“You expect me to believe in parallel worlds, is that it?” I grab the iPad out of his hands and slam it down on my desk, turning my back to him. I can feel his presence behind me. The weight of him in the room. The warmth of his body.

“I don’t expect you to do anything,” he says.

“Are you always like this?”

“Like what?”

I turn and face him. “Like this.”

Malik smiles. He paces, looks out the window, into the night. “What about her mother. Have you phoned her yet? What did she tell you?”

My heart snags. I think about Mrs. G…that call.

She died a year ago.

“We need to go,” Malik says, turning around. “Right now. You need to come with me.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Ana, trust me, you need to walk through this window with me. Your best friend—”

“Stop talking about her. You don’t know her. You don’t know me.”

“Here’s what I know, Ana. I know your friend has gone missing. I know you haven’t told anyone. Not even your father, or your mother, or your friend’s mother.”

“How could you know that?”

“I know—I can see it in your eyes. And trust me, I often know more than I’d like.”

I take a step forward. “If you had anything to do with her being taken, I swear, I’ll…” I try to continue, but I can’t. I have nothing. No threats. No answers.

“Your anger is understandable,” he says. “But misdirected. You’re smart. You know I had nothing to do with her abduction. I told you, I’m here to help.”

“Oh really.”

“Lemme tell you why you haven’t reported your friend missing,” Malik says calmly. “Because you know—deep inside—that things are not the way they were before. Everything’s changed. And calling the police is a waste of time. You know that. You know.”

I stand with arms pinned to my sides and I say nothing.

“Look,” Malik says. “It won’t last, this feeling. It’ll get easier. What you’re going through, it happened to me. You and me, Ana, we’re the same.”

“Oh, we’re not the same,” I scoff.

“We are. Like it or not. We’re Pathfinders.”

“Yeah. Right. Pathfinders.”

“When I saw you on the Tube, I recognised what you were. But I had the timing wrong. It was too soon. It hadn’t happened yet. And then I felt it.”

“Felt it?”

“A vibration in the air. Like a distress signal. It happens when a Pathfinder Falls for the first time. Or when a Normal Falls.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Ever taken an Uber?”

“Of course. How is this even relevant right now?”

“When someone Falls—”

“Falls?”

This is getting ridiculous. I feel like laughing. Malik sits down on my bed, and I think about the bin of sick, shoved underneath.