1 00:00:05,200 --> 00:00:08,560 Speaker 1: Hullo. I'm welcomed stories all the time. Glad you are here. 2 00:00:09,160 --> 00:00:12,160 Let's get into it. Something hit the living room window 3 00:00:12,199 --> 00:00:14,240 with a wet, hard thump and marsh out of my name. 4 00:00:14,279 --> 00:00:17,120 Before I finished standing, fear ran through my limbs so 5 00:00:17,199 --> 00:00:18,920 clearly I could feel my fingers good numb. As I 6 00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:21,719 stepped toward the glass. I threw the curtain aside and 7 00:00:21,760 --> 00:00:23,719 saw a pale, flat and face pressed to the pane, 8 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:26,920 wet breath fogging the edgewhere cheek met cealant. I did 9 00:00:26,920 --> 00:00:29,760 not wait to think. I opened the window finger with 10 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:33,000 and Mara grabbed my sleeve. My fear was not thought. 11 00:00:33,159 --> 00:00:34,799 It was a pressure behind my roops that made my 12 00:00:34,799 --> 00:00:37,520 hand shake while I fumbled the old latch. That fear 13 00:00:37,520 --> 00:00:40,560 pushed me to acting to talk fast. Morrow stayed back, 14 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:44,719 I said, Dante open. Mara pushed the curtain harder and peered, 15 00:00:44,880 --> 00:00:48,560 nails white at the knuckles. She what is that? And 16 00:00:48,640 --> 00:00:52,039 her voice went tight. Marr dantes. I started again, and 17 00:00:52,079 --> 00:00:54,280 then the face drew a slow, wet circle against the 18 00:00:54,320 --> 00:00:56,840 glass and leaned harder. I could name where I lived 19 00:00:56,880 --> 00:00:59,320 in the next breath. I lay on the second floor 20 00:00:59,320 --> 00:01:02,000 of a narrow brick building on Harbor Lane. I keep 21 00:01:02,039 --> 00:01:04,519 Tee in a chipped kettle on the stove. I sleep 22 00:01:04,519 --> 00:01:06,359 in the side with the window, and afraid gray hoodie 23 00:01:06,359 --> 00:01:09,200 that smells like salt. Does fox matter? Because I had 24 00:01:09,200 --> 00:01:11,040 to move without thinking about them, so I could close 25 00:01:11,079 --> 00:01:13,840 the window before whatever was outside could press itself farther 26 00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:17,560 in more cursed and pulled her hand back. She we 27 00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:20,000 need to call some one. I sighed and grabbed my 28 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:22,120 phone while keeping the window a jar with my thumb. 29 00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:24,760 I felt a dam cooix hail against my wrist. Were 30 00:01:24,799 --> 00:01:27,079 the gap let air in the skin on my forearm prickled. 31 00:01:27,680 --> 00:01:30,480 I watched the face through the condensation. It was long 32 00:01:30,519 --> 00:01:32,560 and wart, pale, not detailed, but there were dark white 33 00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:35,200 hollows where eyes might sit. It matched a drawing we 34 00:01:35,239 --> 00:01:37,239 later found on the stawell board, but we didn't know 35 00:01:37,280 --> 00:01:40,079 that yet. I dialed the town despatch with one hand 36 00:01:40,120 --> 00:01:42,959 and held the window with the other. The despatcher listened 37 00:01:42,959 --> 00:01:44,599 and then answered in a voice that treated us like 38 00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:48,640 two people plain a joke. It's fog, My am, stay inside, 39 00:01:48,680 --> 00:01:51,719 and don Tee may contact. I said my address twice 40 00:01:51,719 --> 00:01:53,920 in The despatcher repeated the word fog like a final 41 00:01:53,959 --> 00:01:56,400 word that would end the call. Mar a hiss. They 42 00:01:56,400 --> 00:01:58,719 think it's just weather, and I pushed her through my teeth. 43 00:01:59,239 --> 00:02:01,879 My suspicion turned to anger. For a breath, I told 44 00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:03,719 the despatch of the face was pressed to my glass, 45 00:02:03,719 --> 00:02:05,920 and the voice said again, stay inside, we'll log it. 46 00:02:06,439 --> 00:02:09,199 We entered the coal with an unresolved click. The fear 47 00:02:09,319 --> 00:02:13,280 chained shaped to something, prickled close and sharpened suspicion. I 48 00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:15,479 paced while the fog move against the street like something 49 00:02:15,479 --> 00:02:17,879 it lie, but solid enough to press faces to glass. 50 00:02:18,520 --> 00:02:20,240 The suspicion made me open the door to the halt 51 00:02:20,240 --> 00:02:23,159 to check the stairwar windows. I left Mara inside with 52 00:02:23,199 --> 00:02:25,759 the kettle humming. I saw mister Harlowe by the lobby 53 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:28,360 light when I stepped out. He held a cheap flashlight 54 00:02:28,400 --> 00:02:30,919 and a cigarette and he said, ye again, people complain 55 00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:33,560 every fog night. He turned the flashlight away like it 56 00:02:33,560 --> 00:02:36,479 showed nothing. I said, there was a face on my window. 57 00:02:36,680 --> 00:02:39,319 Mister Harlowe, he after to see. He shrugged and then 58 00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:43,520 pass complaints by tone kids, droll, weird stuff. People scared themselves. 59 00:02:43,639 --> 00:02:45,680 I felt anger rise, along with the suspicion that the 60 00:02:45,759 --> 00:02:48,639 landlord was minimizing to avoid work. I asked, did anyone 61 00:02:48,639 --> 00:02:51,520 call the station. He tapped his chin and said they 62 00:02:51,560 --> 00:02:54,360 reached short to night as calm didn't tea land. While 63 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:56,479 he spoke, I noticed fresh smudge marks in the stable 64 00:02:56,520 --> 00:02:59,479 glass below the handrail. I said, mister Hallow, looked down there, 65 00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:02,400 Those prints are wet. He glanced and frowned, but kept 66 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:06,000 talking about previous tenants. Those princes stopped me from accepting 67 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:08,639 his dismissal. Back in my flat mirror had found a 68 00:03:08,680 --> 00:03:11,520 folded flier under the door mat. She unfolded it with 69 00:03:11,560 --> 00:03:15,159 shaky fingers. Look she said. The flyers showed a face 70 00:03:15,199 --> 00:03:17,039 in a photograph labeled with the name and a date, 71 00:03:17,120 --> 00:03:20,680 mon Solaer. The paper was damp at the corners. I 72 00:03:20,759 --> 00:03:23,960 recognized the handwriting on the bulletin board notice from building management, 73 00:03:24,639 --> 00:03:27,080 a lost purse and flyer we had passed every week. 74 00:03:27,560 --> 00:03:29,840 I felt the suspicion hardened into a sense of patteren 75 00:03:30,439 --> 00:03:32,360 flier and the child's drawing on the stairs will both 76 00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:35,360 match the shape of faces pressed to windows. We argued 77 00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:38,199 about what to do. Maurra's voice kept catch and call 78 00:03:38,280 --> 00:03:41,599 some one, Call some one now, I said, we already 79 00:03:41,639 --> 00:03:45,439 did the station didn't take us seriously. Ellie arrived then, 80 00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:47,280 climbing the stairs two at a time, with the battered 81 00:03:47,319 --> 00:03:51,000 carracase slung over his shoulder. I hadn't expected Elly so early. 82 00:03:51,639 --> 00:03:54,560 He fed the latch with his shoulder and said, you texted. 83 00:03:55,240 --> 00:03:57,919 I came anyway. I said his name, and he dropped 84 00:03:57,960 --> 00:04:00,919 the case in the table. Ellie smells of oil and colder. 85 00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:03,560 He lifts his chin when he thinks. I thought you 86 00:04:03,639 --> 00:04:07,759 were joking, He said, I thought he'd overreacted. Marris napped, 87 00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:11,159 we were right. Look. She pushed the flyer towards him, 88 00:04:11,639 --> 00:04:14,319 alas Maners shifted from skeptical to business like. Inside a 89 00:04:14,360 --> 00:04:17,319 few breaths. He set up the cheap camera on a tripod, 90 00:04:17,319 --> 00:04:18,959 aim at the window, and foretted a cable to my 91 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:22,240 old radio to power the recorder. He in a flat voice, 92 00:04:22,319 --> 00:04:25,439 if this is something weird, I want footage. If it's 93 00:04:25,480 --> 00:04:28,800 a prank, we catch them. Ellie's hand jittered slightly when 94 00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:31,560 he adjusted the focus. The jump in his motion showed 95 00:04:31,560 --> 00:04:34,680 for under his face control. I found that I was counting. 96 00:04:35,199 --> 00:04:38,519 I counted to stay steady. The counting became a small ritual. 97 00:04:39,160 --> 00:04:42,040 One two, three, I told myself. The count would help 98 00:04:42,079 --> 00:04:44,480 me close the window faster if I had to. The 99 00:04:44,519 --> 00:04:47,600 fog came in the cup before dawn. The silhouettes collected 100 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:50,439 at the curb and leaned against lamp posts. Their faces 101 00:04:50,480 --> 00:04:53,759 were impressions pressed to glass. They did not move like people. 