1 00:00:05,200 --> 00:00:08,519 Speaker 1: Hullo. I welcomed stories all the time. Glad you are here, 2 00:00:09,160 --> 00:00:11,960 Let's get into it. Something hit the living room window 3 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:14,080 with a wet, hard thump, and Mara shouted my name. 4 00:00:14,119 --> 00:00:17,480 Before I finished standing, fear run through my limbs so clearly. 5 00:00:17,480 --> 00:00:19,280 I could feel my fingers going on as I stepped 6 00:00:19,320 --> 00:00:22,120 toward the glass. I threw the curtain aside and saw 7 00:00:22,120 --> 00:00:24,399 a pale, flattened face pressed to the pane, wet breath 8 00:00:24,440 --> 00:00:27,399 fogging the edgewere cheek met Celant. I did not wait 9 00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:30,839 to think. I opened the window finger with Amarra grabbed 10 00:00:30,839 --> 00:00:33,679 my sleeve. My fear was not a thought. It was 11 00:00:33,679 --> 00:00:35,679 a pressure behind my lips that made my hands shake 12 00:00:35,719 --> 00:00:38,359 while I fumbled the old latch. That fear pushed me 13 00:00:38,399 --> 00:00:41,600 to act and to talk fast. Mars stayed back, I said, 14 00:00:42,240 --> 00:00:45,920 Dantes opened. Maura pushed the curtain harder and peered, nails 15 00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:49,320 white at the knuckles. She what is that? And her 16 00:00:49,399 --> 00:00:52,759 voice went tight. Mara Dantes, I started again, and then 17 00:00:52,759 --> 00:00:54,960 the face drew slow, wet circle against the glass and 18 00:00:55,039 --> 00:00:57,399 leaned harder. I could name where I lived in the 19 00:00:57,439 --> 00:00:59,679 next breath. I live on the second floor of a 20 00:00:59,759 --> 00:01:02,479 narrow brick building. On harbor Lane. I keep tea in 21 00:01:02,520 --> 00:01:04,920 the chip kettle on the stove. I sleep in the 22 00:01:04,959 --> 00:01:06,840 side with the window and a fray gray hoodie that 23 00:01:06,879 --> 00:01:09,840 smells like salt. Those facts mattered because I had to 24 00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:11,719 move without thinking about them, so I could close the 25 00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:14,519 window before whatever was outside could press itself farther in. 26 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:18,159 Mora cursed and pulled her hand back. She we need 27 00:01:18,159 --> 00:01:20,560 to call some one. I sighed and grabbed my phone 28 00:01:20,560 --> 00:01:23,040 while keeping the window a jar. With my thumb. I 29 00:01:23,079 --> 00:01:25,079 fell to damp cole ex hail against my wrists with 30 00:01:25,159 --> 00:01:27,519 a gap let air, and the skin on my forearm prickled. 31 00:01:28,120 --> 00:01:30,719 I watched a face through the condensation. It was long 32 00:01:30,799 --> 00:01:32,959 and wood pale, not detailed, but there were dark, wet 33 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:35,640 hollows wore eyes mates. It a match the drawing we 34 00:01:35,760 --> 00:01:37,879 later found on the stable board, but we didn't know 35 00:01:37,959 --> 00:01:40,760 that yet. I dialed the town dispatch with one hand 36 00:01:40,760 --> 00:01:43,599 and held a window with the other. The despatcher listened 37 00:01:43,640 --> 00:01:45,319 and then answered, in a voice that treated us like 38 00:01:45,359 --> 00:01:49,239 two people playing a joke. It's fog, maam, stay inside, 39 00:01:49,239 --> 00:01:52,159 and don tea made conduct. I said my address twice 40 00:01:52,200 --> 00:01:54,319 in The despatcher repeated the word fog like a final 41 00:01:54,319 --> 00:01:56,879 word that would end a call. Mara hissed, they think 42 00:01:56,879 --> 00:01:59,000 it's just weather, and I pushed her through my teeth. 43 00:01:59,439 --> 00:02:02,079 My suspicion turned to anger. For a breath, I told 44 00:02:02,079 --> 00:02:03,920 the despatch of the face was pressed to my glass, 45 00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:06,400 and the voice said again, stay inside, we'll log it. 46 00:02:06,959 --> 00:02:09,719 We ended to call with the numbersolve click. The fear 47 00:02:09,759 --> 00:02:13,120 of Chaine shaped to something prickle close and sharpened suspicion. 48 00:02:13,719 --> 00:02:16,599 I paced well. Fog move against the street like something alie, 49 00:02:16,639 --> 00:02:19,759 but solid enough to press faces to glass. The suspicion 50 00:02:19,800 --> 00:02:21,240 made me open the door to the halt to jet 51 00:02:21,280 --> 00:02:24,560 the stairwell windows. I left Mara inside with the kettle humming. 52 00:02:25,080 --> 00:02:26,800 I saw mister Harlowe by the lobby light when I 53 00:02:26,840 --> 00:02:29,759 stepped out. He held a cheap flashlight and a cigarette 54 00:02:29,800 --> 00:02:32,479 and he said, ye again, people complain every fog night. 55 00:02:33,120 --> 00:02:36,159 He turned the flashlight away like it showed nothing. I said, 56 00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:38,960 there was a face on my window, mister Harlowe, you 57 00:02:39,039 --> 00:02:41,599 have to see. He shrugged and name pass complaints by tone. 58 00:02:41,680 --> 00:02:45,479 Kid's draw weird stuff. People scare themselves. I felt anger rise, 59 00:02:45,479 --> 00:02:47,800 along with the suspicion that the landlord was minimizing to 60 00:02:47,840 --> 00:02:50,719 avoid work. I asked, did anyone call the station. He 61 00:02:50,759 --> 00:02:52,680 tapped his chin and said they re short to night. 62 00:02:52,719 --> 00:02:55,639 His calm didn't tea land. While he spoke. I noticed 63 00:02:55,639 --> 00:02:57,919 fresh mudch marks on the stairwell glass below the handrail. 64 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:01,199 I said, mister Hallowe, looked down there. Those prints are wet. 65 00:03:01,240 --> 00:03:04,000 He glanced and frowned, but kept talking about previous tenants. 66 00:03:04,639 --> 00:03:07,599 Those Prince stopped me from accepting his dismissal. Back in 67 00:03:07,680 --> 00:03:09,800 my flat, Morrow had found a folded flier under the 68 00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:13,960 door mat. She unfolded it with shaky fingers. Look she said. 69 00:03:14,479 --> 00:03:16,439 The fly showed a face in a photograph label with 70 00:03:16,479 --> 00:03:18,960 a name and a date months earlier. The paper was 71 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:22,039 damp at the corners. I recognized the handwriting on the 72 00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:25,400 bullet and board notice from building management, a lost person 73 00:03:25,439 --> 00:03:28,520 flier we had passed every week. I felt the suspicion 74 00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:30,960 harden into a sense of patten. The flier and the 75 00:03:31,039 --> 00:03:33,039 child's drawing on the stair will both match the shape 76 00:03:33,039 --> 00:03:36,120 of faces pressed to windows. We argued about what to do. 77 00:03:36,840 --> 00:03:39,599 Mar's voice kept catch and call some one, Call some 78 00:03:39,639 --> 00:03:43,360 one now, I said, we already did. The station didn't 79 00:03:43,360 --> 00:03:46,560 take us seriously. Ellie arrived then, climbing the stairs to 80 00:03:46,599 --> 00:03:48,479 you at a time, with the batted camocasse slung over 81 00:03:48,560 --> 00:03:52,439 his shoulder. I hadn't expected Ellie sorely. He fed the 82 00:03:52,479 --> 00:03:56,199 latch with his shoulder and said, he texted, I came anyway. 83 00:03:56,919 --> 00:03:58,479 I said his name, and he dropped the case in 84 00:03:58,520 --> 00:04:02,240 the table. Ellice's of oil and cold air. He lifts 85 00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:04,159 his chin when he thinks I thought you were joking. 86 00:04:04,759 --> 00:04:08,599 He said, I thought you too, overreacted. Marrows snapped, we 87 00:04:08,599 --> 00:04:12,039 were right. Look. She pushed the flyer toward him. Elis 88 00:04:12,039 --> 00:04:14,680 manners shifted from skeptical to business like inside a few breaths. 89 00:04:15,280 --> 00:04:17,199 He set up the cheap camera on a tripod, aim 90 00:04:17,240 --> 00:04:18,800 at the window, and furted a cable to my old 91 00:04:18,879 --> 00:04:21,800 radio to power the recorder. He in a flat voice, 92 00:04:21,839 --> 00:04:24,839 if this is something weird, I want footage. If it's 93 00:04:24,839 --> 00:04:27,920 a prank, we catch them. Ellie's hand jitters slightly when 94 00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:30,800 he adjusted the focus. The jump in his motion showed 95 00:04:30,800 --> 00:04:33,800 far under his face control. I found that I was counting. 96 00:04:34,319 --> 00:04:37,800 I counted to stay steady. The counting became a small ritual, 97 00:04:38,399 --> 00:04:41,279 one two, three, I told myself the count would help 98 00:04:41,319 --> 00:04:43,680 me close to window faster if I had to. The 99 00:04:43,720 --> 00:04:46,759 fog came in thicker before dawn. The silhouettes collected at 100 00:04:46,759 --> 00:04:49,560 the cub and leaned against lamp bursts. Their faces were 101 00:04:49,600 --> 00:04:52,680 impressions pressed to glass. They did not move like people. 102 00:04:53,279 --> 00:04:57,680 They marginated pressure, waiting. Ellie whispered, they re at the 103 00:04:57,680 --> 00:05:01,319 far corner, Albini, I see them, Mar, We should lock 104 00:05:01,360 --> 00:05:05,199 the door, I said, Now we should document it. The 105 00:05:05,199 --> 00:05:08,560 group argued for a minute. Ellie wanted evidence, Mara wanted 106 00:05:08,600 --> 00:05:11,319 to hide. I stood between the impulses and felt the 107 00:05:11,319 --> 00:05:15,079 suspicion return. As a practical checkist film document did not touch. 