The interior was larger than the space available.

Yes. That was it. Like the Tardis, the bank was bigger on the inside, though there was no physical way for that to be possible.

It had to be an optical illusion.

It wasn’t, though

No. He didn’t think it was. Kyle glanced at their shared wall, trying to estimate what exactly was behind it at that location. One of the desks next to the potted plants? He’d only been in there the one time, but he recalled pretty well the layout of the place.

Jason had left and when, a few moments later, his other customer did the same, Kyle found himself looking at the wall again. Slowly, he walked around the counter and across the shop. He recalled the noises he and Nick had heard through the wall before the bank had moved in, and, on impulse, put his ear to the plaster. Through the barrier between the businesses, faint but clear, came the sound of low laughter, an eerie noise, like something out of a horror movie. And then…

His name, whispered.

“Kyle.”

The phone rang, and he jumped, hitting his head on the edge of a shelf. Rubbing the spot to make sure no bump was forming, he hurried over to the front counter and picked up the phone on the third ring. “Hello?”

“Come on over,” a man’s voice said. “You don’t have to spy on us through the wall.”

A chill passed through Kyle as he heard the words, and he instinctively glanced toward the spot where his ear had been against the plaster.

“We’re waiting for you, Carl.”

“My name’s Kyle not Carl,” he started to say, the fact that he had to correct the caller giving him confidence. But there was already a dial tone, and he hung up the phone without finishing his sentence.

There was no one waiting for him when he walked over moments later. There were a few customers—a middle-aged man seated across the desk from a loan officer, an elderly woman being led back to the safety deposit boxes, a young woman speaking with a teller—but other than that, he saw only bank employees going about their regular duties. There was no one he could identify as the person who had called him. Glancing over at the wall he shared with the bank, he attempted to identify the location at which he had been listening, but the dimensions truly were off in here, and the nearest he could figure, he had been opposite an empty section of wall between a water cooler and an unoccupied desk.

Where had the laughter come from?

Who had whispered his name?

Kyle stood in place. There was no sign of Gary, and none of the employees were individuals he recognized.

“May I help you sir?”