102 00:04:54,319 --> 00:04:58,360 They modulated pressure waiting. Ali whispered. They re at the 103 00:04:58,399 --> 00:05:02,439 far corner leaning. I see them, Marra, we should lock 104 00:05:02,519 --> 00:05:06,600 the door, I said, Now we should document it. The 105 00:05:06,639 --> 00:05:10,000 group argued for a minute. Ellie wanted evidence, Mara wanted 106 00:05:10,040 --> 00:05:12,600 to hide. I stood between the impulses and felt the 107 00:05:12,600 --> 00:05:16,079 suspicion return as a practical checklist film document do not 108 00:05:16,160 --> 00:05:19,480 touch The camera flickered each time a face came closer 109 00:05:20,079 --> 00:05:22,199 the screen. Shirt blocks of static, and then a wat 110 00:05:22,199 --> 00:05:24,800 How low were condensation condensed into a mouse shaped oval. 111 00:05:25,360 --> 00:05:28,240 Elie tapped the recorder and cursed under his breath, he 112 00:05:28,600 --> 00:05:31,399 it kills the signal keep the glass closed. I moved 113 00:05:31,399 --> 00:05:33,480 to the window and pressed my palms flat against the cell. 114 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:36,959 The condensation cooled my skin. I could hear a distant 115 00:05:37,160 --> 00:05:39,160 low hump through the fog, like a single string pluck 116 00:05:39,199 --> 00:05:42,639 fairy low. It made my teeth ache. We debated their 117 00:05:42,639 --> 00:05:46,920 next move in short sentences, shut it morrr fillmore, Eli, 118 00:05:47,439 --> 00:05:50,160 call some one again. I say. The argument became one 119 00:05:50,199 --> 00:05:54,120 of small quick lines. The tension rose Mara, if it 120 00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:56,319 wants us, we dun't tee let it near the open 121 00:05:56,519 --> 00:05:58,879 Ellie answered, if it hides from the camera, we need 122 00:05:58,920 --> 00:06:01,040 to lower it out to prove it. I said, Ali, 123 00:06:01,120 --> 00:06:02,959 we will not lure it closer mirror. We should tape 124 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:05,879 the window to Ellie, tap one to stop it. I say, 125 00:06:06,040 --> 00:06:09,360 we need proof without bating. In those exchanges, their priorities 126 00:06:09,399 --> 00:06:13,160 were visible. Mour name safety, Elly named evidence. I named containment. 127 00:06:13,800 --> 00:06:16,079 At three in the morning, the fog pressed directly at 128 00:06:16,120 --> 00:06:18,720 our window in a wall. A single long face led 129 00:06:18,720 --> 00:06:21,279 along the glass and stopped where the latch lived. I 130 00:06:21,360 --> 00:06:24,600 felt the window frame vibrate under the pressure. Ellie muttered, 131 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:28,199 the camera registers the Humer's interference. Mar a step backward 132 00:06:28,240 --> 00:06:31,199 and hit the table leg. She that's close. Her breath 133 00:06:31,240 --> 00:06:34,759 came fast. I've felt resolve hardened in my jaw. I 134 00:06:34,879 --> 00:06:36,759 loosened one hand from the latch and reached for the 135 00:06:36,839 --> 00:06:39,600 camera to check its connection. My hand burushed the edge 136 00:06:39,600 --> 00:06:41,480 of the window in a faint w s may marked 137 00:06:41,519 --> 00:06:44,000 my palm The smear was cold and smelled of algi 138 00:06:44,079 --> 00:06:46,680 in metal. I wiped it on my sleeve and held 139 00:06:46,720 --> 00:06:49,639 my hand up. The smear asked shape echoed the flattened face. 140 00:06:50,360 --> 00:06:52,360 Elly looked at my palm and his face changed sharp 141 00:06:52,439 --> 00:06:55,199 enough for MITSI he don't he open it. I'll let 142 00:06:55,279 --> 00:06:58,120 gold the latch. My fingers shook in the fear compressed 143 00:06:58,120 --> 00:07:01,079 into a different feeling, a tight, angry insistence not to 144 00:07:01,120 --> 00:07:04,079 be a passive observer. Ellie moved faster than either of 145 00:07:04,160 --> 00:07:07,319 us had expected. He lunged for the tripodoagius the angle. 146 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:09,920 In the motion, his knee clept the sill, and the 147 00:07:09,959 --> 00:07:11,839 window cracked the fraction of an inch I had kept 148 00:07:12,560 --> 00:07:14,959 the gap opened and a long. When impression slipped through 149 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:17,720 the seam, it pressed against Elly's wrists with the softness 150 00:07:17,720 --> 00:07:20,519 at mimic's skin. The contact made a thin, wet sound, 151 00:07:20,639 --> 00:07:24,120 like lips meeting oily glass. Illy shouted and grabbed the camera. 152 00:07:24,720 --> 00:07:26,519 He tried to pull it back, but something on the 153 00:07:26,560 --> 00:07:29,839 other side flexed and pushed deeper. Morris screamed, close it, 154 00:07:30,519 --> 00:07:33,360 close it now. I slammed my shoulder into the frame 155 00:07:33,399 --> 00:07:36,319 and felt the woopscape under my palm. The entity mimicked 156 00:07:36,319 --> 00:07:38,959 our movements. Why I tried to pull the window up. 157 00:07:39,040 --> 00:07:41,480 The pressure and the sill countered me. It matched the 158 00:07:41,560 --> 00:07:43,480 angle Alley used and shoved against the frame, with the 159 00:07:43,560 --> 00:07:46,759 timing that nearly unlatched. Heff fingers. Ellie cursed and shoved 160 00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:49,920 his shoulder, and the camera colatter. The silhouette's pressure moved 161 00:07:49,920 --> 00:07:53,240 in rhythm with us. It was not random. It cop 162 00:07:53,279 --> 00:07:56,160 its more gestures. The mimicry made me aware of how 163 00:07:56,199 --> 00:07:58,879 the fog had been watching houses all night, finding seems. 164 00:07:59,480 --> 00:08:01,720 I forced the frame closed with both hands and heard 165 00:08:01,720 --> 00:08:04,160 a wet slip and sparkles. Something slid off the siltan 166 00:08:04,199 --> 00:08:07,439 into the fog with a soft sucking sound. We stood panting. 167 00:08:08,079 --> 00:08:11,040 The room smelled of cold, salt and metal. The camera's 168 00:08:11,079 --> 00:08:14,439 memory card was corrupted in places where faces had leaned closest. 169 00:08:15,120 --> 00:08:18,120 Eli swore and threw the recorder onto the couch. He 170 00:08:18,279 --> 00:08:20,959 played at back. The playback had a low, droning hum, 171 00:08:21,040 --> 00:08:23,839 laid under static. At points, the hum had an ear 172 00:08:23,920 --> 00:08:27,079 whispered that sounded like a word against the microphone. Mara 173 00:08:27,199 --> 00:08:29,759 put her hands over her mouth. What did it say? 174 00:08:30,519 --> 00:08:33,600 She asked. Ellie fed the recorder into the stereo and 175 00:08:33,639 --> 00:08:37,279 sowed the playback. There was no clear word. There was 176 00:08:37,360 --> 00:08:39,559 only pressure and the impression of a voice under the static. 177 00:08:40,200 --> 00:08:42,120 Dawn shifted the light, and the fog thinned like a 178 00:08:42,200 --> 00:08:45,120 hand drawing back. The street outside was quieter than it 179 00:08:45,120 --> 00:08:47,639 should have been. I unlatched the door and went down 180 00:08:47,679 --> 00:08:50,639 the stairwll to check the bulletin board. My mouth tasted 181 00:08:50,679 --> 00:08:53,039 of metal, and fear had folded into a ringing weariness. 182 00:08:53,759 --> 00:08:55,679 At the board, I founded damp child like drawing of 183 00:08:55,720 --> 00:08:58,399 tall faces pressed to glass, pined under clear tape. The 184 00:08:58,519 --> 00:09:00,039 drawing had the date scolded in a shaky hand, and 185 00:09:00,399 --> 00:09:02,799 a name with a phone number. I turned and called 186 00:09:02,840 --> 00:09:05,879 Morrow's name. The stairwell smelled of wet paint and algae. 187 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:08,279 The bottom of the stairwell had smears leading away like 188 00:09:08,360 --> 00:09:11,799 drag damn cloth. I called and imment morror, and heard 189 00:09:11,840 --> 00:09:14,759 no answer. The door to the outside yard was cracked. 190 00:09:15,399 --> 00:09:17,639 I pulled it and it resisted, as if something had 191 00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:20,279 leaned against it from the other side. I shoved it 192 00:09:20,360 --> 00:09:22,919 open and saw fresh, wet footprints leading down toward the pier. 193 00:09:23,559 --> 00:09:26,320 They were narrow and long gated, not like normal shoes. 194 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:29,919 My chest tightened and a new shift arrived, anger into 195 00:09:29,919 --> 00:09:32,759 grim determination. I pushed past the lintel and followed the 196 00:09:32,799 --> 00:09:36,519 Prince outside the fog clustered around the lamp posts. The 197 00:09:36,600 --> 00:09:38,720 Prince led to the corner, where the street narrowed and 198 00:09:38,759 --> 00:09:41,279 pulled toward the harbor. I heard a low hum that 199 00:09:41,360 --> 00:09:44,080 match the playback. I called Mara's name again, and the 200 00:09:44,120 --> 00:09:46,120 sound returned to a thin repeat, as if the fog 201 00:09:46,159 --> 00:09:49,080 absorbed and turned voices. I felt the hazel all my 202 00:09:49,200 --> 00:09:51,639 arm stand up, and I wrapped my scaff tighter. The 203 00:09:51,720 --> 00:09:53,600 Prince ended at a pile of wet rags and a 204 00:09:53,679 --> 00:09:56,320 childish shoe half buried in the puddle. The shoe es 205 00:09:56,399 --> 00:09:59,039 tongue had a name written inside. I read the skull 206 00:09:59,080 --> 00:10:02,000 and found a match to the Purson flyer. I spun 207 00:10:02,120 --> 00:10:04,320 and saw Ellie at the stairhead, leaning like he could 208 00:10:04,360 --> 00:10:07,840 not breathe. Here ran to the corner. There was someone 209 00:10:07,919 --> 00:10:10,600 standing there. Then they were in tea. He looked at 210 00:10:10,639 --> 00:10:14,080 the shoe with something like guilt. I said, where's morrr? 211 00:10:14,879 --> 00:10:17,519 Ellie as reply was klipped, had done to know? I 212 00:10:17,639 --> 00:10:20,480 left her in the doorway. She she would check the lobby. 213 00:10:21,080 --> 00:10:22,919 I pictured the small fights we had in the share 214 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:25,120 tasks that now meant little in the face of her absence. 215 00:10:25,840 --> 00:10:29,200 We argued about where to search next. Ali wanted the camera. 216 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:34,080 I wanted to follow the wet prince. The exchange was quick, Elie, 217 00:10:34,120 --> 00:10:37,559 we followed the prince. No, we call more people. We 218 00:10:37,679 --> 00:10:40,960 already called. They want he come. We stood in the 219 00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:44,200 fog and moved in opposite directions. A neighbor came out, 220 00:10:44,200 --> 00:10:46,759 then mister hallowe as if to check the commotion. He 221 00:10:47,080 --> 00:10:49,799 shouldn't he be out here? That fog can fool you. 222 00:10:49,879 --> 00:10:53,480 I said, there's a shoe, there is a smear. He 223 00:10:53,519 --> 00:10:56,799 shrugged and reached into his jacket. He I have a flashlight, 224 00:10:57,759 --> 00:11:00,919 I'll help look. His voice had a different now, he 225 00:11:01,039 --> 00:11:03,200 was less ready to minimize and more ready to fix. 226 00:11:03,960 --> 00:11:06,360 I felt a small twist of relief, and then suspicion returned. 