SOME PEOPLE STARED straight ahead, unseeing. Some never glanced in his direction at all. And some flicked their gazes his way, became fraught with suspicion, and glanced around to see if anyone was with him before moving onward. They had much better things to do than wonder why a little boy in a torn shirt and corduroys sat by himself on a bench in the center of a busy shopping mall.

Brian was used to being ignored.

He hadn’t learned his own name until he was three because Mommy and his daddies so seldom addressed him. Most of the time they smoked and drank smelly drinks that came in red and white cans, and after a whole huge box of the cans was empty and crumpled into the garbage, Mommy and whatever daddy lived with them at the time would start yelling at each other about grownup things like “trust” and “insecurity” and sometimes even a person named Pattie who was “some tramp.”

They yelled about him a lot, too, even though he could never figure out what he’d done wrong.

That’s when the darkness would edge in and Brian would cower in a corner, begging it to go away. Laughter lived in the darkness. Cruel, mocking laughter that spoke mean things that hurt him deep inside.

They hate you, Brian. The reason they fight is because of you. They wish you were dead.

And with tears running down his cheeks, he would whisper, “Please help me. Save me from the monsters.”

Because what else could the voices be?

Brian’s current daddy was a bald man named Craig. Sometimes when Mommy was out Craig would get mad and throw things. When Brian tried to explain to Mommy that the big bruise on his arm came from Craig’s metal ashtray that had been hurtled across the room at him, Mommy slapped him hard across the face and told him to stop making up stories.

Another time Craig had thrown Brian down the back steps when he’d thought Brian had taken his cigarette lighter. Something had cracked in Brian’s arm when he handed at the bottom, and when Craig rushed him to the hospital, he’d told the doctors Brian had tripped and fallen over a toy he’d left on the stairs.

Sometimes life was easier when you were ignored.

There hadn’t been any food in the house that morning. The fight last night had been so scary that Brian almost ran away, and Mommy and Craig must have been worn out from all the yelling and screaming because neither of the responded to his knocks on their bedroom door when he wanted to ask about breakfast.

Brian’s forehead had creased as he tried to think of what to do. He considered finding tools to get their door open and wake them up, but then the cruel voice returned: They want you to starve to death, Brian. They want you to die!

So Brian did the only thing he could think of: he left the house and ran.

After perhaps ten minutes of his chest hitching as he checked the roads for oncoming cars and raced across them when it was safe, Brian reached the Crosstown Mall. The mall had a food court with lots of restaurants and even a playground in the center of it. Sometimes his Aunt Sarah and cousin Blake took him to the mall when things at home got extra scary. Brian and Blake would play in the indoor ball pit and on the jungle gym and eat chicken nuggets and fries after that, and it would be so much fun Brian didn’t want to go home.

As soon as he got to the mall that morning, Brian planted his rear on a bench in the food court, realizing too late that in order to get food, he would need to have money.

He couldn’t remove his gaze from the nearest restaurant counter just a few yards away from him. The smells of cooking burgers and chicken nuggets made his mouth water, and hunger pangs stabbed his stomach like knives. Stealing was wrong—Mommy had said that to one of his old daddies before throwing him out of the house.

But if he didn’t steal, he would die of hunger, and that was much worse.

He squinted at the counter where people ordered their food. In line stood a man, a boy in a ball cap, and a teenage girl talking on a phone. None of them paid any attention to him.

If he was fast, he might be able to slip around them and go behind the counter without being seen. Only a couple people were working back there, and Brian was short, so chances were good that nobody would notice if he snuck back there and took a burger for himself. And some fries. You couldn’t eat a burger without fries and a Coke, too.

You’re an evil little boy, Brian.

No, he said to himself. I’m hungry. I’m not evil.

He rose from the bench and ran toward the counter.

“Hold it right there, son.”

Brian’s limbs turned to ice. He looked up and saw a man towering over him wearing some kind of police uniform. His blue eyes were stern like Mommy’s when she yelled at Craig.

Fear tightened Brian’s throat so much he couldn’t even say a word.

“Are you lost?” the policeman asked as he bent down eye to eye with him.

The lie came to Brian’s lips without any thought. “I’m waiting for my mom.”

The policeman’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly. “You are? And where might she be?”

Brian pointed at the nearest store—one that had a bunch of almost-naked lady statues wearing underwear in the windows. “That one,” he said, blushing. He didn’t like looking at ladies’ underwear. Things like that were supposed to be private.

