Chapter 1: Something About the Pēy

Just before the end of Griffin's runs, he always stopped at a small enclosure, just a few hundred yards from the house. He found that he appreciated it more while exhausted and covered in sweat, and never skipped this part of the routine. In this section of the woods, the trees where much more spread out, yet somehow still private. With the forest floor more visible, there was more wildlife to be seen too, which was the main reason he came to visit. Patches of wildflowers littered the ground here and there, while species of fungi could be clearly seen around the trees' trunks. And, if he sat still long enough, he would sometimes see a colony of rabbits that he was certain had a nest nearby. Once or twice he had caught a glimpse of a bear, but it never bothered him enough to want to stay away. Even in those times, he was grateful to Mandy for moving him out here.

When Mandy first took in Griffin, they stayed in Florida because of her "kids". They weren't hers really, but she had never let herself think of them in that way. They had actually been her sister's, who, at the time, had a strong addiction to drugs, alcohol, and inappropriate boyfriends. For a few years, Mandy offered to place Griffin in a separate school, to try and shield him from all of the gossip following his out-burst. He never told her, but the whispers followed him anyway.

In a few years, however, Mandy's sister sobered up enough to want back her children. It was a bittersweet time for Mandy, who would have taken care of them forever if she had to. But letting them go meant that she could finally move out of Florida, a state which she loved just as much as Griffin did.

North Carolina turned out to be more of their speed. Mandy had always wanted to move to the mountains, and it was enough like Griffin's hometown that he felt settled right away. No one in this new place knew anything about Griffin, but it changed very little. There were less people here, which usually meant less confrontation, but the looks he got were still the same. There was, however, one classmate that Griffin couldn't seem to shake.

Sam was nothing like how Charlie had been. He didn't hate Griffin or even feel scared of him. Like Mandy, Sam didn't seem to get the same feeling everyone else did when he saw those blood-like eyes. Instead, they fascinated him and made him determined to get Griffin to like him, no matter what.

This took a long time. Griffin was still very stubborn about talking, only doing it when he had to, and found Sam to be the most outgoing and annoying person on the planet. Every day, Sam sat beside him wherever he could, and preceded to have the longest one-sided conversations anyone could ever imagine. Even though they were both eleven when they met, Sam had yet to grow out of a childish obsession with aliens and could talk forever about them. He openly thought that Griffin might have been one and said so often. Being treated like an alien was a big step up from being treated like a demon, but it was still bothersome.

At first, Griffin just tuned him out. He was certain that Sam would get tired of him soon if he just didn't respond, but it never happened. After some time, Griffin started to pay attention to his weird stories, and even looked forward to seeing him every day. Even without words, Sam could feel that the nature of their relationship had started to change and begun treating Griffin a bit more human. Accidentally, Griffin had become the world's best listener.

In their school, Sam wasn't considered to be an outcast in any way. The other kids found the alien stuff to be weird too, but he was much too friendly for that to cause much of an issue. In fact, most would have said that Sam was pretty popular. It was only because he decided to befriend Griffin that the others started to feel more comfortable being around him too. They never tried to speak to Griffin directly if they didn't have to, but it was progress. Soon, any seat remotely near Sam would be filled, regardless if Griffin were present or not. Through listening to their conversations, Griffin was suddenly up to date in every event, sport, and passing gossip that was in their school. Sam often tried to include Griffin in on these conversations, but he only said as much as he needed to appease Sam, then went back to just listening. He preferred it that way.

It became a silent agreement, then, that as long as everyone left Griffin alone, he would also leave them alone. Surprisingly to him, the peace lasted through all their years together, all the way through high school.

After a while, it became obvious that the rabbits weren't going to show, and Griffin set out of his usual seat in the encloser, then jogged the rest of the way home. Mandy had only woken up a few seconds before he made his way inside and was only able to offer him a tired wave as he made his way to the shower.

While Griffin had finally stop growing a few inches after 7 feet, it did nothing to stop the growth of his hunger. So, when his shower was over, he often felt the need to make his own breakfast. He helped himself to a large number of eggs and slices of bacon, while careful to make a serving for Mandy as well. Eventually, she joined him in the kitchen.

"Have you decided what you're going to write for your paper?" Mandy asked, pouring herself a cup of coffee before sitting at the kitchen's island. Without looking back at her, Griffin kept his eyes on their eggs and shook his head 'no'.

"You know, I was up all last night thinking about it, and I think it would be okay for you to lie," she continued. "I mean, maybe you'll research and fantasize about it enough that it'll become the truth."