227 00:11:06,960 --> 00:11:09,399 His change of tone could be for any reason. He 228 00:11:09,480 --> 00:11:11,480 wiped his hands on his trousers and pointed the light 229 00:11:11,519 --> 00:11:14,200 toward the pier. At a dock, I found more water, 230 00:11:14,320 --> 00:11:17,559 smeared Prince heading under the boards. The fog thin enough 231 00:11:17,600 --> 00:11:19,960 that I saw a shadows slide under the gap. Billy 232 00:11:20,039 --> 00:11:22,480 braced himself against the railing and sat in quick control 233 00:11:22,559 --> 00:11:26,279 lines dawnty go under, we wait for the station. The 234 00:11:26,360 --> 00:11:28,840 words were in order and aply. I answered with a 235 00:11:28,879 --> 00:11:32,639 short sentence, we go now. Mara's name felt like a 236 00:11:32,720 --> 00:11:35,159 stone in my mouth. The decision to move under the 237 00:11:35,200 --> 00:11:37,720 pier felt like an oath. We climbed down into the 238 00:11:37,799 --> 00:11:40,159 rotten planks, and the smell of aalgaie and wrought was stronger, 239 00:11:40,360 --> 00:11:43,279 salty and metallic and sharp. Under the dock, the damp 240 00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:46,159 press was thicker. I saw a place where condensation had 241 00:11:46,159 --> 00:11:48,519 pulled against a wooden post, and a flattened impression had 242 00:11:48,519 --> 00:11:51,080 been left, like a wet palm. The impression matched the 243 00:11:51,120 --> 00:11:54,039 shape I'd wept on my sleeve. I felt the air vibrate, 244 00:11:54,120 --> 00:11:57,000 the hum swelled, then the fog moved with intent. Elie 245 00:11:57,039 --> 00:11:59,480 growled my arm. He if we split up, we can 246 00:11:59,480 --> 00:12:02,759 find more clo More's absence hung between us like a question. 247 00:12:03,480 --> 00:12:05,919 I said, we stay together. He complained, in a quick line, 248 00:12:06,399 --> 00:12:08,320 you always say that, I answered with my name in 249 00:12:08,360 --> 00:12:12,200 a firm, short sentence. We stayed together, Ellie. He looked 250 00:12:12,240 --> 00:12:14,519 at me and then nodded. We worked out well on 251 00:12:14,639 --> 00:12:17,919 the pilings. Every few steps another was smear showed where 252 00:12:17,919 --> 00:12:20,639 something had pressed a face to wood. The fog hummed 253 00:12:20,639 --> 00:12:23,440 below the threshold of hearing. Then Eli found the camera 254 00:12:23,519 --> 00:12:26,360 cord still in his pocket, but corrupted. He thumb through 255 00:12:26,399 --> 00:12:28,519 the housing and found frames where the silouets leaned so 256 00:12:28,639 --> 00:12:32,240 close to class saturated with condensation. One frame clearer than 257 00:12:32,279 --> 00:12:34,039 the rest showed a handprint on the outside of a 258 00:12:34,080 --> 00:12:37,000 window with a child's wrist inside a jacket. The image 259 00:12:37,039 --> 00:12:39,840 did not match anything we knew. He in a low voice. 260 00:12:40,200 --> 00:12:42,080 This was someone here earlier. At the discovery made the 261 00:12:42,120 --> 00:12:45,000 fog feel deliberate. We reached a ladder that slotted into 262 00:12:45,039 --> 00:12:46,919 the harbor water and found the wet cloth tied to 263 00:12:47,000 --> 00:12:49,440 the rum. The cloth had been stamped with an imprint 264 00:12:49,559 --> 00:12:51,679 like a palm, and a line of small, neat handwriting 265 00:12:51,759 --> 00:12:55,200 on the edge. I read the letters aloud. They matched 266 00:12:55,200 --> 00:12:58,639 the name on the flier. After that things flipped. The 267 00:12:58,720 --> 00:13:00,600 fog drew close like a column, and then drew in 268 00:13:00,639 --> 00:13:03,240 a deliberate measure way. I heard a scrape at the 269 00:13:03,279 --> 00:13:05,240 dock above us, and then a soft, wet slide along 270 00:13:05,320 --> 00:13:09,000 the edge. I said, up, Elly, no, wait, I move first. 271 00:13:09,720 --> 00:13:11,639 At the top of the ladder, a figure blocked the stair. 272 00:13:12,320 --> 00:13:15,360 It was neither fully fog nor fully human. It leaned 273 00:13:15,360 --> 00:13:17,559 its flattened face against a railing and looked in through 274 00:13:17,559 --> 00:13:20,960 the hairline cracks of the bots. The featureless impression rested 275 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:22,759 and pressed, and when it moved it made a sucking, 276 00:13:22,840 --> 00:13:25,320 wet sound. Ellie flinched and hit the deck with his 277 00:13:25,440 --> 00:13:29,440 palm NESSA Hello, had his flashlight steady and shown it down. 278 00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:32,320 The beam carved a white circle into the fog, ensured 279 00:13:32,360 --> 00:13:35,919 this smudge prince clearly. The thing did not retreat. It 280 00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:39,799 simply shifted and folded, like material being rearranged. The mini 281 00:13:39,840 --> 00:13:43,080 cliffinger hit. Then something at the railing slid alowng smeared 282 00:13:43,120 --> 00:13:45,080 down the wood and then reached into the ladder gap 283 00:13:45,120 --> 00:13:47,559 with a wet filament that looked like a hand. It 284 00:13:47,639 --> 00:13:51,639 moved slow. I shouldered backward. Elly lounged and grabbed for 285 00:13:51,720 --> 00:13:54,120 the filament, and the thing reciprocated with a pressure that 286 00:13:54,159 --> 00:13:57,559 fit his grip exactly. There was a short chaotic pull 287 00:13:57,679 --> 00:14:00,720 and then a wet, sucking sound. Ellis Shaw echoed under 288 00:14:00,759 --> 00:14:03,440 the pier. I ripped my hands free and hold him up. 289 00:14:03,960 --> 00:14:05,720 We fell on the planks and the well tilted into 290 00:14:05,759 --> 00:14:09,480 shouting Mora was not there. Ellie coughed and spat water 291 00:14:09,559 --> 00:14:11,399 and said, in a rapid cadence, I felt like it 292 00:14:11,519 --> 00:14:14,399 was trying to pull me down. I said, where's Mara. 293 00:14:15,159 --> 00:14:17,000 He hit the deck with both hands and said, I 294 00:14:17,120 --> 00:14:20,360 dun't know she was at the door. I looked back 295 00:14:20,399 --> 00:14:22,919 to check the camera and she wasn't there. She wasn't 296 00:14:22,960 --> 00:14:25,799 at the rail. Missa. Hallo used the flashlight to sweep 297 00:14:25,840 --> 00:14:27,960 the harbor and found a wet smere leading back toward 298 00:14:28,039 --> 00:14:30,399 the stairwell. The smear glowed in a beam like a 299 00:14:30,440 --> 00:14:33,960 fresh bruise onward. I realized our small victory in forcing 300 00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:36,960 the window shut. It cost us Morrow's presence. We flagged 301 00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:39,159 the despatcher again, and this time they sent one car. 302 00:14:39,279 --> 00:14:42,080 After a full minute, the officer on sight shoning a 303 00:14:42,159 --> 00:14:44,679 searchlight that cut the falk into a hard line. He 304 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:48,120 name in a voice tuned for procedure. I told him 305 00:14:48,120 --> 00:14:51,120 Mora's name in my dress. The officer wrote it down 306 00:14:51,159 --> 00:14:53,799 slowly and asked about the drawing. He stared at the 307 00:14:53,840 --> 00:14:56,480 pink child's picture and then looked up. He did not 308 00:14:56,600 --> 00:14:59,679 have the insulation of dismissal in his face. He we 309 00:14:59,720 --> 00:15:02,919 will checked the missing person's file. The sentence felt like 310 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:05,519 thin armor, but it was something. At dawn, the town 311 00:15:05,519 --> 00:15:09,080 began a low mechanical search. Patrol cars moved slowly down 312 00:15:09,159 --> 00:15:12,080 Harbour Lane with lights that did not use sirens. People 313 00:15:12,159 --> 00:15:16,360 leaned from windows and frowned. The landlord miffed. Hallow stood 314 00:15:16,399 --> 00:15:18,519 with his cigarette stop gun cold, and watched, as if 315 00:15:18,559 --> 00:15:21,600 watching a bad TV shot. Ellie moved in quick lunges 316 00:15:21,639 --> 00:15:24,799 and jerky breaths between the patrols. He kept saying short 317 00:15:24,840 --> 00:15:28,200 things into his phone about corrupted footage and static um. 318 00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:31,720 Hallow kept circling back to minimize, and then stepping forward 319 00:15:31,720 --> 00:15:34,240 to point at the damp smudges. The mix of denial 320 00:15:34,279 --> 00:15:35,919 and help made it hard to tell who to trust. 321 00:15:36,639 --> 00:15:38,519 I did a last sweep of my apartment and found 322 00:15:38,519 --> 00:15:42,000 the camera's battery compartment shoved under the couch, inside a 323 00:15:42,039 --> 00:15:44,080 scrap of fabric that matched the child she was stuck 324 00:15:44,159 --> 00:15:46,720 in the hinge appeals are Free, and tucked it in 325 00:15:46,799 --> 00:15:49,279 my pocket. My hands were steady enough to tie ant. 326 00:15:49,919 --> 00:15:53,200 The knot felt like a choice. I would document, I 327 00:15:53,240 --> 00:15:57,080 would follow, I would warn. The fear receded into a 328 00:15:57,120 --> 00:15:59,879 tight line of resolve. Ellie bent over the recorder and 329 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:01,879 played a section where the hum resolved into a half 330 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:04,759 phrase that sounded like a name. We could not be sure. 331 00:16:05,480 --> 00:16:07,440 The small twist came when mister Hallow pointed at the 332 00:16:07,480 --> 00:16:09,840 stairwall and said, there is a smear on the third step. 333 00:16:10,519 --> 00:16:13,279 We went down together on the stairwall. The wet smere 334 00:16:13,399 --> 00:16:15,080 led to the door of Unit three and stopped at 335 00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:19,120 the threshold. No footprints left beyond it. The building smelled 336 00:16:19,200 --> 00:16:21,799 like wet wool and coffee. I touched the smear with 337 00:16:21,879 --> 00:16:23,919 my finger tip and it left a damp trees on muskin. 