Izzy

"I need your help," Izzy said, bursting into the library study room. She dropped her backpack on the floor with a thud and collapsed into a chair.

Caleb barely looked up from his Calculus textbook. "I know," he said, scribbling down an equation in his notebook. "That's why you're here, isn't it? It's kind of the point."

"Not that kind of help," she said."It's not about math. You're... you know a lot about computers, right?"

Caleb looked up and ran a hand through his unruly brown hair. He sighed. "I'm not changing a grade if that's what you're after. I'm here to help you study, not cheat."

"Who's cheating, and how can I get in on it?" Brie asked, appearing with a grin. "Though you should've closed the door if you're trying to keep it quiet." She kicked it shut behind her.

"No one is cheating!" Caleb said.

"Yet," Brie said with a laugh as she slid into the seat beside Izzy. "What's up?"

Of course Brie would show up early for the first time ever since Izzy needed to talk to Caleb alone. It's not that she didn't like Brie. She just didn't know her all that well. Brie was friendly and fun, always wanting to joke around. She was pretty, too, in a sporty kind of way, with her dark chin-length hair that looked so perfectly layered and sloppy that it just had to be an expensive cut. Izzy started working with them a couple weeks ago after her math grade took an immediate nosedive at the start of the school year.

"No one is cheating," Izzy reasserted. She took a breath to say something but then hesitated.

"Then what's the emergency?" Caleb asked. He removed his glasses and cleaned the lens with the edge of his dark blue shirt. "What do you need help with? Is there another test tomorrow? Because I've prepared a unit review for you guys, so don't stress out about it."

He slid his glasses back on as Brie groaned.

"Is there a test tomorrow? God, I am so dead. I hate Algebra 2," she said.

"There's no test," Izzy said. "At least, I don't think so?" She wouldn't have known anyway, since she'd been so distracted all day. Her mind raced, replaying the events from last night over and over again. What happened after she ran off? She hadn't heard a word from James or Austin. She kept texting and calling their phones, but her texts went unread, and the calls straight to voicemail.

After returning home, she'd pulled up the live stream recording on her phone. The end was terrifying, shaky and loud with all the wind and the screaming. The lights flashed on and off before they just vanished right as the feed cut off. And that face in the darkness... she didn't even want to think about it. What happened to them? For all she knew, they could be in real danger, and here she was, lounging around in a wood-paneled library study room, having a tutoring lesson after school like everything was totally fine.

"Neither of you know? Seriously?" Caleb's voice cut through her racing thoughts. "Give me that syllabus," he said to Brie.

"Just let me find it first," she said. She dug through her bag, yanking papers, books, and clothing free while tossing them all into a messy pile.

"How do you find anything in there?" Caleb asked.

"Leave me alone," Brie said, dropping a rainbow flip-flop on the table. "You do things your way, and I'll do things mine."

Caleb picked up the flip-flop. "Really?"

Brie snatched it back. "Thank God! I've been looking for that."

"That's exactly my point," Caleb said with a sigh. "Your biggest problem is disorganization, not your low math grade."

"My parents would disagree-"

"My friends are missing, and I think something bad happened to them," Izzy blurted.

They stopped arguing and stared at her.

"What?" Caleb asked.

"All of them?" Brie asked.

"No, of course not. Two guys I know," Izzy said. "I need help finding them."

Caleb and Brie shared a quick look. "I don't understand. What do you want me to do about it?" he asked, slouching back in his chair.

"Well, first I need you to watch a video. They were in the middle of a live stream when they vanished. I need to know what you think, and I need your help taking the video down."

"Why would you want to take it down?" Caleb asked. "Is it graphic? I don't want to look at it if it's disturbing."

"It's not graphic," Izzy said, "but it's weird. Please. Just watch it and you'll understand."

"I'll watch it," Brie said.

"Listen, I am getting paid to help you with your Algebra grades, and that's what we're going to do," Caleb said as he handed the syllabus back to Brie. He grabbed her Algebra 2 textbook from the pile. "The test isn't until next week, but we can start the review today."

"But-"

"No buts!" Caleb said. "First, math. And then, if there's time, I'll watch your stupid video."

"I can't focus," Izzy protested. "My stomach's all tied up in a knot and It's like I've been floating through some kind of horrible dream all day."

"Nightmare," Brie chimed in.

"Yeah, nightmare. Whatever. The point is that all I can think about is what happened last night, and what could be happening right now while I'm wasting the entire afternoon in the library."