The man gave a slow nod. “Okay, son,” he said. “Just be careful out here because sometimes bad people like to run off with little kids like you. Where were you going, anyway?”

“Um…” Brian looked down at his feet to think.

This time he could actually see the darkness cloud the edges of his vision. Good little boys tell the truth, so you’re not good at all! Come with us, Brian. You belong with us.

Brian shivered, and tears welled up in his eyes.

The policeman’s expression changed to something Brian couldn’t read. “You’re not here with your mother at all, are you?”

“Please don’t take me to jail!” Brian cried, the thought of being locked in a cage filling him with terror. “I’ll be good! I promise!”

At first the man looked baffled. “Jail?”

“Y-you’re a policeman. Policemen take people to jail. I’ve seen it on TV.”

The man’s expression softened. “I’m mall security, actually. My name is Harry.” He held out a hand, and Brian shook it. “And who might you be?”

“I’m Brian. Are you sure you won’t take me to jail?”

Harry smiled, but there was something sad in it too. “I’m sure, but I may have to call Child Protective Services if we don’t find out where your parents are. So where are they?”

Brian swallowed a ball of fear that had lodged in his throat. Mommy might be angry if he told anyone that he often went places without her. Most of the time, he’d go down to the community playground and play with the other boys and girls on the blue monkey bars and bright orange swings while Mommy was away at work.

Come to think of it, the park was where he’d first met Aunt Sarah and Blake.

BRIAN remembered that day well. The sun had gleamed a dazzling yellow against a backdrop of cloudless blue, and the temperature was nice enough that Brian didn’t have to dig through the closet to find a jacket. Mommy had gone out to see a doctor to have a “little problem taken care of,” and Craig had been too busy dozing on the couch to notice Brian’s departure.

The park lay two blocks down from their house. Dozens of children were there that day, some with parents, and some without. Brian recognized a few of them like Georgie and Garret, who lived with their grandparents across the street from him. There was Brayden, and Dawn, and another little boy who was either Martin or Marcus.

Today he saw two new faces in the crowd: a nicely dressed woman with red hair in a braid pushing her red-haired son on the swings. Brian sat down on the empty swing next to them and started pumping his legs to get higher and higher when the woman said, “Nice to see you here today, Brian.”

Brian dug his feet into the pea gravel, grinding himself to a halt. He stared up at her, squinting, trying to determine if he was wrong about not knowing her.

“It’s nice to see you, too,” he said, blushing.

The woman smiled at him with such an expression of kindness in her eyes that Brian felt his own grow misty. “You don’t know me, do you?” she asked, her eyes sparkling.

Brian shook his head. The red-haired boy stopped swinging to watch him.

“I’m Aunt Sarah,” she said, “and this is my son, Blake.”

“You’re not my aunt,” Brian said. Just who were these people?

“Sure I am,” she said. “We just haven’t met until now.”

Brian scrunched his brow. Mommy never mentioned anyone named Sarah before. Mommy did have a sister named Monica, but this lady wasn’t her.

“I can understand if you don’t believe me,” the woman said, “and that’s okay.”

That settled it in Brian’s mind. “If you’re my aunt, does that mean Blake is my cousin?”

“That’s right!” Aunt Sarah beamed. “Now how would you like to go to the Crosstown Mall for lunch? I know you must be hungry.”

Brian could scarcely believe his ears. The mall was just three streets over, and he had never been there before, though he had seen it plenty of times and heard Mommy talk about shopping there whenever she had enough money in her account.

He licked his lips at the thought of lunch. “But my mom…”

“Will never know you’ve been there if you don’t tell her,” Aunt Sarah finished. Some of the light left her eyes and she looked away for a moment. “Am I right?”

Brian nodded.

“Then let’s go. You have nothing to fear. We’ll keep you safe.”

Blake hopped off the swing, and Brian followed suit. Aunt Sarah held out a hand for Brian to take. As soon as her hand made contact with his, he could feel himself filling with light that shoved away all of the darkness and scary things that had ever happened to him.

As the three of them walked to the mall, Brian felt lighter inside than an airborne leaf tumbling on the wind. At last someone was paying attention to him in a nice way. At last someone was showing they cared.

That first visit to the mall nearly overloaded Brian’s senses. Since Mommy had never enrolled him in kindergarten (which, according to kids at the playground, was a place where you got to sit at a desk in a room full of other kids while listening to a person called Teacher who told you what to do), he had never seen so many people in one place. Aunt Sarah ordered lunch at a burger place in what she called the Food Court, and after they ate, Brian and Blake played in the ball pit until Brian wore himself out. Then they walked around and looked at shops, and Aunt Sarah drew to a halt outside a store displaying mannequins just Brian’s size.

