When my alarm went off at eight fifteen, I groaned and wished I wasn’t booked for the lunch shift today at the restaurant. I reached for my phone and turned off the alarm. The fact I hadn’t come home last night didn’t seem to concern my mother or sister. Neither had texted me, but I hadn’t expected them to. I wondered if I ever did go missing, how long it would take before someone noticed. My guess was Margo would figure it out first, but it may take her a few days. We didn’t always talk daily. She was busy with school, and I had… life.

Duely’s bedroom door was closed, and I knew he wouldn’t emerge from his room until at least noon. I went to the bathroom and showered then quickly dressed in yesterday’s clothing before going to the kitchen and opening the fridge to find nothing but a half carton of milk, one slightly old looking tomato and a jar of sliced jalapenos. If I was going to stay here, I’d need to buy some food. Maybe even cook a meal or two. What did Duely survive on anyway? The bar food he served downstairs? If so, that was a terrible diet. But then so was his daily consumption of beer.

There was no changing him. With a sigh, I headed for the door. I’d grab something on the way to my house to get a bag of necessities and my work uniform. Locking up behind me, I headed for the back entrance of the building. The old heavy door needed a paint job, but I knew it wasn’t going to get one in this decade or the next. Duely didn’t care about things like that and if he did he’d never manually paint it. Magic would be involved. I made sure I had my keys and wallet in my purse, before letting it close with a hard thud behind me.

The brightness of the sun was odd with the cool bite in the air this morning. I wasn’t wearing a jacket. I shivered a little and picked up my pace to get inside my car, so I could crank up the heat. Fall was finally arriving in Savannah.

The moment I opened the car door, my phone started to ring. Climbing in, I closed the door behind me, before reaching into my purse to retrieve my phone. It was Margo. She was never up this early.

“Good morning,” I said in way of greeting then started the ignition in need of heat. Chill bumps covered my arms.

“Where are you?” she asked sharply.

“Uh, in my car,” I replied slowly and slightly confused by her tone of voice.

“But where in your car? I looked on my Find My Friends app, and it says you’re in a bad part of town! It has you at a bar.”