"Then go see the cops if it's that serious," Caleb said. "I still don't get what you want me to do about it. How would I even take that video down? Besides, math is never a waste of time."

"I can't!" Izzy said. "Because..."

"Oooh," Brie said, "Is it illegal? You guys were doing something illegal, weren't you?"

"No," Izzy said."Well, maybe, just a bit."

"Then I definitely don't want to see it," Caleb said. "I'm not interested in scrubbing evidence or becoming an accessory to a crime."

"An accessory to a crime!" Brie snorted. "I don't care. I definitely want to see it now."

"It's not a serious crime!" Izzy said. "Ok, so we might have been trespassing. And maaaaybe there was some mild breaking and entering, but the building's abandoned. Caleb, please. Please just watch the very end."

He shook his head. "I'm not watching this. If you're both refusing to work today, then I'm out of here. You're still getting charged, though." He shoved the Algebra 2 textbook toward Brie and stood up.

"Let me see it at least," Brie said as Izzy pulled up the video on her phone.

"Here, I'll skip to the end."

"Is that the old mental hospital?" Brie asked, looking over Izzy's shoulder. "I hear it's haunted.'

Caleb froze for a split second, then he hurriedly gathered his papers.

"Exactly. That's why we were there. James and Austin, those are my friends, they had been looking into the ghost stories and rumors of disappearances." She passed the phone to Brie.

"Wait", Caleb said, shoving his Calculus textbook into his backpack. "You guys broke in? You need to see the police. I bet there's a bunch of drug addicts there, and your friends could be in serious trouble."

"Oh my God!" Brie said, staring at the phone. "What the hell is that?"

"Right?" Izzy asked.

"And what about their parents? They must be worried sick," Caleb said as he walked toward the door.

"They don't have parents," Izzy said. "At least none that care. They met on the streets or something."

"Your friends are homeless?!" he said with his hand on the door handle. "Fantastic."

"Not anymore. They have a van."

"Oh, all right, then," Caleb said. "That totally makes it okay. Take it to the cops." He shook his head and opened the door. "This is the end. I am going. I am leaving now."

She spun around to face Caleb fully. "No! It's not okay! That's what I've been saying. I need your help because no one else is going to find them. Nobody else cares. We can't go to the cops because we weren't supposed to be in that building in the first place. They're not going to take the disappearance of a couple of homeless teenagers seriously, anyway." She dropped her eyes. "Look, something strange is going on in that building, and I'm afraid what could happen if I show this to too many people."

"I thought you said they weren't homeless," Caleb said.

Izzy's eyes went wide. "Wait, what did you just say?"

"That I thought you said they weren't homeless."

"No, before that," Izzy said, staring at him.

"What? That I'm leaving?"

"What. The. Hell. It's like they're just gone," Brie said, backing up the stream again. "They completely disappeared." She looked up at Izzy. "How many people have seen this?"

Izzy shrugged. "Not that many. The live stream was a bonus for their supporters. It's the first time they've done a private stream like this, so they only had a couple dozen people log in to watch it live behind the paywall. I've just shown it to you and that's it."

"I don't understand? What happened there at the end?" Brie asked.

Caleb clenched his jaw and held out his hand. "Give me the phone."

Brie paused it and backed it up again before passing it to Caleb. "Is this a joke? Are you pranking us?"

"I barely know you guys, why would I prank you?"

As Caleb watched the video, he shook his head. "They have to be pranking you then. That or they wanted an exciting ending for the live stream. Those guys just vanished. It's impossible."

"That's what I thought at first, but slow it down," Izzy said. "Besides, if it was a setup, they would have reappeared after."

Caleb slowed the playback speed and watched it again. Izzy leaned over his shoulder.

"There!" she said. "Right there! What is that?"

Frozen in the middle of the frame was a dark, semi-transparent entity with two dark orbs for eyes. It appeared right behind Austin before a black fog covered the screen and the feed cut out.

"What do you know about the entity in the hospital?" she asked Caleb. "It's your podcast that brought them here, isn't it?"

Caleb slowly closed the door. He lowered his bag back into the chair and narrowed his blue eyes as he faced Izzy. "What podcast?"

"Yours. Right, Caleb? Or should I call you Aquaman 2001?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he said evenly.

"I think you do," Izzy said, narrowing her blue eyes.

"Ok, it's been a great session," Brie said, hastily shoving things back into her backpack. "But I gotta run."

"Sit!" he said. "You're not going anywhere until we've come to some kind of an agreement." Brie slid meekly into a chair, and Caleb turned back to Izzy. "But first, tell me everything you know about Aquaman 2001."