Griffin had finished cooking now and placed Mandy's food on a plate first. As he set it on the island in front her, he muttered, "College isn't for me."

These kinds of answers always annoyed Mandy, but Griffin had never lied to her.

"How do you know it isn't for you if you don't try it out?" she huffed. "Has Sam figured his own out yet? You both don't have too much time left now to decide. You could always just go wherever he goes."

"He has a soccer scholarship, and a schedule for August," Griffin replied and took the seat beside her. It would have been comical to compare the mountain of food on his plate with hers if it weren't already normal.

"I could find the money," said Mandy, but this time Griffin chose to stay quiet. They had similar discussions in the past and she already knew everything he had to say on the subject. His ideal situation would be an average paying job where he had little to no contact with anyone. The fact that he didn't know what that job would be was Mandy's second worry. His lack of human interaction was her first.

Giving up, she ate the rest of her meal in silence. Since she was often finished well before Griffin was, it became a part of Mandy's mornings to pre-make their lunches. Quickly, she put together one sandwich for herself and four for Griffin and placed them into their bags. It was then that Mandy went back into her room to get ready, while Griffin cleaned up in the kitchen. Every morning for years had been like this one, as they lived together like a well-oiled machine. The timing was even perfect enough that they were finished at the same time, and out the door in seconds.

It never took more than a few minutes of walking to class for Sam to meet up with Griffin, and he hardly ever greeted Griffin with a hello first.

"Did you see the news this morning?" Sam asked him, matching his pace. "There was another murder last night, over in the other side of town."

Griffin hadn't heard about it and was surprised. This murder now brought the count up to six, and before the past few months, there hadn't ever been a murder that anyone in town could remember. They had all been young girls too, some of which the boys knew. The patterned gave off the hint of a serial killer, which sent chills up Griffin's spine.

"They seem to be happening quicker now," Sam added. "Wish the police would catch the guy already. Heard that they might be bringing in the feds' or somethin' though."

Griffin wished they would catch him too.

At the classroom door, Sam gave his goodbyes before walking to his own course. This semester, they didn't have as many classes together, and it was unfortunate that history was one of those. Griffin had always found the class to be boring, and it was hard for him to focus on it. Sometimes he would zone out too much and miss the whole lecture. Normally, this is where Sam would have been helpful. If Sam didn't have the notes himself, he could always ask someone else for them. But without him, Griffin didn't feel as comfortable asking his classmates for favors.

However, as he walked to his seat, Griffin saw a person in the front of the room that he had never seen before in his school. The person was tall and definitely athletic, yet not as much as Griffin, with very ginger hair. He seemed angry as well, arguing with the teacher about something to do with the class. Normally, Griffin would have assumed he just hadn't met this person yet, but his class size was considerably small. Even without being sociable, at this point he had seen every senior. With the additional fact that this person was talking about this very class made it more likely that he was a new student. It was weird that he was there, given that it was the last semester before graduation, but Griffin found that it was not his business and tried not to eavesdrop.

Either way, a new student meant that there would be a disruption to the course, which Griffin was happy about. He was already drowning in homework that he didn't understand and was hoping that this event would be enough to keep more from being assigned, at least for one day.

To his luck, when class started, a good proportion of it was given to introducing the new student, Caleb, and getting him up to speed with the rest of the class. When the lecture did begin, Griffin did his best to pay attention, taking vigorous notes, but a sudden feeling that someone was watching him made him stop.

When he looked up, he was surprised to see Caleb looking back at him. He had claimed a seat on the far back corner of the room and seemed to be mustering up as much disgust and hatred that he could on his face. Griffin tried to think back in the past few moments, to figure out if he had accidentally given him a look that would have set him off, but he couldn't recall meeting his eyes before this.

Caleb wouldn't have seen any of this confusion from Griffin. If anyone had asked any classmate of Griffins if they had ever seen him angry, sad, happy, or otherwise affected by emotion in any way, they would have said no. No one had ever seen Griffin be anything other than apathetic (with the exceptions of Mandy and Sam), and no one could imagine it either. Griffin did feel things often, however, but didn't know how to properly express it. This usually worked in his favor, as it would sometimes let him fade into the background. But in this case, it seemed to Caleb that Griffin's blank stare was a challenge.

After not being able to figure out what had made Caleb dislike him so much, Griffin turned back to his notes and tried to catch up again. He didn't see how he could change anything in that moment and thought that Caleb would either confront him later about it, or let it go on his own time. Unfortunately, the former was right.

