Nobody came to say goodbye.

            It was June 2, 2006, the day before Meg was scheduled to take the five-hour bus trip to Ether Green, the town where her cousin and great-uncle lived. Meg sat in her room in the Philadelphia suburbs, picking at a peeling piece of wallpaper that had been hanging off the wall. The last day before her two-week trip into the Pennsylvania wilderness, unable to see her family or friends. Friends that were now over an hour late.

            For what seemed like the thousandth time in the last hour, Meg checked her phone, flipping over the cover, hoping for a text, “sorry we’re running late,” “be there soon,” anything. A couple of pity texts from her nicer friends expressing their regrets, but other than that, nothing. She sighed, closing the phone and tossing it onto the bed. I should have expected this, she thought. It wasn’t the first time she had been ignored like this, and by now, it had practically become the norm. Over a dozen friends and not one of them could spare a few hours to spend with her before she left.

            Meg had always been a lonely child. Shy and quiet, she had a hard time making friends. At lunch, she would sit at a table alone. At recess, she would constantly be passed over by the more energetic, outgoing kids. On the rare occasions when other children would speak to her, she almost never knew what to say back to them, which usually resulted in her clamming up and looking to the ground until they gave up and went away. Overhearing passing comments about how she was ‘weird’, ‘freaks me out’, ‘won’t talk to anyone’ were common parts of her day, not just from other children, but adults too. Words like ‘antisocial’ and ‘problem child’ passed their lips when they thought she was out of earshot. Even her parents, kind as they were, often looked on her with pity, as though she were a broken machine that wasn’t worth the trouble to fix.

            It was to her utter surprise and shock, then, when she found herself, as a freshman in high school, found herself in conversation with three fellow new students. She wasn’t even sure how it had happened. At one moment, she was sitting at a table by herself and the next, there were people talking on either side of her, not just to each other, but with her. For the first time in years, she felt like a normal person. She had felt such a rush that when she finally got home and told her parents about the new friends she had made, she couldn’t help herself from crying and laughing while doing so. Their smiles were almost as big as hers.

            Time passed and as the group grew, Meg slowly became more comfortable around them. She found out that several of them like horror movies and fighting games, just like her, and they would spend hours talking about the latest releases. For two years, Meg felt the happiest she had ever been, like she had almost found a place to belong. Almost.

            It was this past year, as a junior, that something else began to creep in. A rot in their perfect relationships that while completely invisible, Meg could still see clear as day. They were hanging out less often than before, and when they were together, their conversations were shorter, their smiles more forced. Although they would still sit together at school, many days they sat in silence, and whenever Meg would speak, she was usually met with short answers. In the last few months, she had barely spoken to any of her friends at all. Her joy had been rapidly slipping through her fingers and was replaced by the familiar loneliness she had nearly forgotten about.

            So when the news came that she would be leaving town for a month, she decided to take this one last opportunity to fix things, though it was well out of her comfort zone to do so. Surely, she thought, they would want to say their goodbyes to me. Even if they had to sit in uncomfortable silence, at least they would be together. But as the minutes dragged on, she slowly submitted to the reality that she simply no longer mattered enough to them to be worth the trouble.

            This is just how it is, she thought. I’ll never be worthwhile to anyone. It’s my fault, really. There’s just something about me that people don’t like. At most, all I ever really got was some kindness out of pity. But true friends? People who will laugh with you, cry with you, fight with you, make sacrifices for you? People like that just don’t exist.

***

            “Please, sir, let me go back to my friends. I can’t just leave them!” Meg pleaded.

            She was in the passenger seat of the car as it was speeding down the road out of town. Driving was the man Uncle Tuesday had called King. He was stone-faced as he stared down the road ahead of him, but Meg could see sweat gleaming on his brow.

            “Everyone in that town is in danger, Mr. King. Isn’t it your job to help them?” she asked.

            “Listen kid, first of all, it’s Agent King. And second, that town is a hell of a lot more dangerous than you think and I’m not just going to let a minor take that kind of risk. Your uncle told me to get you to safety, and that’s what I plan to do.”

            “I know exactly how dangerous it is, which is why I can’t just leave my friends there alone. If it’s so dangerous, why couldn’t you take them, too?”

            “Look, I don’t understand it all myself, but the way your uncle explained it to me is that some really bad stuff is about to go down in Ether Green tonight and when that happens, all the residents are going to be stuck there, for better or worse. Since you and I just got here, that means there’s a chance that we can get out, and in my book, saving one person is a hell of a lot better than saving none. Got it?”

            Meg looked at the ground. Logically, everything he said made sense, but still, the fact that she was the only one allowed to travel to safety just felt wrong. Like she was somehow responsible for leaving Paul, Ash, and Johnny alone, maybe even to their deaths. Part of her wanted to think that this was the natural course of action. Just like before, the moment she thought she had found people who really liked her, they would be taken away from her forever. There was another part of her, though, that was stronger. Something that would not let that happen, that would fight to keep what she had gained over the past few days.

            Meg looked back up at Agent King. “I got it. If this is the situation, then please let me help however I can.”

            King looked startled. In all his years of investigating, it was rare he saw anyone with that amount of determination in their eyes, much less a teenager. Go figure. “Alright then, here’s the plan. From what you said here and back at Tuesday’s house, I take it you know there’s some kind of monster in that town. We’re going to the next town over as quick as we can to call for backup. You just sit tight and if we hurry, we can make it back in time to save a lot of people. That being said, I’m not going to let you put yourself in any danger. Understand?”

            Meg nodded to show she understood. Just hang on, everybody. I’m coming back, and we’re all going to survive, together.