Twenty minutes later, Matt and I strolled into the school parking lot. I actually wanted to be here, I guess to hold onto some semblance of normality. But the silent ride over hadn’t cleared my head like walking would’ve. I mean, we’d just watched a game character talking to my twin—taking something from her—before she’d ended up dead for real.

At least we had safety in numbers here. The parking lot brimmed with German SUVs, dewy and glistening in the sun. Emily Noble and her lipstick, also glistening, strode past and disappeared into a flock of leggy girls filming themselves under the archways. It was like a herd of gazelles had ransacked a Sephora and wanted everyone to know. The Arguello High campus loomed beyond, all terracotta and soaring plaster around a courtyard crawling with students.

Matt’s knuckles were pale on his backpack straps as we walked. How much should I even lean on him with this mysterious dead twin stuff? This was my problem, right? Only a few months ago he’d been helping his older sister build out her RV—until they had a falling out and she’d applied to art school in Brussels. It felt like he was trying to make up for that with me, I guess since I was his best friend and didn’t live in Belgium.

He slowed at the phalanx of vending machines between the portable classrooms, finally looking up from his sandals. “So how’re you doing with all this?”

I lowered my voice. “Oh, kinda freaked out by the dead girl walking and, you know, her possible killer. How about you?”

He deposited a drilled quarter on a string into a vending machine, producing a happy chime. “That replay video had me weirded out at first too. I still don’t know how they got your face in there. But the more I think about it, the more it’s clear we’re probably just playing a hyperrealistic game. Something secret. Something Beard Dude thought was worth killing for.”

“And if it’s not just a simulation?”

“Lemme guess. It’s an alien species that only reproduces by video game. And they’ve come all the way to Earth because of the neat consoles they can’t get back on their home planet.” He fiddled with the vending machine. “Didn’t we watch that movie with Chris? You know, back when I was into his brother. I think it was the time you sent me out to a faraway store to get—”

“I was gonna say …” I met the twinkle in his eyes with a glower, my cheeks ablaze. “Maybe we were just controlling a real-life camera, a flying drone. And the game character only existed on screen.”

“Or—and hear me out—there’s a camera on the console in your apartment. Like … recording you and rendering your likeness into the game. And I guess Beard Dude too.” Yanking, he pulled a frayed string out of the machine, no quarter attached, and pocketed it with a frown.

“But the girl gave the man something in that video, even if we never saw it in inventory. And she ended up dead in a dumpster for realsies. It’s not my fault you weren’t in there to see the body. So maybe we steer the game character to a public place and, you know, go meet him.” I gulped. “In person. See what the hell he is.”

Matt narrowed his eyes, smirking. “You have awfully high expectations for an invisible drone.”

I laughed despite myself. “You saw Beard Guy in the game as well as I did. Even if he was simulated, it’s clear the real-life dude who chased us is involved with the console. We find out why he wants it, whether he killed my poor twin, who she was … we maybe discover what he wants with me or my mom before either of us ends up facedown in a dumpster.” I rubbed the bare spot on my wrist where Dad’s watch had been, the ticking conspicuously absent. A pang of heartache stabbed through me. It was childish, but I harbored this fantasy of him being in my life again someday. Even if right now, Mom was the only family I had.

Matt kneaded his brow, his voice soft. “If you think the game character is real, wouldn’t meeting him be—oh I don’t know—hella dangerous?”

I couldn’t very well operate the console while meeting the man from it in person. I hated having to rely on Matt like this, and not only because he would love every second of it. It just wasn’t fair to put him in more danger. But with someone after me, I didn’t really have a choice. “What if I go to a public place with lots of witnesses? Say, that park across from the police station.” Not that I wanted to deal with any cops. “I’ll bring pepper spray. You can FaceTime me, make sure nobody takes my kidneys.”

Matt snorted. “Why not just chill until your mom finds out more from her cop friend? Also, not everyone has the luxury of a phone manufactured after the bronze age. I’d have to delete some cupcake videos to free up space.”