338 00:16:24,480 --> 00:16:26,480 The smear ended at the stair tread, and a single 339 00:16:26,519 --> 00:16:29,039 wet finger prin faded toward the hall. I bent to 340 00:16:29,120 --> 00:16:30,799 fall over it, and then heard a sound behind me, 341 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:33,840 like paper being folded in a mail box. I stirred 342 00:16:33,879 --> 00:16:35,679 and found an envelope taped to the under side of 343 00:16:35,720 --> 00:16:38,639 the stair rail. The envelope had no stamp and only 344 00:16:38,679 --> 00:16:41,360 my name written in a neat small hand. I opened 345 00:16:41,399 --> 00:16:43,960 it with one finger and slid out a single folded photograph. 346 00:16:44,679 --> 00:16:47,200 The photograph showed a window with condensation and a pail 347 00:16:47,320 --> 00:16:50,320 flattened face pressed at the inside of the glass. Someone 348 00:16:50,360 --> 00:16:52,480 had drawn a small circle around the corner of the pane, 349 00:16:52,480 --> 00:16:55,360 where a hairline gap showed on the back. Written in 350 00:16:55,399 --> 00:16:57,960 the same neat hand was a line. We watched the 351 00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:00,159 windows first. The hand rating was not mine. It was 352 00:17:00,200 --> 00:17:03,000 not alias I s followed. I folded the photograph and 353 00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:05,079 slipped it into my pocket, closed my fist around the 354 00:17:05,119 --> 00:17:07,559 fabric's crap, and stepped out into the fog, following the 355 00:17:07,559 --> 00:17:10,880 stairwellsmere downward. Mars shoved the door open and dragged me 356 00:17:10,960 --> 00:17:13,039 on to the porch, shouting that the fog had people 357 00:17:13,079 --> 00:17:16,039 at the windows. Fear tightened my hands round the rail. 358 00:17:16,599 --> 00:17:18,480 I could still feel the wet slap against the living 359 00:17:18,519 --> 00:17:20,920 room glass from earlier, and Mara's voice cutting through it. 360 00:17:21,519 --> 00:17:24,640 Feo pushed me forward before thought. The porch light pulled 361 00:17:24,640 --> 00:17:26,240 on the floor in a small disc, and the fog 362 00:17:26,279 --> 00:17:29,400 closed around the building like a slow, wet hand. I've 363 00:17:29,400 --> 00:17:32,039 been awake when something hit the living room window. I 364 00:17:32,119 --> 00:17:33,519 had stood with the curve n in my fist and 365 00:17:33,559 --> 00:17:35,359 seen a pail flat and face pressed to the pane, 366 00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:38,160 breath fogg in the corner. Mara had screened my name 367 00:17:38,160 --> 00:17:40,880 before I finished moving. That was the physical fact I 368 00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:43,759 kept returning to the sound of impact on glass, the 369 00:17:43,799 --> 00:17:47,039 wet smere Mara's name in the hallway. Those detail shaped 370 00:17:47,079 --> 00:17:49,640 everything I did that night. They made me get dressed, 371 00:17:50,279 --> 00:17:53,119 then made me follow Mora out of the apartment. Tom 372 00:17:53,359 --> 00:17:55,680 Mara call, bounding down the corridor with her keys in 373 00:17:55,720 --> 00:17:58,440 her fist. Her voice carried a raw edge I hadn't 374 00:17:58,480 --> 00:18:00,960 heard before. I follow with my hood. He pulled up 375 00:18:00,960 --> 00:18:03,720 and the radio bag slung over my shoulder. I kept 376 00:18:03,759 --> 00:18:06,079 glancing at the living room window through the open door. 377 00:18:06,720 --> 00:18:09,119 The condensation along the edge still held the shape of 378 00:18:09,160 --> 00:18:12,559 a face. My breath came out in short tuffs. We 379 00:18:12,680 --> 00:18:16,720 hit Tom's door first. I knocked hard. Mara's palm left 380 00:18:16,759 --> 00:18:19,240 a print in the wood. Tom wake up, She said, 381 00:18:19,799 --> 00:18:22,720 Her voice was tight. The haway smelled of damp stairs 382 00:18:22,759 --> 00:18:25,559 and some one frying onions earlier in the evening. Tom 383 00:18:25,599 --> 00:18:27,319 opened the door crack and blinked at us, like he 384 00:18:27,359 --> 00:18:30,680 had been asleep in a chair. What's going on? Tom's 385 00:18:30,759 --> 00:18:33,240 voice was flat with sleep. He rubbed at his eyes 386 00:18:33,279 --> 00:18:36,759 and pushed his hair back. I watched his hand callous, knuckle, 387 00:18:36,839 --> 00:18:38,960 grease under the nail, The small details that told me 388 00:18:39,039 --> 00:18:40,960 he had been asleep on his feet, not in bed 389 00:18:41,759 --> 00:18:45,400 fog Morrow, they read your window. Tom's face changed when 390 00:18:45,440 --> 00:18:47,440 we stepped close enough to his kitchen window to see 391 00:18:47,480 --> 00:18:50,799 the condensation. He reached for the latch and froze. A 392 00:18:50,880 --> 00:18:53,559 flattened white shape hovered on the outside pane, just above 393 00:18:53,599 --> 00:18:56,559 waist tight It held there without moving like a pressed hand. 394 00:18:57,640 --> 00:19:02,200 Tom swallowed Jesus. He stepped forward, appeared. The smear resolved 395 00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:05,400 into the impression of an elongated face. Nothing that could 396 00:19:05,440 --> 00:19:08,079 be cold eyes, only darker wet patches and the suggestion 397 00:19:08,160 --> 00:19:10,759 of a nose flattened to the glass. Tom pulled back 398 00:19:10,799 --> 00:19:14,160 with a small, involuntary step. He reached for his pahne. 399 00:19:14,720 --> 00:19:17,359 The screen lit up, then pixelated into a grutostatic and 400 00:19:17,480 --> 00:19:22,200 black phones die. I said, my voice was small. I 401 00:19:22,319 --> 00:19:26,039 heard the tightness in it. Mara's joel worked. She grabbed 402 00:19:26,039 --> 00:19:28,960 Tom's wrist. Don't he call anyone on it? She said, 403 00:19:29,559 --> 00:19:32,000 we need to wake the building. We moved doward to door, 404 00:19:32,200 --> 00:19:35,839 rapping and shaking. Neighbors awake. The building responded in fragments, 405 00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:38,480 footsteps padding down, a grumble from behind a door, a 406 00:19:38,559 --> 00:19:41,839 woman crying out, someone swearing. Each time a face appeared 407 00:19:41,839 --> 00:19:43,960 at a window. It looked pressed and wet, a translucent 408 00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:46,759 impression that blurred as soon as you named it. People 409 00:19:46,799 --> 00:19:49,119 open doors and pajamas were wrapped in towels. They leaned 410 00:19:49,119 --> 00:19:51,039 out and pointed eyes wide with them to wake everyone, 411 00:19:51,119 --> 00:19:53,640 to make noise, to keep doors closed. I said those 412 00:19:53,680 --> 00:19:56,039 words because fear told me to say them. At the 413 00:19:56,079 --> 00:19:59,319 second stair landing, I glanced back the hallway. Light caught 414 00:19:59,400 --> 00:20:02,480 something at the fire window, several longated silhouettes leaning close 415 00:20:02,519 --> 00:20:06,880 to the glass. They did not walk, They pressed their presence, 416 00:20:06,920 --> 00:20:09,279 made a paint near the frame, dark with wet and 417 00:20:09,359 --> 00:20:12,720 neighbor misses cold. Wolf screened and then clamped her hands 418 00:20:12,759 --> 00:20:16,000 over her mouth. Her voice broke into quick, incoherent sobs. 419 00:20:16,640 --> 00:20:19,640 Call nine hundred eleven Tom. He sounded like he was 420 00:20:19,680 --> 00:20:22,440 giving himself permission to do it. His hand hovered above 421 00:20:22,480 --> 00:20:24,839 his phone. I watched him make the choice and then 422 00:20:24,960 --> 00:20:27,680 change his mind. When the screen went black, he cursed 423 00:20:27,720 --> 00:20:30,440 and slammed his palm against the stair rail. That anger 424 00:20:30,559 --> 00:20:33,160 was sudden and raw. They cut through the building along 425 00:20:33,240 --> 00:20:36,480 with the fog. We went outside. The street was a 426 00:20:36,559 --> 00:20:39,200 narrow ribbon of yellow light, with fog pressing at both edges. 427 00:20:39,920 --> 00:20:42,799 It smelled like seat in old algae. Porch lights threw 428 00:20:42,880 --> 00:20:46,759 thin cones. Every cone was ringed with damp figures leaned 429 00:20:46,759 --> 00:20:49,440 toward each lit doorway. They did not move toward as 430 00:20:49,440 --> 00:20:52,640 a new gate or with a step. They leaned. When 431 00:20:52,680 --> 00:20:55,039 someone shone a flashlight, they seemed to withdraw a haze 432 00:20:55,119 --> 00:20:58,359 bread and then press harder against the glass. I fumbled 433 00:20:58,400 --> 00:21:00,519 from my phone and raised it to record des so wets. 434 00:21:01,160 --> 00:21:03,880 The scream bloomed and then dissolved into interference, gray baws, 435 00:21:03,960 --> 00:21:05,880 and a warped image where the light bent around something 436 00:21:05,960 --> 00:21:08,440 not there. When Mara tried her phone, it went dead 437 00:21:08,480 --> 00:21:11,039 with a soft pop. Tom slammed his fist into the 438 00:21:11,039 --> 00:21:13,559 hood of his jacket and then grabbed my elbow. They 439 00:21:13,599 --> 00:21:17,680 can tee be recorded, Tom, they kill electronics. A low 440 00:21:17,799 --> 00:21:21,079 hum started subtle at first, It vibrated through the soles 441 00:21:21,079 --> 00:21:23,759 of my shoes and into my teeth. The sound came 442 00:21:23,759 --> 00:21:26,559 from nowhere and from everywhere. It matched an ache behind 443 00:21:26,599 --> 00:21:29,119 my eyes. I tightened my jaw and felt a pressure 444 00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:32,559 rise behind the skull, like the first hug of a migraine. Listen, Morra. 445 00:21:33,319 --> 00:21:35,400 She had gone pale and was whispering, though there was 446 00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:37,599 no one to keep the noise down from Do you 447 00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:41,200 hear it? It's copying us. We watched one figure at 448 00:21:41,240 --> 00:21:43,160 the cup tilt its head and then possessed the coppy 449 00:21:43,240 --> 00:21:46,559 Tom's stands. It was not a mirror. It matched the 450 00:21:46,599 --> 00:21:48,839 small angle of his elbow in the set of his shoulders. 