108 00:05:15,839 --> 00:05:18,759 The camera flickered each time a face came closer. The 109 00:05:18,759 --> 00:05:21,160 screen showed blocks of static, and then a warped hollow 110 00:05:21,160 --> 00:05:24,600 where condensation condensed into a mouth shaped oval. Ellie tapped 111 00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:27,839 the recorder and cursed under his breath, he it kills 112 00:05:27,879 --> 00:05:30,319 the signal. Peet the glass closed. I moved to the 113 00:05:30,319 --> 00:05:32,959 window and pressed my pums flat against the sill. The 114 00:05:33,040 --> 00:05:35,879 condensation called my skin. I could hear a distant, low 115 00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:38,319 hum through the fog, like a single string plot very low. 116 00:05:38,959 --> 00:05:41,839 It made my teeth thick. We debated their next move 117 00:05:41,879 --> 00:05:45,639 and short sentences. Shut it Morrow, fill moore, ily call 118 00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:48,439 some one again, I said. The argument became one of 119 00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:52,879 small quick lines. The tension rose Morrow. If it wants us, 120 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:56,079 we don't he let it nearly open? Ellie answered, if 121 00:05:56,079 --> 00:05:57,879 it hide from the camera, we need to lure it. 122 00:05:57,920 --> 00:06:00,160 How to prove it, I said, Ellie, we will not 123 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:02,600 LORI close to Marr. We should tape the window. To Ellie, 124 00:06:02,720 --> 00:06:06,000 tape one stop it, I said, we need proof without baiting. 125 00:06:06,519 --> 00:06:10,240 In those exchanges, their priorities were visible. Mara named safety, 126 00:06:10,399 --> 00:06:13,920 Ellie named evidence. I named containment. At three in the morning, 127 00:06:14,079 --> 00:06:16,120 the fog pressed directly at our window in a wall. 128 00:06:16,680 --> 00:06:18,920 A single long face lit along the glass and stopped 129 00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:21,839 where the latch lived. I felt the window frame vibrate 130 00:06:21,920 --> 00:06:24,519 under the pressure. Ellie moutted the camera register as the 131 00:06:24,560 --> 00:06:27,959 hummer's interference. Mar stepped backward and hit the table leg. 132 00:06:28,800 --> 00:06:32,040 She that's close. Her breath came fast. I felt resolve 133 00:06:32,079 --> 00:06:34,680 harden in my jaw. I loosened one hand from the 134 00:06:34,720 --> 00:06:36,600 latch and reached for the camera to check its connection. 135 00:06:37,279 --> 00:06:38,800 My hand brushed the edge of the window in a 136 00:06:38,839 --> 00:06:42,120 faint where smear mark my palm. The smear was coold 137 00:06:42,120 --> 00:06:44,680 and smelled of algae in metal. I wiped it on 138 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:47,399 my sleeve and held my hand up. The smearske shape 139 00:06:47,399 --> 00:06:50,240 echered the flattened face. Ellie looked at my palm and 140 00:06:50,279 --> 00:06:52,759 his face changed, sharp enough for me to see he 141 00:06:52,959 --> 00:06:54,759 don't he open it. I let go of the latch. 142 00:06:55,480 --> 00:06:57,879 My fingers shook in the fear compressed into a different feeling, 143 00:06:58,480 --> 00:07:00,920 a tight, angry insistence not to be a passive observer. 144 00:07:01,639 --> 00:07:04,519 Alli moved faster than either of us had expected. He 145 00:07:04,600 --> 00:07:07,000 lunched for the tripe or two, just the angle in 146 00:07:07,040 --> 00:07:09,160 the motion as neclipped the cell and the window cracked 147 00:07:09,199 --> 00:07:11,439 the fraction of an inch I had kept the gap 148 00:07:11,480 --> 00:07:13,759 opened in a lawn. What impressions slept through the seam. 149 00:07:14,399 --> 00:07:16,920 It pressed against Illy's wrist with the softness at mimic's skin. 150 00:07:17,560 --> 00:07:20,000 The contact made a thin, wet sound, like flips meeting 151 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:23,720 early glass. Illy shouted and grabbed the camera. He tried 152 00:07:23,759 --> 00:07:25,879 to pull it back, but something on the other side 153 00:07:25,879 --> 00:07:29,920 flexed and pushed deeper. Marus screamed, closet, close it now. 154 00:07:30,519 --> 00:07:32,439 I slammed my shoulder into the frame and felt the 155 00:07:32,480 --> 00:07:35,639 wood scrape under my palm. The entity mimicked our movements. 156 00:07:36,279 --> 00:07:38,199 When I tried to pull the window up, the pressure 157 00:07:38,199 --> 00:07:40,959 on the sill countered me. It matched the angle Ali 158 00:07:41,040 --> 00:07:42,759 used and shove against the frame of the timing that 159 00:07:42,759 --> 00:07:46,240 nearly unlatched her fingers. Elly cursed and shoved his shoulder, 160 00:07:46,279 --> 00:07:49,319 and the camera cladded the Silhwetdy's pressure moved in rhythm 161 00:07:49,319 --> 00:07:53,199 with us. It was not random, It copied more gestures. 162 00:07:53,759 --> 00:07:55,639 The mimicry made me aware of how the fog had 163 00:07:55,639 --> 00:07:58,959 been watching houses all night, finding seams. I forced the 164 00:07:58,959 --> 00:08:01,439 frame closed with both and heard a wet slip and 165 00:08:01,480 --> 00:08:03,720 spark as something slid off the sill and into the fog. 166 00:08:03,800 --> 00:08:07,600 With the soft sucking sound, we stood panting. The room 167 00:08:07,639 --> 00:08:10,800 smelled of cold, salt and metal. The camera's memory cart 168 00:08:10,879 --> 00:08:14,319 was corrupted in places where faces had leaned closest. Ellie 169 00:08:14,319 --> 00:08:17,600 swore and threw the recorder onto the couch. He played 170 00:08:17,600 --> 00:08:20,319 that back. The playback had a low, drowning hum, laid 171 00:08:20,360 --> 00:08:23,279 under static. At points, the hum had a near whisper 172 00:08:23,319 --> 00:08:26,360 that sounded like a word against the microphone. More put 173 00:08:26,360 --> 00:08:29,920 her hands over her mouth. What did it say? She asked. 174 00:08:30,600 --> 00:08:33,320 Ellie fed the recorder into the stereo and slowed the playback. 175 00:08:33,919 --> 00:08:36,600 There was no clear word. There was only pressure on 176 00:08:36,679 --> 00:08:39,639 the impression of a voice under the static. Dawn shifted 177 00:08:39,639 --> 00:08:41,840 the light, and a fog thinned like a hand drawing back. 178 00:08:42,559 --> 00:08:44,480 The street outside was quieter than it should have been. 179 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:46,960 I unlatched the door and went down the sail to 180 00:08:47,039 --> 00:08:50,159 check the bulletin board. My mauthed hasted of metal and 181 00:08:50,200 --> 00:08:53,200 fear had folded into a ringing weariness. At the board 182 00:08:53,240 --> 00:08:55,159 I found a damp, child like drawing of tall faces 183 00:08:55,200 --> 00:08:57,960 pristo glass, pinned under clear tape. The drawing had the 184 00:08:58,039 --> 00:08:59,720 dates gold in a shaky hand, and a name with 185 00:08:59,759 --> 00:09:03,200 a phone number. I turned and called Mora's name. The 186 00:09:03,240 --> 00:09:05,399 stairwell smelled of wet paint and algae at the bottom 187 00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:07,240 of the stairwell had to me as leading away like 188 00:09:07,279 --> 00:09:10,879 dragged damp cloth. I called and memem Morrower and heard 189 00:09:10,879 --> 00:09:13,879 no answer. The door to the outside yard was cracked. 190 00:09:14,519 --> 00:09:16,759 I pulled it and it resisted, as if something had 191 00:09:16,799 --> 00:09:19,200 leaned against it from the other side. I shoved it 192 00:09:19,240 --> 00:09:21,919 open and saw fresh weare footprints leading down toward the pier. 193 00:09:22,480 --> 00:09:25,759 There were narrow and elongated, not like normal shoes. My 194 00:09:25,840 --> 00:09:29,440 chest tightened and a new shift arrived, anger into grim determination. 195 00:09:29,559 --> 00:09:32,720 I pushed past the lintel and followed the Prince outside 196 00:09:32,759 --> 00:09:35,759 the fog clustered around the lamp post. The Prince led 197 00:09:35,759 --> 00:09:37,799 to the coroner, where the street narrowed and pulled toward 198 00:09:37,840 --> 00:09:40,679 the harbor. I heard a low hum that matched the playback. 199 00:09:41,159 --> 00:09:43,559 I called Mara's name again, and the sound returned in 200 00:09:43,559 --> 00:09:46,120 a thin repeat, as if the fog absorbed and turned voices. 201 00:09:46,720 --> 00:09:48,399 I felt the hazel on my arms stand up in 202 00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:51,480 a rapmiskarv tider. The Prince ended a pile of wet 203 00:09:51,600 --> 00:09:53,840 rags and a childish shoe half buried in the puddle. 204 00:09:54,399 --> 00:09:56,919 The shoe asked tongue had a name written inside. I 205 00:09:57,000 --> 00:09:58,720 read the scroll and found a match to the missing 206 00:09:58,720 --> 00:10:02,039 person Flier. I spawn and saw Ellie at the stair head, 207 00:10:02,120 --> 00:10:04,679 leaning like he could not breathe. He I ran to 208 00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:07,559 the corner. There was some one standing there. Then they 209 00:10:07,559 --> 00:10:09,879 were in tea. He looked at the shoe with something 210 00:10:09,960 --> 00:10:14,200 like gilt. I said, where's morr. Ellie's reply was clipped. 211 00:10:14,200 --> 00:10:16,600 I dun't to know. I left her in the doorway. 212 00:10:17,279 --> 00:10:19,879 She she would check the lobby. I pictured the small 213 00:10:19,879 --> 00:10:21,639 fights we had in the share tasks that now meant 214 00:10:21,639 --> 00:10:24,360 little in the face of her absence. We argued about 215 00:10:24,399 --> 00:10:28,120 where to search next. Ellie wanted the camera. I wanted 216 00:10:28,120 --> 00:10:31,960 to follow the wet prince. The exchange was quick Ellie, 217 00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:35,399 we followed the prince. No, we call more people. We 218 00:10:35,480 --> 00:10:38,679 already called they. Won't he come. We stood in the 219 00:10:38,720 --> 00:10:41,840 fog and moved in opposite directions. A neighbor came out, 220 00:10:41,879 --> 00:10:44,480 then mister hallowe as if to check the commotion. He 221 00:10:44,759 --> 00:10:47,480 shouldn't he be out here? That fog could fool you. 222 00:10:47,519 --> 00:10:51,559 I said, there's a shoe, there's a smear. He shrugged 223 00:10:51,559 --> 00:10:54,440 and reached into his jacket. He I have a flash light, 224 00:10:55,120 --> 00:10:58,000 I'll help look. His voice had a different tone. Now 225 00:10:58,600 --> 00:11:00,840 he was less ready to minimize and were ready to fix. 226 00:11:01,559 --> 00:11:04,080 I felt a small twist of relief, and then suspicion returned. 