The bus always slows down when it passes the dig.
Behind the new fence, something old is coming back up out of the dirt. A long, low building the color of old teeth. Windows boarded. Doors welded. And still, somehow, it is not empty.
When Nell Whitaker's backpack lands on the wrong side of the fence, it doesn't stay there. Something carries it inside. That night a light answers her from the dark. Three long blinks. Two short. Exactly the way she answered it.
Daniel hears the same pattern on a radio frequency that shouldn't exist.
Imani starts counting the doors in her own hallway... and finds one that was never there before.
They swore they would never go back.
But the building has already learned their names.
And it is still learning how to call them.
Whatever it wants,
don't answer.