[episode 1.1]

September 7, 2009

ELENA AND JEREMY were both at the Grill that night, hanging out with friends and celebrating the first day of school, but I decided to stay home. I didn't really want to face any of my classmates, and I was supposed to be "sick" right now anyway.

So Jenna and I decided to spend our evening eating takeout pizza and renting a new movie called The Proposal from Redbox. It looked like another great romcom, and I was looking forward to watching it.

It was while Jenna was out, picking up our movie and our food that I had another strange encounter. I was feeling tired as I tried to whip up some quick brownies for us to have as dessert when I noticed something strange in my peripheral vision.

I glanced the side and immediately screamed, dropping the bowl of brownie batter and splattering it everywhere.

That same man from school stood on the edge of the room kitchen, watching me intently, and his unexpected presence sent me into a panic.

"Margot?" Enzo's voice came quickly as I lunged into panicked action. "What's wrong?"

I reached for the sharpest knife we owned and swung back around, ready to defend myself at any cost, only to see that he was gone.

And standing at the edge of the kitchen with the box of pizza and faltering smile was Jenna.

She must have been about to say something from the way her mouth was open, or maybe she had already started saying it, but my heart was pounding in my ears, and I hadn't even heard her come in. Now she looked at me with a haunting reflection of the fear I was feeling.

"Margot, what happened?" She cautiously looked over the mess on the floor and the knife held in my trembling hand.

I swallowed hard and quickly set down the knife. My hands shook as I reached for the wet dish rag. I couldn't believe what I'd just done and how absolutely unhinged I now felt.

"Sorry, I think I must have heard you coming in," I said, scrubbing at the mess on the floor vigorously. "I was too focused on making the brownie batter, so the weird noise I heard made me extra jumpy."

"What noise?" Enzo asked, but I ignored him. It was a lie anyway.

She chuckled, and her shoulders melted down from their previously coiled state. "Ah, I've been there," she sympathized. "Being home alone can really make your mind play tricks on you."

"Yeah." I nodded, trying to use her words to comfort myself. "That's definitely all it was. I'm really sorry for this mess."

"Nonsense!" she said, putting the pizza on the table and grabbing a wad of paper towels. "Making a mess is a sign of a great baker."

"I don't think it works that way," I laughed.

"Sure it does," she said with an easy grin. "You want to know how I know?"

"How?"

Jenna looked up at me with a mischievous glint in her eyes and blew her hair out of her face. She leaned closer, as if to tell me some big secret, only to whisper, "As your legal guardian, I am now perfectly liable to say because I said so."

**********

Once we cleaned up all the batter and changed into our pajamas, Jenna and I both filled our plates full of pizza and moved toward the living room. I was smiling and talking easily again while we gushed over Ryan Reynolds — the actor in this new movie — and bonded over our love of cheesy romcoms. However, when Jenna took the armchair I'd been occupying exclusively since the night my parents died, I felt my smile fall off my face.

Luckily, Jenna didn't see, and I corrected my face back into an easy grin before she looked at me again.

Now with my only option being the couch, I settled on the floor and sat with my legs crossed underneath me.

Jenna gave me a weird look, but I smiled innocently back at her. She didn't press me on it though, which seemed even more unusual to me than if she had made a comment on it.

All throughout the movie, I felt her eyes periodically glancing at me. I silently prayed she would stop thinking about it. I didn't want her to think about it. I needed her to stop thinking about it.

I sucked in a sharp breath through my nose when I realized how hard I was clenching my fists. My nails had dug into the skin of my palms, but not to the point of drawing blood, only enough to leave little purple marks that were slowly fading with each passing second.

Jenna turned down the volume on the TV, and I tensed. Had she noticed my hands too?

She started, "Margot, I—"

The door flung open, and Jeremy stomped inside, clearly pissed about something. Jenna stopped whatever she was saying and paused the movie.

"Jeremy?" she called. "Are you okay?"

He ignored her and continued stomping up to his bedroom. Jenna and I both flinched when he slammed his door shut.

Jenna and I made concerned eye contact. I cringed and looked over toward the stairs. "Should I...?" I trailed.

"No." Jenna stood up. She shook out her hands and had a look of steeling herself for the task ahead. "I'm the guardian. I'll go check on him."

I nodded. "Okay."

Jenna glanced at the paused movie and sighed. "Sorry, Margot."

"I'll be fine," I promised.

Jenna nodded and disappeared around the corner, heading up the stairs two at a time. Once I was sure she was gone, I slowly sunk into the carpet and laid on my back. The ceiling was white and smooth and inexplicably calming. There wasn't a single pattern to be found, but I let my mind occupy itself trying to find them anyway.

"We need to talk, Margot."

Enzo's soft voice had all the right lilts and tones to lull me to sleep typically, but tonight, his words set me on edge.

I glanced cautiously toward the stairs, relieved to see Jenna was still upstairs, probably trying to connect with Jeremy with no luck. Jeremy was a solid wall when he was having a bad day.

"I'm scared, Enzo," I whispered. My eyes welled up with tears as I said the words, making me realize how deeply I felt them. "Terrified."

"What the hell happened, darling?"

I swiped at my tears. "I saw him again," I admitted. "And I can't help but worry that maybe my dad was right. Maybe I truly am losing my mind."

"The guy you saw in school? The one who disappeared?" Enzo asked, not feeling into my self-deprecating claims.

I nodded.

"I didn't see him again," he admitted. When my face twisted even deeper in terror, he quickly added, "I promise we'll find a way to keep you safe. There clearly must be something else going on here."

"What do you mean?" I asked, sitting up and wiping away the last of my tears. "Please don't tell me I can see dead people now or something."

Enzo chuckled, and the warmth of it coaxed a relaxed smile out of me in response. My fear melted away, bit by bit.

"Perhaps you are," he admitted reluctantly, "because darling...there was no one else in the room with you tonight."

And my fear washed over me in an unexpected tsunami.