“Um, that can’t be right,” I continue. On my computer screen, I see the date of the journal post, and something clicks in my head: It’ll be easier to figure out if it was John in Miami if I know when this chick first got sent to the hospital. “Maybe I have the wrong number. When was your Meredith Harris checked in?”

“Well . . . ,” the woman says. I can tell she’s hesitant to give me any more info.

“Please, ma’am, this is my sister. I’m just trying to make sure I know where she’s at.”

I must have come up with the right amount of sob story, because she gives me a date—one that puts Meredith Harris going into the hospital at the same time I was trying to kick John’s ass on the hayride.

I thank the woman on the other end of the line and hang up, then turn back to GUARD.

JOLLYROGER182: no dice. i called the hospital. the girl was admitted while John Smith was here

GUARD: Maybe the actual incident occurred before he came to Paradise?

JOLLYROGER182: i don’t think his powers came until he was here

At least, that’s what John told Sarah. In all our conversations about the Loric and the Mogs, I’ve gotten to know basically everything he ever told her about himself.

GUARD: Ah. Okay. Maybe it’s another Loric then.

JOLLYROGER182: must be a dumb one begging to become Mog food.

GUARD: So much stuff happening these days. A lot of weird activity.

GUARD: I get the feeling everything must be coming to a head sometime soon. Don’t you?

I hate that I agree with him.

I poke around online a little more before calling it a night, my eyes strained too much and a headache coming on. I lie in bed and think of the same scene that’s been replayed in my head a million times since everything went crazy. It’s not even one of the weirder moments, like when a damned lizard monster attacked us or John’s dog turned into some kind of dragon. Or when alien bad guys turned into ash after being stabbed. It was when I was at John’s house.

It was when I’d found out that aliens existed.

I’d gone over to John’s house to ask about the video. That stupid video someone had shot on their phone of John flying like Superman out of my burning house, Sarah and the dogs with him. I’d ended up in the middle of a fight between him and the guy I’d thought was his father, Henri. And then weird stuff started happening. Henri stopped moving, like he was frozen in place, which I now realize meant that John was using his telekinesis. They were talking about Sarah being in trouble, and then John was just gone. Running, I guess, all the way to the school.