227 00:11:04,639 --> 00:11:06,960 His change of tone could be for any reason. He 228 00:11:07,039 --> 00:11:09,159 wiped his hands on his trousers and pointed a light 229 00:11:09,200 --> 00:11:11,759 toward the pier. At the dock, I found more water 230 00:11:11,879 --> 00:11:15,120 spar prints heading under the boards. The fog thin enough 231 00:11:15,159 --> 00:11:17,519 that I saw a shadows slide under the gap. Illy 232 00:11:17,600 --> 00:11:20,399 braced himself against the railing and sat in quick, controlled lines. 233 00:11:20,480 --> 00:11:23,840 Dawn tea, go under, We wait for the station. The 234 00:11:23,879 --> 00:11:26,440 words were an order and a blee. I answered with 235 00:11:26,480 --> 00:11:30,240 a short sentence, We go now. Mara's nane felt like 236 00:11:30,279 --> 00:11:32,759 a stone in my mouth. The decision to move under 237 00:11:32,759 --> 00:11:35,240 the pier felt like an oath. We climbed down into 238 00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:37,200 the rotten planks, and the smell of algie and rot 239 00:11:37,240 --> 00:11:40,519 was stronger, salty and metallic and sharp. Under the dock, 240 00:11:40,559 --> 00:11:43,159 the damp press was thicker. I saw a place where 241 00:11:43,159 --> 00:11:45,480 condensation had pulled against a wooden post and a flattened 242 00:11:45,480 --> 00:11:48,200 impression had been left, like a wet palm. The impression 243 00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:50,919 matched the shape I'd wiped on my sleeve. I felt 244 00:11:50,919 --> 00:11:52,879 the air vibrate, the hum swelt, and the fod moved 245 00:11:52,879 --> 00:11:56,679 with intent. Ellie grabbed my arm. He if we split up, 246 00:11:56,679 --> 00:11:59,799 we can find more clues. Morris absence hung between us 247 00:11:59,799 --> 00:12:02,799 like a question. I say it. We stay together, he complained, 248 00:12:02,799 --> 00:12:05,480 in a quick line. You always say that, I answered 249 00:12:05,480 --> 00:12:09,000 with my name, in a firm, short sentence. We stayed together, Ellie. 250 00:12:09,559 --> 00:12:11,960 He looked at me and then nodded. We worked our 251 00:12:11,960 --> 00:12:15,120 way along the pilance. Every few steps another whats may 252 00:12:15,200 --> 00:12:17,720 show where something had pressed a face to wood. The 253 00:12:17,759 --> 00:12:20,879 fog commed below the threshold of hearing. Then Ellie found 254 00:12:20,919 --> 00:12:23,559 the gamma cord still in his pocket, but corrupted. He 255 00:12:23,600 --> 00:12:25,879 thumb through the housing and found frames where the silhouettes 256 00:12:25,919 --> 00:12:29,279 leaned so close the glass saturated with condensation. One frame 257 00:12:29,279 --> 00:12:31,279 clearer than the rest showed a handprint on the outside 258 00:12:31,279 --> 00:12:33,480 of a window, with a child's wrist inside a jacket. 259 00:12:34,039 --> 00:12:36,759 The image did not match anything we knew in a 260 00:12:36,799 --> 00:12:39,679 low voice, this was someone here earlier. The discovery made 261 00:12:39,720 --> 00:12:42,679 the fog feel deliberate. We reached a ladder that slaughtered 262 00:12:42,720 --> 00:12:44,799 into the harbor water and found the wet cloth tied 263 00:12:44,840 --> 00:12:46,960 to the rum. The cloth had been stamped with an 264 00:12:46,960 --> 00:12:49,039 imprint like a palm, and the line of small, neat 265 00:12:49,039 --> 00:12:52,679 handwriting on the edge. I read the letters aloud. They 266 00:12:52,720 --> 00:12:55,799 mashed the name on the flier. After that thing slipped, 267 00:12:56,399 --> 00:12:58,440 the fog drew close like a column, and then drew 268 00:12:58,480 --> 00:13:01,080 in a deliberate, measured way. I heard a scrape at 269 00:13:01,120 --> 00:13:03,039 the dock above us, and then a soft, wet slide 270 00:13:03,080 --> 00:13:06,279 along the edge. I said, up, Elie, no wait. I 271 00:13:06,360 --> 00:13:08,879 moved first at the top of the ladder, a figure 272 00:13:08,879 --> 00:13:11,960 blocked the stair. It was neither fully fought nor fully human. 273 00:13:12,559 --> 00:13:14,799 It leaned its flattened face against the railing and looked 274 00:13:14,840 --> 00:13:17,960 in through the hell line cracks of the boards, featureless impression. 275 00:13:18,039 --> 00:13:20,159 Rested and pressed, and when it moved it made a sucking, 276 00:13:20,200 --> 00:13:23,080 wet sound. Ellye flinched and hit the deck with his palm. 277 00:13:23,639 --> 00:13:26,879 Nissa Hallow had his flashlight steady and shown it down. 278 00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:29,519 The beam carved a white circle into the fog and 279 00:13:29,519 --> 00:13:32,879 showed the smudge prince clearly. The thing did not retreat. 280 00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:36,919 It simply shifted and folded, like material being rearranged. The 281 00:13:36,919 --> 00:13:40,000 minni cliffinger hit. Then something at the railing slid alarm 282 00:13:40,039 --> 00:13:42,320 smeared down the wood and then reached into the ladder 283 00:13:42,360 --> 00:13:44,200 gap with a wet filament that looked like a hand. 284 00:13:44,879 --> 00:13:49,000 It moved slow. I shouldered backward. Elly lunged and grabbed 285 00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:51,320 for the filament, and the thing reciprocated with a pressure 286 00:13:51,320 --> 00:13:54,720 that fit his grip exactly. There was a short chaotic pull, 287 00:13:54,759 --> 00:13:57,759 and then a wet sucking sound. Ellie's shout echoed under 288 00:13:57,759 --> 00:14:00,559 the pier. I ripped my hands free and hold him up. 289 00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:03,240 We fell on the planks and the wall tilted into shouting. 290 00:14:03,759 --> 00:14:06,879 Marrow was not there. Ellie coughed and spat water and said, 291 00:14:06,879 --> 00:14:08,879 in a rapid hittence, I felt like it was trying 292 00:14:08,879 --> 00:14:12,320 to pull me down. I said, where's Mara. He hit 293 00:14:12,320 --> 00:14:14,240 the deck with both hands and said, I done to 294 00:14:14,320 --> 00:14:17,360 know she was at the door. I looked back to 295 00:14:17,440 --> 00:14:20,000 check the camera and she wasn't there. She wasn't at 296 00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:22,919 the rail. Missa Hawoe used the flashlight to sweep the 297 00:14:22,919 --> 00:14:25,559 harbor and found a wet smere leading back toward the stairwell. 298 00:14:26,159 --> 00:14:28,399 The smear glowed in the beam like a fresh bruise onwood. 299 00:14:29,039 --> 00:14:31,559 I realized our small victory in forcing the window shut 300 00:14:31,559 --> 00:14:34,919 had cost us Morra's presence. We flipped the despatcher again, 301 00:14:34,960 --> 00:14:37,399 and this time they sent one car. After a full minute, 302 00:14:37,679 --> 00:14:39,879 the officer on such showing a searchlight to cut the 303 00:14:39,879 --> 00:14:42,840 fog into a hard line. He name in a voice 304 00:14:42,879 --> 00:14:46,519 tuned for procedure. I told him Mora's name and my address. 305 00:14:47,159 --> 00:14:49,600 The officer wrote it down slowly and asked about the drawing. 306 00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:52,559 He stared at the pin child's picture and then looked up. 307 00:14:53,159 --> 00:14:55,480 He did not have the insulation of dismissal in his face. 308 00:14:56,200 --> 00:14:59,279 He we will check the missing person's file. The sentence 309 00:14:59,279 --> 00:15:01,960 felt like thin on, but it was something at don. 310 00:15:01,960 --> 00:15:05,159 The town began a low mechanical search. A troll cars 311 00:15:05,200 --> 00:15:08,039 moved slowly dunharbour, lame with lights that did not use sirens. 312 00:15:08,559 --> 00:15:12,759 People leaned from windows and frowned. The landlord miffed. Hallow 313 00:15:12,759 --> 00:15:15,039 stood with his cigarette stop gun cold and watched, as 314 00:15:15,080 --> 00:15:17,679 if watching a by a TV show. Ellie moved in 315 00:15:17,720 --> 00:15:21,000 quick lunges and jerky breasts between the patrols. He kept 316 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:24,039 saying short things into his phone about corrupted footage and static. 317 00:15:24,919 --> 00:15:28,120 M Hallow quat, circling back to minimize, and then stepping 318 00:15:28,159 --> 00:15:30,759 forward to point at the damp smudges. The mix of 319 00:15:30,799 --> 00:15:32,960 denial and help made it hard to tell who to trust. 320 00:15:33,600 --> 00:15:35,440 I did the last sweep of my apartment and found 321 00:15:35,440 --> 00:15:38,759 the cama's battery compartment shoved under the couch, inside a 322 00:15:38,759 --> 00:15:40,840 scrap of fabric that match the charwel shee was stuck 323 00:15:40,879 --> 00:15:43,320 in the hinge. I peeled it free, intact it in 324 00:15:43,360 --> 00:15:45,919 my pocket. My hands were steady enough to tie not 325 00:15:46,679 --> 00:15:50,000 The knot felt like a choice. I would document, I 326 00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:53,720 would follow, I would warn the fear receded into a 327 00:15:53,759 --> 00:15:56,559 tight line of resolve. Ellie bent over the recorder and 328 00:15:56,600 --> 00:15:58,600 played a section with the hum resolved into a half 329 00:15:58,679 --> 00:16:01,559 phrase that sounded like a name. We could not be sure. 330 00:16:02,200 --> 00:16:04,320 The small twist came when mister Haller pointed at the 331 00:16:04,320 --> 00:16:06,799 stairwell and said there was a smear on the third step. 332 00:16:07,399 --> 00:16:09,879 We went down together on the stair well. The wet 333 00:16:09,879 --> 00:16:11,639 smell led to the door of Unit three and stopped 334 00:16:11,639 --> 00:16:15,480 at the threshold. No footprints left beyond it. The building 335 00:16:15,519 --> 00:16:18,519 smelled like wet wool and coffee. I touched the smear 336 00:16:18,559 --> 00:16:20,200 with my finger tip and it left a damp trace 337 00:16:20,200 --> 00:16:23,000 on my skin. This may ended at the stair tread, 338 00:16:23,039 --> 00:16:25,720 and a single wet fingerprint faded toward the hall. I 339 00:16:25,799 --> 00:16:27,759 bent to follow it, and then heard a sound behind me, 340 00:16:27,879 --> 00:16:30,559 like paper being folded in the mail box. I stood 341 00:16:30,600 --> 00:16:32,320 and found an envelope taped to the end of side 342 00:16:32,320 --> 00:16:35,120 of the stair rail. The envelope had no stemp and 343 00:16:35,200 --> 00:16:37,759 only my name written in a neat small hand. I 344 00:16:37,799 --> 00:16:39,600 opened it with one finger and said out a single 345 00:16:39,639 --> 00:16:43,399 folded photograph. The photograph showed a window with condensation and 346 00:16:43,440 --> 00:16:45,799 a pail flattened face pressed to the inside of the glass. 