When class ended, Griffin did as he normally did, and tried to clean up any lose ends on his notes before gathering his things to leave. He did notice that Caleb also seemed to be letting everyone else leave first, but Griffin wanted to assume the best of him and tried to not think much about it. However, when they were the only two left and Griffin could still feel eyes on him, it became obvious. He packed up his things then, eager to get it over with, and headed towards the door with Caleb at his heels.

Once they were out of the eyesight of the teacher, Caleb took the opportunity to shove Griffin into the wall, keeping him from walking any farther. A few people passing by saw this, but walked away quickly, not wanting to get involved. Griffin did his best not to look at Caleb directly as he spoke to him in an angered, rushed tone.

"We know what you've done, Pēy," he said, getting in close to Griffin's face. "If you think that you can escape us, you can't. You will mess up next time, and that's when we'll be there to capture you."

Without waiting for a response, Caleb walked away, leaving Griffin completely bewildered. He didn't have a clue to what 'pēy' meant or who 'we' were or even what he was supposed to have done. Without him realizing it, Griffin had pondered over this without moving for several minutes by the time Sam came up to him. Sam found Griffin's attitude to be odd, but when asked, Griffin denied that anything happened.

The next few classes went by much easier, as Griffin found them more interesting, and also because his new enemy wasn't present in any of them. By the time lunch had come, he was feeling much better and had gotten Caleb's weird conversation out of his head completely.

Sam was waiting in the lunchroom for him with a seat beside him empty. Without speaking, Griffin took his place beside him, and the others at the table kept their conversation going, ignoring him.

"I mean, she could pass for 24, definitely," Griffin heard Sam's friend say. "Too pretty for this school, too. She's obviously some kind of scout; or maybe a part of the board of education?"

This made Sam laugh. "A scout? Come on. Who would she be scouting and why? There's no one good enough or bad enough to make someone like that come all the way out here."

"Okay, then maybe she's looking for the murderer," the guy continued. "I mean, all the victims are around our age. The killer could be too."

There was a slight pause then, where everyone took a quick glance over at Griffin, and then quickly looked away. Griffin was too busy getting out his food to notice.

"Or maybe," Sam answered, "she's just a new student here and you guys are crazy."

"So, we have to listen to your insane alien conspiracy theories, but we can't talk about how that girl is definitely too old to go here?" a girl joked.

"Yeah, because we're a super small school in the middle of nowhere, while space is huge. Way more probable," Sam joked back, making her roll her eyes at him. "What do you think, Griffin?"

"About what?" he answered. Sam filled him in that they had a new student as well in one of their classes, and that most of them thought there was something off about her. Sam pointed her out to him from across the room.

The girl did seem too old to be there. She was also tall and athletic, like the other new student was. And although this girl's hair was more brunette than ginger, there was something about her face that made Griffin believe that they were related. She wasn't as angry as Caleb was though. Even from his distance, he could see her smiling and talking with the group of girls at her table. She seemed more like a teacher, though, by the way she had put her hair into a neat bun, and also by the way she carried herself, like someone of importance. However, Griffin's jealousy of how fast she was able to make friends made him overlook her maturity.

"Her brother was in my history class," Griffin said, looking away. "They're just students."

"What do you mean by that?" an angry voice said. Griffin looked up to see Caleb standing at the other side of the table, his knuckles white from clutching his lunch tray.

Sam easily came to the rescue, answering, "We were just talking about having new classmates here. Is Sarah your sister?"

"So what if she is?" Caleb answered, still hostile.

"So nothing," Sam responded. "New people are just rare here. Did you want to sit with us?"

Without a word, Caleb slammed his tray down, picking the seat directly in front of Griffin. This made everyone uncomfortable as they were wondering what Griffin did to Caleb that made him so mad. Sam tried to rescue the situation again.

"Are you and your sister twins then? That's cool," Sam said, but there was doubt behind his words. Caleb didn't look half as old as Sarah did. "Where are you guys from?"

This disarmed Caleb a bit, and he answered with a lot less anger. "We're a military family, so we move around a lot."

"Oh, well that explains why you moved here at such an odd time," someone else joined in. "My dad is stationed at Fort Bragg too, but we were lucky not to move as much."

The conversation then flowed away, leaving Griffin to eat his lunch in peace. It was only when he asked Sam a question about their next class that Caleb's anger refocused, and he spoke out again.

"Why are you guys friends with him?" he asked, gesturing at Griffin. Instantly, the awkwardness returned.

