toward them, hand in her pocket. When she reached them, another appendage snatched her by the neck and pulled her in closer.

She tore her fist from her pocket and plunged it into the thing’s soft body. A pained hiss erupted from it as it coiled around the wound, loosening its grip on the girls. Toni and Miriam pulled away just as flames burst from the wound, engulfing the thing’s body. As the fire consumed it, it shrunk in on itself, hissing and twisting violently, until it was swallowed completely, both body and fire disappearing, a small, plastic object clattering to the ground where it had stood.

Tears streamed down Miriam’s face. “What… What…”

Toni crouched and picked up the fallen plastic. “That… worked even better than I hoped it would.”

She held out the plastic for Miriam to see. It was her lighter, plastic body melted from the flame it had created and hardened again in a warped shape no longer capable of performing its old function.

Miriam crouched next to Toni, and then fell on her behind, body heavy with shock. She looked down at her hands, and noticed a black muck on her wrist and arm where the thing had grabbed her. She wiped her mouth and more of the substance came off onto the back of her hand. She groaned and spit on the ground, rubbing her face with her shirt.

“That must’ve been what got Gina.” She spoke slowly, staring down at the black smudges on her shirt. “She said… it was a man, and then it changed. I didn’t understand…”

“I think that’s what got all of them.”

“All of them?”

“I think that’s what killed Alice…” Toni sat down and ran her hand through her hair. “And the lady at the bus stop.”

“What lady?”

“The lady- it doesn’t matter. Alice is dead. Miriam, Alice is dead. What do we do?”

Miriam had just finished wiping her own face dry with her sleeve when Toni started to cry. She took the lighter from Toni and turned it slowly in her hand, watching orange light glide across its melted surface.

“If there was anything we could do, I think we just did it.” She tossed the lighter back where it had fallen and scooted herself over to wrap an arm around Toni’s shoulder. “Gosh, I leave Tucker at home for one night, and look where it gets us.”

Gina and Miriam sat in white plastic lawn chairs on Gina’s balcony. A cool breeze drifted past and Tucker sniffed the air, squinting in the sun. Gina pulled the quilt she sat wrapped in tighter around her face.

“So that’s it? It’s gone now?”

“Well, yeah,” Miriam said. “It all burned up. Didn’t even leave a body.”

“And that was the only one?”

“Well-” Miriam shifted in her chair. “Yeah… That was- there was only one. There was only one there.”

“So it’s gone now.”

“So it’s gone.”

Gina watched dry leaves scrape across the lot behind her apartment, carried by the wind. Tucker rested his chin on her knee and she scratched the top of his head. He let out a satisfied sigh.

“I cannot believe you made that into a necklace.”

“I couldn’t just throw it away! It literally saved our lives.” Toni ran the black string of the necklace through her fingers, lifting it away from her chest so Miriam could get a closer look. “Plus, I think it looks sick.”

Toni had drilled a small hole in the warped body of the lighter and fed a string through, letting the lighter hang upside down from her neck.

“Tucker agrees with me. Don’t you, Tucker?”

Tucker looked back at her with a wide smile.

“I think that’s a yes,” Toni said.

The pair walked side-by-side on a cracked sidewalk, heading home after a long, comfortably boring day. The sun sat orange and lazy above the trees ahead of them and the sky had dimmed to a heavy stone blue. Toni kept her hands folded in the ends of her long sleeves to keep the chilled air from biting her fingertips. Miriam watched Tucker’s tail swing back and forth as he trotted confidently in front of them.

“Gina’s been doing better. Not great, but better.” Miriam kept her gaze forward as she spoke.

“That’s good.”

“She said she misses going to that one place with us, um, with the coffee and waffles. She said we should all go again sometime.”

“We should.”

“And they have outdoor seating, so Tucker can come.”

“Tucker loves waffles.”

Miriam breathed on her fingers, trying to warm them. “You don’t think she’s gonna end up like Alice, do you?”

“No. No, Alice was different, right? Gina’s getting better.” Toni stuffed her hands in her pockets. “Gina’s gonna be okay.”

“Why?” Miriam said. “Why is Gina getting better when Alice didn’t? What’s the difference?”

“I don’t know.” Toni sighed. “Maybe we shouldn’t question it. Let’s just, like, take our wins where we can get them.”

But she wanted to know. It didn’t feel right, to not know.

Toni stopped. “Well, this is where I leave you.”

They had reached their bus stop. The street lamp flickered above them.

“Oh, yeah. I’ll see you later.”

The girls shared a hug before breaking off, each towards their own home.

Toni crossed the street, putting in earbuds and shuffling a playlist on her phone. She kicked a rock down the sidewalk. She passed a corner store. A man leaned against the wall, smoking. He watched her pass, then tossed his cigarette on the ground and followed behind.

Every few paces, Tucker glanced back over his shoulder, looking toward the place where the girls had separated. He tried to stop and look, or go back, but, oblivious, Miriam pulled him forward.