347 00:16:46,519 --> 00:16:48,679 Some one had drawn a small circle round the corner 348 00:16:48,679 --> 00:16:51,519 of the pane, where a hairline gattoed on the back. 349 00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:54,360 Written in the same neat hand was a line. We 350 00:16:54,399 --> 00:16:56,639 watched the windows first. The hand rating was not mine. 351 00:16:56,679 --> 00:16:59,200 It was not ily. As I swollowed. I folded the 352 00:16:59,200 --> 00:17:01,360 photograph and slip upped it into my pocket, closed my 353 00:17:01,360 --> 00:17:03,879 fist around the fabric's scrap, and stepped out into the fog, 354 00:17:04,039 --> 00:17:07,319 following the stale smear downward. Mara shoved the door open 355 00:17:07,359 --> 00:17:09,440 and dragged me on to the porch, shouting at the 356 00:17:09,440 --> 00:17:12,359 fog had people at the windows. Fear tightened my hands 357 00:17:12,359 --> 00:17:14,960 around the rail. I could still feel the wet slap 358 00:17:14,960 --> 00:17:17,279 against the living room glass from earlier, and Mara's voice 359 00:17:17,279 --> 00:17:21,079 cutting through it. Fear pushed me forward before thought. The 360 00:17:21,119 --> 00:17:23,000 porch light pulled on the floor in a small disk, 361 00:17:23,039 --> 00:17:25,119 and the fog closed around the building like a slow, 362 00:17:25,400 --> 00:17:28,000 wet hand. I'd been awake when something hit the living 363 00:17:28,039 --> 00:17:30,240 room window. I had stood with the coat and in 364 00:17:30,279 --> 00:17:32,599 my fist and seen a pail flattened, face pressed to 365 00:17:32,640 --> 00:17:35,519 the pane, breath fogging a corner. Mara had screened my 366 00:17:35,640 --> 00:17:38,400 name before I finished moving. That was the physical fact. 367 00:17:38,400 --> 00:17:41,279 I kept returning to the sound of impact on glass, 368 00:17:41,279 --> 00:17:44,720 the wet smear, Mara's name in the hallway. Those details 369 00:17:44,720 --> 00:17:47,519 shaped everything I did at night. They made me get dressed, 370 00:17:48,119 --> 00:17:51,079 They made me follow Mara out of the apartment. Tom 371 00:17:51,200 --> 00:17:53,400 Morra called, pounding down the corridor with her keys in 372 00:17:53,440 --> 00:17:56,240 her fist. Her voice carried a wrought edge I hadn't 373 00:17:56,240 --> 00:17:58,720 heard before. I followed with my hood. He pulled up 374 00:17:58,720 --> 00:18:01,480 and the radio bag slung over my shoulder. I kept 375 00:18:01,480 --> 00:18:03,720 glancing at the living room window for the open door. 376 00:18:04,279 --> 00:18:06,960 The condensation along the edge still held the shape of face. 377 00:18:07,680 --> 00:18:10,559 My breath came out in short tufts. We hit Tom's 378 00:18:10,559 --> 00:18:14,279 door first. I noted hard Mara's palm left a print 379 00:18:14,279 --> 00:18:17,640 in the wood. Tom wake up, She said, her voice 380 00:18:17,720 --> 00:18:20,680 was tight. The hallway smelled of damp stairs and someone 381 00:18:20,720 --> 00:18:23,880 frying onions earlier in the evening. Tom opened the door 382 00:18:23,920 --> 00:18:25,599 crack and blinked at us, like he had been asleep 383 00:18:25,599 --> 00:18:29,400 in a chair. What's going on? Tom's voice was flatless sleep. 384 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:31,960 He rubbed at his eyes, then pushed his hair back. 385 00:18:32,519 --> 00:18:35,279 I watched his hand callous, knuckle, grease under the nail. 386 00:18:35,359 --> 00:18:37,160 The small details that told me he had been asleep 387 00:18:37,200 --> 00:18:40,359 on his feet, not in bed. Falk Mora, they rear 388 00:18:40,359 --> 00:18:43,319 at your window. Tom's fish changed when we stepped close 389 00:18:43,440 --> 00:18:45,519 enough to his caitch and window to see the condensation. 390 00:18:46,119 --> 00:18:49,000 He reached for the latch and froze. I flattened, which 391 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:51,559 shape hovered on the outside pane, just above waist height. 392 00:18:52,079 --> 00:18:54,839 It held there without moving, like a pressed hand. Tom 393 00:18:54,839 --> 00:18:59,079 swallowed Jesus. He stepped forward and peered. The smear resolved 394 00:18:59,119 --> 00:19:02,160 into the impression of an elongated face, nothing that could 395 00:19:02,160 --> 00:19:05,000 be called eyes, only darker wet patches and the suggestion 396 00:19:05,079 --> 00:19:07,799 of a nose. Flattened to the glass, Tom pulled back 397 00:19:07,839 --> 00:19:11,200 with a small, involuntary step. He reached for his phone. 398 00:19:11,599 --> 00:19:14,279 The screen lit up, then pixelated into her gritostatic and 399 00:19:14,359 --> 00:19:18,920 black phones died. I said, my voice were small. I 400 00:19:18,960 --> 00:19:22,759 heard the tightness in it. Maur's joel worked. She grubbed 401 00:19:22,799 --> 00:19:26,400 Tom's wrist. Dante call anyone on it. She said, we 402 00:19:26,519 --> 00:19:29,000 need to wake the building. We moved door to door, 403 00:19:29,240 --> 00:19:33,400 rapping and shaking neighbors awake. The building responded in fragments, footstits, 404 00:19:33,400 --> 00:19:35,680 padding down, a grumble from behind a door, a woman 405 00:19:35,720 --> 00:19:38,880 crying out someone swearing each time. A face appeared at 406 00:19:38,880 --> 00:19:41,440 a window that looked pressed and wet, a translucent impression 407 00:19:41,480 --> 00:19:44,079 that blowed as soon as you named it. People opened 408 00:19:44,079 --> 00:19:46,319 doors and pajamas were wrapped in towels. They leaned up 409 00:19:46,359 --> 00:19:48,160 and pointed eyes wide with them to wake everyone, to 410 00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:51,000 make noise, to keep doors closed. I said those words 411 00:19:51,039 --> 00:19:53,480 because fear told me to say them. At the second 412 00:19:53,480 --> 00:19:56,680 stair landing, I glanced back the hallway light caught something 413 00:19:56,720 --> 00:19:59,599 at the far end window, several long bated silhouettes leaning 414 00:19:59,599 --> 00:20:03,240 close to the the glass. They did not walk, They preased. 415 00:20:03,880 --> 00:20:06,119 The presence made the paint near the frame dock with wet. 416 00:20:06,839 --> 00:20:10,160 A neighbor, Misses called while screamed, and then clamped her 417 00:20:10,160 --> 00:20:12,680 hands over her mouth. Her voice broke into quick, in 418 00:20:12,720 --> 00:20:16,759 coherent sobs. Call nine hundred eleven Tom. He sounded like 419 00:20:16,799 --> 00:20:19,440 he was giving himself permission to do it. His hand 420 00:20:19,480 --> 00:20:22,200 hovered above his phone. I watched him make the choice 421 00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:24,200 and then change his mind. When the scream went black, 422 00:20:24,799 --> 00:20:27,039 he cursed and slammed his palm against the stair rail. 423 00:20:27,720 --> 00:20:30,240 That anger was sudden and raw. It cut through the 424 00:20:30,240 --> 00:20:33,920 building along with the fog. We went outside the street 425 00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:36,119 was a narrow ribbon of yellow light, with fog pressing 426 00:20:36,119 --> 00:20:39,319 at both edges. It smelled like seat and old algae. 427 00:20:39,720 --> 00:20:42,640 Porch lights drew thin cones. Every cone was ringed with 428 00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:46,240 damp figures leaned toward each lit doorway. They did not 429 00:20:46,279 --> 00:20:47,960 move toward us in a gate or with a step. 430 00:20:48,599 --> 00:20:51,599 They leaned. When someone shone a flashlight, they seemed to 431 00:20:51,640 --> 00:20:54,240 withdraw a hay's breadth and then press harder against the glass. 432 00:20:54,920 --> 00:20:57,119 I fumbled from my phone and raised it to record 433 00:20:57,160 --> 00:21:00,799 the silhouettes. The scream bloomed and then saw into interference, 434 00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:02,799 gray bars and a warped image where the light bent 435 00:21:02,839 --> 00:21:05,480 around something not there. When Mara tried her phone, it 436 00:21:05,519 --> 00:21:08,200 went dead. With the soft pop. Tom slammed his fist 437 00:21:08,279 --> 00:21:10,400 into the hood of his jacket and then grabbed my elbow. 438 00:21:10,880 --> 00:21:14,680 They can tee be recorded, Tom, They kill electronics. A 439 00:21:14,759 --> 00:21:18,279 low hum started subtler. First, it vibrated through the soles 440 00:21:18,279 --> 00:21:20,799 of my shoes and into my teeth. The sound came 441 00:21:20,839 --> 00:21:23,640 from nowhere and from everywhere. It matched a nick behind 442 00:21:23,680 --> 00:21:26,319 my eyes. I tidened my jaw and felt a pressure 443 00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:29,000 rise behind the skull, like the first hug of a Migraine. 444 00:21:29,440 --> 00:21:32,480 Listen mirror. She had gone pale and was whispering, though 445 00:21:32,519 --> 00:21:34,279 there was no one to keep the noise down from. 446 00:21:34,720 --> 00:21:38,039 Do you hear it? It's copying us. We watched one 447 00:21:38,039 --> 00:21:40,000 figure at the cup tilt its head and then precisely 448 00:21:40,039 --> 00:21:43,680 copied Tom's dance. It was not a mirror. It matched 449 00:21:43,680 --> 00:21:45,480 the small angle of his elbow and the set of 450 00:21:45,519 --> 00:21:48,400 his shoulders. Then the humley had a voice over itself, 451 00:21:48,440 --> 00:21:50,880 a wet, echoed version of Tom's slough from years ago. 452 00:21:51,440 --> 00:21:53,319 He called his name in the high intimate tone he 453 00:21:53,400 --> 00:21:54,799 used to make when he was trying to cook a 454 00:21:54,839 --> 00:21:58,279 cap from under the porch. Tom straightened that to me, 455 00:21:58,359 --> 00:22:01,519 he said. His feet slid toward the curb without command. 