"That's a weird question," Sam said, trying to laugh it off. "Uh, I don't know. We just are. We kind of grew up together, though you missed my elementary days, Griff."

The others tried to change the subject by bringing up embarrassing stories about Sam when he was younger, but Caleb wasn't quite ready to let it go. "Grew up together? Isn't he new here too?"

"No, we've been friends for… sevenish years?" Sam said, shrugging. "Is there something going on between you two?"

Griffin wasn't sure why Caleb was trying to stir things up, but he didn't like how things were moving. He could tell that Sam was starting to get defensive over him and wanted things to deescalate instead. He figured he could do that with a couple of words.

"Are you going to eat that?" Griffin asked Caleb, pointing at his tray. While talking, Caleb had barely touched his food. Confused, he slid his tray over.

Instantly, everyone followed suit and started to pass Griffin their left-over food. One girl laughed as she did, saying, "I don't know how you can eat so much. I'd die or at least get really fat."

This time when the subject changed, Caleb let it, still confused by the last one.

Griffin was grateful when the bell rang and they left for their next class. Sam tried to ask him about what happened in the lunchroom, but he only replied that he didn't want to talk about it.

Biology was a class that they had together, and one that Griffin did actually enjoy. He was a little dishearten to see that Sarah was there too, but unlike her brother, she didn't look at Griffin at all. When she was assigned to his and Sam's lab group, Griffin tensed up only to be relieved by quite a few minutes of innocent chatter between her and Sam. Sarah didn't seem to have an issue with him at all.

"We met your brother at lunch. He said that you guys had a family member in Bragg?" Sam asked after a while.

"Oh, yes," she answered, oddly caught off guard. "Our father."

"Do you know anyone else around here?" he said, and when she answered that they didn't he continued, "This may be too late of an invite, but my parents are hosting a potluck this weekend for our neighborhood. You and your brother can come too."

"Will you be there?" she asked Griffin, to his surprise. He only nodded.

"Griffin's mom is the best cook," Sam added. "Though she always makes so much. Probably because Griff won't let her into the kitchen as much as she likes."

"She does too much for me already," Griffin answered quietly, more focused on their lab sheet than the conversation.

When Sarah agreed to come to the party, Sam quickly wrote down the time and address for her, then volunteered to get the lab materials for them. It was after he left that Sarah turned her attention to Griffin.

"I'm sorry about my brother," she offered. "I told him not to approach you, but he doesn't listen to me."

"It's fine," Griffin answered, not looking up. He didn't really want an apology so much as he just wanted everyone to forget about it.

"We're just investigating for now, not arresting," she continued anyways. This did make Griffin look up. He didn't expect this kind of conversation to come from her. "He had no right to interrogate you. Just because you're here doesn't mean you're the Pēy doing this."

"What's a pēy?" he asked, but Sam had already come back to the table, and she said nothing else about it.

By the time the weekend came, Griffin had had enough of the twins. Caleb had bothered him constantly while Sarah apologized constantly. Neither of them told him more about what they had discussed with him, and he was doing his best to not let it get under his skin. It did, however, make the potluck a lot less appealing to know that they would be joining.

Mandy and Griffin showed up to the house first, as Mandy was close to Sam's parents, and always offered to help set up any get-together they planned. Getting in the house was an obstacle in itself as they had too many containers of food and had to make several trips. It had to be hundreds of dollars in groceries and ingredients, but Griffin couldn't convince her to do otherwise. "I want everyone to have something they actually like," she always said.

The parties they threw were simple, but nice. Sam's house was moderate in size, and had a pretty open kitchen and living room for people to spread out in. Often, the adults would hover in the kitchen and the patio when it was warmer, while Sam's little brother and the other young kids would swarm the TV and the game consoles. Sam's friends usually just picked a corner to talk in.

Sarah and Caleb arrived well after a lot of the other guest, with a small container of brownies in hand. They were greeted instantly, easily welcomed in. Sarah took it upon herself to introduce the two of them to everyone while Caleb sulked behind her.

"Hey, where are your parents?" Sam asked, taking the food from her, and placing it out on a table they had set up.

"Oh, they were busy, but they said to tell you thank you for the invite," she answered. "So where do we start?"

Sam took them then to the front of the food line to get a meal, leaving Griffin to stand awkwardly alone in the living room. He thought for a moment about trying to sneak over to Sam's group of friends and blend in, but then thought better of it. Sam shouldn't be too long, so he would wait. He pulled out his phone for just a moment to pass the time, but an adult close by made a comment about teenagers and technology, so he put it away and went over to the drink table instead.

