It was a pleasant summer evening, the perfect kind only summer could believe. My family and I had finally moved to our beach house down to a small beach town called Folly beach, which is about 45 minutes east from Charleston, South Carolina. I had been expelled from two other schools for “disruptive behavior”. I just have ADHD, and my school refuses to work around me. My parents are hoping that this is our last move, and that island life will help me calm down. I wasn’t used to the extreme heat and humidity as I grew up in Colorado which was quite the opposite. I decided that I would miss the snow, but not the freezing temperatures all the time. I could bike around and surf whenever I felt the desire and I had a strong feeling that nothing could go wrong this summer, I would be immortal. For a little bit anyways. 

“Adam can you and John go grab us the pizza we just ordered?” Yelled my dad from across the hall. 

“Yup, we’ll head out in a sec.” I yelled back. “C’mon John lets go.”

As we set out on our bikes our mother ran behind us holding up our helmets crying out 

that we had forgotten them. 

“We’ll be fine mom, we won’t die!” John and I both sped up and made it to the pizza place in about 10 mins. As we were approaching I told John to watch our bikes and I went in to grab the pizza. I instantly noticed a shady character drinking a beer in the far corner of the room. A chill went down my spine as I looked at him. He slowly stood up and moved towards me and I decided to hurry up and get the pizza. Another man stood up and hurried towards me. I was starting to get very scared, as anyone would in my place. A third man with a long beard and hair to match it stepped up and pulled me over by the arm. I let out a little surprised yelp but it was lost to the loud music. “Watch it bub” the man next to me said. The scary man had disappeared and only been a part of my imagination. I head over to the waiter; 

“Hi, I’m here to pick up an order for Adam.” 

The waiter loudly pops her chewing gum bubble in my face and replies “You gonna go bear hug anymore strangers I suggest you go outside for that” then walks away to get my order. I searched my memory but I definitely remember the men with black clothes and long hair. 

“Excuse me miss, were there any men with black clothes and long beards here a little bit ago?” The waiter looks at me and just pops her bubble in my face again, then goes “nope”. I just smiled and nodded at her then took my pizza and walked out. As I got outside I saw one of them walking towards John at a fast pace. 

I ran at John yelling “ John move, there’s someone behind you!” As I looked over to make sure I wouldn’t get run over by a car and then hurriedly crossed the street, the man was gone. John just looked at me funny and said we should go home. I saw the men at least three more times on the way home, each time just standing on the sidewalks, staring at me. I was so creeped out that I didn’t even notice when I got home. 

As I was setting down my bike, John walks over to me and asks, “You’ve been acting a little strange lately, what’s up?” I knew he would just laugh at me if I told him about the men so I shakily responded 

“Oh I’m just getting used to our new home, I guess. I’ll be fine.” I was telling John and myself that I’ll be fine, and I tried hard to mean it. John shrugs and we both walked up to our house so we could eat. That was another thing I would have to get used to, since we lived so close to the beach, all the houses had to be at least 17 feet above ground in case of a hurricane or a king tide. The pizza was delicious, and I forgot all about my worries after a funny movie, then some time in my hammock. Once I had adjusted to the humidity, I would try to spend some nights sleeping on the porch, being able to hear the crashing waves not too far away, was an offer I couldn’t pass up. Also when we had set up the bug screen around the deck of course. A couple weeks later at the beach, As I was playing in the waves, I got some water in my ear. I went back over to our mini station on the beach to get it out, and grab a little snack too. When I turned around, a frightening sight arose. A girl about my age was frantically running around, and whimpering. It was not a pretty sight, but you could tell she was truly scared. I ran over to her and asked what was going on. 

“They’re here. They’re here. They’re here. They’re here.” She couldn’t stop saying this phrase. 

“Who’s here?” I questioned. I had a dawning sense upon me and I instantly remembered the men. “Do you see the men too?” 

She flashed her eyes up to mine and said, “Oh more than just see them.” 

“Why don’t we get out of here and talk about it?” I had completely forgotten about the 

men, and was annoyed that they were back in my head, but I couldn’t just leave this girl. As we walked over a visible shiver went down her back. “Are they here now?” 

She just responded with a quick “Let’s get out of here.” As we were walking back, she 

told me her name was Lily and she was 16, just like me. Turns out our houses were quite close to each other so by the time I was dressed and made it over to her house she let me in. We sat at the counter, and she looked at me with a questioning glare in her eyes. 

“How much exactly have you seen them?” 

“Well I saw the men-”

“Just say them. It makes me feel better.”

“Okay, I saw them the first time we arrived here, which was a week or two back. We 

were biking to get pizza and they were in the pizza place and kept walking towards me then disappearing. Then, on the ride home, they would be just standing across the street from me, completely motionless. After that I completely forgot about them.” 

“That happened to me too, when we first moved down here. Like the same thing that 

happened to you. Except they came back for me.” 

“Will they come back for me?”

“I don’t know. We should go ask my grandfather, he’s been on this island, for a long, long 

time.” When we walked over, Lily told me about how for some time she thought someone was just playing a prank on her. Maybe they do this to all the people who come here, to try and scare them away. But when they got in her dreams, then she knew something was up. We arrived at her grandfather’s house to the sight of about ten cats walking around the garage area. 

“That’s odd he hates cats.” Lily said.

“Well maybe that’s why they’re not inside. C’mon let’s go.”

 Lily’s grandfather was fast asleep when we let ourselves in and when she woke him up, he was a little disoriented but after a couple of seconds he was fine. 

“Lily, how nice of you to stop by. Who’s this fine gentleman?”

“This is Adam, and he helped me out on the beach when I was having an episode.”

“Nice to meet you, mister. Well you woke me up from my nap so this better be worth it.”

“Grandad, this time they were in the process of picking me up, when Adam came over. 

They were literally grabbing me and picking me up but ran away when Adam came.”

“Well you did a fine job son. They must be getting ready to do whatever they’re planning 

on doing quite soon if they got that close to you.’

“My dreams have been getting worse too.”

“Sorry to interrupt, but what are they doing?”

“Well Adam, Lily and I have this disorder called ADHD, and as far as we can tell, only 

people with our problem can see these men.”

“I have ADHD too, that’s why we moved here. Oh my god, that’s why my brother 

couldn’t see them.” Lily’s grandfather stood up as quickly as a 70 year old could, and looked around. 

“They’re here. Up to the bunker.” 

We ran upstairs and behind a dresser in a closet was a secret door. As we got in we could hear something moving around outside. There was lots of space up here, and we got comfy as we might be here for a while. We looked at the cameras that were throughout the house. 

“These cameras are about the size of a fly, impossible to see them.” 

Right as Granddad spoke, one of the men looked right up at the camera then the picture 

went fuzzy and disappeared. Suddenly I was taken by a deep sleep and woke up in Lily’s living room with my family surrounding me. 

“Where are they?!” I jumped up and looked around. 

“Where’s who, honey? Why don’t you lay back down and get some rest. You hit your 

head pretty hard.” My mom helped me sit down on the couch again. I looked at Lily questioningly, and she just smiled back. 

“Yes, Mrs. Smith, I found him at the beach and he looked like he was concussed so I took 

him back here.”

“What no, what abou-“

“He’s probably having some crazy thoughts right now, due to the concussion,” Lily’s grandad butted in. As I looked over at Lily, her body changed into one of the men and then quickly changed back into her own body. As I realized my nightmare was just beginning and it might never end, I fainted into my mom’s arms. Or was it even my own mother? Who knows.