Everyone rushed into the living room.
“Where is she?” Taylor demanded. He stalked around the room, carefully peering into the dark corners.
Tracy rubbed her elbows in an attempt to get rid of the cold feeling swelling inside her. Zac spun around in a small circle, light brown eyes wide and searching. Tracy reached out to him and pulled him toward her. She held a protective arm around him in an attempt to comfort him somehow.
Ike, Tay, and Zac’s parents closed the front door behind them when they walked in. Their father looked around at the scene unfolding before him. “Would one of you mind explaining what’s going on?” he asked. “Who’s gone?”
“No time now,” Taylor said, starting down the hallway that led to his bedroom. “She might still be in here -”
“Tay,” Ike called, “she’s not here. I looked. Our bedroom window was opened. She climbed out there.”
“She who?” their mother demanded.
Isaac motioned to the couch with his head. “You might want to sit down,” he suggested. “This’ll take a while.”
Slowly, unsurely, his parents walked to the couch and sat down. Zac sat on the couch as well, curling up next to his mother. Tracy and Taylor, who had rejoined the group in the living room, sat down on the love seat. Isaac stood in the middle of the room facing his parents.
“Okay,” he began when everybody was situated. “It all started when -”
“Ike,” Taylor said quickly, cutting him off. “I’ll tell it.”
Isaac opened his mouth to protest but quickly shut it. He sat down on the floor and looked at his brother. “All yours.”
Taylor took a deep breath. “Well, about four months ago, I was on the Internet - not under the MMMBop screen name, but under another one. I met this one girl online named Ally Field . . .”
“. . . and, I looked at the girl and she looked exactly like the picture - but she had brown hair. Only, it turned out that she wasn’t Ally, she was Tracy - but, I didn’t know that. Then, she told us her name was Missy, and . . .”
“. . . That’s when the phone calls started . . .”
“. . . Then, Tracy was at the front door and I was, like, really happy she came back . . .”
“. . . and everything came out. That she wasn’t who she said she was and that I wasn’t who I said I was. I got, like, really mad at her then . . .”
“. . . had a dream, and she realized that Hallie, her ‘sister’, was really Ally, the Internet girl . . .”
“. . . and Tracy let her into the house and then Ally walked over to Zac and tried to cut his hair . . .”
“. . . then you guys pulled into the driveway. When we all went outside, she must’ve run out.” Taylor took a deep breath. His parents were gaping at him. “Um,” he said unsurely, “that’s it.”
After a moment of silence, his mother spoke. “It’s been a long day. It’s about time the four of you called it a night, okay? We’ll handle this in the morning.”
“But, Mom -” Taylor began.
“I said we’d handle it in the morning,” she repeated gently. Taylor nodded solemnly and started for his bedroom.
