Liam wrote. 

“Hi,” someone said, and they all looked up from the menu.

There were two people standing at their table—a 20-something Asian guy in a hoodie and jeans, and a tiny elderly lady wearing a green coat buttoned up against the cold outside. They both shared the same round face and slightly manic, disheveled look—the man was clutching a backpack like he was afraid someone would take it from him, and despite her frail appearance, the woman wasn’t leaning on her cane but gripping it in both hands like a club.

“Alvin, right?” Zinn asked. “Good to see you in better circumstances. And what should I call you, ma’am?”

“Dalisay, or Lola is fine too,” she replied. Her eyes were still darting back and forth in the restaurant, but as Cherie looked at her, she noticed that it didn’t seem like fear, exactly; there was a little bit of a smile on her lips, like some part of her was enjoying this.

Cherie dropped her gaze at that look, suddenly deeply aware of her own feeble fearfulness. She busied herself retrieving a toy Aiden had pushed off the tray and under the table. She absently wiped it on her shirt and handed it back to the toddler.

The newcomers slid into the booth on the other side of Zinn, Alvin first, then Dalisay. Alvin picked up a menu with jittery hands.

“Have you ordered yet? We should probably eat something, huh?” He said the last part with a glance at the older woman.

“You order whatever you like, dear,” Dalisay replied.

“Should I get you a…” Alvin began in almost a singsong voice, like he was talking to a child. Then he trailed off, looking awkward.

“It’s fine,” Dalisay replied quickly. “This is just going to take some adjustment. And I will have to rely on you for lunch—I don’t seem to have any money on me at the moment.”

Cherie was distracted by Liam tugging on her arm.

<They have chicken nuggets!> he signed, bad mood forgotten in the face of junk food. Cherie’s stomach dropped when she remembered the sad state of her new bank account, but Zinn came to her rescue. She waved a hand dismissively and said, “Don’t worry about it, food’s on me.”

After a minute or two of awkward small talk, the server came over and began taking their order. Cherie got Liam his nuggets, but when she tried to order herself a $3 side salad and a glass of water, Zinn ordered some loaded nachos “for the table” with a glance her way.

As soon as the server was gone, Zinn’s gaze swept past all of them, and she sighed.

“I invited you all here because I think something strange happened to us during the accident. You both got in touch with me today with some, honestly, fake-sounding stories—especially you, Alvin.” The young man seemed like he wanted to interrupt, but Zinn kept speaking and he backed down. “Still, something weird is going on here, and I don’t think we’re going to figure it out unless we have an actual conversation. So let’s start at the top: the subway crash. I remember seeing a lot of impossible stuff—I assumed it was some kind of hallucination, except that you mentioned something similar, Alvin. Will you tell me what you saw?”

“Uh, yeah,” Alvin said, frowning in thought. “So the crash itself was mostly just what you’d expect, lots of noise and people getting thrown around. But after…I saw a weird monster that was, like, made out of smoke. That huge guy fought it, like he was The Rock in an action movie. And I saw another one of those monsters last night. It came to our apartment, and it tried to…kill us, I guess?” He grimaced, then continued. “But I did…something—I can’t explain it, I still don’t understand—and Lola got really strong and fast and fought it off.” He glanced at his grandmother, looking sort of awkward. “Two days ago, she could barely walk across the apartment. She didn’t remember who I was. I feel really lucky, and really grateful for what happened, even though we got attacked. But I wish I understood.”

“It’s so strange,” Dalisay began, staring off into the middle distance. “I can remember snatches of that time…but I thought I was somewhere else, or that I was a child again. It’s like…those memories don’t even belong to me. Like I was a different person…” She trailed off, gaze fixed on her water glass.

“There are two extra-messed-up things about your story,” Zinn said. “First, that you saw the smoke monster too, which implies we weren’t just seeing things. And it’s not like we were, say, watching the same movie right before and our brains went to the same place due to stress. That makes me think that the monster was really there somehow. It could’ve been a trick—”

“There’s no way,” Alvin interrupted. “I swear it was there and we fought it. And it couldn’t have been a person—I literally saw it flow like a liquid and disappear. It wasn’t a projection or hologram or anything, either. I threw stuff at it that bounced off.”

“That doesn’t mean there isn’t some secret trick we don’t know about.”

“It came to my house. I’m not making that up!” Alvin’s voice was getting loud—Cherie shrank back a little in her seat.

“I know,” Zinnia said with a placating gesture. “But I’m not ready to just declare this magic or aliens and leave it at that, okay? My whole point is that we have no idea what we’re dealing with. And if this thing attacked you at home…”

“We have an enemy we don’t understand,” Alvin cut in. “Or me and Lola do, at least. It might have something against us specifically, though who even knows what that would be. Unless…” He glanced at Dalisay. “Do we have some magical destiny passed down in our family and you just never mentioned it before?” Any mysterious artifacts handed down from your parents?”

“Hmm…” Dalisay said, seeming to give it serious thought. “I have my great aunt’s good china, a few paintings done by my grandfather, and some other odds and ends,” she said. “If you were hoping for a magical sword or…alien moon rock or what have you, I’m afraid I must disappoint you.”

“Okay, so probably not that,” Alvin said. “But it could just be, I dunno, coming after people who’ve seen it, trying to keep its existence a secret. Like, ‘oh, I’ve never heard of smoke monsters before,’ but does that mean they’re not real, or does it mean nobody’s ever survived to tell the tale?”

“That’s a little dramatic, don’t you think?” Dalisay said with a hand on his arm.

“Do you not remember fighting for your life against that thing?” Alvin replied.

“I had it well under control,” Dalisay muttered without much conviction.

A long moment of silence fell over the table.

“…I saw the smoke monster on the subway too,” Cherie said. The other three adults all looked at her like they’d forgotten she was there. She tried not to shrink under the sudden attention. “And that man who was stabbed disappeared right out from under my hands.”

Before anyone could respond, Cherie’s phone buzzed in her pocket. Heart in her throat, she snatched it out and looked at the name on the screen.

Maddie

She frantically typed her password and read the message.

Cherie realized she’s been holding her breath as she watched each message pop up on her screen. She forced herself to breathe, then started typing a reply.

The three dots on the phone screen showed that Maddie was typing a reply…they disappeared for a moment, then appeared again.

Somebody asked Cherie what was happening, but she just shook her head, still staring at her phone.

Cherie put her head in her hands. Of course.