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It was slow going in the dark I didn’t dare turn a light on, not with the chance that the backyard was full of sleepwalkers, and so I worked my way around by feel When I discovered the butcher’s block I pulled out a cleaver, holding it in one hand while I continued to feelwith the other I’d be more likely to cut myself than anyone else, but it made me feel a little bit better to at least have the potential to defend myself

Ten minutes later, I had found a bunch of half-rotten bananas and a loaf of moldy bread, but no phone I ht haven of the bathroo pictureseeht that contained who-knohat My search turned up no phone here either I winced Apparently,in the house, cut off but potentially safe, or going out into the world with no idea where I was or how far I would have to travel to get back to the bowling alley I’d be able to see any sleepwalkers better if I waited for daylight, but sleepwalkers had to sleep too Were theythe day?

I didn’t know Nobody knew That was the proble tothat safety for a whole new kind of danger Maybe I really was a wi

There was still one door I hadn’t tried I stepped through the other exit from the front room, and stopped It was an entryway, as I had suspected It was also the access to the stairs That was more of a surprise, and for a ly is to carry me to the second floor

If the people who lived here had been killed by sleepwalkers, they wouldn’t have had ti with them Even if there wasn’t a landline, there could be cellphones in the dark upstairs, little electronicfor me to find theripped the banister, and began pullingstep at a time, toward the second floor

It took what felt like an hour for me to climb the twenty or so steps between the entryway and the upstairs hall When I finally ran out of steps I collapsed forward, landing on e to curl into a ball and cry until the pain stopped Every muscle I had from the waist down felt like it was on fire The dru to worry that Sherery that was intended to keep ht up here: either the curtains were drawn, or there were no s in the hall, leavingthrown back into the vent, only this tihs stopped I pulledup the cleaver fro forward into the dark Iinto anything My hand found a wall I followed it to an open door A search of the roohtly less dark than the hall, thanks to a s The next room was much the same, as was the one after it, until I’d searched the entire back of the house without finding what I needed

The first door on the other side of the hall was closed I stopped before turning the doorknob, pressing ns that I wasn’t alone in the house I didn’t hear anything I turned the knob and pushed the door slowly open The room on the other side was utterly destroyed, but what I could pick out through the light filtering in froed to a teenage girl: everything was frilly and pale, washed out so that I couldn’t tell its original color Most of it was also broken, thrown to the floor and crushed by sory hand The tattered remains of posters still blanketed the walls, and ater remained in the fish tank near the bed was foul and dark with mold I noted all this dispassionately, the bulk of est fixture:

The

It was closed, rendering the roo had been left in here to rot, but the light seeping in froood view of the street I could find out whether it was safe forfor a pay phone I stepped into the roo moaned in the dark It was a sso stiff that it pulled at the woundedI bita sound and turned, as slowly as I could, to face the farthest corner of the rooht As I peered into the corner, it began slowly resolving fro, broken pillar was a piece of the bed Those softfoul And the skeletal collection of joints and angles in the , eyes sunk deep into a skull that was barely contained by a thin panel of tight-stretched skin, hair almost coender: it was naked, but so huddled over that it could have been ure was clearly on the verge of death, having been locked in this roo that its body had already cannibalized every useful bit of tissue that it could without shutting down essential systee person to starve to death, or how big this one had been when the door shut and the food stopped coer