She looked him up and down, wrinkling her nose at his holey shirt and sweatpants. “How would you like to have a new outfit?”

He started to say he would love it, but what came out was, “But what will Mommy say?”

Aunt Sarah sighed and crouched down to be at his level. “Your mother is a confused and broken woman. I would take you away from there if I could, but unfortunately that is neither my job nor my place. I keep praying, though. You deserve so much better.”

Brian nodded, not fully understanding what she meant.

“It’s okay,” Blake said. “I’ll help you pick out something cool.”

And he did. Brian left the store wearing new gym shoes, jeans so long they had to be rolled at the cuffs, and a bright red shirt.

All of his old clothes had gone in the trash.

After that, Aunt Sarah dropped Brian off at his door, gave him a hug, and said she’d be back another day.

“Where’d you get those clothes?” Mommy asked later that afternoon. Her eyes were red and puffy and a funny bruise was forming at her temple.

“A lady at the park gave them to me. She thought my old clothes had too many holes in them.”

“Nice lady. Next time you should ask her for a million dollars, too.” Mommy started laughing then and soon her laughter changed to sobs, and Brian slunk off to his room to be alone.

Aunt Sarah and Blake were at the park every time Brian went out after that, regardless of what time of day it was. One time he didn’t even come to the park until after supper, and the pair had been there alone, waiting for him to come play.

Brian had been delighted. “You waited for me!” he exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear.

“We’re always waiting for you, silly,” Aunt Sarah said as she started to push Brian’s swing. “We’ll always be here for you. Whenever you need us, there we will be.”

And they were right. Once when Brian ran away from a mean older kid who lived next door, he ran into an alley and hid behind some garbage cans, wishing with all his heart that Aunt Sarah would come save him. No sooner had he wished this Aunt Sarah and Blake appeared at the mouth of the alley calling his name.

Again, the light had come. Again, the darkness had been driven away.

DURING those weeks, things got even scarier between Mommy and Craig. Glasses were thrown. Dishes were broken. Threats were shouted, and tears were shed.

One day when Craig went down to the store, Mommy stood at the sink washing dishes, her expression tight.

Brian glided over to watch her.

“What is it?” she asked without looking at him.

“You’re sad.”

Mommy set a glass upside down in the dish strainer and glanced down at him. “What makes you say that?”

“I just know, Mommy. Craig is a bad man and he makes you sad.”

All because of you! the dark voices whispered.

Mommy’s cheeks flushed and a shadow passed over her eyes. She made no reply and went back to her task.

THE night before Brian went to the mall alone had been the scariest of all. Mommy and Craig came home from a pizza place fighting. A dangerous look appeared in Craig’s eyes as he looked from Mommy to Brian. “I don’t know why you didn’t have it done the first time,” he said. “God knows you wish he’d never been born.”

Brian’s breath caught in his throat.

“Stop it!” Mommy shrieked. “You stop it right now!”

“It’s true,” Craig continued, staring right at Brian, his voice an eerie calm. “She wanted you dead. Told me so herself. She even went to the doctor that kills little worms like you, but your father made her change her mind at the last second. Too bad he was too much of a deadbeat to stick around for long after that.”

Mommy was sobbing and clutching her stomach. “Go ahead, Julia,” Craig sneered. “I dare you to deny it.”

Mommy just continued to cry.

Craig grinned. “See? I told you it was true. You ever wonder why she doesn’t feed you half the time? It’s so you’ll die and give her a little peace of mind.”

Brian ran into his room and wept for what felt like hours. Eventually the sounds of the fight subsided and their bedroom door slammed.

Brian found himself praying. Aunt Sarah…Blake…please come be with me. I know you love me. I know you care.

He waited and waited but they didn’t come. At last he drifted into a light slumber and dreamed that Aunt Sarah was sitting at the edge of his bed, wiping the tears from his cheeks and assuring him that everything would be all right. Blake stood guard by the door, looking as stern as a six-year-old could.

“I love you, Aunt Sarah,” Brian murmured, comfort washing over him like the warmth of a summertime breeze.

“And I love you too, child. I love you, too.”

“WHERE are your parents, Brian?”

Brian jumped. His mind had been wandering, and he still hadn’t answered the mall security man’s question.

“At home,” he said. “I’m here with my aunt.”

Aunt Sarah, please get here fast, he prayed.