451 00:21:49,519 --> 00:21:51,599 Then the hum layered a voice over itself, a wet 452 00:21:51,640 --> 00:21:54,480 echoed version of Tom's thought from years ago. It called 453 00:21:54,519 --> 00:21:56,279 his name in the high intimate turne he used to 454 00:21:56,319 --> 00:21:57,799 make when he was trying to coax a cap from 455 00:21:57,839 --> 00:22:02,559 under the porch. Tom straightened. That's me, he said. His 456 00:22:02,640 --> 00:22:06,599 feet slid toward the cot without command. That's my laugh. Ma. 457 00:22:07,559 --> 00:22:10,480 I grubbed his sleeve. My fingers left wet prints on 458 00:22:10,559 --> 00:22:13,200 his jacket. The pressure at the top of my head increased. 459 00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:16,599 I could hear blood in my ears. The figure the 460 00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:19,079 cup leaned closer, and the air round it showed my cheek. 461 00:22:19,799 --> 00:22:22,640 Tom kept moving forward his joel watch, but his eyes 462 00:22:22,680 --> 00:22:25,119 were blank, like a man reading from a script. That 463 00:22:25,240 --> 00:22:28,039 scrip was his own voice bent into a lower More's 464 00:22:28,079 --> 00:22:31,920 hands were cold on his shoulders. She pulled and hissed, Tom, 465 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:36,920 get back Falm three, t morror, it's me Tom. Tom 466 00:22:37,039 --> 00:22:40,119 listened to me, I said. Tom turned his head slowly, 467 00:22:40,240 --> 00:22:42,799 and then his foot slipped off the curb. The figure 468 00:22:42,839 --> 00:22:44,559 pushed through the fog with a pressure that felt like 469 00:22:44,640 --> 00:22:49,039 wetcoth rubbing my forearm. I pulled Mara grabbed Tom's other arm. 470 00:22:49,680 --> 00:22:51,799 For a second, all three of us hugged, each leading 471 00:22:51,839 --> 00:22:54,839 the motion in a different direction. The pressure intensified into 472 00:22:54,839 --> 00:22:57,599 a scraping along my skin. My nails dug into Tom's coat. 473 00:22:57,720 --> 00:23:00,519 Something cold wrapped round Tom's ankle. He went still for 474 00:23:00,559 --> 00:23:02,279 a half breath, and then a sound left him that 475 00:23:02,359 --> 00:23:05,200 was not his voice. It was a thin, metallic scream. 476 00:23:05,759 --> 00:23:07,519 The silwet at the curb opened like a hand and 477 00:23:07,599 --> 00:23:10,559 then closed. Tom was pulled forward in a slipping sound. 478 00:23:11,279 --> 00:23:13,200 He landed against the curb, and then he was gone 479 00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:16,240 into the fog, swallowed without a RiPP or splash. His 480 00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:18,599 phone fell and shattered in the assholet with a final 481 00:23:18,680 --> 00:23:23,519 white flare. Oh Mari yell. She dropped hernees and reached 482 00:23:23,559 --> 00:23:26,559 into the fog with both hands. Her fingers found nothing 483 00:23:26,599 --> 00:23:29,240 but cold, damn barry that smelled of rotten salt. She 484 00:23:29,359 --> 00:23:31,240 tried to scream his name, and the sound came out 485 00:23:31,279 --> 00:23:34,000 small and broken her finger. Nails clicked on the pavement 486 00:23:34,119 --> 00:23:36,880 like someone tapping a cod I called forward on my 487 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:38,799 hands and knees into the edge of the fog, until 488 00:23:38,839 --> 00:23:41,279 my hoodie soaked with the wet. The pressure at my 489 00:23:41,359 --> 00:23:43,519 temples worsened. In the hum layered a new sound, a 490 00:23:43,640 --> 00:23:46,960 childlike whisper repeating Marrow's name. The radio bag at my 491 00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:49,000 hip thump, as if something heavy had landed on it. 492 00:23:49,759 --> 00:23:51,720 We dragged ourselves back to the porch and shut the 493 00:23:51,759 --> 00:23:54,759 door inside. The old analog radio on my windows or 494 00:23:54,759 --> 00:23:57,599 sat with its dial half way between stations. I had 495 00:23:57,640 --> 00:23:59,559 taken it from a thrift shop weeks earlier. Because the 496 00:23:59,599 --> 00:24:03,240 dials with the satisfying clack. Mara stagger to the soull 497 00:24:03,279 --> 00:24:06,039 and frozen fog traced her breath in the glass. The 498 00:24:06,160 --> 00:24:09,240 radio rose like a small animal to a note. Static 499 00:24:09,319 --> 00:24:12,200 filled the room. Then a child's voice came through, overlapping 500 00:24:12,240 --> 00:24:14,680 with the hum. It mofed at first Morrow in a 501 00:24:14,759 --> 00:24:16,680 high nasal tona I had heard when we were kids 502 00:24:16,759 --> 00:24:19,480 fighting over cards at the yard sale. The voice repeated 503 00:24:19,519 --> 00:24:21,440 a private thing Mara had said only once on a 504 00:24:21,559 --> 00:24:24,519 night in college, a confession about skipping a final exam 505 00:24:24,599 --> 00:24:26,880 to walk the peer. The sound in the radio was 506 00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:29,079 laid like a tape played on three players at once. 507 00:24:29,759 --> 00:24:31,839 Mara's face went white and she swore under her breath, 508 00:24:32,359 --> 00:24:36,000 how does it know that? She asked. Her voice trembled 509 00:24:36,039 --> 00:24:39,079 and then steaded into something hard it mimiced, I said, 510 00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:42,000 I switched the radio's band and found the knob stuck. 511 00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:44,400 When I tapped the face, the sound shifted to the 512 00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:46,480 low droning hum and thender a faint scrape, like finger 513 00:24:46,559 --> 00:24:49,400 nails on a wooden table. We argued about running to 514 00:24:49,440 --> 00:24:52,559 the lighthouse. Tom mess crashed into The fog had changed 515 00:24:52,559 --> 00:24:55,640 the temperature in the room. Everything felt closer and smaller. 516 00:24:56,319 --> 00:24:59,240 Mara wanted to go out and search. She said the 517 00:24:59,359 --> 00:25:01,880 lighthouse was public plays and maybe, like we keep them 518 00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:04,599 off the rocks. I sat, running would scatter us, and 519 00:25:04,640 --> 00:25:07,640 that scattered groups were easier to pick off. The argument 520 00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:12,680 spun into a sharp exchange lighttoso barricade. Mara snapped, we 521 00:25:12,799 --> 00:25:17,279 document and move as one. I replied, document, document, what 522 00:25:18,039 --> 00:25:21,160 Tom is gone? She said, Tom's choice? Doesn't he help us? 523 00:25:21,200 --> 00:25:23,680 I said, if we run without a plan, he'll be 524 00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:26,440 the first to be mimicked again. Mara's reply was quick 525 00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:28,119 and clipped. So we sit here and wait while they 526 00:25:28,200 --> 00:25:31,559 learn our names. The argument was three rapid exchanges and 527 00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:34,839 then silence. The silence pressed against the walls like weight. 528 00:25:35,519 --> 00:25:37,559 Mara paced to the window and pressed her forehead to 529 00:25:37,599 --> 00:25:39,960 the glass. I could see the vane in her temple 530 00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:42,720 beat like a small drum. She inhaled and then forced 531 00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:45,680 herself to calm. That act of forcing stead at her voice, 532 00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:49,079 it made a decision for both of us. You record, 533 00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:50,799 she said, You put it all on tape. If anything 534 00:25:50,839 --> 00:25:53,319 happens to us, people will know what the radio played, 535 00:25:53,599 --> 00:25:55,720 what it sounded like. Take the analoge recorder and speak 536 00:25:55,759 --> 00:25:57,319 into it. I clicked on the recorder and its red 537 00:25:57,440 --> 00:25:59,480 light blink. My fingers tremble as spoke the first line. 538 00:25:59,519 --> 00:26:01,599 Because she told meat, and because fear tightened my throat 539 00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:03,359 into a roupe of words. I cataloged at the events, 540 00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:05,160 the knock at the window, the flattened face in the 541 00:26:05,200 --> 00:26:06,839 living room, Tom at the cub, the hum, I said, 542 00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:10,039 the names allow Saint Tom's name was a brivile thing. 543 00:26:10,759 --> 00:26:13,519 As I spoke, the radio shifted again. The voice on 544 00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:16,400 it started to imitate me. It took my last phrase 545 00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:19,759 and rewind it into a thinner, younger curtains. It repeated 546 00:26:19,799 --> 00:26:21,519 my admission, how I'd seen the face first and not 547 00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:24,759 pulled the curta and folly. That small confession landed between 548 00:26:24,799 --> 00:26:28,119 us like a stone, you knew Morr. Her eyes never 549 00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:31,039 left the window. I saw it, I corrected. I thought 550 00:26:31,119 --> 00:26:33,559 my sentence snapped off as a pressure lanced behind my eyes. 551 00:26:34,319 --> 00:26:36,960 I clutched the recorder and heard my own breath grow ragged. 552 00:26:37,559 --> 00:26:39,640 The humming phased into a version of my own voice, 553 00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:42,920 counting softly. It copied the rhythm of my breathing. My 554 00:26:43,039 --> 00:26:46,000 resolve shifted. Then fear let go of me for a second, 555 00:26:46,039 --> 00:26:49,200 and something cold and moved in responsibility. We move at three, 556 00:26:49,359 --> 00:26:52,480 m I said. My voice had a narrow edge. We 557 00:26:52,599 --> 00:26:54,640 go down the alley by the bakery. We stay together. 