- Ethan Egan -
"...it's a, uh...lovely place you have here, Mason."
I lied through my teeth. It was an old bungalow, way out in the emptier part of town. Only retired people tended to live in the area, not young boys like him.
Hadn't he also mentioned a sister?
The carpet was decorated with indiscernible stains of many colours, a wide variety of dark browns and greys, all clearly old and with no effort to clean. The carpet itself seeming to have once been a pleasant shade of blue, the walls matching with a dull turquoise.
All the windows were covered by white blinds, the only light coming from a small lamp on the table, beside it a laptop with a crack in the corner. The screen displaying what was clearly the public notice page.
He must have left in a hurry.
Dainan stepped in behind, gasping and holding his nose, quickly looking around to make sure Mason wasn't looking. I too had noticed the smell.
Discarded takeaway left out on every spare surface, Chinese boxes, empty cans scattered across the floor.
How could someone live like that?
"Come, just through here! I made this room especially just for my research!"
He grinned excitedly, leading us past an unused kitchen into what seemed to have once been a bedroom.
I knew the kid was a bit mad about this theory, but I hadn't quite expected so much effort.
The back wall completely drowned into photos with sticky notes and scribbled writing by most of them.
Mason bounced on his heels, eyes darting between the pictures and me.
"Oh, I'll grab my laptop and show you some videos too!"
He flew out of the room, Dainan backing against the wall out of his way.
"...this kid is nuts..."
He whispered, stepping up to my side while I looked over the wall.
Pictures of animals, half eaten. Pictures of strangers, pictures of dark figures in the woods, pictures of people being attacked.
I leaned in closer.
A few pictures of people with red eyes, Mason with various injuries at once.
Could this really be considered proof?
"I'm not sure about this...these pictures don't exactly prove anything..."
Dainan sighed, clearly thinking the same as me.
"You're right...he said he has videos too though, so we'll check those before we give up."
"Here!" Mason appeared behind us, slamming the laptop on the desk with a short video playing on loop, "I caught this one in the woods just three weeks ago teleporting..."
I watched carefully.
The figure was walking, turned quickly, seemingly reacting to a sound they heard and just disappeared. Reappearing a little bit away, mid-run.
It didn't look edited. If it was, he'd done a damn good job.
Mason was giddy.
"See? I told you they could teleport. I tend to look for them in the woods at night since that's where I'm sure they feed. But you've heard about local pets vanishing too, right? I'm certain that's them as well."
I just couldn't be sure.
Nothing was certain, nothing was a hundred per cent.
Mason's expression dropped a little in the corner of my eye.
"...you still have doubts? Hmm...I like you, and I want to trust you, Ethan. Can I trust you?"
"That depends...why?"
He pulled back, rubbing his chin.
"...I...I could convince you. But you'll have to promise you won't get me in trouble."
