JUNE 28, 2018, 2:34 AM
Liam sits on his bed in one of Mrs. Popova’s rooms. He rakes a hand through his hair.
LIAM: Hey, Mum. Here’s your daily message, as commanded. I can’t sleep. Still. So that’s fun. Dr. Kapoor doesn’t want me here. Still. So that’s also fun.
He sighs and looks away from the camera, toward the window. He frowns.
LIAM: Hold on. Someone’s out there.
He walks to the window. The camera captures his face from below as he peers into the mist. Then he mutters something and switches to record with the rear-facing camera.
A figure walks past the window—a young woman, indistinct in the mist. She pauses directly in front of Liam and looks toward him, her features obscured.
LIAM: Sophia? What is she—
The girl walks away swiftly.
LIAM: She shouldn’t be out there.
He moves quickly, dashing out of his room and down the hall. The backdoor gapes open. Liam swears and pauses to shove his feet into his boots.
LIAM: Just my luck if the new girl falls and breaks her neck on the first night. And it’ll be my fault somehow, I guarantee you . . .
He jogs out into the mist.
LIAM: Sophia? Sophia, are you out here?
The mist is growing thinner, a stiff breeze carrying it away, and a gap reveals the slim figure out on a spit of rock, arms wrapped around herself and hair whipping in the wind.
LIAM: Sophia!
The girl looks back. For an instant, Sophia’s strange, solemn features are clear—and then she turns away and steps into the water.
LIAM: What the hell . . . ?
She takes a step deeper into the surf.
LIAM: Stop!
Liam runs forward, but his untied boots skid out from under him, and he falls with a yelp and a clatter of rock. By the time he scrambles upward, there is no sign of Sophia. And then the camera focuses, and Liam swears again. Sophia stands up to her rib cage in churning water. A swell engulfs her to the neck as it passes, and then she takes another step, farther from shore.
LIAM: Sophia! Come back! What are you doing? Jesus, that water’s freezing, you’re going to—
But she only walks onward, and the water folds over her. She vanishes—and does not emerge again.
LIAM: No. No, come on . . .
He breathes heavily, stepping toward the water before shying away again. At this point in the summer, water temperatures remain dangerously cold. Yet Liam steps closer to the water’s edge.
SOPHIA: Liam! I’m here.
He whirls around. Sophia staggers out of the mist from the direction of Mrs. Popova’s, looking dazed.
LIAM: What the—?
He looks again toward the ocean, but there is only black water and white foam, and the mist, growing thicker with every breath.
Of the girl who walked into the ocean, there is no sign at all.