558 00:26:54,759 --> 00:26:56,160 We had for the light out, Sawny. If we can 559 00:26:56,240 --> 00:26:58,960 keep line of sight, Mara nodded, without looking at me. 560 00:26:59,640 --> 00:27:01,519 She fall held it a scarf into her jacket pocket, 561 00:27:01,559 --> 00:27:03,319 found the old key on her cord and put it 562 00:27:03,400 --> 00:27:06,279 into her palm like a talisman. Her hand stopped shaking. 563 00:27:06,880 --> 00:27:09,839 Her decision pushed me into action. My resolver placed my 564 00:27:09,880 --> 00:27:12,680 first wave of panic. We prepared in fifteen minutes that 565 00:27:12,759 --> 00:27:15,640 felt longer. I packed a recorder of flat light, two 566 00:27:15,680 --> 00:27:19,119 spare batteries, and a small pocket knife. Mara found a 567 00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:21,720 heavy blanket and a length of duct tape. We tied 568 00:27:21,799 --> 00:27:24,680 jackets around our waists and fixed the scarf around Mar's throat. 569 00:27:25,359 --> 00:27:27,920 She hissed when it touched her wet skin. My heart 570 00:27:27,960 --> 00:27:31,279 thudded a deliberate count in my chest. One, two, one too. 571 00:27:31,960 --> 00:27:33,960 At two thirty, the hum deepened and the fog pressed 572 00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:37,960 at a window. Like hands. We waited. The radiator clanged 573 00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:40,319 in the next room. Mar sat on the couch and 574 00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:43,519 counted backwards in short bursts under her breath. I washed 575 00:27:43,519 --> 00:27:46,359 her joel work. She kept her voice low and steady. 576 00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:49,039 The counting was a ritual to hold panic at bay. 577 00:27:49,680 --> 00:27:52,240 At three aim, we opened the door. The stair was 578 00:27:52,240 --> 00:27:54,200 smelled of damp paint and the salt air that seeped 579 00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:57,680 through the cracks the banister was slick. We moved on 580 00:27:57,839 --> 00:28:01,039 in single file, the blanket wrapped over our should My 581 00:28:01,119 --> 00:28:04,200 flasklight caught an arrow come through the haze. At the landing. 582 00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:07,359 Something moved above us. The stairwell shuddered, and a thick 583 00:28:07,359 --> 00:28:10,519 wet pressure pushed between the rails. The silhouette climbed the 584 00:28:10,559 --> 00:28:13,680 stairs like a hand draggoncloth along the banister. It made 585 00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:15,319 a wet scrape, and that crawled up through the soles 586 00:28:15,359 --> 00:28:19,200 of my feet. Mara cursed and stepped back. I grabbed 587 00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:21,720 the rail and felt drop. It struck my wrist. The 588 00:28:21,799 --> 00:28:24,440 pressure in my head spiked into a white flare. My 589 00:28:24,559 --> 00:28:28,720 fingers went numb. Goll Mara. We tried the door and 590 00:28:28,759 --> 00:28:31,480 it stuck on swollen wood. The fog pressed against the 591 00:28:31,519 --> 00:28:33,599 glass in the staie window and made the paane bead. 592 00:28:34,279 --> 00:28:36,799 I shoved with my shoulder and the lock snapped. We 593 00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:38,960 spilled out into the corridor, and then the figure slammed 594 00:28:38,960 --> 00:28:41,640 against the banister with a sound like wet plyorate hitting beam. 595 00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:44,960 It forced us apart. The scrape ran up my spine 596 00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:48,039 and my hands slipped on my flaskway. Mara reached for me, 597 00:28:48,119 --> 00:28:50,759 and now reached for Tom. The stairwell became a field 598 00:28:50,759 --> 00:28:54,200 of pulling pressure. Something wrapped around Tom's ankle and pulled. 599 00:28:54,880 --> 00:28:56,880 I screamed his name, and the sound echoed as if 600 00:28:56,920 --> 00:28:59,440 the stairwell was a throat. He went limp and then 601 00:28:59,440 --> 00:29:02,279 snapped for his shoe caught the air, and then he 602 00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:04,359 was gone over the railing into a shape of steam 603 00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:07,359 and fog. Marus screamed and then sounded like she had 604 00:29:07,359 --> 00:29:10,640 been struck. She pitched forward against the banister and hit 605 00:29:10,720 --> 00:29:14,160 her mouth. Luck came, her fingers dug into the wood. 606 00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:16,759 She saw my name in short breaths, and there was 607 00:29:16,799 --> 00:29:19,000 a new hardness in her voice, now angered that had 608 00:29:19,039 --> 00:29:21,920 no softness left. I lunged and got two fingers on 609 00:29:22,039 --> 00:29:24,720 his coat. This slid through, as if through wet fabric. 610 00:29:25,319 --> 00:29:27,039 I felt the cold tug at my finger tips, and 611 00:29:27,039 --> 00:29:29,599 then nothing the record of free pocket and clipped the 612 00:29:29,640 --> 00:29:32,680 stair rail before skittering on to the landing. I grabbed 613 00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:35,559 it back with shaking hands. The warmth of Tom's hand 614 00:29:35,640 --> 00:29:38,039 was gone from the jacket. The stair well held only 615 00:29:38,119 --> 00:29:40,640 damp in the hum. It carried a thin replay of 616 00:29:40,680 --> 00:29:42,759 Tom saying and a child's sings on a nickname a 617 00:29:42,799 --> 00:29:46,079 dem never heard used in years, and then a suctioning sigh, 618 00:29:46,200 --> 00:29:49,079 like some one inhaling through wet cloth. Mars screamed and 619 00:29:49,160 --> 00:29:51,279 then screamed again, in a different register and edge of 620 00:29:51,319 --> 00:29:54,200 blame that snapped like a wire. You waited, she said 621 00:29:54,240 --> 00:29:56,640 to me, he saw it, and you waited. Her words 622 00:29:56,640 --> 00:29:58,839 were sharp and immediate. Guilt folded over me and then 623 00:29:58,839 --> 00:30:02,200 dissolved into a white hu spike of panic. My fingers tightened, 624 00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:04,920 and the recorder so hard the case creaked. I tried 625 00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:07,200 to say something, and my mouth would not form words 626 00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:10,160 that could carry back what had happened. Her accusation hit 627 00:30:10,200 --> 00:30:11,920 the place where I paused when I first saw the 628 00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:13,920 face and chose not to ring every neighbor that night. 629 00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:17,759 A mid earl, a choice, tactile and shameful. I called you, 630 00:30:17,960 --> 00:30:21,039 I said, ay, You hesitated as she said. Her voice 631 00:30:21,119 --> 00:30:23,400 was precise. You counted whether it was worth risking us. 632 00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:27,400 That isn't he fairer? I began. We traded through clip blind, 633 00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:29,680 and then Mara's silence took the shape of a new resolution. 634 00:30:30,359 --> 00:30:32,640 She wrapped the blanket tight around her shoulders and forced 635 00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:35,480 herself upright. She spat a small sound, and then the 636 00:30:35,519 --> 00:30:38,200 air in the stair was shifted. The hum tuned itself 637 00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:41,039 into the sound of our own breathing. We dragged ourselves 638 00:30:41,119 --> 00:30:43,799 back up. The apartment door closed behind us like a 639 00:30:43,839 --> 00:30:46,799 final click. Dawn paled sky with a thin wash, and 640 00:30:46,839 --> 00:30:48,640 the fog thin to a low bank along the harbor. 641 00:30:49,240 --> 00:30:51,039 Marra sat on the floor and pressed an old key 642 00:30:51,079 --> 00:30:53,720 between her teeth like a talisman. Blood dried at the 643 00:30:53,759 --> 00:30:56,440 corner of her mouth. She stared at the recorder in 644 00:30:56,519 --> 00:30:59,119 my hand. I want you to say everything, she said. 645 00:30:59,759 --> 00:31:02,359 Say what you saw, what you heard, what you felt. 646 00:31:03,119 --> 00:31:05,200 Say Tom's name and the way he laughed, and the 647 00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:09,559 way he walked. Leave the recorder running. I did. I 648 00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:12,240 narrated the stairwell, the scraping, the feeling of my fingers 649 00:31:12,279 --> 00:31:14,920 through cold fog, tom shoes getting off the cab. I 650 00:31:15,039 --> 00:31:17,359 said how the radio imitated memory, and how the soul 651 00:31:17,400 --> 00:31:20,319 whitest press faces. I described the smell of algaie in 652 00:31:20,359 --> 00:31:22,160 wrotten metal, and the way the hum vibrary to the 653 00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:25,039 teeth in my jaw. My voice cracked, and I kept talking, 654 00:31:25,319 --> 00:31:28,519 saying it made events real and fixed. The recorder's red 655 00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:31,440 light kept blinking adorn. The fog drew back in thin, 656 00:31:31,680 --> 00:31:34,680 nervous tendrils. The silhoueest slid away to the edges of 657 00:31:34,720 --> 00:31:37,640 town and pulled there in low shapes. Mara lay back 658 00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:40,240 on the couch and closed her eyes. Her hands were 659 00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:43,480 clenched into small fists. She had an injured look, not 660 00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:45,480 just from the hip dormouth, but from the tuck of 661 00:31:45,519 --> 00:31:49,039 something taken. We dialed emergency services with a neighbor's phone 662 00:31:49,079 --> 00:31:51,799 that actually worked. The operator said we would be put 663 00:31:51,839 --> 00:31:54,200 on a wait list and someone would call. We did 664 00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:56,839 not tell the officer everything. We left out that the 665 00:31:56,880 --> 00:31:59,640 fog spoke in voices we knew we left out that 666 00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:03,359 phone and died near it. We gave concrete facts, a 667 00:32:03,440 --> 00:32:06,119 missing man, damp marks on every window, of the smell. 