Heaven forbid he erased copies of his own baking channel videos. Without his big sister around anymore, he was usually high in them and screwing up measurements, then getting all angry about it. Part of me wanted to believe him—that the game wasn’t real, that my surprise twin was totally fake. But doing nothing while the very real bearded dude from the alley was looking for me…. I’d seen what he was capable of. “I’ll text my mom during lunch. Happy?”

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“Ecstatic.” He gave me a sad smile. “You know I’ll do anything for you—as long as I can copy your Physics labs after.”

#

At lunch, I huddled at a table in the cafeteria, the stink of gym shorts and industrial pizza in the air. Those lucky students who’d arrived on time or brought a sad sandwich from home were laughing with friends at tables around the room. A dusty stage overlooked the proceedings beneath a faded AHS Athletics banner, aggressively italicized lettering reading: Together We Are Unstoppable.

I was holding the table for Inara from Spanish and her troupe of robotics club girls, currently queued with lunch trays along a row of sneeze guards. I did enjoy hanging out with them when I wasn’t stressing over homework. Or now, threats to my life. It’d been strangely calming to transcribe Inara’s secondhand lab notes during this morning’s Macbeth lecture, my own notebook still MIA. But with Dad’s watch lost somewhere in that alley, I’d have to record lectures with my phone instead—right up until it got taken away for being out at school.

Which reminded me. I tugged out my phone and texted Mom, double checking the conversation was encrypted.

me: you on your break?

Mom: I’m doing inventory. Is everything okay?

It killed me that Mom was still stocking shelves for a living. She apparently left some fancy tech company job for a hardware store when I was little, having “misplaced” the social security card she needed to get another real job. It was complicated, she said. But it seemed pretty simple to me—she needed to get over whatever was eating her and apply somewhere. I even sometimes caught her scrolling through software job listings while the mac and cheese water boiled.

me: everything’s fine mom

me: but I’m like 99% sure that girl looked like me

The roar of the cafeteria pressed in as I picked at my PB&J and waited for her response. I couldn’t shake the image of my not-so-dead twin with the game character in that alley.

Mom: I’m really sorry you had to go through that. I can only imagine how upsetting it was.

me: you chat with your book club cop buddy?

Mom: We’re meeting later today.

me: have they identified the body?

Mom: Ko.. there is no body.

An icy fist clenched my chest from the inside.

me: what do you mean??

Mom: The dumpster was cleaned out when the police arrived. No blood and I’m guessing no prints either.

My stomach sunk. Her killer had decided to move the body. He was still out there on the streets of Las Yerbas, and now there was no way to ID the girl.

Mom: I’d still like you to stay in for a bit. You’re heading home after school?

me: matt’s coming over..

Nevermind that I might be heading out as soon as he showed up.

Mom: Good. I know you had a scare. Hopefully my LYPD contact can find out what that man is doing here and sort this out soon. I’m trying my best to keep you looped in but I really need you to let me take care of this.

My knuckles tightened. Mom loved taking care of things for me. Like when she found some, ahem, texts on my phone from Chris—and greeted him at the door with a hatchet. She said he’d made his choice, that she was only trying to protect me. Except nobody was interested in my choice. Now Mom was being exactly the same way.

I did trust her with my life. That wasn’t the issue. I just didn’t trust that she could keep us alive given the threats.

Mom: There’s something else though.

The chill spread through my limbs. I shoved aside my PB&J.

me: what is it?

Mom: The police have reports of activity in that alley the past few days. Like people going in, walking out with electronics. This is bigger than either of us can handle alone.

My eyes widened. Game systems. Was someone moving black-market consoles in that alley, using the dumpster as a dead drop? I just happened to be in the wrong place at the right time.

me: you think beard guy is involved?

Mom: It’s possible.

My best bet was getting Mom’s take on the game console replay tonight. Then she’d have to admit I had a twin and agree to leave town—unless Matt was right and it was all a simulation. But with someone hunting me now, I wasn’t waiting around until then. I needed to go see this game character—or whatever he was—so I didn’t end up as Beard Dude’s second victim. We just needed to be smart about it.

Mom: My boss is hovering near the grout. Probably dreaming up new ways to engage in wage theft. Talk soon.

I sincerely hoped we would.