Rafael Cruz

'The footage is corrupted,' Mrs. Pratt says. Her voice sounds wrong. 'Look. There's a blur here. And here. And here. Like something is erasing itself.…

I rewind it. Play it again. Same thing. The pumpkin rolls. No hands. I look at Mrs. Pratt. 'That's not how physics works.' Mrs. Pratt closes her phone…

Mr. Okafor is already at the gate when I turn around. Just standing there. Staring at his empty plot. His hands are in his pockets. He hasn't noticed …

I measure it out with my steps. Thirty-seven paces. Too far. It didn't roll. Someone carried it. Someone strong carried Mr. Okafor's prize pumpkin acr…

Carol appeared at the basement stairs. "You've been in here an hour," she said. "You read the journal." I turned to face her. "You've already decided.…

The house sits on the bluff above Saltcreek. One story, weathered, shutters half-closed. The mailbox says "CURRENT RESIDENT" but the deed says it's be…

I dug into the claims. Different people filed each one. Names: Martin Cole, Sue Roth, David Kim. But the damage descriptions—identical. Same inspector…

I flip to the inside cover and write it big: 'WHO ARE YOU?' Then, smaller: 'Your notes are better than the book. And this is my favorite book.' I put …

The place two blocks over really does let you sit for hours. We test it. They defend their take on the ending for twenty solid minutes. They're wrong.…

A week goes by. Then two. The box fills with cookbooks and a phone manual. No blue pen. Fine. It was a stranger. It was nothing. Week three, my book i…

Two days later the book is back. Every note answered. Under my 'Your move' they wrote: 'Okay. New rules. You pick the next book. Anything. I'll read w…

The poll ended 9 to 5. YES. Nine strangers believed in me. Uncle Tariq: "Fine. But if this goes like the fruit, you're finished." Sunday, I walked in …

Uncle Tariq: "Admit it, Bilal. New number, same tricks. Last Eid you 'lost your phone' when it was your turn to bring drinks." Me: "I am genuinely a s…

The man behind the counter came back looking sick. "Twenty-three pictures," he said. "They're all the same." Every photo was our family, sleeping. Dif…

Me: "mom, it's still IN the chat. it can read everything we say." The second I sent that, the gray circle messaged me privately. "Your mother is lying…

Dad followed the ticking to the attic. We crowded behind him with our phone flashlights. It was in a shoebox of old baby clothes. Grandpa's watch. Tic…

Sam started crying. Mom turned the wifi off at the wall, like that would do anything. The gray circle posted one more time: "New rule. Nobody leaves t…

The gray circle: "Tell your dad I like his slippers." Dad screamed. We all burst out of our rooms at once — and the hallway was empty. Dad stood alone…

Dad spun around. We heard him yell "WHO'S THERE" right through the floor. Dad: "nothing. there's nothing here." The gray circle: "He's looking too low…

Vesna couldn't help it. Halfway up the first slope, out of Doru's sight, she knelt by the sled and pried up a corner of the nearest crate lid with her…

There was no time to outrun it. The snow swept the sled away and rolled Vesna down the mountain in a roaring white tumble. She came to rest in the dar…

Two hours up, a light flicked on across the valley, then another. Lanterns. Someone was following her tracks in the snow, moving fast and in a line. T…

I knocked the name cards off the table and turned to leave. The footprints on the floor had multiplied, leading every direction at once, and the stair…

Instead of filming, I followed the kitchen out into a hallway. My lamp found a staircase going up, the steps strangely free of mud. Most of Hesper was…

I froze, and that was my mistake. The four faceless figures crossed the kitchen without seeming to move, and the nearest one pressed its smooth face t…

I knelt by the small plate on the floor. Scratched into the dried silt beside it was one word: STAY. My air gauge clicked in my ear. When I looked up,…

Vesna sees it too late. The woman is lying to make her drop her guard. The numbers were a trap all along, looping her right into Calder's last revenge…

Vesna stops waiting. Under the table she thumbs the small device in her coat, the one that crushes a single second flat. She locks onto Calder's timel…

Calder lets go of whatever was under the table. "You think the target is each other," he says. "It isn't. The second we're both fighting over belongs …

Mira pressed the last key. The eleven notes shot out into the dark like a signal, racing back through three winters to a cold girl on the steps who ne…