668 00:32:06,799 --> 00:32:10,000 The officer's voice was flat and procedural. He someone would 669 00:32:10,039 --> 00:32:13,160 checked patrols along the coast. When the patrol car came 670 00:32:13,240 --> 00:32:14,680 at idle at the end of our block, and two 671 00:32:14,680 --> 00:32:17,559 officers walked up with jacket button tight, they looked at 672 00:32:17,559 --> 00:32:19,920 the windows and at the scratch marks on the stair rail. 673 00:32:20,559 --> 00:32:24,240 They called it vandalism and organized some paperwork. They took 674 00:32:24,319 --> 00:32:27,680 our statements and wrote down to Tom's name. One officer, young, 675 00:32:28,039 --> 00:32:30,200 with a spare cigarette behind his ear, rolled his eyes 676 00:32:30,240 --> 00:32:32,519 when I tried to describe the hum You are right, 677 00:32:32,759 --> 00:32:35,079 he asked me. He used my name after I had 678 00:32:35,119 --> 00:32:37,480 told it. His tone was the kind that assumed we 679 00:32:37,519 --> 00:32:41,160 were shaken. But okay, I'm fine. I said, I wasn't 680 00:32:41,200 --> 00:32:43,200 at the recorder, ticked to my jacket pocket, and the 681 00:32:43,319 --> 00:32:45,839 radio is still hummed faintly on the window sill. The 682 00:32:45,960 --> 00:32:48,079 officer nodded and then left with the form to file. 683 00:32:48,759 --> 00:32:50,960 After they left, the apartment was quiet but not safe. 684 00:32:51,599 --> 00:32:54,680 Marius leapt in short bursts. I watched her mouth move 685 00:32:54,720 --> 00:32:57,160 sometimes and heard her whisper Tom's name in a soft loop. 686 00:32:57,799 --> 00:32:59,400 I checked the window where the face had been and 687 00:32:59,440 --> 00:33:02,759 found dry condensation lines. The recorder was full of the 688 00:33:02,839 --> 00:33:06,000 night's audio. My voice marrow as Tom's last half screamed 689 00:33:06,039 --> 00:33:09,440 harm the radio, repeating the same private phrases. Each playback 690 00:33:09,519 --> 00:33:12,480 made the impression of the event more concrete. Each playback 691 00:33:12,519 --> 00:33:14,559 also made it clear that something had learned. The sounds 692 00:33:14,599 --> 00:33:16,559 that mattered. I listened to the tape again and again. 693 00:33:17,119 --> 00:33:19,599 The recording contained a change I had not noticed live, 694 00:33:20,319 --> 00:33:22,839 a small, near silent voice under the hum that sad 695 00:33:22,920 --> 00:33:25,720 plainly we pressed to learn. The voice was thin and 696 00:33:25,839 --> 00:33:29,160 wet and layered with static. Listening did not make me safer, 697 00:33:29,839 --> 00:33:31,720 it made the fact of what had happened more direct. 698 00:33:32,559 --> 00:33:35,279 MA awoke before dawn and found Tom's jacket folded over 699 00:33:35,359 --> 00:33:37,960 a chair where it been idle. She pressed her hand 700 00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:40,279 to the fabric, like a parent filling a child's temperature. 701 00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:43,599 He never left this town, she said, Her voice was 702 00:33:43,680 --> 00:33:46,240 war thin. He'd walked to the docks in winter and 703 00:33:46,319 --> 00:33:49,279 bring back boxes of junk. She stores about how Tom 704 00:33:49,279 --> 00:33:51,440 would widdle wooden birds on slow nights and leave them 705 00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:54,640 on people's porches. She spoke of details I hadn't known. 706 00:33:54,839 --> 00:33:57,160 How he said sorry too soon, how he kept keyring 707 00:33:57,200 --> 00:34:00,240 with single brass tag. The small stores made Tom reel 708 00:34:00,279 --> 00:34:02,119 again in a way that the fog had raced. They 709 00:34:02,160 --> 00:34:04,960 also changed how we understood the night. The fog didn't 710 00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:07,680 tea only take. It imitated what it had been given. 711 00:34:08,280 --> 00:34:11,360 It replayed private things to make a path. That realization 712 00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:13,719 was a twist that forced us to reassess earlier choices. 713 00:34:14,559 --> 00:34:16,760 If it learned from memory and from voice, then leaving 714 00:34:16,840 --> 00:34:19,719 recorded traces was as dangerous as it was useful. We 715 00:34:19,760 --> 00:34:22,000 agreed to keep the recorder on and locked inside a 716 00:34:22,079 --> 00:34:24,199 cabinet with the radio on top, it playing white noise 717 00:34:24,199 --> 00:34:26,400 all afternoon. We set a note on the door that 718 00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:28,119 read no entry and tipped it with duct tape that 719 00:34:28,159 --> 00:34:30,480 had Tom's phone under the flap as a weight. The 720 00:34:30,599 --> 00:34:32,920 note was a small, defiant thing. It was a decision 721 00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:35,800 that grounded the next dires. I knew. The fog had 722 00:34:35,800 --> 00:34:38,119 retreated to the waterfront, and the silhuts gathered there like 723 00:34:38,159 --> 00:34:41,119 a slow congregation. They stood in a low line, occasionally 724 00:34:41,199 --> 00:34:43,719 leaning their faces out and pressing the glass of store fronts. 725 00:34:44,360 --> 00:34:47,480 People gathered at windows to look, some filmed from behind 726 00:34:47,559 --> 00:34:50,360 the safety of plate glass. The officers were back in 727 00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:53,480 pairs and kept distance. A news found idle at the corner, 728 00:34:53,559 --> 00:34:56,239 and a reporter spoke into a camera about a local phenomenon. 729 00:34:56,719 --> 00:34:58,840 I watched a live feed on my small battery TV 730 00:34:58,960 --> 00:35:00,400 and saw the soul which were pret used in a 731 00:35:00,440 --> 00:35:04,000 grainy box. The twist came in the feed. A woman 732 00:35:04,079 --> 00:35:05,639 on the street called out a name, and the nearest 733 00:35:05,639 --> 00:35:08,920 silhouette twisted and leaned toward the glass. The woman walked 734 00:35:08,960 --> 00:35:11,000 forward and then turned and left, as if she had 735 00:35:11,039 --> 00:35:13,679 remembered something she had been called away from. Later, a 736 00:35:13,719 --> 00:35:16,280 cyclist who had gone missing for five years reported long 737 00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:18,880 ago as runaway, was found in a side alley, shaking 738 00:35:18,920 --> 00:35:21,880 and incoherent. He spoke of lights and voices, telling him 739 00:35:21,880 --> 00:35:24,280 the harbor had been calling his name. The news cup 740 00:35:24,320 --> 00:35:25,960 between the shots and now building in a way that 741 00:35:26,039 --> 00:35:28,199 put a new edge on what had been private. The 742 00:35:28,280 --> 00:35:30,800 fog could reach into memory and in a minute private cues, 743 00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:33,480 and it had used that ability to push Tom. Thus 744 00:35:33,599 --> 00:35:35,800 came with the brittle clergy that made shadows fall long 745 00:35:35,920 --> 00:35:38,239 and thin. We had to decide whether to stay or 746 00:35:38,280 --> 00:35:40,239 to try again for the lighthouse. Before the next night. 747 00:35:40,880 --> 00:35:44,039 The tros pooled between us. Mara wanted to leave town 748 00:35:44,079 --> 00:35:47,159 and find shelter inland. I wanted to gather what evidence 749 00:35:47,199 --> 00:35:50,039 we could and alert other terms. The decision then was 750 00:35:50,079 --> 00:35:52,840 not only about escaping. It was about whether we would 751 00:35:52,840 --> 00:35:54,840 take the risk of keeping the record and telling others. 752 00:35:55,559 --> 00:35:57,639 Maura stood and folded the blanket into the shape of 753 00:35:57,679 --> 00:36:00,320 a rural She thrust the key into my palmon said 754 00:36:00,440 --> 00:36:02,760 in a voice I recognized as steady. Take the recorder 755 00:36:02,800 --> 00:36:05,400 and the radio, leave the tapes in the cabinet, and 756 00:36:05,519 --> 00:36:10,039 burn anything that mentions names. Burn what. I asked Tom's notes? 757 00:36:10,119 --> 00:36:12,559 She said, his list of who he trusted and who 758 00:36:12,599 --> 00:36:15,119 he said to call, anything that would tell them where 759 00:36:15,119 --> 00:36:17,639 to look. We did not argue. We burned the list 760 00:36:17,719 --> 00:36:19,719 in the sink and watched the paper curled black and 761 00:36:19,880 --> 00:36:23,480 fat with ash. The smoke smiled like burnt blue. The 762 00:36:23,599 --> 00:36:25,800 recorder's red light sat in the sill, and one final 763 00:36:25,840 --> 00:36:29,280 whisper echoed through the apartment, a soft replay of Tom's laugh, 764 00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:32,599 and then a silence that rolled through the walls. At twilight, 765 00:36:32,679 --> 00:36:34,599 as the fog thint a bank beyond the pier. I 766 00:36:34,679 --> 00:36:36,760 set the recorder face upon the window sill and left 767 00:36:36,800 --> 00:36:39,280 it running. Maris said a second radio on a low 768 00:36:39,320 --> 00:36:41,400 white noise band, and slid it soht hound under the 769 00:36:41,480 --> 00:36:44,519 other sound. She sat down and pressed her palms together. 770 00:36:45,159 --> 00:36:47,400 Her fingers were still marked with Tom's finger prints from 771 00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:49,840 where she had held him. She rubbed the collises with 772 00:36:49,920 --> 00:36:52,639 her thumb. I spoke into the recorder one last time, 773 00:36:52,679 --> 00:36:55,400 with a voice steady enough to be understood. I said 774 00:36:55,440 --> 00:36:58,320 the facts, names times, what we had seen and done. 775 00:36:58,960 --> 00:37:01,000 I said the things we had learned about mimicry and 776 00:37:01,079 --> 00:37:03,719 the danger of audible memory. I told it not to 777 00:37:03,800 --> 00:37:07,320 be sensational. I told it to be practical. I elicited 778 00:37:07,360 --> 00:37:10,280 street names in the time the hum began. Each sentence 779 00:37:10,400 --> 00:37:14,000 were short. Each sentence was a claim against whatever had happened. 