456 00:22:02,200 --> 00:22:06,279 That's my laugh, Mah, I go out his sleeve. My 457 00:22:06,319 --> 00:22:09,240 fingers left wet prints on his jacket. The pressure at 458 00:22:09,279 --> 00:22:11,680 the top of my head and greased. I could hear 459 00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:14,799 blood in my ears. The figure the cop leaned closer, 460 00:22:14,839 --> 00:22:17,559 and the air around it chilled my cheek. Tom kept 461 00:22:17,599 --> 00:22:20,359 moving forward. His jewel worked, but his eyes were blank, 462 00:22:20,480 --> 00:22:22,920 like a man reading from a script. The script was 463 00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:25,720 his own voice, bent into a lure. Mara's hands were 464 00:22:25,720 --> 00:22:31,920 cold on his shoulders. She pulled and hissed, Tom, get back, Tom, three, 465 00:22:31,960 --> 00:22:35,480 t Morrow, it's me Tom. Tom listened to me, I said. 466 00:22:36,200 --> 00:22:38,440 Tom turned his head slowly, and then his foot slipped 467 00:22:38,440 --> 00:22:40,920 off the curb. The figure pushed through the fog with 468 00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:43,200 a pressure that felt like wet cloth rubbing my forearm. 469 00:22:43,799 --> 00:22:47,559 I pulled Mara grabbed Tom's other arm. For a second, 470 00:22:47,640 --> 00:22:49,759 all three of us tout, each leading the motion in 471 00:22:49,799 --> 00:22:53,119 a different direction. The pressure intensified into a scraping along 472 00:22:53,119 --> 00:22:55,720 my skin. My nails dug into Tom's coat. Something cold 473 00:22:55,720 --> 00:22:58,759 wrap around Tom's ankle. He went still for a half breath, 474 00:22:58,799 --> 00:23:00,720 and then a sound left him that was not his voice. 475 00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:04,079 It was a thin, metallic scream. The silhouette of the 476 00:23:04,079 --> 00:23:07,160 curb opened like a hand, and then clothes Tomas pulled 477 00:23:07,160 --> 00:23:09,839 forward in a slipping sound. He landed against the cub, 478 00:23:09,880 --> 00:23:11,839 and then he was gone into the fog, swallowed without 479 00:23:11,839 --> 00:23:14,799 a red horse splash. His phone fell and shattered in 480 00:23:14,799 --> 00:23:18,839 the asshalt with a final white flare. Now Maury yelled. 481 00:23:19,480 --> 00:23:21,519 She dropped her knees and reached into the fog with 482 00:23:21,519 --> 00:23:24,799 both hands. Her fingers found nothing but cold, dam bare 483 00:23:24,839 --> 00:23:27,640 that smelled of rotten salt. She tried to scream his name, 484 00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:30,160 and the sound came out small and broken. Her finger 485 00:23:30,240 --> 00:23:32,440 nails clicked on the pavement like someone tapping a coat. 486 00:23:33,119 --> 00:23:35,079 I called forward on my hands and knees into the 487 00:23:35,160 --> 00:23:37,039 edge of the fog, until my hoodie soaked with the wet. 488 00:23:37,759 --> 00:23:40,119 The pressure at my temple's warsened, and the hum layered 489 00:23:40,119 --> 00:23:43,559 and new sand. A childlike whisper repeating Mara's name. The 490 00:23:43,680 --> 00:23:45,839 radio bag at my hit thumped, as if something heavy 491 00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:48,680 had landed on it. We dragged ourselves back to the 492 00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:51,200 porch and shut the door. Inside the old down log 493 00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:53,400 radio all my window sill sat with its dial half 494 00:23:53,440 --> 00:23:56,039 way between stations. I had taken it from a thrift 495 00:23:56,039 --> 00:23:58,839 shop weeks earlier. Because the dial spun with a satisfying clack, 496 00:23:59,599 --> 00:24:02,039 Maris dagger to the selp the frozen fog trace her 497 00:24:02,039 --> 00:24:04,880 breath in the glass. The radio rose like a small 498 00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:08,039 animal to a note. Static filled the room. Then a 499 00:24:08,119 --> 00:24:12,119 child's voice came through, overlapping with the hum. It Martha first, Marra, 500 00:24:12,240 --> 00:24:14,160 in a high nasal tone I had heard when we 501 00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:17,000 were kids fighting over cards the yard sale. The voss 502 00:24:17,039 --> 00:24:19,160 repeated private thing Mara had said only once on a 503 00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:22,440 night in college, a confession about skipping a final exam 504 00:24:22,519 --> 00:24:24,880 to work to pear. The sound in the radio was 505 00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:28,480 laid like tip played on three plays. Once Mara's face 506 00:24:28,519 --> 00:24:30,880 went white and she swore under her breath, how does 507 00:24:30,920 --> 00:24:34,599 it know that? She asked. Her voice trembled and then 508 00:24:34,599 --> 00:24:38,400 steaded into something hard. It mimics, I said, I switched 509 00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:41,119 the radio's ban and found the knob stuck. When I 510 00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:42,920 tapped the face, the sound shifted to the lord drowning 511 00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:45,000 hummon into a faint scrape, like finger nails on a 512 00:24:45,039 --> 00:24:49,119 wooden table. We argued about running to the lighthouse. Toms 513 00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:51,599 crashed into the fog had changed the temperature in the room. 514 00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:55,279 Everything felt closer and smaller. Mara wanted to go out 515 00:24:55,319 --> 00:24:58,319 and search. She said the lighthouse was a public blaze 516 00:24:58,519 --> 00:25:01,240 and maybe light would keith them off the right. I say, 517 00:25:01,400 --> 00:25:03,720 running would scatter us, and that scattered groups were easier 518 00:25:03,759 --> 00:25:06,799 to pick off. The arguments run into a sharp exchange, 519 00:25:07,319 --> 00:25:11,759 lighthouse or barricade. Mars snapped, we document and move as one, 520 00:25:11,839 --> 00:25:17,000 I replied, document, document, what Tom is gone? She said, 521 00:25:17,559 --> 00:25:20,160 Tom's choice? Doesn't he help us? I said, if we 522 00:25:20,279 --> 00:25:21,920 run without a plan, he'll be the first to be 523 00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:24,880 mimicked again. Mara's reply was quick and clipped. So we 524 00:25:24,920 --> 00:25:27,279 sit here and wait while they learn our names. The 525 00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:30,920 argument was three rapid exchanges and then silence. The silence 526 00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:33,680 press against the walls like weight. Mara paced to the 527 00:25:33,720 --> 00:25:36,359 window and pressed her forehead to the glass. I could 528 00:25:36,359 --> 00:25:38,319 see the vein in her temple beat like a small drum. 529 00:25:38,839 --> 00:25:41,680 She inhaled and then forced herself to calm. That act 530 00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:44,599 of forcing stead at her voice, it made a decision 531 00:25:44,599 --> 00:25:47,319 for both of us, he recalled. She said, deep at 532 00:25:47,319 --> 00:25:49,480 it all on tape. If anything happens to us, people 533 00:25:49,519 --> 00:25:51,759 will know what the radio played, what it sounded like. 534 00:25:51,799 --> 00:25:53,920 Take the analog recorder and speak into it. I clicked 535 00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:56,240 in the recorder and its red light blinked. My fingers trembled. 536 00:25:56,240 --> 00:25:58,200 I spoke the first line because she told me to him, 537 00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:00,240 because fear tightened my throat into a rope of words. 538 00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:01,880 I cattalot at the events, the knock at the window, 539 00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:03,960 the flatten face in the living room, Tom at the curb, 540 00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:06,759 the hum. I said the names aloud. Saying Tom's name 541 00:26:06,799 --> 00:26:09,920 was a brutal thing. As I spoke, the radio shifted again, 542 00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:13,160 the voice on it started to imitate me. It took 543 00:26:13,160 --> 00:26:16,079 my last phrase and rewunded into a thinner, younger kedance. 544 00:26:16,720 --> 00:26:18,519 It repeated my admission, how I had seen the face 545 00:26:18,559 --> 00:26:21,480 first and not pulled the curtain fully. That small confession 546 00:26:21,559 --> 00:26:24,920 landed between us like a stone, you knew, Marra. Her 547 00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:27,279 eyes never left the window. I saw it, I corrected. 