--Quiet--Allie thought to him--your mother will hear you talking to yourself--
But when they looked up, it wasn't his mother standing there, instead it was a man holding a blue pole with a net on the end, and a second man a few feet behind him.
--It's okay-- Danny told Allie-- It's just the pool guys-- The head pool guy was a middle-aged man with a frayed baseball cap and beard stubble. His assistant was a punk with skull tattoos and a limp mohawk on the verge of surrender.
"Hi, Curtis! Hi, Chainsaw," said Danny, brightly. "Pool's real dirty. S'got lots of leaves and bugs today."
"Guess we'll have to see about that," said Curtis, but neither man moved. Chainsaw glanced at the house, where Danny's mom could be heard talking on the phone, completely engrossed in her conversation.
"C'mon, I'll show you," Danny said. He led them to the pool, and pointed at one of the drains. "See--it's all clogged."
But the pool guys weren't here for a service call today.
"I wish to talk to Allie now," Curtis said.
Danny recoiled out of shock, pulling far back inside himself like a kid finding strangers at the front door. Allie pushed forward to fill the void. She could feel Danny's heartbeat instantly begin to race. He wanted to run--he wanted to tear into the house, but Allie didn't let him. Maybe she should have, but she didn't let him go.
"Who is this?" she asked.
Curtis smiled, and Allie instantly knew. It was hard to see him behind the beer belly and beard stubble, but she knew.
"Milos?"
"So you are in there!" He looked down at her with a furrowed unibrow."I thought you went home. Is this ... home for you?"
"What do you think? Does it look like I'm back in my own body?" And she couldn't help but add, "This might not have happened if you would have told me that skinjackers' bodies are all still alive!"
--Who is that, Allie? That's not Curtis! I don't like this!--
--Just let me handle this, Danny--
Allie looked over at Chainsaw, noticing the way he shifted from one foot to the other, looking around like ninjas might leap out and attack him at any moment. "And that's Squirrel, I presume."
"C'mon, c'mon," Squirrel said. "We found her, now let's just get out of here."
"How did you even find me?"
"A friend of ours. He was able to sniff you out." Milos took a good look her, and shook Curtis's head."So much you did not know about skinjacking. If you had just stayed with us ..."
"Fine! Tell me 'I told you so' all you want--but if you know a way out of this, tell me!"
"Shhh." Milos glanced to the house, where Danny's mother threw occasional glances out of the window. "Do not look suspicious," he said. "Act like you're playing."
Allie found a rusted toy car in the nearby grass, then knelt down and began to run it along the concrete edge of the pool deck, while Milos moved the net back and forth in the water, pretending to clean it.
"As it happens, I do know a way to free you."
"You do?" Her excitement made the boy's body jump with joy. "Thank you, Milos, thank you! I'll owe you for this."
To which Milos said calmly, "Yes ... you will." Allie's excitement took a slightly sour turn. She became guarded, and a little worried. Yes, she would owe him, and she already knew that Milos didn't do anything for free.
"I have come a long way, and at great peril," he told her. "If I free you, there is something I want in return."
"Like what?"
"If I free you," he said slowly, "then you will owe me your loyalty and your commitment. You must, therefore, follow my orders. You must do whatever I ask you to do, for as long as I ask you to do it."
;Mary says it's evil."