Harry gave him a dubious look. “Okay. So where is she?”

“I don’t—”

“Brian!” exclaimed a red-haired woman who ran into the food court holding a giant blue shopping bag. “Where on earth have you been?”

“Aunt Sarah!” Brian ran into her arms and gave her a tight squeeze. “I’m so glad you found me!”

The patter of approaching footsteps told him that Blake had just caught up with his mother.

“Thank you so much for keeping an eye on my nephew,” Aunt Sarah was saying to Harry. “He must have wandered off when I had my back turned.”

“No problem, ma’am,” Harry said, dipping his head. “I have a boy of my own so I completely understand. You have a good day now.”

When Harry left them, Aunt Sarah frowned. “You shouldn’t have come here alone. You could have been hurt.”

“But I had to come here!” Brian said as tears filled his eyes anew. “I couldn’t find anything to eat!”

Aunt Sarah nodded. “Let’s go get you something, then.”

THEY left the mall a short time later, Brian’s stomach splitting at the seams. “I should go home now,” he said, though for some reason the thought of seeing his mother and Craig made him feel sick.

Aunt Sarah placed a hand on his shoulder. “Brian, honey, there’s something we need to tell you.”

Brian’s chest felt tight. Something in her tone told him that something bad had happened—something worse than had ever happened before. “What?”

“Brian, you can’t go home. We just found out this morning.”

His mind spun. “You said you can’t take me away!”

“Things have changed. I’m sorry.”

Brian wanted to ask what had happened and realized he needed to see for himself. He broke into a run before Aunt Sarah could try to stop him.

Brakes squealed as he tore across the parking lot in front of moving vehicles. He stopped at the edge, watched for cars, dashed through a gap in traffic, and raced all the way home without looking back to see if Aunt Sarah and Blake were running after him.

He rounded the corner onto his own street and froze at the sight of flashing blue and red lights. Outside his house sat two police cars, an ambulance, and a big black van. His belly began to turn somersaults. Did this mean Craig was going to jail for being so mean to him and Mommy?

He continued slowly toward the house and halted a second time when he realized that Aunt Sarah and Blake were now standing on the sidewalk between him and his house. How had they gotten there so quickly without a car?

“I told you not to come,” Aunt Sarah said. Her blue shopping bag was gone. “It isn’t good for you to be here.”

“Stay back,” Blake pleaded. “Please?”

Brian shoved his way past them. He could go wherever he wanted. He didn’t have to listen.

He halted two doors down from his house. Some men were loading a person-sized cocoon into the back of the black van, and he immediately pictured his mother still and lifeless like the bodies in the shows Craig watched on TV.

Oh, no…

See what you’ve done? the cruel voices hissed. Dead, all because of you!

Darkness closed in, but it vanished in a blast of light when a hand laid itself on Brian’s shoulder. “Don’t be afraid,” he heard Aunt Sarah say behind him.

A messy-haired woman sitting in the back of a police car caught sight of Brian and started to shout through the glass.

It was Mommy.

“The creep can’t ever hurt you again, Brian! I did it for you!” Tears ran down Mommy’s cheeks. “I did it all for you!”

Brian could feel the darkness trying to creep back inside of him, but Aunt Sarah’s light kept it away. Brian had thought he would go to jail for trying to take food that wasn’t his, and now Mommy was going to jail instead.

“Where will I go now?” Brian asked, feeling a little scared even though Aunt Sarah told him not to be.

“I’m not exactly sure, but I do know you’ll be sent to live with a new family who will take care of you and love you as their own.”

That made Brian’s heart skip a beat. Wide-eyed, he stared up at her. “A new family? But what about you? Why can’t I live with you?”

The normally silent Blake was the one to answer that. “Because we’re your guardians, silly. You can’t live with us, but we can live with you.”

Brian squinted at him, not fully understanding. “What do you mean?”

“We mean that even if you can’t see us and can’t hear us, we will still be there whenever you’re in need. We were sent to keep you safe and send the darkness away.”

“And,” Aunt Sarah said, “we were sent to give you hope.”

A woman in a police uniform was walking up the sidewalk toward them. “Brian?” she asked.

He felt himself nod.

The woman held out her hand. “Brian, I need you to come with me, okay? You can trust us. We’re the good guys here.”

Brian turned to ask Aunt Sarah if the police lady was right, but the sidewalk was empty. Aunt Sarah and Blake were gone.

But only to your eyes, he heard Aunt Sarah’s voice say. Remember, Brian. Whenever you need us, there we will be.

And Brian believed it.