548 00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:30,240 I thought my sentence snapped off as a pressure lance 549 00:26:30,279 --> 00:26:33,160 behind my eyes. I clutched the recorder and heard my 550 00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:36,160 own bath grow ragged. The humming phased into a version 551 00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:38,920 of my own voice, counting softly, It copied the rhythm 552 00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:42,400 of my breeding. My resolves shifted. Then TiO let go 553 00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:44,240 of me for a second, and something cold and moved 554 00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:47,640 in responsibility. We move at three end, I said. My 555 00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:50,400 voice had a narrow edge. We go down the alley 556 00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:52,799 by the bakery, we say together, we head for the lighthouse, 557 00:26:52,799 --> 00:26:55,480 only if we can keep lying of sight. Mara nodded, 558 00:26:55,480 --> 00:26:58,160 was out looking at me. She folded her scuff into 559 00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:00,440 her jacket pocket, found the old key on her cord 560 00:27:00,519 --> 00:27:02,720 and put it into a palm like a talisman. Her 561 00:27:02,759 --> 00:27:06,279 hands stopped shaking. Her decision pushed me into action. My 562 00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:09,440 resolver plays my first wave of panic. We prepared in 563 00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:13,119 fifteen minutes that felt longer. I packed the recorder, a flasklight, 564 00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:16,640 two spare batteries, and a small pocket knife. Mara found 565 00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:19,160 a heavy blanket and a length of duct tape. We 566 00:27:19,240 --> 00:27:21,519 tied jacket of round our waists and fixed the scoff 567 00:27:21,519 --> 00:27:24,880 around Mara's throat. She hissed when it touched her wet skin. 568 00:27:25,559 --> 00:27:28,720 My heart thudded a deliberate count in my chest. One too, 569 00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:31,759 one too. At two thirty, it hum deepened, and the 570 00:27:31,799 --> 00:27:35,400 fog pressed at the window like hands. We waited. The 571 00:27:35,519 --> 00:27:38,240 radiator clinbed in the next room. Mars sat on the 572 00:27:38,240 --> 00:27:41,000 couch and counted backwards and short bursts under her breath. 573 00:27:41,519 --> 00:27:44,440 I watched her joal work. She kept her voice low 574 00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:47,240 and steady. The counting was a ritual to hold panic 575 00:27:47,279 --> 00:27:50,240 at bay. At ree aim, we opened the door. The 576 00:27:50,279 --> 00:27:52,319 stairs smelled of damp paint and the salve. The air 577 00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:55,920 that seeped through the cracks the banister was slick. We 578 00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:59,079 moved down in single file, the blanket wrapped over our shoulders. 579 00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:01,759 My floss light cut a narrow cone through the haze. 580 00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:05,640 At the landing, something moved above us, The stairrow shuddered, 581 00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:08,240 and a thick, wet pressure pushed between the rails. The 582 00:28:08,279 --> 00:28:10,759 silwet climbed the stairs like a hand dragon cloth along 583 00:28:10,759 --> 00:28:13,319 a banister. It made a wet scraping that cold up 584 00:28:13,319 --> 00:28:16,359 through the soles of my feet. Marra cursed and stepped back. 585 00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:19,559 I grabbed the rail and felt drop to strike my wrist. 586 00:28:19,960 --> 00:28:22,039 The pressure and I head spiked into a white flare. 587 00:28:22,720 --> 00:28:27,119 My fingers went numb. Bah Maw. We tried the door 588 00:28:27,119 --> 00:28:30,000 and it stuck on swollen wood. The vog pressed against 589 00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:32,200 the glass in the stairwell window and made the pane bead. 590 00:28:32,880 --> 00:28:35,279 I shoved with my shoulder and the lock snapped. We 591 00:28:35,319 --> 00:28:37,519 spilled out into the corridor, and then the figures landed 592 00:28:37,519 --> 00:28:40,519 against the banister with a sound like wet plied hitting beam. 593 00:28:40,839 --> 00:28:43,480 It forced us apart. The scrip ran up my spine 594 00:28:43,519 --> 00:28:46,440 and my hands slipped on my flashlight. Mara reached for me, 595 00:28:46,480 --> 00:28:49,160 and I reached for Tom. The syrol became a field 596 00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:52,680 of pulling pressure. Something wrapped around Tom's ankle and pulled. 597 00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:55,720 I screamed his name, and the sound echoed as if 598 00:28:55,720 --> 00:28:58,319 the stairwell was a throat. He went limp and then 599 00:28:58,319 --> 00:29:01,079 snapped forward his you caught the air, and then he 600 00:29:01,160 --> 00:29:03,000 was gone over the railing into a shape of steam 601 00:29:03,039 --> 00:29:06,160 and falk. Marus screamed and then sounded like she had 602 00:29:06,200 --> 00:29:09,440 been struck. She pitched forward against the banister and hit 603 00:29:09,480 --> 00:29:13,039 her mouth. Blood came, her fingers dug into the wood. 604 00:29:13,680 --> 00:29:15,519 She solved my name in short purse, and there was 605 00:29:15,559 --> 00:29:17,839 a new hardness in her voice, now angered, that had 606 00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:21,039 no softest left. I lunged and got two fingers on 607 00:29:21,119 --> 00:29:24,640 his coat. This slid through as ifua fabric. I felt 608 00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:26,519 the cold tug at my finger tips, and then nothing. 609 00:29:27,079 --> 00:29:29,160 The recorder flew pocket and clipped the stair of rail 610 00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:31,839 before skittering on to the landing. I growled it back 611 00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:34,880 with shaking hands. The warmth of Tom's hand was gone 612 00:29:34,880 --> 00:29:38,000 from the jacket sterwell held only damp in the hum. 613 00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:40,240 It carried a thin replay of Tom's saying and a 614 00:29:40,279 --> 00:29:42,119 child's sing song in nick nam my dein never had 615 00:29:42,200 --> 00:29:44,960 used in years. And then as suctioning sigh, like some 616 00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:47,759 one inhaling through a wet cloth. Marus screamed and then 617 00:29:47,799 --> 00:29:49,839 screamed again, in a different register and an edge of 618 00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:52,720 blame that snapped like a wire. You waited, she said 619 00:29:52,759 --> 00:29:55,200 to me, he saw it, and you waited. Her words 620 00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:57,599 were sharp and immediate. Guilt folded over me and then 621 00:29:57,640 --> 00:30:01,000 dissolved into a white hotspock of panic. My fingers tightened, 622 00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:03,839 and the recorder so hard the case creaked. I tried 623 00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:06,079 to say something, and my mouth would not form words 624 00:30:06,079 --> 00:30:09,200 that could carry back what had happened. Her accusation hit 625 00:30:09,200 --> 00:30:10,960 the place where I paused when I first saw the 626 00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:12,960 face and chose not to ring every neighbor that night. 627 00:30:13,720 --> 00:30:16,240 It made the all a choice, tactile and shameful. I 628 00:30:16,319 --> 00:30:19,559 called you, I said, I you hesitated. She said. Her 629 00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:21,640 voice was precise. You can die whether it was worth 630 00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:25,279 risking us? That isn't he fair? I began. We traded 631 00:30:25,319 --> 00:30:27,640 three clip blind, and then Marrow's silence took the shape 632 00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:30,400 of a new resolution. She wrapped the blanket tight around 633 00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:33,920 her shoulders and forced herself upright. She spat a small sound, 634 00:30:34,079 --> 00:30:36,839 and then the air in strole shifted. The hum tuned 635 00:30:36,839 --> 00:30:39,559 itself into the sound of our own breathing. We dragged 636 00:30:39,599 --> 00:30:42,720 ourselves back up. The apartment door closed behind us like 637 00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:45,960 a final clake. Dawn paled the sky with a thin wash, 638 00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:48,160 and the fog thin to a low bank along the harbor. 639 00:30:48,839 --> 00:30:50,519 Mars sat on the floor and pressed an old keep 640 00:30:50,559 --> 00:30:53,279 between her teeth like a talisman. Blood dried at the 641 00:30:53,279 --> 00:30:56,079 corner of her mouth. She stared at the recorder in 642 00:30:56,119 --> 00:30:58,799 my hand. I want you to say everything, she said. 643 00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:01,920 Say what you say, all what you heard, what you felt. 644 00:31:02,839 --> 00:31:04,960 Say Tom's name and the way he laughed, and the 645 00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:09,200 way he walked. Leave the recorder running. I did. I 646 00:31:09,319 --> 00:31:11,839 narrated the stairwell, the scraping, the feeling of my fingers 647 00:31:11,839 --> 00:31:14,640 threw cold fog, Tom's shoes getting off the curb. I 648 00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:17,319 said how the radio imitated memory, and how the silhouhettest 649 00:31:17,319 --> 00:31:20,720 press faces. I described the smell of algie and rotten metal, 650 00:31:20,720 --> 00:31:22,759 and the way the hum vibrated the teeth in my jaw. 651 00:31:23,440 --> 00:31:25,599 My voice cracked, and I kept talking, saying it made 652 00:31:25,599 --> 00:31:29,039 the events real and fixed. The recorders read like kept blinking. 