THE PRESENT

Tonight, Liv Tandy broke one of her many self-prescribed rules. Without thinking about the repercussions, she answered a call from an unknown number. It was a lapse in judgement she regretted immediately.

"Hello?" While waiting for a response, she reminded herself not to say the word yes while on the call. She'd read about this; one innocuous word spoken to the wrong person could result in financial ruin. All a scammer had to do was record her affirmation and then use it to claim she'd consented to something she hadn't.

"You probably don't remember who I am." The caller had a deep voice, but it lilted up at the end of his sentence, as if he had forgotten his own identity and was hoping she'd clue him in.

"You'll have to give me a bit more information."

"Right." He let out a nervous laugh then cleared his throat. "I'm Graham. Graham Victor."

Not a scammer then, but possibly worse. Liv's hands began to tremble. She placed her phone on top of her fifties vintage linoleum table to avoid dropping it. Graham Victor calling her was neither something she'd expected nor a pleasant development.

"I'm Helina's brother."

"I know who you are." She tapped a shaking hand against her chest in hopes it would calm her racing heart. One two three. One two three. "What's this about?"

"It's about my sister." He drew out the last word like its two syllables were meant to be uttered in a sacred space. A sister, a shrine, consecrated ground. "This is going to be hard to explain."

She didn't doubt that. Anything to do with Helina tended to be complicated, and in Liv's opinion, also had a tendency to veer towards the less-than-holy. Liv slumped into one of her mismatched kitchen chairs. She stared at her phone while Graham spoke, but it was like listening to a physician detail treatment options after handing out a life-threatening diagnosis. Everything following the words "she's missing" lost meaning.

"And so, that's when I thought to call you, Liv."

At the sound of her name, Liv's attention bubbled back up to the surface. She'd heard him, but the context for what he said had been lost on her. "Why?"

A shuffling sound emanated from the phone, like Graham was moving around, possibly opening a door. "I'm in her room now. She's got all this equipment. You can imagine."

Yes, Liv could imagine. She'd seen it before and had some of the same tech herself.

"What does this have to do with me?"

"You have more knowledge about this stuff. Way more than I do. I mean, she taught me some things, but I'm no expert."

"Neither am I."

"Come on," he said in a light tone, as though he assumed she was joking. "I saw all the videos. You know your shit."

"I made those a long time ago." Almost as long ago as the last time she'd spoken to Helina. "I don't see how they could possibly apply now."

He cleared his throat again. "I'm not explaining myself very well, am I?"

"It's understandable. You're under a lot of stress." She tried to infuse her words with empathy, but they came out sounding flatter than she'd intended. Her emotions had been redirected and she wasn't sure Graham Victor warranted her rerouting them.

"No one is taking this seriously." His voice rose. "What's even worse is that I can't tell them what really happened to her."

Liv continued to tap over her palpitating heart. "Are you saying you know what happened?"

"Yes! I think so. But I don't fully understand it. If you just came over and looked at all of this."

"I can't just come over, Graham. I'm two thousand miles away."

"It's a four hour flight. If it's the money that's the issue, I can pay for it."

"You're missing my point." His casual assumption that she'd drop everything because her former-best friend had gone AWOL irked her. "Helina and I haven't spoken in four years."

"She loved you, though." He paused. "Shit. Loves you. Present tense. She still talks about you all the time."

"That's hard to believe." If Graham thought involving Liv in this situation was a good idea, Helina must have glossed over quite a few details regarding their past.

"It's true. And now she needs your help. You're the only person that I can think of who can... I don't know, piece together these clues."

"If she's really missing, why aren't the police investigating?"

"I told you, they aren't taking her disappearance seriously. They believe she left voluntarily. Even our parents think she's off having some time to herself. Like she's just gone to the ocean for a few days, and she'll be back in time for Dad's birthday party next week."

"Why don't you believe that?"

"Because, she wouldn't have left without telling me." A banging sound from his end of the line made her jump.

"Sorry, I just dropped a bunch of files. She left a mess here." His voice competed with scuffling sounds. "Besides, the clues suggest otherwise."

"What clues?"

"If you could just come here, I could show them to you. Please, Liv."

Please Liv. He sounded so much like his sister. Liv scrambled for a reason to turn him down.

"I've got work." True but also not really an excuse. Never taking time off for the past four years meant a lot of banked vacation days. Just this past week, her supervisor had urged her to take leave, citing a universal need for everyone to recharge away from work. Like so many things in life, this universality didn't seem to apply to Liv.

"I'm scared for her, Liv."

"Look, Helina's done this before. Gone off on her own. I'm sure she's fine." Eying the bottle of whiskey on her kitchen counter, Liv consoled herself with the knowledge that she'd get to drink herself to sleep as soon as this call ended.

"It's different this time."

Her foot started to tap the way it did when she'd had too much coffee. Helina had once told her she was like a hummingbird, a foot or a hand always wanting to move faster than the eye could track. She forced her limbs to still and tried to imagine Helina at the beach, shoes off, feet immersed in a tidal pool.

"Ok. Tell me what you think happened to her and then I'll decide if I can help."

Dead air.

She looked at her phone to see if the call had been disconnected, but it was still active. "Hello?"

"I'm here," he said. "I know how this is going to sound. It's why I couldn't tell the police or say it out loud to anyone besides you. And even with you, I'm afraid of what you'll think."

"Say it then. If you want my help, you might have to resort to sounding like a fool."

Another pause.

"My sister... she figured out something. Something monumental. But I think it might have cost her."

Cost her? Liv balled her hands into fists. No one understood the price one could pay for their own curiosity as much as Liv did.

"What did she do?"

"It's not so much what she did, but what happened next. What they did to her."

She got up and circled around her table, grabbed a shot glass from a cabinet and opened the bottle, ready to pour. "Who's they in this scenario?"

"Okay, I'm just going to say it. It was ghosts. She opened a door, and they used the opportunity to take her."

Liv sucked in a breath and held it for a few beats. Four years of research. Countless hours. Almost the same amount of time trying to forget.

Lifting the bottle, she filled her glass, then knocked it back into her throat. Warmth spread through her. Her heart steadied.

This time, it was Graham who needed to check that she was still on the line. "Liv?"

Poring another shot, she readied her response.

"I want to be certain I'm understanding you. Are you telling me you believe ghosts abducted your sister?"

"Ghosts. Or spirits. Maybe demons. I don't know what they are, but yes, they took her."

"Graham..."

"You have to believe me!"

"What if I don't? What happens if I won't help?"

"Then Helina is doomed," he said, "because you're the only one who can get her back."