The man raised his hands. “Wait, wait, she’s probably right there. She just did a bit of trespassing is all. We had a meeting about it last night. The doors should stay locked from now on.”

“Oh,” Emily said. “Okay. Good. Um . . .”

“I’m Matthew.” he said. “The director of the volunteer theater group, and I’m one of the senior members of the not-so-volunteer group. Is Teddy here your, uh . . .”

“My sister,” Emily said. “She’s my little sister. We were looking for Jacob?”

One of Matthew’s eyebrows jumped. “Him, huh? He isn’t here today. No practice. I . . . don’t think he has classes right now. So he could be anywhere.”

“Oh,” Emily said. “Do, do you know where his dorm is?”

Matthew eyed her for a bit. “What’s your relationship with Jacob? Because, I have to say, he’s not the most . . . I don’t want to talk bad about someone when he’s not around.”

“Emily is Jacob’s boss,” Teddy said.

Matthew perked up. “Oh. Yeah, I remember him taking on some work at that latte place. You should have said so. He pull a no-show?”

“S-something like that,” Emily said.

Matthew shook his head. “I’ll text him, ask him if he’s in his dorm.”

“Can . . . can you not tell him that we’re coming?” Emily asked.

“Catch him unawares, huh? You give him an earful, all right. And if you want, you can send me his work schedule. God knows that boy needs some discipline in his life.”

“S-sure,” Emily said.

Matthew let her copy Jacob’s address off his phone, then told them to stay safe before they went on their way.

Another trip across campus, this time led by Emily’s phone, took them to an apartment building two streets over from the campus proper.

It wasn’t the Quantum Mothman House, but it was a nice enough place. A bit older, a bit more run-down, and there was an uncomfortable number of cigarette butts left in the unmaintained grass next to a few bottles, but it wasn’t . . . terrible.

Emily had seen worse. In movies.

She stepped into the stairwell that was the apartment complex’s lobby, then found Jacob’s room number on the mail slots to one side.

Three flights of stairs later, and they were at his door.

“Can I knock?” Teddy asked.

Emily was too busy catching her breath to deny her, so she watched as Teddy slapped the door three times.

There was movement on the other side, someone stumbling over something, swearing, then rushing over to the door.

It opened to reveal a lanky Jacob wearing nothing but a wifebeater and CucumberJoe Poly Pants boxers. Emily looked up and locked eyes with the boy who was holding on to a gaming controller in one hand and a set of headphones in the other. “Oh, shit,” he said.

“Let us in, please?” Emily asked.