The next few days were spent getting used to my new surroundings and housemates. I kept trying to work up the nerve to talk to Jessica, but Raymond watched me like a hawk with every move I made, making me feel even more awkward than I already did about trying to approach her. I confronted him about it my second week in the house with them.

“Hey man, why do you keep hovering over me like you do?” I asked him. “If I was going to do something, I already would have.”

“I don’t want to have to babysit you, kid. No one hates it more than me, but I need to make sure you’re trustworthy,” Raymond answered. “You might not have pulled anything yet, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop keeping my eye on you. You got me?” 

I put my hands up in surrender. “I’m not going to be a problem, I promise. What do I have to do to convince you of that?”

“Pull your own weight. Find something to do,” he said. “But if you do anything even a little suspicious, I’m throwing you the hell out. Those young ladies are my responsibility, and I’ll be damned if I let some hooligan like you do anything to harm them. Okay?” 

“I’m not-” I began, but stopped. He had already left the room. Sighing, I resigned myself to do as he asked. I took to organizing the food by expiration date, making sure the stuff that would go bad first was at the top of the stack. I noticed Raymond’s bag on the floor and picked it up to bring it to him. When I did, something fluttered out of an open pocket. It landed facedown on the floor and I picked it up to examine it. It was a photograph of a younger Raymond with a small boy in his arms. They wore matching baseball jerseys and smiles, a stadium in the background. On the bottom, scrawled in Sharpie were the words “Ray Jr and Me, Mets game, 2019”. I stuffed it back in his bag and brought it up to his room.

When I woke up the next morning, I heard everyone else downstairs in the basement, so I wandered down there to see what they were doing. They were hunched over a pile of medical supplies, digging through everything. Amanda noticed me first.

“Morning, hun!” she greeted me in her slight Southern accent. “We’re just going through our inventory to see what we need.” 

Raymond stood over the pile, looking down at a notebook with a pen in hand. “Seems like we’re short on bandages. I’m going to have to make a run to the pharmacy.”

“Raymond, no. Not today. Those bandits could still be around,” Jessica warned. 

“I don’t want us to run out. I’ll be careful,” he promised her. “Besides, it’s been two weeks. They’ve probably moved on by now.”

She nodded. “Just get home safe, okay? We all need you here.”

“I will. You and the new guy can work down here while Amanda tries to fix our radio with those new parts we found,” Raymond said. He grabbed a shotgun that was leaning against the wall and checked to make sure it was loaded before slinging a pack over his shoulder.

“Good luck,” I said.

He nodded at me. “If I come back to anything out of place, I will end you.Got it?

“That won’t be a problem,” I assured him. 

Jessica and I continued to sort through their inventory. They had a lot of stuff for just three people. I noted as much to her and she said, “It used to be a lot more than just the three of us.”

“Oh. I’m sorry,” I replied. “Was it...was it bandits or did they Vanish?”

“A little of both. My brother Vanished right before my eyes and my best friend was killed by bandits when he went out to get supplies,” Jessica explained. She sniffled. “We’ve lost a lot over the past few months.”

“We all have. My entire family Vanished really early on. Been on my own since,” I said. “It’s...not exactly been easy.”

“Well you don’t have to be alone anymore,” she told me and touched my arm comfortingly. The touch sent chills up my arm. 

I took her hand and squeezed it. “Thank you. And I’m sorry about your family, but you’re not alone anymore, either.”

“Not yet,” Jessica said. “We all have a limited amount of time left before we’re taken by whatever is causing the Vanishings. That’s why I’m so nervous about Raymond going out. He’s one of the last people I have left and I don’t want to think about him not coming back without being able to say a proper goodbye.”

Raymond never did come back, though. I still don’t know what it was that got him in the end: bandits, or the Vanishing.