780 00:37:14,639 --> 00:37:16,679 When I finished, I reached for the radio and turned 781 00:37:16,719 --> 00:37:18,480 the dial until there was nothing but static in a 782 00:37:18,519 --> 00:37:21,880 thin pitch. The room filled with the blankets armed. The 783 00:37:21,960 --> 00:37:25,119 hum beyond the windows receded to a distant thread. Morrow 784 00:37:25,280 --> 00:37:28,400 close her eyes. She counted this turn aloud in slow 785 00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:30,519 space numbers, and the counting anchored her like a rope. 786 00:37:31,039 --> 00:37:32,920 We agreed on one last roll before I left to 787 00:37:32,960 --> 00:37:35,519 walk the block with the recorder. No one answered a 788 00:37:35,559 --> 00:37:38,039 voice that sounded like a person we knew. No one 789 00:37:38,079 --> 00:37:40,519 looked closely at a face that matched their memories. We 790 00:37:40,559 --> 00:37:42,599 would not let the fog use up past to claim us. 791 00:37:43,360 --> 00:37:45,079 I locked the door and put the key on the window. 792 00:37:45,079 --> 00:37:47,639 Still under the radio, I took one last look at 793 00:37:47,639 --> 00:37:49,440 the spot where the living room windows still showed a 794 00:37:49,440 --> 00:37:52,559 faint ring of dry condensation. The face marked a narrow 795 00:37:52,559 --> 00:37:54,840 streak running down from where we had touched the pane. 796 00:37:55,440 --> 00:37:57,840 It looked like a finger print gone wrong. I kept 797 00:37:57,880 --> 00:38:00,679 my hand in the knob and felt the cool metal outside. 798 00:38:00,880 --> 00:38:02,880 The street smelled like salt and old rope in the 799 00:38:02,920 --> 00:38:05,199 fog lay at the harbor like a pale wall. I 800 00:38:05,280 --> 00:38:08,079 walked slowly, the recorder heavy in my palm. I kept 801 00:38:08,119 --> 00:38:11,440 telling myself the next steps document worn avoid direct contact 802 00:38:11,480 --> 00:38:14,480 with recorded voices. My fear had shifted twice that night, 803 00:38:14,559 --> 00:38:17,199 first into paralysis, then into a hard, focused resolve that 804 00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:19,880 drove me to act. I felt both panic and a 805 00:38:19,920 --> 00:38:23,440 strange numbness in my hands. The recorder clicked as I walked. 806 00:38:24,079 --> 00:38:26,119 A girl cried above, and its sound was real and 807 00:38:26,159 --> 00:38:28,840 separate from the layer at Mimicks. At the corner, a 808 00:38:28,880 --> 00:38:32,039 woman held her child close. Chiles's face was turned to 809 00:38:32,119 --> 00:38:34,039 the harbor, and the silhuette there had its palm flat 810 00:38:34,119 --> 00:38:36,679 to the glass of a storefront. The child waved, and 811 00:38:36,760 --> 00:38:39,360 for a second the silhouette make the small motion. The 812 00:38:39,440 --> 00:38:42,360 child looked up, surprised. The mother pulled the child in them, 813 00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:45,199 whispered something I couldn't hear. She had a child's name, 814 00:38:45,239 --> 00:38:48,519 and then pushed her away. I kept walking. I went 815 00:38:48,559 --> 00:38:50,400 to Tom's last snown spot and found one of his 816 00:38:50,440 --> 00:38:53,519 wooden boats lying in the gutter, soaked buttt act. I 817 00:38:53,599 --> 00:38:55,239 picked it up and felt the grin of the wood 818 00:38:55,280 --> 00:38:57,760 bite into my palm. The bird's beak had been showed 819 00:38:57,840 --> 00:39:00,360 slightly at the tip. I put it in my pocket. 820 00:39:00,960 --> 00:39:03,000 It was a small, stubborn piece of the life Tom 821 00:39:03,079 --> 00:39:06,079 had before the fog pressed him. When I returned Mara 822 00:39:06,159 --> 00:39:08,400 had the recorder's case open and the radio face dimmed. 823 00:39:09,079 --> 00:39:10,679 She met me in the doorway and did not speak 824 00:39:10,719 --> 00:39:13,159 for a long moment. Her mouth set in a line. 825 00:39:13,760 --> 00:39:15,760 Then she said, we bury what matters, and we tell 826 00:39:15,760 --> 00:39:19,360 the rest to strangers. I nodded. We recorded an arc 827 00:39:19,400 --> 00:39:21,039 of a copy, and then a safety copy, and then 828 00:39:21,039 --> 00:39:22,920 slapped duct tape over the cabinet with the word do 829 00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:25,960 not open written in pencil. We left instructions sealed in 830 00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:28,039 an envelope for any one who might find the tats 831 00:39:28,079 --> 00:39:30,480 and know what to do. Don came, and the fog 832 00:39:30,519 --> 00:39:32,880 stayed back at the harbor, humming like an ocean machine. 833 00:39:33,480 --> 00:39:35,360 It had taken Tom and a few others, but it 834 00:39:35,400 --> 00:39:37,800 had also taught us the cost of being remembered. The 835 00:39:37,920 --> 00:39:40,679 lessons sat heavy in my stomach. I set the recorder 836 00:39:40,719 --> 00:39:42,400 on the sill, with the radio humming under it, and 837 00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:46,320 pressed stop. The recorder's red light went out. I labeled 838 00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:48,960 the cassette with a ballpoint pen tip, too did not 839 00:39:49,079 --> 00:39:51,719 share names. Mara painned it to the inside of the 840 00:39:51,800 --> 00:39:54,960 cabinet and then slaughtered the key behind it. She opened 841 00:39:54,960 --> 00:39:57,639 her mouth to say something, and then closed it instead. 842 00:39:57,719 --> 00:40:00,519 She folded her hands and exhaled. The sail was a 843 00:40:00,559 --> 00:40:03,480 practical sound. She walked to the window and pressed her 844 00:40:03,519 --> 00:40:06,320 forehead to the glass, not in revery, but a measurement, 845 00:40:06,400 --> 00:40:08,679 feeling the cool pane, feeling the place where Tom's waited 846 00:40:08,679 --> 00:40:11,079 shifted the night he was taken. The window held the 847 00:40:11,079 --> 00:40:14,119 faint smerr of his outline still. When the patrol returned 848 00:40:14,199 --> 00:40:16,800 later that day with canvas and official forms, we handed 849 00:40:16,840 --> 00:40:19,320 them a tight statement in the names of streets. We 850 00:40:19,400 --> 00:40:21,840 did not hand them the tape, with them the truth 851 00:40:21,880 --> 00:40:23,440 as far as we could, without telling them how to 852 00:40:23,519 --> 00:40:26,039 call some one by their old laugh. The officer who 853 00:40:26,079 --> 00:40:28,119 took the statement was a different man from the first. 854 00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:30,480 He looked at the smear on the pane and made 855 00:40:30,519 --> 00:40:32,679 a note he would send some one to check the 856 00:40:32,719 --> 00:40:35,559 pier at first light. Night came again, and the fog 857 00:40:35,599 --> 00:40:38,320 grows slow from the water. It hummed like a machine. 858 00:40:38,360 --> 00:40:40,480 Someone near left running. Mars lept with her curt on 859 00:40:40,760 --> 00:40:43,480 and the blank give wrapped around her knees. I left 860 00:40:43,519 --> 00:40:45,519 the recorder and the window sill, with a small pillow 861 00:40:45,559 --> 00:40:47,599 under the tape, so that if the radio vibrated it 862 00:40:47,639 --> 00:40:50,199 would not fall. I slipped the wooden bird onto the 863 00:40:50,239 --> 00:40:52,559 recorder like a talisman, and left the room slight low. 864 00:40:53,199 --> 00:40:55,079 I am writing this now with the recorder opened in 865 00:40:55,119 --> 00:40:57,519 the radiola. The hum has a shape. I can point 866 00:40:57,519 --> 00:40:59,480 to a name. The fog still waits at the edges 867 00:40:59,519 --> 00:41:02,079 and cannot promise it will stop. I can only tell 868 00:41:02,119 --> 00:41:04,679 the facts I have. The face is pressed to glass. 869 00:41:04,840 --> 00:41:07,000 The way the sound imitates what it learns. The danger 870 00:41:07,079 --> 00:41:10,239 of answering a voice you recognize. We burned Tom's less. 871 00:41:10,920 --> 00:41:12,840 We kept a safety copy of the tape and hid it. 872 00:41:13,480 --> 00:41:16,159 We taped a note on the cabinet with instructions. We 873 00:41:16,280 --> 00:41:18,880 agreed not to leave the building again to night. When 874 00:41:18,960 --> 00:41:21,039 dawn touched the water, I watched the sil wits slide 875 00:41:21,039 --> 00:41:23,920 away to the harbor and fold like pages. Mars sat 876 00:41:23,960 --> 00:41:25,519 on the couch and wrenched the key from her pocket 877 00:41:25,559 --> 00:41:28,559 and thumbed it until the metal was warm. Shee we 878 00:41:28,679 --> 00:41:32,039 keep this quiet, We keep the tape safe. We called 879 00:41:32,039 --> 00:41:35,079 the patrol. If anything else moose and close. I nodded. 880 00:41:35,800 --> 00:41:38,360 My fear has shifted into watchfulness and a tired resolve. 881 00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:40,840 I will keep this recording, and I will keep the 882 00:41:40,960 --> 00:41:43,480 radio on white noise. I will not let the fog 883 00:41:43,599 --> 00:41:45,880 use names to call. I will not let it learn 884 00:41:45,960 --> 00:41:47,679 the way we see each other's names and the sound 885 00:41:47,760 --> 00:41:50,639 of our small private faults. I will press this recorder 886 00:41:50,719 --> 00:41:52,880 face down on the sill and let the hump pass by. 887 00:41:53,639 --> 00:41:55,920 Mara reached up, locked the dead bolt, and set the 888 00:41:55,960 --> 00:41:58,119 recorder face down on the sill while the fog thinned 889 00:41:58,119 --> 00:42:00,679 toward the harbor. And then she whisper for Tom's name 890 00:42:00,719 --> 00:42:03,719 once into the empty room. And that is the end. 891 00:42:04,320 --> 00:42:06,000 Thank you for listening, and I will see you in 892 00:42:06,039 --> 00:42:06,559 the next one.