It was a better choice anyways, as Mandy happened to also be there. She smiled and asked him how things were, as if she hadn't been in the same place with him all night. But her care for him always made him happy, and he did best to keep the conversation going until they were interrupted.

Sarah had walked over to him with Caleb, still sulking, close behind. She wore a smile on her face, but Griffin was wary of her. He stood up straighter as she approached.

"Hey, Griffin," she started. "Where's your mom? Sam was telling me she made this pie and it's so good. I wanted to thank her."

There was something suspicious about her wording, but he had no time to reflect on it before Mandy piped in. "Thank you, I like that one too."

Sarah's expression altered into so much surprise that Griffin wondered if she was in pain, but Mandy only laughed lightly. "I know we don't look alike, I'm actually his adoptive mother. But thank you, just the same."

Embarrassed, Sarah quickly apologized and thanked her several more times before letting it go. Caleb only kept his eyes on Griffin, his arms folded and defensive. Soon, even Mandy felt too awkward and excused herself to the kitchen. Griffin tried to follow but was stopped by a hand on his arm.

"Please," Sarah whispered quietly to him. "I don't know what you need her for, but please don't hurt her."

"Why would you say that?" Griffin answered, instantly insulted. But the words came out too loud and too harsh. Suddenly, all the eyes in the room were on him. Sarah stepped away from him, as if scared. Recomposing himself, Griffin sighed, apologized, and made his way to the patio for fresh air.

It was still freezing outside, with hints of snow still in the trees and probably on the distant mountains, though it was too dark now to see it. But Griffin didn't mind the cold as much. After all, he still ran in this weather, and even while it was snowing too. He tried to convince himself that his idea of running now was to keep warm and not because he wanted to escape.

When Sarah eventually appeared outside as well, Griffin was surprised to see that Caleb wasn't with her but was annoyed regardless. He wanted to be alone, but apparently she wouldn't grant him even that. Slowly, she made her way over to him and leaned her back into the house beside him.

"Sorry," she said softly, a puff of warm air escaping her mouth into the cold.

"As you keep saying," Griffin answered just as coldly. "I don't know what you want from me, so could you just leave me alone."

For a few minutes, Sarah said nothing, looking out into the street in front of them. The neighborhood looked so peaceful, even in the dark. The streetlamps were a soft light to their eyes, yet bright enough where the night wasn't too threatening. The warmth from the house kept their backs from getting too cold, and they could still hear the music from the party faintly. If it had been any other situation, Griffin would have liked this moment.

But regardless of how things looked outside, Griffin was not at peace. Sarah and Caleb had only been in his life for a few days and it already felt like years. It had been so long since Griffin had last gotten angry that he had actually forgotten what it was that had set him off. It bothered him that they got under his skin so quickly, and that he had let them.

"I want to believe that you're not a part of any of this," Sarah said, breaking the silence.

"I'm not," he answered back.

"And I want to believe that you don't know about the Pēy," she continued.

"I don't," he answered again.

She sighed loudly and cursed to herself while trying to dig something out of her coat's pocket. When she got it, she passed the small, white card over to Griffin who studied it carefully before asking what it was.

"It's my business card, of sorts," she answered. "My brother and I, we work for a special branch of the government, looking for Pēy. We're sure that you're one, and Caleb's pretty sure that you know that you are."

"But I don't even know what-" Griffin started to say but Sarah stopped him.

"I know, I know," she said. "But Pēy are lairs and manipulators. He won't believe you, no matter what. I've seen it though. The way you treat people here and the way they respect you. Everyone says you've been here forever, and I don't know how you would pull that lie off. And your mom, I'm sorry for what I said. I shouldn't have assumed."

"Why do you think I'm pēy?" Griffin asked, still trying to process everything she said. "And what do you want me to do with this?"

"Go to that location," she answered, "anytime you can. We don't know much about the Pēy, but if you would volunteer information or a blood test, it could save people. Most Pēy aren't like you. We think that's what's killing those girls."

Griffin didn't know how to respond. They thought he was a murder and he still didn't fully understand what made him a likely suspect.

"Or don't come. It's your choice," she added. "Either way, you're not who we're looking for, so we won't bother you again. I promise."

With that, she stood up straight again and turned her back to him, walking to the door.

"Why would I go?" he asked just loudly enough for her to hear.

Without looking back, she replied, "For answers."