653 00:31:29,599 --> 00:31:32,480 At dawn, the fog drew back, and thin nervous tendrils 654 00:31:33,039 --> 00:31:35,079 the silhouette slid away to the edges of tan and 655 00:31:35,119 --> 00:31:37,839 pulled there in low shapes. Morrell lay back on the 656 00:31:37,839 --> 00:31:40,640 couch and closed her eyes. My hands were clenched into 657 00:31:40,640 --> 00:31:43,640 small fists, she had an injured look, not just from 658 00:31:43,640 --> 00:31:45,240 the hip to her mouth, but from the tug of 659 00:31:45,319 --> 00:31:48,799 something taken. We dialed emergency services with a neighbor's phone 660 00:31:48,839 --> 00:31:51,680 that actually worked. The operator said we would be put 661 00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:54,200 on a wait list and someone would call. We did 662 00:31:54,200 --> 00:31:56,759 not tell the officer everything. We left out that the 663 00:31:56,799 --> 00:31:59,559 fog spoke in voices we knew. We left out that 664 00:31:59,599 --> 00:32:03,880 phone's I near it. We gave concrete facts, a missing man, 665 00:32:04,039 --> 00:32:07,039 damp marks on every window, with the smell. The officer's 666 00:32:07,119 --> 00:32:10,240 voice was flat and procedural. He someone would check patrols 667 00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:13,359 along the coast. When the patrol car came idle at 668 00:32:13,359 --> 00:32:15,200 the end of a block and two officers walked up 669 00:32:15,200 --> 00:32:17,960 with jacket's button tight, They looked at the windows and 670 00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:21,039 at the scratch marks on the stair rail. They called 671 00:32:21,039 --> 00:32:24,720 it vandalism and organized some paperwork. They took our statements 672 00:32:24,720 --> 00:32:28,160 and wrote Dan Tom's name. One officer, young, with a 673 00:32:28,200 --> 00:32:30,640 spar cigarette behind his ear, rolled his eyes. When I 674 00:32:30,680 --> 00:32:33,440 tried to describe the hum you're right, he asked me. 675 00:32:34,079 --> 00:32:36,359 He used my name, Mafra. I had told it. His 676 00:32:36,440 --> 00:32:38,759 tone was the kind that assumed we were shaken, But Ouquet, 677 00:32:39,359 --> 00:32:42,160 I'm fine, I said, I wasn't at the recorder tacked 678 00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:44,119 in my jacket pocket, and the radio is still hummed 679 00:32:44,119 --> 00:32:46,920 faintly on the window sill. The officer nodded and then 680 00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:49,559 left with a form to file. After they left, the 681 00:32:49,599 --> 00:32:53,160 apartment was quiet but not safe. Marus slept in short bursts. 682 00:32:53,799 --> 00:32:56,119 I watched her mouth move sometimes and heard her whisper 683 00:32:56,160 --> 00:32:58,720 Tom's name in a soft loop. I checked the window 684 00:32:58,720 --> 00:33:01,039 where the face had been and found dry condensation lines. 685 00:33:01,640 --> 00:33:04,759 The recorder was full of the night's audio. My voice 686 00:33:04,799 --> 00:33:06,920 marrow as Tom's last half screamed the harm the radio 687 00:33:06,960 --> 00:33:10,359 repeating the same private phrases. Each playback made the impression 688 00:33:10,359 --> 00:33:13,279 of the event more concrete. Each playpack also made it 689 00:33:13,319 --> 00:33:15,400 clearer that something had learned the sounds that matted. I 690 00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:18,440 listened to the tape again and again. The recording contained 691 00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:21,400 a change I had not noticed live, a small, near 692 00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:23,759 silent voice under the hum that said, plainly, we pressed 693 00:33:23,759 --> 00:33:26,359 to learn. The voice was thin and wet and layer 694 00:33:26,400 --> 00:33:29,880 with static. Listening did not make me safer, it made 695 00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:32,920 the fact of what had happened more direct. Mara worked 696 00:33:32,920 --> 00:33:35,559 before dawn and found Tom's jacket folded over a chair 697 00:33:35,599 --> 00:33:37,920 where it had been idle. She pressed her hand to 698 00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:41,079 the fabrica, like apparent feeling a child's temperature. He never 699 00:33:41,160 --> 00:33:44,160 left this town, she said, Her voice was water thin. 700 00:33:44,839 --> 00:33:46,839 He'd walk to the docks in winter and bring back 701 00:33:46,880 --> 00:33:49,960 boxes of junk. She stores about how Tom would whittle 702 00:33:49,960 --> 00:33:52,640 wooden birds on slow nights and leave them on people's porches. 703 00:33:53,359 --> 00:33:55,519 She spoke of details I hadn't known, how he said 704 00:33:55,559 --> 00:33:57,160 sorry too soon, and how he kept a key ring 705 00:33:57,240 --> 00:33:59,960 with a single brass tag. The small stores made tell 706 00:34:00,119 --> 00:34:01,839 reel again in a way that the fog had erased. 707 00:34:01,880 --> 00:34:04,599 They also changed how we understood the night. The fog 708 00:34:04,640 --> 00:34:07,640 didn't tea only take. It imitated what it had been given. 709 00:34:08,320 --> 00:34:11,639 It replayed private things to make a path. That realization 710 00:34:11,760 --> 00:34:13,960 was a twist up forced us to reassess other choices. 711 00:34:14,639 --> 00:34:17,079 If it learned from memory and from voice, then leaving 712 00:34:17,079 --> 00:34:20,239 recorded traces was as dangerous as it was useful. We 713 00:34:20,320 --> 00:34:22,320 agreed to keep the recorder on and locked inside a 714 00:34:22,320 --> 00:34:24,519 cabinet with the radio on top of plain white noise 715 00:34:24,519 --> 00:34:26,760 all afternoon. We set a note on the door that 716 00:34:26,800 --> 00:34:28,639 read no entry and taped it with duct tape that 717 00:34:28,679 --> 00:34:31,400 had Tom's phone under the flappers. A weight. The note 718 00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:33,360 was a small, defined thing. It was a decision that 719 00:34:33,400 --> 00:34:36,679 grounded the next hours. While Neon, the fog had retreated 720 00:34:36,679 --> 00:34:38,800 to the waterfront, and the silhouettes gathered there like a 721 00:34:38,800 --> 00:34:42,159 slow congregation. They stood in a low line, occasionally leaning 722 00:34:42,159 --> 00:34:44,480 their faces out and pressing the glass of store fronts. 723 00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:48,119 People gathered at windows to look, some filmed from behind 724 00:34:48,159 --> 00:34:51,039 the safety of plate glass. The officers were back in 725 00:34:51,039 --> 00:34:54,079 pairs and kept distance. A news van idled at the corner, 726 00:34:54,159 --> 00:34:56,679 and a reporter spoke into a camera about a local phenomenon. 727 00:34:57,119 --> 00:34:59,360 I watched a life feed on my small battery TV 728 00:34:59,559 --> 00:35:01,039 and saw the the silhou which were produced in a 729 00:35:01,079 --> 00:35:04,639 grainy box. The twist came in the feed. A woman 730 00:35:04,679 --> 00:35:06,320 in the street called out the name, and the nearest 731 00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:09,559 silouet twisted and leaned toward the glass. The woman walked 732 00:35:09,559 --> 00:35:11,679 forward and then turned and left, as if she had 733 00:35:11,679 --> 00:35:14,519 remembered something she had been called away from. Later, a 734 00:35:14,519 --> 00:35:17,239 cyclist who had gone missing for five years reported long 735 00:35:17,280 --> 00:35:20,480 AGO's runaway was found in a side alley, shaking and incoherent. 736 00:35:21,039 --> 00:35:23,159 He spoke of lights and voices, telling him the harbor 737 00:35:23,239 --> 00:35:25,719 had been calling his name. The news cut between the 738 00:35:25,719 --> 00:35:27,239 shots and our building in a way that put a 739 00:35:27,280 --> 00:35:29,880 new rid. John would have been private. Fog could reach 740 00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:32,119 into memory and in a minute private cues, and it 741 00:35:32,159 --> 00:35:34,800 had used that ability to push Tom. Dusk came with 742 00:35:34,800 --> 00:35:37,280 the brutal clarity that made shadows fall long, and then 743 00:35:37,880 --> 00:35:39,760 we had to decide whether to stay or to try 744 00:35:39,800 --> 00:35:42,599 again for the lighthouse before the next night. The choice 745 00:35:42,599 --> 00:35:45,639 pulled between us. Mara wanted to leave town and find 746 00:35:45,639 --> 00:35:48,760 shelter inland. I wanted to gather with evidence we could 747 00:35:48,760 --> 00:35:51,679 and alert other towns. The decision then was not only 748 00:35:51,719 --> 00:35:54,199 about escaping. It was about whether we would take the 749 00:35:54,280 --> 00:35:57,280 risk of keeping the record and telling others. Marris stood 750 00:35:57,280 --> 00:35:59,159 and folded the blanket into the shape of a roll. 751 00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:01,559 She just the key into my palm and said, in 752 00:36:01,599 --> 00:36:04,119 a voice I recognized as steady, take the recorder and 753 00:36:04,119 --> 00:36:06,920 the radio, leave the tits in the cabinet, and burn 754 00:36:06,960 --> 00:36:11,440 anything that mentions names. Burn what I asked Tom's notes? 755 00:36:11,519 --> 00:36:14,039 She said, his list of whom he trusted and who 756 00:36:14,039 --> 00:36:16,599 he said to call, anything that would tell them where 757 00:36:16,639 --> 00:36:19,320 to look. We did not argue. We burned a list 758 00:36:19,320 --> 00:36:21,119 in the sink. I watched a paper coal black and 759 00:36:21,119 --> 00:36:24,559 fat with ash. The smoke smelled like burned blue. The 760 00:36:24,639 --> 00:36:26,920 recorder's red light sat on the sill, and one final 761 00:36:26,920 --> 00:36:29,840 whisper echoed through the apartment, a soft free play of 762 00:36:29,840 --> 00:36:32,480 Tom's laugh, and then a silence that rolled through the walls. 763 00:36:33,199 --> 00:36:35,239 At twilight, as a fog thinned to a bank beyond 764 00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:37,440 the pier, I set the recorder face upon the window 765 00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:40,199 sill and left it running. Morra sat a second radio 766 00:36:40,239 --> 00:36:42,119 on a low white noise band and slid it sword 767 00:36:42,159 --> 00:36:44,840 hum under the other sound. She sat down and pressed 768 00:36:44,880 --> 00:36:47,840 her palms together. Her fingers were still marked with Tom's 769 00:36:47,840 --> 00:36:50,400 finger prints from where she had held him. She rubbed 770 00:36:50,400 --> 00:36:53,159 the collises with her thumb. I spoke into the recorder 771 00:36:53,199 --> 00:36:55,480 one last time, with a voice steady enough to be understood. 772 00:36:56,159 --> 00:36:58,519 I said the facts, names, times, what we had seen 773 00:36:58,559 --> 00:37:01,039 and done. I said the things we had learned about 774 00:37:01,039 --> 00:37:03,920 mimicry and the danger of audible memory. I told it 775 00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:06,679 not to be sensational. I told it to be practical. 776 00:37:07,199 --> 00:37:09,199 I listed street names in the time the hum began. 777 00:37:09,880 --> 00:37:13,239 Each sentence was short, Each sentence was a claim against 778 00:37:13,239 --> 00:37:16,199 whatever had happened. When I finished, I reached for the 779 00:37:16,280 --> 00:37:18,239 radio and turned the dial until there was nothing but 780 00:37:18,280 --> 00:37:20,920 static in a thin pitch. The room filled with the 781 00:37:20,920 --> 00:37:23,880 blanket sound. The hum beyond the windows receded to a 782 00:37:23,920 --> 00:37:27,840 distant thread. Mara closed her eyes. She counted, this time 783 00:37:27,880 --> 00:37:30,119 a lot in slow spaced numbers, and accounting anchored her 784 00:37:30,239 --> 00:37:32,840 like a rope. We agreed on one last rule before 785 00:37:32,880 --> 00:37:35,400 I left to walk the block with the recorder. No 786 00:37:35,440 --> 00:37:37,679 one answered a voice that sounded like a person we knew. 787 00:37:38,239 --> 00:37:40,599 No one looked closely at a face that matched the memories. 788 00:37:41,199 --> 00:37:42,920 We would not let the fog use our past to 789 00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:45,480 claim us. I locked the door and put the key 790 00:37:45,480 --> 00:37:47,960 on the window. Still under the radio, I took one 791 00:37:48,039 --> 00:37:49,840 last look at the spot where the living room winders 792 00:37:49,880 --> 00:37:52,679 still showed a faint ring of try condensation. The face 793 00:37:52,719 --> 00:37:54,840 marked a narrow streak running down from where we had 794 00:37:54,840 --> 00:37:57,559 touched a pane. It looked like a finger print gone wrong. 795 00:37:58,159 --> 00:37:59,719 I kept my hand in the knob and felt the 796 00:37:59,719 --> 00:38:03,159 colm outside. The streets meled like salt and old rope, 797 00:38:03,199 --> 00:38:05,000 and the fab lay at the harbor like a pale wall. 798 00:38:05,639 --> 00:38:08,280 I walked slowly, the recorder heavy in my palm. I 799 00:38:08,400 --> 00:38:11,559 kept telling myself the next steps document worn avoid direct 800 00:38:11,559 --> 00:38:15,119 contact with recorded voices. My fear had shivered twice that night, 801 00:38:15,199 --> 00:38:17,880 first into paralysis, then into her heart focused resolved that 802 00:38:17,960 --> 00:38:20,519 drove me to act. I felt both panic and a 803 00:38:20,559 --> 00:38:24,000 strange numbness in my hands. The recorder clicked as I walked. 804 00:38:24,599 --> 00:38:26,679 A girl cried above, and its sound was real and 805 00:38:26,679 --> 00:38:29,519 sepparate from the layered mimics. At the corner, a woman 806 00:38:29,559 --> 00:38:32,519 held her child close. The child's face was turned to 807 00:38:32,559 --> 00:38:34,599 the harbor, and the silhouette theared his palm flat to 808 00:38:34,639 --> 00:38:37,079 the glass of a store front. The child waved, and 809 00:38:37,119 --> 00:38:39,679 for a second the silhwet mimicked the small motion. The 810 00:38:39,760 --> 00:38:42,599 child looked up, surprised. The mother pulled the child in 811 00:38:42,639 --> 00:38:45,599 and whispered something I couldn't hear. She had a child's name, 812 00:38:45,639 --> 00:38:48,920 and then pushed her away. I kept walking. I went 813 00:38:48,960 --> 00:38:50,719 to Tom's last nun spot and found one of his 814 00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:54,000 wooden birds lying in the gutter, soaked but intact. I 815 00:38:54,039 --> 00:38:55,519 picked it up and felt the grain of a wood 816 00:38:55,519 --> 00:38:58,039 bide into my palm. The bird's beak had been chewed 817 00:38:58,079 --> 00:39:00,639 slightly at the tip. I put it in my pocket. 818 00:39:01,119 --> 00:39:03,119 It was a small, stubborn piece of the life Tom 819 00:39:03,159 --> 00:39:05,960 had before the fog pressed him when I returned. Mara 820 00:39:06,039 --> 00:39:08,440 had the recorder's case open and the radio faced end. 821 00:39:09,079 --> 00:39:10,719 She met me in the doorway and did not speak 822 00:39:10,719 --> 00:39:13,360 for a long moment. A mouse set in a line. 823 00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:16,159 Then she said, we bury what matters, and we tell 824 00:39:16,199 --> 00:39:19,760 the rest to strangers. I nodded. We recorded an our 825 00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:22,000 cavel copy and then a safety copy, and then slapped 826 00:39:22,039 --> 00:39:23,719 duct tape over the cabinet with the word do not 827 00:39:23,760 --> 00:39:26,760 open written in pencil. We left instruction sealed in an 828 00:39:26,840 --> 00:39:28,880 envelope for anyone who might find the tapes and know 829 00:39:28,960 --> 00:39:31,519 what to do. Dawn came, and the fog stayed back 830 00:39:31,519 --> 00:39:34,159 at the harbor, humming like an ocean machine. It had 831 00:39:34,199 --> 00:39:36,159 taken Tom and a few others, but it had also 832 00:39:36,159 --> 00:39:38,800 taught us the cost of being remembered. The lesson sat 833 00:39:38,840 --> 00:39:41,440 heavy in my stomach. I set the recorder on the 834 00:39:41,440 --> 00:39:43,679 cell with the radio humming under it, and pressed stop. 835 00:39:44,239 --> 00:39:47,440 The recorder's rad light went out. I labeled the cassette 836 00:39:47,440 --> 00:39:50,360 with a ballpoint pen tape two do not share names. 837 00:39:51,039 --> 00:39:53,280 Mara pinned it to the inside of the cabinet and 838 00:39:53,320 --> 00:39:56,239 then slaughtered the key behind it. She opened her mouth 839 00:39:56,239 --> 00:39:59,199 to say something, and then closed it instead. She folded 840 00:39:59,199 --> 00:40:02,280 her hands and excited. The exhale was a practical sound. 841 00:40:02,920 --> 00:40:04,639 She walked to the window and pressed her forehead to 842 00:40:04,639 --> 00:40:07,519 the glass, not in revery, but in measurement, feeling the 843 00:40:07,559 --> 00:40:09,760 coal pane, feeling the place where Tom's weight had shifted 844 00:40:09,760 --> 00:40:12,000 the night he was taken. The window held the faint 845 00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:15,079 smear of his outlines. Still. When the patrol returned later 846 00:40:15,159 --> 00:40:17,639 that day with canvas and official forms, we handed them 847 00:40:17,639 --> 00:40:20,320 a tight statement in the names of streets. We did 848 00:40:20,320 --> 00:40:22,760 not hand them the tape. Weed m the truth as 849 00:40:22,760 --> 00:40:24,519 far as we could, without telling them how to call 850 00:40:24,559 --> 00:40:27,039 some one by their old laugh. The officer who took 851 00:40:27,039 --> 00:40:29,639 the statement was a different man from the first. He 852 00:40:29,679 --> 00:40:31,239 looked at the smear on the pane and made a 853 00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:33,559 note he was send some one to check the pier 854 00:40:33,559 --> 00:40:36,199 at first light. Night came again, and the fog grows 855 00:40:36,199 --> 00:40:38,679 slow from the water. It hummed like a machine some 856 00:40:38,679 --> 00:40:40,960 one had left running. Mars slept with her coat on 857 00:40:41,239 --> 00:40:44,119 and the blanket wrapped around her knees. I left the 858 00:40:44,159 --> 00:40:46,199 recorder on the window sill, with a small pillow under 859 00:40:46,199 --> 00:40:48,199 the tape, so that if the radio vibrated it would 860 00:40:48,239 --> 00:40:50,880 not fall. I slipped the wooden bird onto the recorder 861 00:40:50,960 --> 00:40:53,519 like a talisman, and left the room slight low. I 862 00:40:53,559 --> 00:40:55,519 am writing this now, with the recorder open and the 863 00:40:55,639 --> 00:40:58,079 radio low. The hum has a shape. I can point 864 00:40:58,079 --> 00:40:59,880 to a name. The fog still waits at the edges. 865 00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:02,599 I cannot promise it will stop. I can only tell 866 00:41:02,639 --> 00:41:05,159 the facts I have. The face is pressed to glass. 867 00:41:05,199 --> 00:41:07,360 The way the sound imitates what it learns. The danger 868 00:41:07,360 --> 00:41:10,440 of answering a voice he recognize. We burned Tom's list. 869 00:41:11,159 --> 00:41:12,679 We kept a safe to copy of the tape and 870 00:41:12,760 --> 00:41:15,800 hid it. We taped a note on the cabinet with instructions. 871 00:41:16,440 --> 00:41:18,280 We agreed not to leave the building again to night. 872 00:41:18,960 --> 00:41:21,440 When dawn touched the water, I watched the silhouette slide 873 00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:24,519 away to the harbor and fold like pages. Marris sat 874 00:41:24,559 --> 00:41:26,119 on the couch and wrenched the key from her pocket 875 00:41:26,159 --> 00:41:29,039 and thunder until the metal was warm. She we keep 876 00:41:29,079 --> 00:41:32,159 this quiet, We keep the tape safe. We call the 877 00:41:32,199 --> 00:41:35,920 patrol if anything else movesing close. I nodded. My fear 878 00:41:35,960 --> 00:41:38,039 has shifted into watch from this and a tired resolve. 879 00:41:38,639 --> 00:41:40,400 I will keep this recording, and I will keep the 880 00:41:40,480 --> 00:41:43,000 radio one white noise. I will not let the fog 881 00:41:43,079 --> 00:41:45,280 use names to call. I will not let it learn 882 00:41:45,320 --> 00:41:47,000 the way we say each other's names and the sound 883 00:41:47,039 --> 00:41:50,039 of our small private faults. I will press this recorder 884 00:41:50,079 --> 00:41:52,039 face down on the sill and let the hump pass. 885 00:41:52,079 --> 00:41:55,440 By Morrow reached up, locked the dead bolt, and set 886 00:41:55,440 --> 00:41:57,440 the recorder face down on the sill, while the fog 887 00:41:57,480 --> 00:42:00,360 thin toward the harbor. And then she whispered tom name 888 00:42:00,400 --> 00:42:03,519 wants into the empty room. And that is the end. 889 00:42:04,079 --> 00:42:05,800 Thank you for listening, and I will see you in 890 00:42:05,840 --> 00:42:09,239 the next one.